gracias a Ti, hoy soy feliz...

So a couple days this week I was blessed with a free hour at school during the day. One day I helped another teacher out, one day I worked on things for my literacy program, one day I cleaned my classroom from top to bottom, and the other day, I read :) I’ve been reading John Perkins and Shane Claiborne’s new book, Follow Me to Freedom and God has been showing me a lot through it. When I was reading one day this week, I came across this quote when Shane Claiborne was talking about his live in inner city Philadelphia…

“Stability is a traditional monastic vow; it is to commit to a group of people and to be submitted to them. Stability is something poor neighborhoods [and really everyone] are starved for. There are so many things that don’t last—like landlords. And missionaries. Things come and go, and people are moving all the time—not far, but often. It’s part of the culture of poverty that is so unhealthy. And it takes commitment—literally, a commitment to become a stable part of the neighborhood to change that.”

After I read that I had to put the book down. I'm a dreamer. I often find myself thinking about where God might take me, what countries I might end up in, ways to bring justice and love, places that need their chains of bondage to be broken. There is so much I want to do, so many places I want to see. I want to go to the ends of the earth proclaiming Jesus' love. I want to do Mission Year. I want to do the World Race. I want to go to Uganda and live in an orphanage. I want to spend more time in the Dominican. I want to go to Eastern Europe... and the Holy Land. I want to go to Papua New Guinea and do Bible translation. I want to do Timo and work with an unreached people group in Africa. I want to live in a trailer park in the States (preferably with Spanish speakers :) ), I want to live in row housing with a stoop, I want to go to Haiti and work to eliminate poverty, I want to raise up leaders in the Dominican to end the racism towards Haitians. I want to breathe the Gospel wherever I go, bringing life to people. Sometimes I talk to people about all these things that I want to do. I want to throw my life at Jesus' feet... and go where He leads. I have often thought about living my life on a year-to-year basis.

But when I read that quote, I just stopped reading. It was like a realization to me that all of those above sentences are about me. I want to here, I want to go there, I want to do this, I want to do that. And though they are all rooted in my desire to show people the love of Christ, I was hit over the head that maybe that's not the way that He wants His love to be shown. Maybe He wants me to build roots with people. To stay in their lives for more than a couple months or a year. Maybe I have a lot to learn about what pouring into people really means. Maybe to invest in them I need to actually move in for the long haul. To live life with them, not just a stint for a year or so and then on to something different. And not that that is wrong. Afterall, Jesus lived His life travelling and ministering from city to city. And I believe God is probably calling some people to devote themselves to that nomadic lifestyle. But somewhere along the line, I think I turned my dreams into my own, instead of God's. I started to take control... and that's the last thing I want to do... because I surely know that His plans are far better than mine! So my reading day turned into God gently reminding me to once again lay my life at His feet. To place my direction in the palm of His hand. And to remember that His plans will far exceed anything that I can even imagine. And I feel Him turning my heart towards putting down roots somewhere. I have no idea where that's going to be. Maybe it's here in the Dominican (can't say I would mind that :) ), maybe it's in the States, or maybe it's in a country I've never even heard of. But I want to devote my life to serving and sharing the love of Christ with whoever God wants me to.

On a side note, when I picked up the book again, I turned the page and about half of the places that I have dreamt about going to were talked about. And the author reminds us that while learning in these types of settings and ministering to these people in short amounts of time are wonderful and bring forth many great changes, it's the long term commitments where we can fully invest in people and see the fruit of God's purposes for us there. So who knows where I'll live the future or for how long... but I'm sure excited :)

Giving Nicol a manicure during a spa we did for the kids at the orphanage.

My roommates! Christine is on the left and Elizabeth is in the middle.

Yulisa, Yenny, Yessica, and I on the patio.

Coral and I at the festival.

...cuando llegaste aprendi a vivir.

me gusta ese paiz...

On Monday, some things came up and I found out that I would not be teaching my classes in the Institute this week, but I will be leading a team of 20 high schoolers that were coming down. I love when teams are here so I was excited about that. The team got here Tuesday night and it has been busy ever since. I have enjoyed the change of pace and being able to spend a little more time with the kids here at the orphanage. The group has been great and this week has been full of special things. On Friday afternoon we took them for a quick swim in the ocean. When we were driving back, we got to catch the sunset...

As we were driving back to the orphanage after the beach, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with my love for this place. Sometimes these feelings come out of nowhere... but when they come, I freak out thinking about ever possibly having to leave. We were driving down the narrow, curvy road, with the ocean to our right and hints of the sunset peaking out from behind the trees... my ipod was playing Jimmy Needham over the speakers of the bus... words of needing Jesus like a hurricane, like a burning flame, to consume me.. some of the neighborhood boys were driving past on their motorcycle... and there was a bus full of chattering high schoolers behind me... and as I looked out at the ocean, I smiled knowing this is exactly where I am supposed to be. This island is my home. And I'm not sure what will happen to my heart come next August.

This is Yessica.... my prima-hermana as she calls me. Or cousin sister in English. Yessica lives at the orphanage and I spend a significant amount of time with her every day. She doesn't like to show her teeth in pictures, even though her smile is beautiful. I pray that God uses our time spent together to show her His intense love for her.

This is Nena! She is seven years old and is full of spunk and attitude! However, she is also a cuddle bug with a wild imagination and adventurous spirit. Today we had a morning full of activities for the kids with an Olympics theme. Nena colored this picture and hung it on the cabinets with the stickers on the edges. She was so proud of it and wanted me to take a couple of pictures with her standing beside it.

And this is Ari... one of the 3-year-old twins. At the end of the activities this morning, each of the kids received a bag full of goodies. Here's Ari sporting her new sunglasses. All of the little girls had crazy colored sunglasses in their bags that they wore the rest of the day. They were so cute!

Introducing...

Luis Alberto!

So I haven't always been the best at updates or in what all exactly happens here... so I thought, why not introduce you to some of the kids here?! This is the handsome Luis Alberto! He is a precious 5-year-old little boy who just started living at the orphanage the beginning of August. His smile will melt your heart. He loooves learning little phrases in English and can tell you his name, age, and that he is doing "fine" if you ask him those questions in English.

I see Jesus in Luis Alberto. Thursday night I was sitting with him and he started tugging on my shirt with a lot of excitement. "Heather, Heather," he said. "Dios esta ariba en el cielo! Mira! Mira! Dios esta ariba!" ...God's up in the sky! Look up! Look up! God's up there! He was so excited to tell me about how God was up in Heaven. So then we started talking about God through his five-year-old eyes and how Jesus lives in our hearts. His child-like faith melted my heart. After we talked for a few minutes, we sat there and then I said, "Luis Alberto, who is your father?" The question puzzled him for a second, but then he turned and looked at me and replied, "God." As he smiled, I smiled, so thankful for seeing glimpses of Jesus through the gentle heart of Luis Alberto.

love them...

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of being here. We took ten of the older kids at the orphanage on a little field trip to some of the cities in the interior of the Dominican. We got to see a lot of places that are rich in Dominican history. It was sooo much fun! We left at 7 in the morning and all piled onto the OO bus. All the Americans were sitting by themselves before we picked up the kids at their door joking that we couldn't wait to see who we would get to sit next to. The first 2 1/2 hours were spent on the bus, but even that was a lot of fun.

Carolina, Nicol, and I on the bus.

The first stop we made was at a park to eat snacks and then visit a local Catholic church. It was beautiful with stained glass windows made from glass brought back from Italy. The Dominican is 95% Catholic so most churches you see are old but not necessarily extremely active.

Afterwards, we headed to another city where there is a museum dedicated to the Maribel sisters who played a vital role in what brought Dominicans the freedom they have today. The country used to be run by a dictator of sorts and these women helped bring restoration to the D.R. We also had the huge privelege of meeting (and taking a picture with!) the only sister who survived the overthrow of the old goverment.

Yessica, Yenny, and I at the house of the Maribel sisters.

The gardens at the house were beautiful!

After this we headed to a nearby town that has a store similar to Walmart. It was crazy big and something I have never seen in the Dominican Republic. We took the kids inside and actually ate at a "food court" that was located in the store. They had a Domino's! So we ordered a whole lot of pizza and pushed together some tables for all 27 of us to sit down and eat. Everyone loved the pizza and getting to roam around the aisles. It almost didn't even feel like we were in the same country. Here's just a glimpse of some of the pizza we ate...

We then headed to a different park with some gardens to hang out a take a group picture. We then headed to the next stop on our list (which I can't remember the city name) which was the sister city to Atlanta, GA! Crazy! We stopped at a big playground. I have never seen anything like it here. It was a wooden playground painted all kinds of bright colors. We had tons of fun running around on everything and taking some more pictures.

We left this city and drove about a half hour to a monument in Santiago in memory of the heroes of Dominican history. The monument sits on top of a big hill and overlooks Santiago (the second largest city in the D.R.). By this time it was dark so it was neat to see all of the city lights. We left here to begin the 2 1/2 hour drive home... which true to Dominican culture turned into a lot longer than that. That's another story in and of itself, but it took us over four hours to get back home. However, even that was so much fun, just hanging out with the kids, playing a little mafia, and arguing over who has the best music. By the last hour or so of the drive, everyone was asleep. I was sitting with Carolina and Nicol... Nicol was leaning against the window, I was sleeping against her, and Carolina was sleeping against me the rest of the drive. I couldn't help but think about how these kids have become so much a part of my family. I have shared life with them the last 2 1/2 years and watched a lot of them grow up. I love sharing special moments like yesterday with them. It reminds me of the beauty of community and the way God intended life to be. All barriers are broken and we are simply living life together. I love them so much!

Yessica posing with a butterfly at the park. Thank you Jesus for new life :)

since i've been back...

So I safely arrived back in the Dominican late Saturday night. Driving back into town, it almost felt like I had never left. It was so good to see everyone back here and I have loved spending time with the kids since I've been back. Sunday we a little informal church service for the OO volunteers and then we headed to a newly discovered beach after lunch. Nobody swam, but it was fun to just hang out, take some pictures, and enjoy being back outside again. After being at the beach for a while, we headed to the English Institute to play some games and have some real Coke floats made by the Hopkins'. It was so much fun being able to spend time again with the people I live with here. Sunday night ended with going to church with the kids from the orphanage. It was a great first day back!

This week I have been taking over Christine's (my roommate) classes at the English Institute. She will be going back to the States for a month on Saturday so I will now be teaching 5th grade Level 1 students. I have to say, that I miss my Level 2 students a whole lot. It's hard seeing them come into school every day and not get to teach them, but I just keep reminding myself that it's not about me. So this week has been fun getting to know some new students.

I have also being tutoring the five oldest kids at the orphanage in math this week. I enjoy teaching math and it's cool to see how much progress they make in just a week. A lot of times we have to start from scratch on basic concepts because the school systems here are so far behind. But they want to learn so it's neat to see it all clicking for them.

Tomorrow we are taking ten of the oldest kids from the orphanage on a field trip day where we are touring some historic places in the interior of the country. I am so excited to not only see these places, but to get to with them. I love just hanging out with the kids here, so I can't wait to spend the day with them tomorrow. It's gonna be great!

So that's what's been going on this past week! Love and miss ya'll!!

And because she's just the cutest little girl ever... some new pictures of Luz Maria. She's getting so big! Here she is with a notebook and sporting her little backpack...

Before she left to go inside she said... "one more picture?!" She's adorable!