Sweet Ashley :)

We found out today that this precious little baby is available for adoption. This is Ashley and she lives at the orphanage in Monte Cristi. She is three years old and absolutely adorable! We really want her to be placed in a good home with a great family so if you or anyone you know is interested in adoption, let me know! Ashley is amazing! The link below her picture gives a little more information :)

http://www.orphanage-outreach.org/datafiles/adopt_ashley.pdf

This past week...

So this past week has gone by so incredibly fast... probably because we were so busy! Last week we did camp for 100 kids with only 9 people. That was an adventure to say the least... but it went very smoothly!

Friday we went to DaJabon (the Dominican/Hatian border), went to eat at a restaurant, went to see the kids in Monte Cristi (yesss!), and went to the beach. It was such a good break day and I needed to see those kids in Monte Cristi more than I knew. They are like my family here and I treasure moments I get to spend with them. Friday afternoon, our volunteer (Chris) that was sick got to come back from the clinic. Praise the Lord! He travelled home Saturday and made it there safe and sound :)

Saturday was a rest day at the orphanage in Jaibon so that was nice to get caught up some things. However, Saturday night we sent another intern to the clinic because he stepped on a nail that went through his tennis shoe and into his foot. Yikes! Some cleaning out of the wound and one tetnus shot later and he was back at the orphanage with us.

We had five new interns join us this weekend. It is so excited to get to know new people and have fresh energy in the group. It was exciting because our group had gotten pretty small. Yesterday we had an orientation and planning day and today was the start of camp. We are doing camp at a little church about 5 minutes away this week. Today we had about 80 kids. It was tons of fun!

I continue to feel completely humbled to be here. The Lord is good and I continually see His vision for my life unfold here. I love and miss ya'll mucho!

And for fun.... You know you live in the Dominican if...
-a chicken runs around your room clucking like crazy and refusing to leave.
-a chicken lays eggs on your suitcase... breakfast anyone?!
-You get cold when it's 80 degrees outside.
-Your English gets progressively worse.
-You get excited about finding big turantula holes.
-You refer to going to bed as "I'm going to get inside my mosquito net."
-You think that Dino cookies (cardboard-ish cookies with icing) are the best dessert to ever exist.

Life here is the best! Love it!

Glimpses of Heaven...

So recently I have been thinking about Heaven and the fact that I can't even possibly comprehend how awesome it's going to be... to sit at the feet of my Savior and be able to talk to Him face to face. And as excited as I am for that, God has been reminding me that I can see Heaven right here on earth. Each day here, I see God's face... whether that's through creation or through a smile or through a conversation. I feel and see the Spirit working all around me. The other night I was walking with a bunch of boys to go play capture the flag and this sunset is what painted the sky. I felt God screaming out my name and His love for me. Just one little glimpse of what Heaven must be like.

Last night I was sitting on a concrete slab under the stars in a circle full of American college kids and Dominican boys. As we sat there playing the guitar and singing worship songs, I couldn't help but find myself thinking that Heaven must look a little like this. A group full of people... all ages... all cultures... sitting under a sky full of stars... worshipping the Father through songs. Though we spoke different languages, it didn't matter in the moment. All that mattered was praising God. And in that moment, I saw a glimpse of Heaven.

I am constantly reminded that we can continually see Heaven on earth... through learning to live more and more like Jesus each day. So for now, I'm praying we can all look more like our Savior, that the world may begin to see glimpses of Heaven. I love you all and am praying for you!

**Please pray for Chris. Chris is here for two weeks, but has had to stay at an emergency clinic the past two nights because he has a parasite. He is leaving this Saturday to travel back home. Pray he recovers quickly and can come back tomorrow and that he is feeling well enough to travel home on Saturday. Right now he is severly dehydrated and still has the parasite.

Because I miss you...

Ahh! Amanda, come back! This picture makes my heart happy... our two loves! That just so happen to be hermanos :) I miss you more than you know sister! Te quiero :)

Hola!

Hola from the island! It seems crazy that I have been here for five weeks… sometimes it feels as though it has only been five days. The weeks fly by here and sometimes I think it goes by just a little too fast. This week we did a Bible/English camp at a church about 20 minutes away from the orphanage. I love camp in the Dominican! Inevitably, you will start out camp the first day with around 20 kids; however, by the next day somehow well over 100 kids have heard the news and showed up. So this week we had 12 volunteers including myself and John, providing a camp for around 130 kids! It was amazing! There was so much energy, but the kids were so well behaved at the same time. I was impressed with how all of the interns jumped right in and made accommodations so that all 130 kids could stay at camp. AND, I think I sang the “Banana” song about 5 billion times this week! Who knew a silly American song could get Dominican kids (and adults!) so excited?! In the mornings here we did work projects and activities for the 22 boys that live here at the orphanage with us. I am enjoying quality time with them and being able to really invest in them. Today we had a picnic at a beach to celebrate the 4th of July. We went to one of my favorite beaches in the Dominican… it was beautiful!

This week was definitely an adjustment after half of the team went home last weekend. I have missed people like crazy this week! But God knows how much we can handle. My friend, Amanda, changed her plane ticket a while back to stay an extra week. I can’t help but think that God knew I would need her here this week. It was awesome to be able to spend her last week here just continuing to share our passion for the Lord. She left at 4 this morning and I miss her already. However, I am overwhelmed by the fact that God has big plans for her and this is all part of the journey. So I am resting in that and trusting that God will always provide people for me to share my heart with.

I also feel like God has used this week to remind of the need for change, to continue to awaken the desire in my heart to love greatly and live out the Gospel. My life is all about the Kingdom. I am falling more in love with God each day. I am overwhelmed by the way He so personally and intricately works. This week I read a prayer that I had wrote the day I got here… it simply said “change me, mold me, break me. please.” I read those words and see the Lord answering that prayer daily. I see Him breaking me, but restoring me… all for the sake of looking more like Christ. I see my heart being changed and molded and transformed to be the way God intended it to be. I see Shalom everywhere around me. I am reminded that I can’t settle for the world expects from me. I want to live freely and loudly for Jesus. This year here is changing me already more than I could have ever expected. Each moment of each day is an opportunity for the Spirit to work through me to touch people’s hearts. I love my “job.” If you can even call it that. It’s funny because I seem to never be able to get away from the question, “What are you going to do next?” In my mind, “next” is a long way away, but nevertheless, the question seems to come up all the time. And as always, who knows! But I am finding beauty in the unknown. The unknown of where I will be living in the Dominican this year, the unknown of where we will be doing camp next month, the unknown of who will be here when all the interns leave, the unknown of where I will be next August. I am learning what it truly means to live each moment for the Lord and not worry about where He takes me next. I am reminded by my friends here (shout out to 2P!) to dream big, to live freely, and to forsake all for the Gospel. So all I know is that I will always be chasing after the One who knows all… wherever He may lead. And I am excited!

I love and miss ya’ll tons!

“With our hearts burning for God, we would move forward with the freedom to pursue the passions burning within us.”
-The Barbarian Way

The beach we went to today! Beautiful!

God is good!

So I haven’t actually written in almost 2 weeks so I figured it was about time for some updates. The past two weeks have been a bit crazy to say the least. I ended my third week here trying my best to get ready for the craziness that was about to start last Saturday. So Saturday came and I packed up almost everything in Jaibon and left for Monte Cristi. It was the best week ever! It was a beautiful thing because it felt so much like home. I was so excited to be able to spend time with the kids there that I have grown to love so much. It makes me so excited for August when I get to move there for the year! Graystone was also there that week which made it that much better. It was so good to have friends there and people that know me from outside of the Dominican (kind of!). Although, I must say, last week was very odd because two very important people weren’t there. Steph, we talked about you all the time and my heart sank thinking about you not getting out of that bus with everyone else. And, Katie, my friend, sometimes I feel like I’m living without my right arm without you here in the Dominican. Praying for you both like crazy!

So last week we did a VBS in the morning for 300 kids and a baseball camp in the afternoon at a local field! It was so much fun seeing so many familiar faces and getting to hang out with people I love. It was a blessing from the Lord at just the right time.

If I’m honest though, I must say that yesterday was probably the hardest day since I have been here. Graystone left yesterday… it was weird saying “see you next year in the Dominican” instead of “see you in a few months.” It just keeps hitting me that I won’t be seeing people for a very long time that have been in my life consistently for the past couple of years. I also had to say goodbye to the kids in Monte Cristi. I know that I will be living with them for a year in five weeks, but it just hurt to have to leave those kids that have become family. I also said goodbye to Sharon and Mateo yesterday. God put these two people with me from the beginning in Jaibon and they have been gifts. I lived with Sharon for almost a month and shared life with both of them for the past four weeks. Sharon will be back in September, but living without her here until then is going to be rough. Mateo was like my brother here. However, I am filled with hope and excitement for him because God did something crazy in his life yesterday while he was traveling home! It is insane to see the ways God speaks to us! God’s plans are better than ours, that’s for sure!

It’s slowly hitting me that as exciting as it is for me to be able to meet so many new people and build lots of new relationships, it is also extremely hard to say goodbye. Yesterday was emotionally exhausting and I have only been here for four weeks. I can’t imagine what the end of the summer will look like. But God is so faithful and I am finding my identity in Him… not in relationships, not in having a place to call home, but solely in Him. He is so good! And as much as yesterday was emotionally hard, this weekend God has revealed Himself in so many ways. He is daily opening my eyes more and more to the ways He speaks to us, even if in gentle whispers. I cannot even begin to describe the way God has divinely orchestrated conversations and interactions with people this weekend. He is our one and only Lover and is pursuing us relentlessly! I am forever overwhelmed and grateful!

I am absolutely loving the Dominican! I have such peace about being here and God never ceases to amaze me with the ways He is so intimately working in my heart and in the people here. I appreciate all of your prayers and miss every single one of you! Love ya’ll! Rock it out for the LORD!

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not n what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Romans 4:16-18

Sorry this was an incredibly long blog :)


I just had to share a picture from turantula hunting! Haha! Love it :)

A few pictures...

A group picture of all the interns and most of the kids that live at the orphanage in Jaibon.

Manuel... This little boy holds a special place in my heart. I see Jesus in the progressions in Manuel's life the past month.


AND I see Jesus everywhere I go down here... BEAUTIFUL!

Sharon and I eating McDonald's! Sharon has been my roommate for the past month. She is a gift from God... so glad she is staying for two years!

Amanda and I standing on a piece of shaking metal with a 50 ft drop underneath! This girl has been a God-send in my life this summer. Don't know what I would have done without her. God is good!

Graystone! This is the classic picture at the top of El Morro. Steph, you should be next to me! We have talked about you all week my sister... wish you were here!