Grace and Fellowship Abound

Howdy yall! I’m in my third week here in the DR. It’s been crazy sometimes, good sometimes, and crazy good sometimes. Last week, we hosted Grace Bible from Dallas, TX. This week, we are hosting Fellowship Round Rock (from Round Rock, TX – just outside of Austin). My mind is all over the place. I’m leaving in less than an hour to meet up with the crew, but I have some free time right now, so I thought I would update this blog. So here goes…

God gave me Gabrielle as my mentor during my time with her. I have gotten to meet with her three times now (officially, but I see her around several times per week). She’s a teacher at Makarios for the Pre-K3 group (for the 3-yr old cuties). She’s been a huge encouragement and we connect very deeply. We have shared our testimonies and talked about life down here, family, ways to pray for each other. She challenged me most recently to write out a brief testimony and gospel presentation in Spanish to practice and have on-hand so that I can always be prepared to share. I’m excited to prep that!

We (the interns) got to have our first moto trips to the school. (Although, now that I’m writing this, I’m a pro.) My first moto experience was a bit scary, especially with all of the bumps in the road, but I loosened up halfway there and enjoyed the adventure….with my hands clasped tightly to the seat.

I have gotten to meet a lot of the staff at the school. They encourage me so much because they are so passionate about what they do! Most of them are Dominican. They sang the Makarios school song for us, which (now that I’ve heard it a couple times) always makes me get up and dance. It’s a lot of fun!

We also started our Bible study of James with Margaret and Doug and the other interns, which is proving to be a huge blessing as well as a very unifying and edifying experience for all of us.

We got to spend a day at the beach, which was a good break. Kelly got her entire head braided into cornrows. It was really cool. She kept them in for a couple weeks and just took them out the other day. While at the ocean, I got something in my eye and my eye hurt for several days, but it doesn’t anymore. Also, speaking of beach time, I’ve been getting a lot of sun. If my tanning rate continues progressing at the same rate, I will be darker than the Dominicans by the end of the summer. I also realized that pineapple is a great addition to chicken salad ß free advice for you. And I started reading Blue Like Jazz while at the beach, which I have now completed. It made me think a lot, especially about my ability to make a difference with my individual life and how I need to fight against my self-centeredness.

The Grace Bible group was a blast overall. They were a genuine, great group in general with plenty of spunk and humor. It was my pleasure to lead them in different activities, VBS, community visits, and construction projects. And I was blessed to learn from them, be challenged, and have deep conversations. And we got to have a water day with the little kids in which we filled up two swimming pools in the back yard and got a slip-n-slide out. They didn’t understand the concept of a slip-n-slide at first, but it was humorous and fun.

I got a freaky spider bite that kept growing and bubbling up with fluid, but now it’s basically gone and just have some skin discoloration.

A few of the other interns and I took a moto trip to a cheap restaurant called Balin in the next town over, Montellano. Balin is the name of the guy whose restaurant it is. He runs it with his wife and two sons. His sons are learning English and are surprisingly good. I enjoy the hot dogs and tacos there ($1 each)….they are unlike anything American haha but they are great with the Balin hot sauce. On our way, we had to find motos to take us. Kelly and I found this guy named Cleui (it took me forever to figure out how to say it right), and he has proven to be the best moto chofer around. I actually got to have some good conversations with him recently on trips to the school and church. I found out that he is 23, not a Christian, but he attends a church here and likes the people but hasn’t committed yet. I’m excited to see what God does with him during our time here. He’s a super sweet guy, and I’m hoping he can come hang out with us interns sometime. He wouldn’t join us at Balin our last time there because he “needed to go home and shave first.” They take going out really seriously here….even just to go to the grocery store, people shower and dress up. I try to have just enough swagger to not draw too much attention to myself….it’s a hard balance, as an American girl here usually draws attention regardless.

I have gotten to meet a lot more people in the neighborhood recently, which is always fun and encouraging. They are so welcoming and open. I love it here. I think I might live here forever ßthis is fair warning. The other day, Kelly and I were walking some kids home from playing at the house. It was about a five minute walk, but it ended up taking us a beautiful hour because we talked with the kids’ grandparents for a while and played around more with the kids, then stopped and talked / prayed with Sylvia and Miguelina’s aunt on our walk back. Sylvia and Miguelina are very special to Margaret and Doug. They take care of them a lot because they are orphans and the aunt is not very capable.

I also met this gal named Michelle who is also living in Los Ciruelos, but with the peace corps. She’s really cool and doesn’t get out much. She’s hoping to come to church with us this week.

At church, I met this lady named Theresa. She’s super sweet and gave me a cough drop….they basically eat them like candy here, but I actually needed a cough drop that day.

Lucia, the cleaning lady, has a son named Abrahm who comes here to the Mak house to clean too, and he has a great singing voice. So Lucia got him to sing Happy Birthday to my dad last week. That made my day. He’s sweeping and singing in the room with me as I type this.

We got to check out a new beach for a couple hours this past weekend – Sosua. The water was clear and beautiful. We (the interns) went out snorkeling and saw a bunch of fish.

Yesterday, there was a girl here from Fellowship who wasn’t feeling well. She thought she was going to throw up and was struggling with anxiety, so she stayed back from the construction work. I was able to pray with her and bring her water. I was surprised to see her later in the day, and she thanked me for praying for her and said she felt much better after that. Praise God!

I got to lead my first Zumba class for the Makarios ladies this past Friday, which was a blast. All of the Tamarindo community kids watched through the fence haha. It was one of my favorite Zumba classes to date, despite being 90 degrees. There’s so much energy here! After the hour of Zumba, Kelly and I hiked up Mt. Isabelle for 3.5 hrs. And we didn’t get sore!

OK that’s all for now because I have to go work but there’s more to come soon! And pictures! Love you all and thanks for the support and prayers.