Sunday Church Service (Day3 - DR Trip)

Our first thing scheduled for this morning was to attend a church service in La Colina, which was the village we visited yesterday morning. Same village, different church. We all got dressed up a bit, looking nice, by the way - I HATE being in a dress, but for Him I will do it.

The church service was so great. In the beginning, I was a little unsure about it because the pastor was preaching in spanish and it was very hard to understand because of how fast he was talking. After about 15 minutes, in English, he welcomed us to the church. From that point on, the pastor had his 16 year old son, Joel, come up there with him so he could translate in English what he was preaching. It was very cool so see them work together. At times, his son Joel would get a few words mixed up and it was funny to see his Dad correct him. At other times, the gestures the pastor was doing, Joel would do right behind him. Great to see Father and son work together. The service was about 2 hours or so and there were about 150 people in the church that attended. There were Dominicans, Haitians and Americans that attended. The sermon was about God Almighty, and how He can handle absolutely ANYTHING. We need to really understand how much we can trust Him with all things.

It was such a powerful time. One of the books he read to us, was Matthew.

"Jesus looked at them and said "...with human beings this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matthew 19:26

That really spoke to me. The service was incredible and I knew He was there with us, as our hearts were fully open to Him and His word. One of the mission teams that was there with us at the church, brought gloves, baseball bats, baseballs, and cleats for all the kids of the church. After the service, the kids were given all the the baseball gear. Just to experience the joy of all those kids as they each received the baseball gear, is something I cannot even put into words. It's amazing how happy the kids are without much at all. We take a lot of things for granted in the United States, people don't realize how little others have it, until they experience it themselves. After church we headed back to SCORE for lunch. It was chili hotdogs, it was really good seeing how we were all starving! It was after lunch that we had some down time.

So 8 of us decided to go to the beach. It was BEAUTIFUL! They had cabanas and beds on the beach, the only down fall is we were only there for about 10 minutes relaxing. Heather stepped on a sea urchin of some sort. It was crazy and she was in some super pain. This awesome couple helped us and helped Heather out to try and get that stuff out of her foot. The stuff in her foot looked like little white hairs that were as soft as cat hair but as sharp as glass. This couple that helped her, they were such a blessing. We got her on the bus and back to SCORE to get some more help, after about 5 people looked at it on the beach. The doctor at SCORE helped her more and tried some different things. We found out that it was just as poisonous at a sting from a jellyfish. She was dealing with quite a lot of pain from it but we prayed and prayed for her to get better. After SCORE, we brought her back to the hotel and we all hung out at the pool. I have gotten some crazy good laughs with Tina, Sarah, and Margot! We just laugh and laugh, but laughing is good!

On and off I have been struggling today. Struggling with hurt, and I just pray that God will take it away and heal us. Back to SCORE for dinner! Yey, I am really enjoying it here! I can't believe it. We stayed for a while after dinner, and Heather saw another doctor again about her foot. Then we headed back to the hotel for devotion time. We did out devotion altogether in a group. We had some good and bad moments. I just know there is negativity lingering. God will change that. We will give all out praises to God for He is worthy. I am unsure of feelings right now, tonight, but I know tomorrow is going to be a long day and I need to prepare my heart for it. We went through some ups and downs as a team tonight but I think in the long run it will make us stronger. God is trying to tell us to be patient and graceful. Trust in the Lord, tomorrow will be a good day.

Away We Go... (Day 2 - DR Trip)

Since we didn't have our whole mission team together, we traveled around this morning with another mission team. They were from North Carolina. We had to be up quite early to meet up with the team and when we got up it was the first visual I truly had of everything. We got up around 6:30am, got ready, and went to grab some breakfast before we left. We walked outside to look around a bit too. (The picture to the left is what we woke up to every morning, which didn't make it seem like a mission trip but we weren't complaining!) So we ate breakfast, and I tried Chinola juice for the first time!! It was awesome! It's sort of like mango, apple and orange juice put together. After that, we met up with the team. Their team was about 35 people. All of them high school students, that were seniors on their senior trip. They were telling us that they have known about their senior trip since Kindergarden. They had been raising funds for this trip for a while. I thought that was really great. So we left with the team along with about 35 luggage bags full of ministry supplies. Each person on their mission team brought 1 bag full of ministry supplies, so awesome. Our first stop of the day was in down town Juan Dolio. We had to go to a convenience store to buy food to feed the village we were traveling to. The store we went in was called JUMBO! :) It was basically the "Dominican version" of Walmart. Walking around looking at the prices of everything was pretty insane too. It said like $82 for a BOX OF CRACKERS! yeaaa right! I'm not paying that. Just kidding! Everything is in pesos which still blows my mind. It was about 37 pesos to the dollar. So really that box of crackers was only a little over 2 dollars. The store was pretty crazy. They told us before we went in, that we were not allowed to take any pictures while we were in the store. Apparently they are super sensitive about it so people can't take pictures and plan break ins. We got enough food to feed 90 families. We loaded all the food into our vans and we left. On our way, we saw all these trucks with plantains, fruit, and sugarcane in the back. Just being in the different culture in action, was awesome. Driving, is pretty scary down here, I'm not going to lie. There are no laws with driving. There are no speed limits.....no one ways.....no laws. NO LAWS=CRAZY DRIVING. Everything is a "suggestion" down here. Anyways, driving through the village we were about to feed was pretty serious for me although it didn't fully hit me at first, of what we were truly seeing.

We were driving beside shacks that had no windows....shacks without safe roofs on some...but watching the children as they were running up to the buses to see us was something I cannot even explain. Once we got to the small church in the village, we got off the bus. I had NO idea what to expect.

Children were so happy and excited to see us and that was one of the most touching experiences of getting to do what we did. I could not even fathom living in the situations I was looking at as I was getting off the bus. The children loved getting their pictures taken and seeing themselves on YOUR camera too, they were all soo happy. So once we got everything into the church, we loaded every bag with a toothbrush, a bar of soap and a bible to go along with the food we got at JUMBO for each family. The mission team we were with were super cool for bringing all of those supplies with them. I was really bummed that the rest of OUR team was not with us experiencing the same thing I was. I was watching the team we were with, as they were bonding, helping other, dedicating their hard work for the benefit of others....it was frustrating a bit, to not be able to do that with our whole team. There was this one little girl named Milena, who kept coming up to Vanessa and I in the church.

She had this pink necklace with a pacifier on it. Her smile was indescribable. The village where we were, was half Dominican, half Haitian. The coolest thing about visiting this village was watching the interaction and love happening. The way everyone worshiped together, and just knowing we were all praising Him as one big family was such a cool feeling. After we left that village, we headed back to the SCORE complex for lunch! They served us rice with sausage, and it was surprisingly really good! Everyone knows how I am, I am sooo not the one to right off the bat try new things but this was unexpectedly good. After lunch, we got some exciting news!

We were going to be able to go greet the rest of the team at the airport! I was beyond excited! All I talked about was them, all morning. I think by the time we got to SCORE for lunch, Vanessa, Heather, and Tasha were like ok Michelle....we got it...you miss them. haha I truly missed them and to finally see their faces in the airport, it was so relieving!!!!! We were finally a team again!! And so we left the airport and we took them back to SCORE to eat lunch, then to the hotel so they could change, and then back to SCORE for the afternoon activities. We shared the afternoon activities with the same mission group that we went with this morning. They did the entertainment and we did the crafts.

We made tambourines with all the girls.

It was impactful to watch them color, laugh and have fun. It was a challenge for me at first, to learn how to interact with them but after a while you get the hang of it. There was one girl who stuck out to me.

Her name was ESTRELLA which means star. I love that name. After all the kids were "crafted" out, we had a water balloon fight set up. There were definitely some bonding moments within that!

It was when our team finally came together and opened up finally. It's suppose to be this way, God was right there, beside us.

We hung around SCORE for a bit after that and bonded as a team for a little while. The 4 of us that had been in the Dominican for a full day, told the rest of the team what we had done this morning. We read the bible some all together which was a cool moment.

I really am thankful for this opportunity, not only so we can minister to others but also so we can bond and minister others together as one family. We had dinner at SCORE which consisted of mashed plantains and meatballs. Again, it was incredibly good! They have Pina juice here which is awesome too! I want some to take home!! Well after dinner, things died down a bit and we headed to the hotel. We said our goodnights to each other and went to our rooms. For tomorrow is a new day. Sarah and I stayed up for a while reading His word together. It was inspiring. The book we read together was Hebrews. The last verse spoke to me alot...

"These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what they had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."

Hebrews 11:39-40

Sarah and I talked about being faithful and just following Him. Jeremiah 29:11 says that God has a plan for all of us. We did not ask for our flights to be messed up but God used that to make us stronger. I love Him for that. Looking forward to tomorrow! :)

Leaving The Country (Day 1-DR Trip)

Day 1: Leaving The Country...

Today was a long long day. Probably one of my longest. First of all, I pulled an all nighter with Emily. Good idea Michelle? nope. So when we got to the airport at 5am, we found out that our flight had be cancelled due to weather conditions in Atlanta. Ricardo and Tasha tried to work out a couple different options to get us all to the Dominican and it came down to this...the only way we could get the whole team to the DR was to drive down to Charleston airport. Ok cool, right? Not too too far? wait. it's 5am and we have no way to get down there. Everyone got dropped off, no one has their car, and yea it's 5am, who is awake at this hour on spring break? So we called some people. Ricardo called the Neeves and they were willing to drive us, they are so awesome and Emily's parents were willing too. EMILY'S PARENTS ARE AWESOME! So Emily's Mom and Step-Father drove us all the way down to Charleston airport. I rode in Wally's truck with Christina, Sarah and Ricardo, everyone else went with Emily's Mom. We weren't able to head down to Charleston until around 7:30am. We had to make it down there by 10:30am. Well we made it and when we got there we all realized we had to split apart. Because of our original flight cancellation, the airline could only send 4 of us to the DR today. So Tasha, Vanessa, Heather and I, split from the rest of the team to fly to Miami, FL while the other 6 flew to New York for the night. They have to stay over night in NY and fly out to the DR in the morning. So we are already a day behind, since half the team will be getting there late. And so the team split. We all said our goodbyes. Our flight to Miami didn't board until 11:30am so the 4 of us grabbed some breakfast in the airport and just hung out. I was really super bummed to split up from everyone but at the same time I was nervous about getting to be one of the first in Santo Domingo. Well we made it to Miami on this really really small plane. The turbulence was really bad. My ear's hurt from the pressure. When we got off the bite sized plane, we had to take a shuttle to get us off the run way. On the shuttle, we met this lady who was on the plane with us. She had a dog in her arms that rode with her on the plane in her lap. The lady worked at MUSC and the dog was a therapy dog. It was pretty cool. Once we got into the airport, we had dinner of course. We all got chinese food and a lot of it :) I started to get nervous because of the weather conditions in Miami. There were tornado and thunderstorm warnings. It was raining on and off too but it calmed down by the time we got on the plane. I guess we all looked like nice Americans to talk to in the airport because we met another lady! Go Figure. She was heading to the Dominican too. She was really cool to talk to. She is Puerto Rican, from New York, and married to a Jamaican. When she was talking to us, you could hear every little aspect of the Puerto Rican, NY, and Jamaican! It was fun to listen to her talk. I pray that her and her family are blessed with good health and safe travels. Sooo the plane ride to Santo Domingo wasn't as bad as the one to Miami. We were on the plane for about 2 1/2 hours. When we finally got into Santo Domingo, I felt like an outsider. It was this new world that I had never seen before with a new language, new environment, new culture.....and boy was it hot! I don't mean warm....I mean, like standing in the airport, in a sweatshirt with no circulation, in about 95 degrees waiting on our luggage. yep. As we walked out of baggage claim to find our people from SCORE International, there were dominicans lined up just watching everyone get off the planes. It was crazy!! It was like being a celebrity, walking down the red carpet! Well we finally found our Score people and they took us to our hotel. We are staying in a hotel instead of at the score complex because there are so many mission teams here this week, that they couldn't house all of them. Anyways, driving to the hotel, my mouth was hanging open as this whole new culture was opened to me. I am out of my comfort zone, but I LIKE IT!!! Our hotel is really nice which makes it seem like we are on a leisure trip but we need to keep our focus on Him. I am in a room with Vanessa tonight and Heather and Tasha are in the other one. When the rest of the team gets here, rooms will be as follows...

Room 301:

Michelle

Vanessa

Sarah

Room 306:

Emily

Lindsay

Christina

Room 307:

Tasha

Margo

Heather

Room 316:

Ricardo

I cannot wait for the team to come back together tomorrow. I miss them soooo much and we've only been apart from them for like 15 hours! I keep texting Sarah, Ricardo and Emily. ughhh! I love all of them and I cannot WAIT to see them tomorrow! I hope we can go pick them up at the airport. I pray that they all have a wonderful night together in New York, and I pray that this split up will bring better things to our team. I am excited for what's to come. All thanks to Him.

70/365 Jessa's Painting

I love all of Jess's paintings....for real. Sooo good. Love her.

69/365 Jordi and Nay Nay Dancing.....

Thought this was so cool. They are so awesome dancing together and practicing!! Truly dedicated!

68/365 Welcome to the Band.

Ben. No other words than "Yep." Typical, oh yes. Welcome to the Band.

67/365 Crosses

These were at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. I saw them when Coastal Winds performed there. Good concert, pretty emotional.

66/365 Dance!

This is right outside my apartment....how appropriate.

65/365 Myrtle Beach

downtown Myrtle Beach in the morning....

64/365 Past me....

Found this picture of me when I was 3 years old. I'm cheesin' big time!

63/365 Flowers

62/365 Painting Wall

This is the collage of paintings that Emily and I put up at the village. It took us a long time but I kind of really like it :)

61/365 Ary

Ary...gosh I love this girl...I had the privilege of hanging out with the Little family and Ricardo tonight and it was such a great night! Love all of them so much :)

60/365 Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone magazine.....very interesting selections for the decade's best albums and songs

59/365 Shadows of my Music...

This was a music stand.....I liked the shadows more than the stand itself. Sometimes we hide our true passion and expression for our love. We are hidden behind the shadows. I am totally guilty of it, I hold in my expression sometimes and keep to myself. Kind of ironic I guess.

58/365 Trystin

My 7 month old nephew Trystin, focused on how things are moving....