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! :)
