Here are some pictures of the 7/9-7/16 missions trip to the Dominican Republic! It was an honor to serve God with you and we hope to see you again soon!
Here are some stories from your students' trip to the DR this past week. Pictures will be posted early next week.
Teaching English - by Elizabeth
Kresse
Over the past few days we've experienced so far in the DR,
it's been amazing seeing the different cultures compared to America and how the
people are so inviting. They are willing to stop what they are doing just to
have a conversation with us. In the States, everyone is cautious and
questioning to talk with people they haven't met. Here in the DR, they are
excited and filled with joy when we talk with them. They are so open and down
to earth. If only the people back home had qualities like that!
Tuesday I experienced something great. A few others and
myself visited San Juan's university to teach English to the students. It was
cool how happy they were to have us there. Something someone said to me was,
"You are the perfect teacher for me! You taught me how to speak and pronounce
words I couldn't before... thank you!".
By the end of class we had pictures taken with them and had
exchanged names, Facebook info, email, etc. It really opens your heart to the
people there. You can see the way God works through the Dominican people. They
have so little, but they still have enough love and passion in God to express
who they are. I've grown to respect Dominicans and appreciate them. I'm so
excited for the rest of the week!
Republica Dominicana-
by Erin Cronin, CA team
Fue una experiencia inolvidable! Visitando la gente en los
pueblos, asistiendo y ayudando en lose cultos, conociendo a los Dominicanos.
Nuestro Senor esta moviendo en todos partes del mundo!
Forever Changed- by
Sydni Toilolo, CA team
During this missions trip, I sure did feel a major change in
my heart. To see how appreciative the kids were and the families really changed
my heart. It helped me realize how in need these people are of God's love and
God's word. I'm really glad I got the chance to go on this missions trip. I met
new people and I made new friends-and really heard God speak to me. This
missions trip to the DR really was a life changing experience. I thank God for
this opportunity and pray He continues to bless this country. I love you, Lord!
A Great Trip to the
DR- by Anthony Harrison, CA team
This week has been amazing and I don't want to leave so
soon. When we first heard about this trip, I was excited and couldn't wait.
When we first got to San Juan, I didn't know what to think...but God led me on
the right path and I thank Him. I learned a lot of God and the few people that
I met. I know God loves us and wants to be a part of our lives. I thank Pastor
Paul and Mrs. Naomi for making me/allowing me to go on this trip and I am
grateful for them. I would love to come back and God is calling me to do that.
This was a great experience and I challenge everyone to do this.
The Eyes of a Child -
by Jordan Holloway, CA team
My trip to the DR was by far the most eye-opening, inspiring
experience of my life. The Dominica people are the warmest, friendliest people
I have ever met. The children especially affected me with their smiles and
happiness. I have never felt so at home. To minister and put smiles on their
faces as a representative of Jesus Christ is something I will never forget.
Guatchu Pita- by
Katie Kramer, FL team
Since the beginning of the summer I had been praying that
God would break for heart for what breaks His and to help me break out of my
comfort zone to walk in obedience with Him. Today my heart was completely
broken for the children in the slums of Guatchu Pita.
The moment we arrived, the children there happily greet us
with hugs, smiles, and grabbing onto us. Soon, as we began walking through the
area, towards a trench meant to stop the area from flooding, I noticed garbage
everywhere-from broken toys, rotting food, and waste to broken glass. Worse, I
noticed that those trash heaps were not only where these children lived, but
were their playgrounds.
My heart was completely broken for these children. At home I
always have at least two pairs of shoes that I can wear. But these children
didn't have a single pair of shoes to wear as they climbed atop of glass and
trash next to a terribly polluted river. I wanted to just sit there and cry for
these children and what seems to be a gross injustice... that I can be so blessed
while it seems like these children have nothing. It made me what to do
something about it, but at the same time, I questioned how God could allow such
and unfair injustice to exist.
Even though I don't have the answer to this question, I've
learned from this experience that God wants to use this heartbreak to change
me. And while I don't know exactly how He wants me to bring healing or bring
change to a world full of children who are living in such unimaginable poverty.
I know that experience is something that will affect my future ministry,
because God used it to change my outlook on the world.
Buenos Dias to all Friends and Family in the States!
We are having a great time in the DR! Yesterday was our first day of ministry out in the campo, Las Charcas. Both teams went out and did VBS, sports ministry, and door-to-door throughout the day. They came back excited to go out again today!
Please continue to pray for good health and powerful ministry. It's an honor to serve your students!
I will try to post a picture later on in the week, as time and internet availability allows.
This is Julie Engelsman, who works in field support for short term missions. I wanted to update you and let you know that both groups (the group from Florida and the group from California) have arrived safely in the Dominican. Connie Rock and Kristen Torres-Toro, who are the project leaders asked me to update this and let you also know that they have very limited access to the internet, and so they will update as time and internet availability allows.
Below you will find a few pictures from my D.R.
trip. Again thank you all for your prayers.
This was
our VBS crew. See if you can find me.
This how people get around. My first time riding 3 strong.
(This a part of the culture FYI, and yes it did feel a little strange)
This is some of the team doing a
house visit sharing their faith.
We invited the people we met doing house visits
to a little "church service" we put on. We even had a few songs in
Spanish in our repertoire.
Praying over Anthony who came
to the Lord!
Me and Pastor Jose Juan. We help
him in his effort to plant churches in the community where he lives and
out in the country side a 5 minute drive from his house.
I have returned from the D.R. The trip went as smooth as possible and
the Lord showed up in some really cool ways. Thank you all for your
prayers they were definitely felt. Here is one story of God moving,
which left an impression on me and the team:
At the center of
AIM's mission trips is listening in prayer to God. We actually take
time and ask God to speak to us in a specific way about our time. I led
the team in this exercise one night and we paused in silence for about a
1 minute waiting for the Lord to speak to us. As I went around the
circle asking each team member to share, Lydia's vision stuck out to me.
She saw a bucket filled
with different colored pills being poured through a sifter. But there
was only one pill that made it all the way through. This pill was then
picked up by a doctor and carried away.
Immediately I felt like
the Lord gave me the interpretation of the vision and I shared it with
the team. I felt that the different kinds of pills represented all the
different ways we as people try to medicate ourselves through pain in
life. Whether it be material things, relationships, or even actual
drugs. I felt the doctor represented God and he picked up the only
thing that he trusted to give as medication - Jesus.
This was
all nice sounding but didn't really mean much...until the following
morning.
I was walking around the community with Jeremy and our
translator Hector inviting children to the Vacation Bible School we were
putting on. After some Holas and Como estas's
we were invited into a house where we met Isidro. He greeted us warmly
and was obviously excited to have us as visitors. He kept going off in
Spanish like we were long lost friends.
I asked how old he
was. He said 75. I said he seemed to be pretty healthy for his age and
had a lot of energy. In return he started to talk about the chronic
stomach pains he has add for several years. Then he left the room. He
returned carrying a stuffed plastic shopping bag. I peered into it and
noticed it contained many different bottles and boxes of medications.
He
said that he had tried all these different kinds of medication to
relieve his pain but to no avail. At that point I think at heard an
audible bell dinging like I was on the Price is Right and had just won a
kitchen set.
With enthusiasm I explained to him about Lydia's
vision and how I felt it was meant for him. An excited "si si" was his
reply. Hector, Jeremy and I laid hands on him and prayed for his
healing. He praised the Lord after we finished praying, saying:
Gracias Senor! Gracias Senor!
The next day I went back with Hector and Lydia to check on
him. He was excited to greet us and said he was feeling much better.
We prayed for him again. The follow day I found him on the street and
ask how he was doing. He said he was feeling even better from from the
last day. It was apparent to both of us that the Lord was healing him.
It is times like these that make it all worth it. I love
seeing people realize that they can hear from the Lord and seeing God's
word come to pass.
6-29-11: The last few days I have been fortunate to get a wireless
signal early in the morning at our guest house so I am able to update
you on what is going on. Today was another good day of ministry. Our
VBS went well, we had 45 kids there and are making some good connections
with the kids. It is neat to see them come back day after day. Tim
and Addy did a good job with the lesson and Matt did a good job tell the
Bible story of Noah. The Dominicans have a different way of playing
dodgeball that is pretty cool so we will have to play it some time. It
was a good morning of ministry. Then in the afternoon we spent some
time playing and asking God what He wanted us to do in the afternoon.
After prayer we felt Him leading us in two directions, to go back to the
countryside and visit the people and have more faith conversations and
to go to the stadium (park) we walk by every day and do sports ministry.
The small group that went with Neil and Dana had some good
opportunities to pray with people, share the gospel, and follow up on
some people we met on other days. They visited Anthony who trusted
Christ yesterday and gave him a Bible with some favorite verse
highlighted. He again was asking questions about living as a Christian
so they were able to encourage him and Pastor Joes Juan was able to
handle some cultural questions on what believers here in the DR do or
don't do. Anthony took them to his friends Alexis house who is in a
wheelchair and they shared the gospel with him and he rededicated his
life to Christ. Dana had been talking with three older girls in the
country who flat out told her they liked to drink and dance. She wanted
to visit them again and only two were their but her and the Maggie our
female translator were able to share the gospel with them but they told
her only older people followed Christ. The large group that went with
Pastor Jon and me to the stadium had a great afternoon at the stadium.
We showed up and not to many people were their but as soon as we stepped
onto the soccer field people came out of nowhere including our older
VBS kids who we told we would be at the stadium. We played soccer for a
while and then the girls and I went to get coke for everyone. We had
something to drink and a few guys took a translator and talked with the
guys about where we were from and why we were in the DR. While they
were doing that Pastor Jon and I got to play a basketball game with some
older guys. The team went to play whiffle ball with the kids and I
stayed and talked to Leo and Eddie with a translator. They told me they
played on a basketball team and had lots of Christian teammates. I
asked them if they had faith and Leo. I had a chance to pray with them
and then joined the team. The team took a break from whiffleball and
Pastor Jon shared the gospel with the kids and prayed with them. Then
played some more soccer. The girls also had a chance to play some
volleyball with an older girl and spend some time with her. I was real
proud of our girls, it was mostly a guy crowd but they played along and
were not uncomfortable being around the guys. Then the other team met
us at the park and we walked to the guest house only to go on another
adventure...eating out at the taco stand. We walked and walked and got
to the taco stand and had a nice meal. We got to see some more of San
Juan and stopped and talked to some older guys getting ready to play
baseball who wanted us to stay and watch but we had to come back. One
more day of ministry, hard to believe our time is flying by. Our
students seem disappointed we will be leaving soon, this has been a good
experience for them. Thanks again for your prayers, I know God is at
work hear in the DR and in our teams lives.
PJ
6-28-11: Today was a great day of ministry. In the morning we held our
VBS at Pastor Jose Juan house and we had the most kids yet. It is cool
to see the little kids develop special relationships with our
students. We have been teaching them some songs in english and they
especially like Justin's bananna song. We are using the Wordless book
to teach them about salvation and are excited for giving them all
bracelets and see if any will trust Christ. A few of our guys stayed
behind this morning and did some concrete work at the guest house and
other jobs to prepare for a team of 40 people coming in next week.
After lunch we prepped for ministry in the countryside. We rode out and
the area is very different then where we are staying. We are staying
in a very middle class neighborhood and the VBS is in a middle class
neighborhood but the country is very much the lower class. We went to
the houses meeting people, inviting them to the service, and looking for
opportunities to pray with them. Then we held a church service and did
some songs, testimonies, a skit called the sin chair, and Pastor Jose
Juan spoke. It was cool to see Anthony, a young man from the DR, accept
Christ today. A group visited his house and played some dominoes with
him and his friends and invited him to the service and to see him come
and then trust Christ was amazing. I had the chance to talk to him
after the service and he certainly understood what he did. He was
asking me if it was a sin to play dominoes or if it was a sin to be in
love. He was processing how this decision to follow Christ would change
his life. Hard to believe that we have two more days of ministry left
and then a long day of travel on Friday. I am very proud of our team,
they are being challenged but have great attitudes and are excited to
minister. We are at the part of the trip where stomachs are a little
uneasy, not major sickness but not feeling normal either. We are
praying for continued health, continued safety, continued great weather,
and a great two days of ministry. What a privilege it is to be with
this team and to serve here in the DR. Can't wait for you to have an
opportunity to talk with our team about what God has been teaching them
and how they have grown and been stretched.
PJ
Just a quick update while I can catch a random wireless signal.
6-26-11-Today was a good day. In the morning we went to Pastor Jose
Juan's home to have our first VBS. We walked the neighborhood, inviting
kids to come join us while some people stayed back playing games with a
few kids. By the time we were done with our neighborhood meet and
great and street games we have about 30 kids at the VBS. Cecily and
Kaitlin S. taught the first VBS lesson of the wordless book about
heaven. The kids seemed to track pretty well. We taught them some kids
songs from the US as well as sung some spanish kids songs. Kaitlin G.
told the story of David and Goliath and had kids and students act out
the parts (of course I was Goliath, today we are doing Jonah and I
thought I would get volunteered for the whale too but thankfully no).
We has some refreshments for the kids and had a great time building some
relationships and teaching them a Bible verse. We walked back to our
house and had some lunch and planned for the next VBS and the church
service we would participate in the evening. Then we went on a little
walk to search for Cokes. The supermarket was closed and we were pretty
upset but found a little shop around the corner from our house and got
13 ice cold Cokes with real sugar and lots of smiles from the team. We
went back and had dinner and celebrated Cecily's birthday with ice
cream that Dana arranged to be a surprise to all the team members which
resulted in more smiles. We then walked back to Pastor Jose Juan's home
for the church service. They wanted our participation so Cecily,
Kaitlin, Jeremy (student from other youth group), Neil (AIM leader,
Pastor Jon (other pastor), and myself shared testimonies and
devotionals. It was a good night and the students did real well for the
first time speaking with a translator. Danny translated some of our
songs into spanish and led in worship and did an awesome job, they really
appreciated our singing in spanish. Then we waled back to the house.
It was a great day of ministry. Praise God that all our healthy, all
have great attitudes, and all are excited for the opportunities to
come. I am so blessed to be with a great group of students.
PJ
6-24-11: Just wanted to give a quick update on how our trip is going. First of all we made it here safe. It was a long travel day, getting up at 3:30AM to catch the shuttle to BWI. We arrived here in the DR around 1:30PM and met Neil. It took an hour to get visas, get through customs and immigration, and get out luggage. Then we had a four hour ride to our town, San Juan De La Manguana. Our team was tired and slept for a good part of the 4 hour ride. We had some dinner, met the missionary we are working with named Miguel and got a good nights rest.
6-25-11: Today we had some cultural training in the morning with Miguel. The highlight of the training was we split up into 2 groups and did a scavenger hunt to find various locations around the city. In order to do that we had to interact with the locals and ask for directions. We also had things we needed to observe about the culture to discuss. Dana and I split up with the 2 teams and I am sad to say that my team couldn't find of one of the places and of course Dana with her spanish was able to help her group find all the places. We meet our translators today and they are cool teenagers. Miguel is discipling them and they have been a huge help. This afternoon we went and met the pastor of the church that we will be doing the VBS for and then walked the neighborhood inviting the kids to come and talking to anyone we could telling them why we were in the DR. Tonight we need to prep for VBS as we will start that ministry tomorrow.
The students are doing great. They are excited for the ministry that we will be doing this week. The Dominican culture is very friendly and relational and we have been challenged to be extroverted and be friendly to develop relationships and build conncetions that will lead to good conversations about what Christ means to us and how they can know Him. I am looking forward to all of us being stretched and see what God does this week. Internet access will be limited so I am not sure how often I will be able to update the blog but I will try to at least update it toward the end of our trip. We appreciate your prayers and continue to covet them. Parents, all your kids are healthy and doing well. We are doing our best to take care of them.
She saw a bucket filled
with different colored pills being poured through a sifter. But there
was only one pill that made it all the way through. This pill was then
picked up by a doctor and carried away. 
I asked how old he
was. He said 75. I said he seemed to be pretty healthy for his age and
had a lot of energy. In return he started to talk about the chronic
stomach pains he has add for several years. Then he left the room. He
returned carrying a stuffed plastic shopping bag. I peered into it and
noticed it contained many different bottles and boxes of medications.