Day 2
Santiago, Dominican Republic
Cienfuegos
My girls and I huddled in the hallway of our rooms and prayed it up to our Father for the day and week ahead of us. Nothing warms my heart like praying with these girls. To think that the majority of us were not apart of a church 10 yrs ago, some not even 5 years ago, and now we are all serving our Lord in a 3rd world country. We are all now Saved...ahhhhmazing! I still dont understand how Heather Linn came to the DR. Jesus. He reigns.
These arent just any girls. These are my sisters in Christ. We were all together in a Bible study the last few years and some of them I have worked alongside of as teachers. I am a proud mama bear (they call me that sometimes and I dont mind!) of their life change. Glory to God for what He has made each of us. We thanked Him for continually molding us. I didn't just meet them at school. There were purposes for each of us 4 (Heather, Dana, and Belinda) to work at Chain of Lakes Elementary (COLE) in WH, Florida. Orchestrated for reasons for our Lord to do His will! We do not believe in chance and coincidences, we believe in a Sovereign Lord. God worked that out and positioned us to be friends, to invite each other to church, to stand by one another as we grow in the Lord, and to now be on this soil soooo far from home. I thank You, Lord, for using us!! (It really is a big deal to invite people to church, just saying). I remember when I didnt graduate on time for a mistake on USF's part and how I didnt start teaching in the fall. Instead, I had to take a semester off and intern with Lisa Chase at COLE in 2nd grade. I was devasted that it didnt work out as I had planned, but this is exactly why I had to intern there. They hired me mid-year when someone moved to NC. This is where I met these girls and now do life with them. God is good.
Two of my other friends from COLE said they were coming next year, too, on a mission trip. They have been attending RPC and I just want to cheer that they are faithfully going to church! After all these years of invites, I move, and they start gong! HAHA. I am fine with that!
So, Erica works for the police department and we met at church. It was actually a "setup" of a friendship through a mutual friend and I didnt know until later that someone suggested that we should be friends. HAHA. That still cracks me up.
So, we headed over to the school on a small rented bus/van. It sat about 25, I think. I am guessing, I didnt count.
It is located in a town called Cienfuegos. The name is 100 fires. At one time, this area of squatter homes were damaged by many fires and now lays a town that is ridden with crime and poverty. The garbage dump community is within walking distance of our work-site. People eat, sleep, raise families, and die in the trash dump. We didnt get a chance to go there and I didnt want to anyway. I saw it in Honduras and I cant do anything but cry when I go, so it didnt matter that it was off limits to the American teams. To stay safe, we were told not to walk alone anywhere and to be aware of our surroundings. I felt safe enough and ventured back and forth as needed alone. I always ask God to tell me when danger is present and He does, so I just went to the bathroom as needed.
A young girl had been used as a human shield recently and was in a wheelchair. It is said that the man that did it is now dead. The details were not explained and I wasnt too sure what happened, but I know the mother is looking for life change and TrashMountain is looking to partner with RPC to help the living situation of this girl and her family.
Medical Team:
The medical team from Kansas was amazing and served about 74 this first day. They rocked it. I loved meeting them. We had some great conversations with the other girls and I was excited to see what the week brought our way serving with them. RPC Dream Team girls were in charge of working/playing with the kids as they awaited the nurses/doctors for care of things like rashes, cuts, bruises, intestinal issues, respiratory issues, lice, vitamins, dehydration, etc. They took vitals of the kids and charted their progress since the last mission team was down. We didnt know that we were going to be doing this for 2 days, so we really had to improvise and find things at the school to be "flexible."
The boys were all up at the technical school working on the 2-story building that was made out of cement and wood. It was very hot up at the school. They worked their booties off. I think this was the day that Luke cut his hand on a scaffold and the doctor stitched him up with her "fake glasses, the real ones are at the hotel" and a little one helped cut the stitches. Good times as sweat poured off his body and he almost passed out.
PS This building was very different than the homes that we threw up in Honduras.
`
Santiago, Dominican Republic
Cienfuegos
My girls and I huddled in the hallway of our rooms and prayed it up to our Father for the day and week ahead of us. Nothing warms my heart like praying with these girls. To think that the majority of us were not apart of a church 10 yrs ago, some not even 5 years ago, and now we are all serving our Lord in a 3rd world country. We are all now Saved...ahhhhmazing! I still dont understand how Heather Linn came to the DR. Jesus. He reigns.
These arent just any girls. These are my sisters in Christ. We were all together in a Bible study the last few years and some of them I have worked alongside of as teachers. I am a proud mama bear (they call me that sometimes and I dont mind!) of their life change. Glory to God for what He has made each of us. We thanked Him for continually molding us. I didn't just meet them at school. There were purposes for each of us 4 (Heather, Dana, and Belinda) to work at Chain of Lakes Elementary (COLE) in WH, Florida. Orchestrated for reasons for our Lord to do His will! We do not believe in chance and coincidences, we believe in a Sovereign Lord. God worked that out and positioned us to be friends, to invite each other to church, to stand by one another as we grow in the Lord, and to now be on this soil soooo far from home. I thank You, Lord, for using us!! (It really is a big deal to invite people to church, just saying). I remember when I didnt graduate on time for a mistake on USF's part and how I didnt start teaching in the fall. Instead, I had to take a semester off and intern with Lisa Chase at COLE in 2nd grade. I was devasted that it didnt work out as I had planned, but this is exactly why I had to intern there. They hired me mid-year when someone moved to NC. This is where I met these girls and now do life with them. God is good.
Two of my other friends from COLE said they were coming next year, too, on a mission trip. They have been attending RPC and I just want to cheer that they are faithfully going to church! After all these years of invites, I move, and they start gong! HAHA. I am fine with that!
So, Erica works for the police department and we met at church. It was actually a "setup" of a friendship through a mutual friend and I didnt know until later that someone suggested that we should be friends. HAHA. That still cracks me up.
So, we headed over to the school on a small rented bus/van. It sat about 25, I think. I am guessing, I didnt count.
It is located in a town called Cienfuegos. The name is 100 fires. At one time, this area of squatter homes were damaged by many fires and now lays a town that is ridden with crime and poverty. The garbage dump community is within walking distance of our work-site. People eat, sleep, raise families, and die in the trash dump. We didnt get a chance to go there and I didnt want to anyway. I saw it in Honduras and I cant do anything but cry when I go, so it didnt matter that it was off limits to the American teams. To stay safe, we were told not to walk alone anywhere and to be aware of our surroundings. I felt safe enough and ventured back and forth as needed alone. I always ask God to tell me when danger is present and He does, so I just went to the bathroom as needed.
A young girl had been used as a human shield recently and was in a wheelchair. It is said that the man that did it is now dead. The details were not explained and I wasnt too sure what happened, but I know the mother is looking for life change and TrashMountain is looking to partner with RPC to help the living situation of this girl and her family.
Medical Team:
The medical team from Kansas was amazing and served about 74 this first day. They rocked it. I loved meeting them. We had some great conversations with the other girls and I was excited to see what the week brought our way serving with them. RPC Dream Team girls were in charge of working/playing with the kids as they awaited the nurses/doctors for care of things like rashes, cuts, bruises, intestinal issues, respiratory issues, lice, vitamins, dehydration, etc. They took vitals of the kids and charted their progress since the last mission team was down. We didnt know that we were going to be doing this for 2 days, so we really had to improvise and find things at the school to be "flexible."
The boys were all up at the technical school working on the 2-story building that was made out of cement and wood. It was very hot up at the school. They worked their booties off. I think this was the day that Luke cut his hand on a scaffold and the doctor stitched him up with her "fake glasses, the real ones are at the hotel" and a little one helped cut the stitches. Good times as sweat poured off his body and he almost passed out.
PS This building was very different than the homes that we threw up in Honduras.
`
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