Guest Blogger: Christina Barlow

This blog was written by my friend Christina that was on our youth mission trip from RidgePoint Church.  I love her heart and I loved the many times we got to chat this week about life in the DR and our own lives.  I really didnt know her before the trip but I knew God was working on her heart in the DR and I was honored to talk with her a bunch about it.  Here is what she had to say:  

Phyllis asked me to write a blog about my trip to the Dominican Republic.  I’ve never wrote a blog before and when I journal I tend to ramble, so this should be very interesting. :)

Every time a mission trip was announced at church I wanted to go.  I’ve just always let the fear of going take over and never followed through.  This time was different because it was youth oriented and since I’m a youth leader I wanted to go even more. Plus, when I was unsure if I was going or not, Beth was always there to push me along. I waited until the beginning of July to apply for my passport, which was not very smart! (If you don’t have one and you plan on going on a trip like this, take my advice and please get your passport way in advance) :)

Saturday started a week of a lot of 1^sts for me. We made it to the airport, checked all our luggage with plenty of time to spare. Since I am a procrastinator my seat on the plane was not with my group. I was completely by myself. I was much calmer than I thought I would be, since I had never flown before.  I did learn on my trip home how to use the air vent and recline the seat on the plane. Woohoo!!

Sunday morning we all got ready for church.  I’ve never experienced anything like this before.  Church there is so simple.  Church was held in Pastor Ivan’s house, they brought in plastic chairs and made rows for everyone to sit in.  There is not enough room for everyone so they had the windows and doors open for others to look in to see and hear what’s going on. There was a white sheet type material tacked to the wall so the lyrics to songs and Bible verses could be projected on it. I have to say this is one of the first times I really seen that you don’t have to have the best of anything for God to show up.  He was definitely present Sunday morning.  After the message was over everyone held hands in a circle and prayed. After church, us girls, went to Phyllis’s house and met with the ladies to make jewelry.  We sorted beads and more beads.  We made bracelets, necklaces and earrings.  This was more difficult then I first thought it would be.  I believe I had to redo mine several times before it was right.

So this was my first full day there and one of the things that stuck out the most to me was the traffic there is CRAZY.  The line in the road is merely a suggestion.  Just about everyone rode on motos.   If you had a baby, it's ok, just put your arm around them to make sure they don’t go anywhere (and we worry about infant seats here! LOL).

Monday started our week of sports camp.  (Camp was Mon-Thurs 2:00 – 4:30 and Fri 9:00 – 11:30)  I wasn’t really sure what to expect. When we arrived at the gym, the kids in the barrio where the gym was located started coming up a few at a time. Naomi had to teach me how to tell them to come back at 2pm.  After our 1^st bus load got there it was pointless to tell the other kids to come back at 2pm. They all greeted me with a smile, but to see them talk to Phyllis, Kathy and Naomi made my heart smile. I’ve never wanted to learn Spanish before but it is my goal before my next trip to at least know the basics. I want to know what these kids are saying to me. By the second or third day I was being greeted with not only a smile but hugs and a kiss on the cheek.

The group I was in was red and the kids were 8 and 9 year olds.  I had no idea what we were going to do with them.  By the end of the week we learned they loved to jump rope, play catch and when I say play catch we used little plastic orange cones and a tennis ball.  We held the cones upside down and caught the ball with the cone and then tossed it to the other person the same way. Our kids here in the US would think we were crazy if we wanted to play catch like that with them. They loved to play any game that involved water.

One of the most challenging parts was not being able to communicate the way I wanted to. Some of these kids had no idea what structure is.   Lines, forget straight lines we were just shooting for lines. The little girls loved to play with your hair, at any given time we could look over and Taylor would be sitting on the bleachers with at least 5 little girls all around her braiding her hair.

Side note ~ JJ put together a daily devotional pack from the time we met about the trip until the day we left for our trip.  One of the days was to write out our testimony.  I have to say I pouted about this. It was a reality check for me. I sat and talked with Beth about it one Sunday and then I got myself together and did it. 

JJ asked for someone to share their testimony each day of sports camp. I wasn’t going to volunteer, even though I had mine together and had practiced it a few times. But then he asked who had theirs ready (or something like that) well there it was, not who wanted to but who had it ready. So Friday, completely out of my comfort zone I stood before all the kids and gave my testimony.

Most of the kids where so sweet, they really just wanted someone to either listen to them or play with them and I was there to do both, even if I had absolutely no idea what they were saying.

Friday when it was time to say good bye, I found it really hard. Once we made it back to our room for the night I had to take some time to just reflect.  These were kids that I was there to help by showing them how Jesus loves and I think they taught me more than I even knew.

In our down time during the week, we got to do all sorts of stuff.  We went on a hike to the waterfalls; I learned I was way out of shape.  A huge thank-you to Naomi and Kathy for not leaving me behind.  I jumped from a rock that I was sure my legs were too short to clear but I did it anyways.

One day we went whitewater rafting. I’m pretty sure my butt is still bruised from getting down so fast so many times. At different points I think Belinda and I had a Jacuzzi going on while Luke and Josh paddled. This was so much fun, another 1^st for me.

A couple days we went to two different Barrio’s to hand out information on Human Trafficking.  We split up into group and went different directions.  The first house we went to Luke walked in and turned around and told us to come on.  I was nervous about walking into people’s houses.  But I knew we were there to do work and that God was with us, so we were going to be fine.  When we made it back from handing out papers, I needed time to process everything I had just seen. Nothing can prepare you for it. I know it’s not as bad as the trash dumps that some have visited but this was my first time and it broke me. I wanted to cry while we were standing there.  I talked to Phyllis about the stuff that “I” take for granted all the time.  The little stuff:  sturdy walls; complete roofs; bedroom doors; windows that work; washing machines that you put your dirty clothes in add soap, close the lid and push start, then come back and throw them in the dryer etc.  At some point I was talking with Beth and tears started flowing. Our RPC’ers that live there gave up everything to move there and share God’s word and show these people what his love looks like. They sold everything and moved. What is it exactly that I do….there’s a lot of things I could be doing that I don’t, not because I can’t but because I choose not to.

The second Barrio that we went to things were about the same.  We went out into the barrio two different times before we left and the second time we met a Haitian guy that teaches Haitian kids whose parents do not have the money to buy uniforms to send them to school.  He got FIGHT’s information and they will be going to meet with the parents of those children sometime in the future to teach them about Human Trafficking.

During the two days in the Barrios I seen kids from the sports camp and they were still just as friendly as when they walk through the doors at the gym.

For me this trip was fun, emotional, tiring and completely out of my comfort zone.

His Will Be Done

My friend Dana says, "Reading the Bible is like crack.  You just get a little of it and you want more and more."  The hilarious part is neither one of us has ever done crack.  If you know Dana, it's even more hilarious to hear her say it.  But I wholeheartedly agree.  I love that Jesus-lover.  She came down last year on a mission trip.  We cried our little eyes out after the church service.  I think the people around us thought we just missed each other or the service was so moving.  Not so.  We actually missed our Jesus conversations.  The shoot the other person the "crazy thing God did today" text or the "I am so filled with joy, I think I might burst, and I know you know what I mean!" and most of all, our monthly accountability lunches where we would take up some poor girl's table at Chili's in Lake Wales' table for HOURS on Saturday.  She's the only other person I knew that never got sick of talking God, 24/7.  Good news is, we figured it out.  Thank, God, for Magic Jack, her learning Skype, and TextPlus App.

I'm seriously obsessed with the Bible lately.  This has not always been the case.  For years, I would swear I was going to read more.  Move me to another country and I read that thing all the time now.  So, I was reading Genesis today.  Side note:  I don't get anything that has to do with Lot.  That is a blog post all in itself.  Ya know those times, you pause and go, "Uhhh, I'm sorry, God, what??"  That is Lot to me.  He, his crazy daughters, and his wife turning to a salt pillar.  No entiendo. Go read about Lot, you''ll say the same.

Getting to Abraham.  So, God tells Abraham to take his kid, Isaac, whom he waited to be blessed with until he was 100 years old, up to one of the mountains and offer him as a sacrifice to God.    Genesis 22:3 says, "The next morning Abraham got up early.  He saddled his donkeys and took two servants with him, along with Isaac."  I bet Abraham didn't sleep a lick that night.  I bet he got into bed talking to God, tossed and turned through the night talking to God, then opened his eyes in the morning mumbling to God in prayer.  At least that is what I do when God asks me to do crazy things. 

This was one of the greatest acts of obedience.  He traveled over 50 miles to the location.  Bible says about 3 days he went on the journey, then arrived at his destination.  Sooooooo, 3 days of talking to God, I image.  "Is that what You said?  Are you sure You want me to do this?  This doesnt make sense!  Is that what You said?"

So he arrives and he left the servants and loaded Isaac up with wood on his back and headed up.  I can't seem to figure out how old the kid is, the Bible says he was weaned from Sarah and they had a feast for the occasion, but he was old enough to carry the wood on his shoulders up the mountain as well.  Either way, you know this kid didn't just lay down and let Dad tie him up.  I am sure there was a struggle and screaming involved.  How horrific for Abraham.  None of this makes sense, God already told Abram that the sky's star count is equivalent to the descendents he will have.  We kinda need this kid to stay alive to fulfill the promise.  Doesn't make sense.  I bet Abraham prayed "Your will be done" a thousand times and still wondered if God was sure.  My NLT Life Application Study Bible says in Gen 15:8,  "Abram was looking for confirmation and assurance that he was doing God's will.  We also want assurance when we ask for guidance." 

Absolutely.  It is a perfect prayer to pray and ask God.  If we seek His will first, I believe He answers and gives direct steps in how to do it.   Sometimes it is really just being obedient with what He said to do.  Other times, you are blind to the next step, but He always reveals the next path as you walk (Psalms 32:8).  So, then in Genesis 15:17 the study notes reveal, "God took the initiative, gave the confirmation, and followed through on His promises.  God's passing through the pieces was a visible assurance to Abram that the covenant God had made was REAL."   Abram needed confirmation and assurance that that would come to pass.  I heard you say it, but how are You going to do it, God? I would be asking WHEN!?  So he was granted assurance through asking God and knew that he will be the father of many nations.

Abraham knows what God said.   After Sarah tried to get ahead of God, she finally conceived and they had the boy, and now Abraham's being asked to sacrifice him? This is crazy to him, I am sure.  I wonder if Abraham talked it over with Sarah.  I would have liked to have heard what she said about this kid she waited so long for and didn't even believe she would actually conceive, is going to die at the hand of her hubby.  Or, maybe he left that morning in obedience to God and said I'll be in a few days.  Her faith seems weak and wavering in Genesis and she may have been an obstacle.  I think the latter happened.  I really have no idea.  It doesn't say.

So, as he goes to stab the child with a knife, an angel of the LORD called to him to stop.  Faith was tested.  He was going to do what God asked him to do even though he didn't want to and there was nothing that made it logical.  I bet if he asked some friends what they thought, they might have said, "You're crazy. Don't do it."  He could have talked himself out of all of it because, really?  Why would God ever say such a thing.  He had to mean to do something else.  Maybe he heard him wrong.

Like God would say don't take the job offer when you don't have a job, be a stay-home mom when you cant afford it,  switch careers, do volunteer work, etc.????  Surely, God wouldn't, it has to make sense.

He does.  And, I love when someone shares with me that they took the leap when He told them to do something.

The week before I moved here, as clear as day, God said,  "JCS will hire you and you are moving to the Dominican Republic."  I cried.  Holy Spirit cry.   The next day I told my bff,  either I hear God or I don't know what that voice is!!  They hired me the next week, of course.  There are billions of things God did and said before I left that I still recall and stand on when I am doubting His provision/His voice.  He knew I needed all of those to continue the mission here in another country.  I'm thankful for the tears and the pressure in trying to be obedient and follow through when I swore I was going to die following God as as others called me foolish in their sight.

I was reading a blog yesterday that said God tells us what is coming sometimes to grow us. Sometimes to keep us focused and in line with His will.  I completely agree.  I know not all Christians believe that and I am okay with that.  I believe the Spirit can give us feelings and emotions to direct us and I believe just like the Bible says the Holy Spirit speaks and is clear.  We can't do His will if we don't know or come up with our own ideas.  He has done it to me too many times for me to deny what He says.  I have two very specific things God spoke to me to be and I am just waiting for them to come.  Jeremiah 33:3.  When they do, I know my faith will sky rocket with confirmation of His Sovereign hand.
So I wait.  They seem crazy, but I am waiting.

His will be done.  His will be done.  ::wink::

Isaiah 55:8-9

As I turned around on our walk to hand out flyers about trafficking in the barrio, I saw this lady reading it while she waited to buy something at the colmado (corner store).  I literally burst into tears.  Josh said, "What is wrong with you!? What's going on?"  He didn't see what I saw when I turned around.  It was as if the whole world went silent to me.  My shoulders dropped.  I saw a lady reading something that is life altering...possibly learning information that could completely change the trajectory of a child's life.  What we are doing is not to be taken lightly, God said to me.  And, then the tears flowed out of my eyes.  I turned around for a minute to take a deep breath. 

I have been so filled with the Spirit this week.  I wake up in prayer and fall asleep in prayer.  I find myself talking to God throughout the whole day.  I am so thankful to be here.

Focused. 

Nothing can move me off from this Christ-focused mission this week.  I have been really exhausted from the long days but I see HIM everywhere and doing so many things.  Awesome presence of God.  "There He is.  And, there.  Little things happen and I just know I am walking hand in hand with the Living God." <--- I am listening to Charles Stanley right now and in his sermon he just said that.  Amen :)  Perfect.  No coincidences, He orchestrated all of this. 

We headed down the street a bit and weren't going to go to a certain house, but our speaker decided to step over the septic water and headed to the back of this house where a Haitian woman was sitting on a bucket scrubbing clothes in a large round bucket.  I decided to step over the contaminated water and head to the back with her to talk with them as the team waited at the edge of the street.  My Spanish is really coming along but I like translators to help when it's important, so I called Suleidy to come back.  There was a man back there that told us that he is starting a school for poor Haitian families in another barrio where the kids cant afford/don't have legal papers to go to public school.  He asked if we could come to the school and teach the parents about this problem because he knows that they are targets for traffickers. 

Prior to leaving to go out to homes, we had to change the way we were presenting the info to the barrio.  I leaned against the colmado's wall next to the school alone and stared at the ground while I asked God, "What are you doing?  Why aren't we doing it the way we planned?  I don't understand."  He said, "Phyll, remember, my ways are higher."  I nodded in agreement.  Okay, move on and keep seeking. 

Isaiah 55:8-9

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁸ “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
⁹ For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

He is so incredible.  I am excited for this new connection and to get to educate a new population of people in the DR about child trafficking;  a connection we wouldn't have made if we didn't do it His way at that very moment.  

I like His ways better.  I don't even have to understand what He decides to do.  I just need to obey and leave the rest up to my Papa.

"CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE" Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign

So we launched our FIGHT Ministries human trafficking awareness campaign in the DR yesterday.  We got to the barrio to set up around 9 AM with the team.  The two teams split and went to homes to invite them with our translators, Luke, and Trevor.  

As we waited at the site for them to come back, Kathy, Naomi, Laura and I circled up to pray for God to be with them and speak for them.  

When the team came back I thought we would have more.  God reminded me about Luke 15 and I told Laura, Smirna, and Sul that even if one person comes and hears about Jesus and learns about trafficking, it is enough.  One is just as important as 100.  Okay, God, I hear you. And then two seconds later...

I asked Suleidy to walk down the street with me to see if anyone was coming down the path and needed to direction.  As we walked and talked I told her about all the preparation for this day and the praying to follow God's lead and that I thought that God was going to make this big.  Or, really, I wanted Him to do that.  I want His will, of course, but I thought He should GO BIG with this campaign.  As I am sharing my heart with Suleidy God said, "Dont you remember what Kathy sent you this morning!??"  I literally said "OH MY GOSH, Sul!  Forget all I'm saying! Ahhh.  God told me this morning from a devotional...'Instead of trying to direct Me to do this or that, seek to attune yourself to what I am ALREADY doing.'"  I said, "Okay whoever shows up is because God said so.  He ordained this perfectly and this is exactly what He wanted to happen today.  We can't take credit for anything we did and He is in control."  Suleidy knows I love, love, love Jesus, but I am sure she thinks I am crazy, crazy, crazy. 

We had about 40 people show up.  How invigorating!!  40 people hear about Christ and human trafficking.  Information they have never, ever heard before; tactics that traffickers use that sound so good to parents, they learned are schemes and to not be deceived.  After the campaign, the team went out again and passed out the information to dozens more homes to spread awareness!!  I watched this little girl walking down the street reading it.  I was so overcome with emotion to pray for her.  This is nothing to take lightly.  That information may literally save her life from a life of torture, abuse, exploitation...complete loss of innocence as a child.  Glory to Papa Dios for letting me even be a part of all that He is doing.

Yesterday, I was just filled with so much emotion.  That constant praying and praying just bubbling in me.  I love those days that you are seeking Him incessantly for His direction and wisdom.   I am loving having a buncha Jesus lovers around me this week with RPC being here and having great Jesus convos.   It touches my heart to hear them talk about how God is working in them on this trip. 

Today, we are headed to another barrio for another presentation.  My expectations this morning are to just let God go before me and direct us and whatever happens He planned.  I know this, why do I always need a reminder!????

I have so much more to write, BUT I gotta get ready for the day.  Sorry if there are errors, ain't nobody got time when a mission team is in town.  You feel like you're on a trip and running it!!  

Love from the Dominican!!  prayers, people, prayers <3