And we're off! DR 2025 started off good, no delays at the airport, everyone's bags made it through, that was nice. This year we stayed in the same hotel, and mostly worked in the villages of Aleman and Ramon Santana. We had previously worked in both of these, so I knew my way around a little. We delivered food bags, held a clinic for hair washing and evangelism, painted two houses, hosted a VBS, and played a baseball game. All in all, better than last year I would say. The community between everyone was unmatched, and everyone had a desire to serve the Lord. We focused on prayer and boldness for the most part.
Hodelpa is known for it's nighttime activities, such as karaoke and dances such as this one. We try to participate whenever possible and appropriate.
Sunday! We went to church for two hours, that was fun, we got to worship with the singers in English while they sang in Spanish. Then Felicia, one of our translators, helped us with a call and response that we sang in Spanish! Then we went out to the capital city, Santo Domingo, to make some chocolate and see the city.
Monday! We held the clinic, and most of us split into two groups to go out in the community and ask people to come visit. I got to pray over the first woman that we went to, and that was the first time I have ever prayed over someone. It was thrilling, but scary at the same time. I got through it with the help of a translator and Steve Devlin. After we went out in the community, we came back to the clinic to help wash hair and play with the kids. When we arrived, I saw Zoe and her mom Carla painting the little girls' nails, and I saw how many girls wanted it and how long it was taking Carla and Zoe to paint the kids nails, so I came over to help. I was then sucked into nail painting for the rest of the clinic, but it was the best! I got to talk to the kids in Spanish and help make them feel pretty!!
Food bags! After the clinic (in Ramon Santana), we went to Aleman to the Pathway center for lunch, and then packed the food bags. We made a lot, and each group of people who went out to deliver the bags had five bags to deliver. A lot of our people weren't home, but we still got to deliver the food bags to either their neighbor to give to them or to their parent to give to them. One of the people we were giving the bags to was talking to us through a translator and we had asked her if she was a Christian and the translator told us she wasn't because she hadn't felt the Holy Spirit yet and then we left because our leaders were trying to tell us that we needed to keep moving and I felt like we needed to go back because I wanted to keep talking to her to ask her questions about why she felt like she couldn't be a Christian because she hadn't felt the Holy Spirit but I didn't say anything and we didn't go back. Later I found out that most of the other people in our group had also wanted to go back but nobody had said anything to each other.
Tuesday!! We started on our work project, which was scraping and painting a house in Aleman. I scraped for a while but then some girls came up to the gate of the house and started watching me scrape. I knew I needed to talk to them because I didn't want them to just stand there watching and us not doing anything to create relationships with them, so I started talking to them in Spanish, and then Aliyah and Molly came over and we started playing with the girls. There were 4 of them, and they all sort of bonded with each one of us once Kinsley came over. My little girl's name was Anna Paula and she just wanted to be on my back and around me and play with me and take pictures with me, she was the sweetest little thing ever. Then we had to go back to the Pathway building for lunch, and they wanted to come with us so they walked with us back to the building but they weren't allowed to come in. Then when we were walking back to the house, the girls had already left and I didn't see them for the rest of the afternoon which was sad. But it did help me get into painting and actually working on the house instead of just playing with the girls. (Which I would have absolutely done but I wasn't allowed to)
Wednesday!!
This!! One of my new friends, Adda, knew I could speak Spanish and she wanted me to come translate for her! It was just me, no other translators who can actually speak Spanish, just me, trying to figure out how to say stuff and understand what they said back to me so that Adda could understand what her friend was trying to tell her. I think I did pretty good, they both understood what each other was saying and they had a full conversation through me! That made me really proud.
My little Anna Paula! She came back and we had stuff to hand out to the kids that her and her friend, Aliyah's kid, wanted to have so we let them take some stuff and they just wanted to be with us before we had to go to VBS, where I shared my testimony in Spanish for the second time!
We do a skit of whatever Bible story the kids are learning about that day, and it was baby Moses, so I was Moses' mother, who had to put him in the river, which was not really a peaceful ride to be honest. Ummm our river was made out of cardboard boxes and cardboard boxes have flaps on them so my baby was riding some rapids as he was traveling down to the Pharoah's daughter... I should have just kept him.
As you can see, out river had some pretty big bumps in it. Maybe that's why Moses had a speech impediment. :)
Thursday! We played a baseball game in the morning, and then had VBS in the afternoon. We moved a huge tree by ourselves, danced our hearts out, and served the Lord. ....And lost the baseball game.
Friday fun day! We went to Catalina island and went snorkeling but not really snorkeling because the snorkels didn't really work that well so we jumped off the side of the boat instead, which was just as fun. Once we got to Catalina we got in the ocean and just swam for a while until lunch, which wasn't bad but wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten which is okay. After lunch we headed to the cliff-jumping location, which was what everyone was excited to do. Once we got up there, the worker told us that someone had gotten hurt the day before and we couldn't jump for safety reasons and that if we still jumped instead, our translator would go to jail. So we didn't jump. But we still had fun burying Josh in the sand, and being in the super clear water and just enjoying ourselves. It was a great last day!
After Catalina, the Hodelpa staff had a fire night, which we were told none of them liked to do because some of the guys had to spit fire, and they had to drink straight kerosene to get them able to do it. We were also told that after the show was over, they would go to the other side of the pool and throw up. Me and Aliyah were not excited. It was definitely cool, but I didn't want them to have to do something that's most likely bad for them just for our entertainment. It was cool though.
This is a picture from Wednesday I think, right after I had been reunited with Anna Paula. She's my favorite ever and I miss her so much every day. I can't wait to go back next year and serve the Lord and see my baby girl again!!!
