Location: Reagan International Airport, Virginia, USA; Orlando International Airport, Florida USA; Santo Domingo Airport, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Last night after showers and dinner with the Groves (the family that came last year) we all went to bed very late. Knepps and I shared a twin bed, it was awesome how God can bond His people together that even after many months we are still a tightly knit family. At around 3am I got up to start the coffee for the group. Last year Tim was usually our coffee starter and as he is not on this trip, someone has to step up to the early hour task of starting the coffee. Today it was me. At 3:30am and the house was waking up to the smells of coffee and music of Josh Groban, Lauren Daigal, Hawk Nelson, Unspoken, and Francesca Batistelli. It was lovely to start with my own personal worship session.
So, Paul (a very sweet and funny man from the Raimundo's church) arrived at the house and the guys piled all the suitcases into the cars. We all hop in and head to the Reagan Airport. Upon arrival there we realized that we were missing Jenn's checked bag!!! So Naomi drives home to get it in the hopes that she can be back in time to get it on the same flight.
We all go to check in and get our tickets. Finally we decide that because we are both needing to be at our gate and wait for Jenn's bag with all her clothes. So the choice is made that the team would go to the gate and Mr. Raimundo would wait for the bag, and if the flight takes off we'd go without him. By God's amazing grace Naomi gets the bag to the airport, Mr. R gets it checked and through TSA, and everyone gets on the same flight to Orlando!! Wow...God is good.
Janie, a new addition to the discipleship family this year, asked why we wear matching team shirts. It is for the following story...
We all had our tickets and go to board the flight to Orlando, but upon the flight attendant scanning in our tickets 5 of the 9 members are rejected. Yet due to matching shirts and obviously being together, they are waived through onto the flight! Again, God is so good!
On the flight Josh and I switch seats so that I can sit with Janie and Rogers. We had lots of wonderful conversations and laughter. Oh, and naps. We journaled, and then when the attendant brought snacks, my bag of doritoes had 3 chips. No joke. (not happy, Bob...not happy)
Don't worry, I got over it.
In Orlando we discovered the food situation. Josh and Connor went to scout in one direction and Janie and I in another. We met up in the middle to talk over the options and bring only the 2 best choices to Mr. R. Turns out that Orlando has only one small food court. On The Border was the best then some little pizza place. A 3rd option was to leave the airport via shuttle and come back through security. (not fun...we'd gotten some unfriendly treatment at the Reagan airport.) Because there was no good option we offered Josh as tribute to be the one to tell Mr. R.
A bit of back story for this, Jenn wasn't feeling very great on the flight to Orlando, and in the Orlando airport she went downhill again. By the time the scouting parties were back at the group it was being figured out if Jenn should be flown back home. Calls back and forth with her DR. Long story short, Jenn flew back to DC. BUT...you must see God's mercy in this story. As we were figuring out how to get Jenn home, in the very gate we were sitting at there was a flight back to DC, and it left before our flight to Santo Domingo! Jenn was able to fly home and the body of Christ worked so beautifully to help. The Groves (the family from last year's trip) was able to pick her up! God's mercy and grace was overflowing on the trip already.
While sitting in the airport, I picked up Andrew's Ukulele and began to learn chords on it with the help of Josh, Andrew, Janie, and Knepps. It's so much fun!! I'm likely going to get one when I get home because it was so easy to pick up and so small to go anywhere.
After this it was decided that we would go to On The Border. It was here that Mr. R went over the food rules of the DR.
- Don't eat chicken. period.
- Don't drink the tap water or ice.
- Don't eat anything that Mr. R doesn't eat.
- Don't eat any fruit that isn't fresh.
Emily "Rogers" and I both have military dads, so we talked about the movies Lone Survivor and American Sniper and how they honor our fathers and families. If you see a veteran, thank them, they sacrifice so much for our freedoms.
During the ending of the military talk there was a baby just screaming and crying and basically freaking out, then his brother joined in with the distress. I happen to carry around a Teddy Bear that I was given by my best friend. So I grabbed my bear (KHB - Katy Huggy Bear) and walked around the seating layout to show the bear to the kids. It was a major success! I talked with the mother who spoke english. They were on our flight to the DR. So I played with the kids for a while, till I was sweaty and tired of running in circles. It was so much fun to have the chance to both play with the kids and let them run around for a while and get the chance to bless the mother.
As soon as I went to sit down one of the girls came to ask to go to the bathroom. See, on the DR trip you are never allowed to be alone. Even to go to the bathroom in America. We always need to be in groups of 2+. I have no idea how many times I "went to the bathroom"...just a lot.
I got tired of lugging around my heavy bags, so I'll be making notes of things to leave behind next year. As you can see in the voting poles at the top right of the page, I do have a fascination of packing as light as possible.
Some of the observations from the team upon landing in the DR and the drive to the house.
Talk about the politics:
- Do you vote?
- no.
- Why not?
- not useful.
- What is useful? What would fix the situation?
- God coming back.
The billboards are dominated with political campaigns though there are really only two candidates, the rest are just endorsing other candidates.
The three main political parties are: Revolution, Liberty, and Social Christian Reforming. Yet, they are all the same with different names, it's about power and money, not the people.
Janie made the observation that there are buildings on top of buildings. (awesome observation!)
Connor made the observation of the forest still growing even in the middle of the city. (this is important to have seen!)
I learned the classification of 1st, 2nd, 3rd world countries.
1st - Involved in the Cold War
2nd - Impacted by the Cold War
3rd - Nothing about the Cold War
We had Juices after dinner! <3 Chinola Ca is my favorite. Chinola is Passion Fruit, Ca is "Ca"rnation sweetened condensed milk.
Some questions to think on from the day:
- How can the gospel change that which is not according to the gospel?
- What is one childhood (good) memory that you remember?
- What are you hoping to learn on this trip?
- How do you want to be growing?
love,
Jessie Bear
Jeremiah 17:5
"Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD."
