2015 DR Discipleship Trip Day: -3

Location: Gainesville, Texas; DFW, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Great Falls, Virginia (all in the States)


If you've read previous Dominican Trip posts, then you know how likely it is that I will write a lot at the start and not at the end. This is not caused so much by lack of writing ability or desire but mostly due to lack of internet. Thus please be forgiving on days I don't post. Although, I and my team would dearly love for your continued prayers.

This is just an introduction to the series for this years trip.


We will be traveling out of country on June 30 and flying back on July 17th. So please do pray for that!

TODAY!!!

I had breakfast in Gainesville, Texas with my dear friend Bianca! She's a fellow missionary, although we've yet to travel together, she's certainly dear family to me. It's been a joy to share stories from trips with her. This morning it was food, mission trip stories, and hugs both hello and goodbye. She just returned from Guatemala and I'm headed out to the DR!

After this, Mom and Beth drove me to the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Because I have the habit of attracting the attention of TSA (just ask any of my travel buddies...) I downloaded an app that live streams audio and video. So I started videoing and locked the screen and put it in the little bin to get x-rayed. While in line for the naked body scanner I made friends with a young couple from Brazil. Turns out we were on the same airline to Baltimore, Maryland, so we walked together. Philippe and Gabriella were darling! It was a real joy to have the chance to talk to them. They had been married 10 months and had met in college.

Alright, now for some goofiness...Bianca got me a stone hippo (because I'm obsessed with hippos...but that is a story for another time and place) to take on my adventures. I'm going to try taking pictures of Steve the Hippopotamus and post them for you to enjoy!

So this is Steve's first flight!

Also because all the people around me were speaking a language I couldn't understand (Ethiopian) I couldn't talk to them either...as this is atypical of my flights, I took the chance and went to sleep. Admittedly, I did feel like a kid. We went up, I slept, we landed! It was great! I didn't have to sit there waiting forever on a 3 hour flight.

On the drive home from the airport (My Virginia home with the Raimundos) Josh, Dad (Mr. Raimundo), and I talked about what "is" eternity, we also caught up on each other's lives, but most of the time was spent working out what is eternity in the context of well...God.

When we got home I was introduced to the girl who would be house-sitting while we're gone. Naomi is a sweet 22 yr old linguistics student. Soon after meeting her I totally fell in love with her sense of humor and love of life...and ability to throw pillows at Joshua.

Naomi and Joshua got into an entertaining discussion of how certain songs can be turned into pieces sounding like offertory hymns. To demonstrate his point, Joshua hopped on the piano and turned Taylor Swift's song "Trouble" into a convincing offertory piece.

This lead to the necessary description of what the song actually is, and the discovery that Naomi had never heard the Gollum version of the song. So, Joshua and I quickly remedied that issue.

Goodnight everyone.

love,
Jessie Bear

I Thessalonians 4:7-8

"For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you."

P.S.
I wrote this last night, it was getting late so Jenn and I agreed to work "10 more minutes" where I finished the post, everything was finished, so I shut the lap top...before posting it. Sorry!