2015 DR Discipleship Trip Day: 6b

Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

After church we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. The girls piled into Patricia's car again, but this time she wasn't there and Mr. R drove us. All the guys hopped in with Jorge Santana in his new car. By the way, everyone who remembers last year, Jorge is totally all better, he's been fine for a long time now. All good. No worries anymore.

On the way to lunch we passed a Claro van with a few guys working on the power lines...with the ladder set up against the power lines. Yes...like ON the power lines themselves. Shockingly, no one died.

At lunch we had pizza. How American of us. Pizza. Yesh...and way too much grease.

Since today is Mr. R's 58th birthday and Mr. R was so sad that Jenn and Mrs. R would not be joining us since Jenn's been sick. But I got an email in the contrary...so for a birthday surprise we told Mr. R that his girls had plane tickets and would be joining us on TUESDAY!!! This sent the group into a buzz of joy. Then we sang happy birthday to the birthday boys, because it's Andrew's birthday too.

When we went home everyone took a nap, I particularly slept super hard. I woke up to a phone ringing and ringing and ringing, it was annoyingly loud and repetitive. So I went over and answered it...

"hola"

 - hola

"hello"

 - hello...

"who is this?"

 - Emanuel

"oh, hi Emanuel"

 - Can I talk to Pastor Josue?

"On the phone?" <-- that's how not awake I was...

 - yes

"let me go find out..."

 - okay

*goes to look for Mr. R*

"Emanuel, he's sleeping"

 - okay, I'll call back in 10 minutes

It was so funny...now that I'm awake.

Skip forward a few minutes and it was time to go to church. But Mr. R wasn't ready to go. So we left on our own. This time we timed how long the walk to church is. It was 8.5 minutes. It was fun.

At church I had the chance to do a Skype call with Bianca. It's really neat to share missions with other missionaries. 

Tonight was also the Church's Lord Supper, it was wonderful to share in this with the body of Christ in the DR!

Now we are hanging out with the Santanas for games and flan....yum.

love,

Jessie Bear

Hebrews 2:16

"For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham."

2015 DR Discipleship Trip Day: 4b

Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

This is the continuation of yesterday's post...

Disclaimer: NO alchohol was consumed...so please don't worry about your kids!

This was one of the songs that the guys were working on at the church, it was just a "for fun".

Video by: Connor

After the painting was finished we went outside to wash the brushes and to wait for Mr. R to say it was time to go home. For the time of waiting...we played cheese. A game where players stand in a circle with the right hand in the shape of pointing to something and the left hand open flat, this is so that the narrator can craft a story and each time the narrator uses the word "cheese" players try to catch someone's finger at the same time that they avoid other players from capturing their finger. Predictably, Mr. R won.

Then we played Ninja, I hope you all know how to play this hilarious game. But, before we could begin the game Patrick and Connor were called away to help the professionals paint the molding because they are tall enough to reach without assistance. They were willing and put up no protest, they were wonderful examples of being servants! Following this brief interruption we began the ninja game. Rogers and I got Mr. R out of the game, whoot! The game was ended between Rogers and Josh with a half million moves between them before Josh finally won the game.

At this point Connor and Patrick were finished painting and we headed home. The showers might be my favorite part of mid-day. So we chilled for a while before our plans (once again) changed and we headed to the Santanas for dinner.

At the Santana's we first had introductions. Greeting people is a big deal in probably everywhere other than America...not greeting your host and any person you're with is rude. So everyone hugged and kissed everyone else. Then we sat down and talked for a while. We learned that Mrs. Santana is a part of an organization that promotes the sovereignty of nations and the sanctity of life. This was such a neat talk because it bonded us on more than just a friend level but on spiritual, political, emotional, and economic issues.

They had fixed an awesome super consisting of (ham) lasagna and roast beef sandwiches with a ton of mushrooms.

There is a story you need to hear.
It was the night of the fishes...when suddenly Mr. R asked Janie if she was "wasted", this was due to her being so exhausted that she asked, "What's a fish?" (I wonder if she was expecting some Spanish translation or something..)  Since this moment we've held onto a few phrases...

"What's a fish" cousin to "Oh my fishes" and "wasted." Thus we can now continue with the evening's events.

Anytime we are around Jorge, Pamela, and Hector, we will end up playing a sick game called "Mao"...if you've never played and if you don't like detective work, then this is not for you, save your tears and play something simple and friendly like: monopoly...

ANYWAYS...

Hector brought a whole carton of grape juice into the room for drinks while we played, and so the joke of being "wasted" just kept going. The worst part to it...we're all baptists...well...there is this one presby... So, Josh warned Janie not to get wasted, and her face colored, as most of the people in the room are under 20 anyways, but....it's the DR, there is no drinking age.

Connor's phone has an epic time laps thing, and so we used it to watch the Mao game progress.  Keep in mind two things as you watch the game.

1) 10 seconds = 1 hour
2) overtime the cards are placed on the table the game as been paused for arguing until the Mao makes us pick them up again...

Video by: Connor

Jorge was Mao...shock.
But...Knepps still won! GO KNEPPS!!!

After Mao we went to Valentino's!!!!! I rode with Pamela and Edwardo and ordered chinola and Mama Que Bueno (it tasted like Nutella and something crunchy). On the way over Emanuel backed into Patrick's car, but thankfully no one was at all hurt and the cars are good to go! The whole time of Valentino's I tried to figure out who had the better university: Pamela or Emanuel. I learned a lot about the Dominican education system but even more about how dominican's argue and laugh together.
The DRians are precious. They speak their mind, no filter, like it is, but they love and laugh just as crazy.

When all the ice cream was devoured and all American's sleepy we went home. The girls went to bed straight away while Connor, Mr. R, and Josh jammed till after midnight.


I can't get over how wonderful it's been to read I Thessalonians with the girls every night. I'm loving every night more and looking forward to it in the afternoons. It's been bonding us together more than I imagined it would be.
I read the first chapter then it's Rogers, Knepps, and Janie and we're taking turns with the 5th chapter in the prayerful hopes that Jenn will join us and be our 5th chapter reader.

Praises:
- no one is sick!
- the church is entirely painted
- lots of wonderful bonding has either been created or strengthened

Prayer Requests:
- that no one gets sick
- that Jenn can come
- that the rest of our trip will go smoothly

love,
Jessie Bear

John 14:26

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."

Dominican Republic Discipleship Trip 2014 - Day 5 in Santo Domingo (July 27)

Day 5 - Sunday


The day started off with plenty of drama. Pamela woke up and came out to find Jorge sleeping on the couch, a bit bloody and banged up. Come to find out...

Jorge was driving and a car came down the street the wrong way, he swerved to miss the other car, ended up hitting a tree and flipping his car.

Even if we think we can do things on our own strength, that we are invincible, that we will live forever...life is but a vapor...

Even in all the damage, all the potential lethal places, all the chances for harm...and God protected him...

Here in the DR, there are few rules that apply to driving, mainly don't hit other cars. So, it's always an adventure, and it always reminds me that it is GOD who protects us and keeps us safe.

God does amazing things...one of those is to preserve life where it should rightly have perished. It is only God in His perfect sovereignty that sustains us each moment. He will continue to protect us. 

Jorge is ALIVE!! He is walking, he is talking, he's going to be alright! He has some scratches and his shoulder is hurting, but he's going to be okay. God is epic and wonderful and is keeping us all safe. Dear parents of people on the trip, please don't freak out and worry, but know this instead, our God is mighty and tender. Even though the car flipped, even though the drivers side was squished, even though it ruined the car...Jorge is okay, he was even okay enough that he WALKED himself home after that wreck. God is bigger than our circumstances and He is protective of His children.

So, this is how we began our day on Sunday, with nervous tension and hearts of thankfulness.

After hearing only limited information about the accident (only that he was in the hospital and could still "walk"...) we had to leave for church.

The team hopped into an EPIC bus, it had great AC and huge windows, so the drive was great. But on the way to church we got lost. [Stolen computer!! JAMES is awesome!!] The address we were given for Iglesia Fundamento (Foundation Church) was not useful, thus for a while we drove in circles, eventually we did make it to church. (They couldn't start without us anyways...we had the pastor!)

The church was lovely! Even in a not so developed community the church building was beautiful. It was small area/footprint wise, but it had three stories and was rather neat. On the balcony (hi my name is james! ~ well...when I walked away from my computer, someone named James wanted to let you know he was still alive...so, yeah, he's alive.) all of us Americans sat listening close to our faithful translators, even still with fans blowing directly at Mr. Raimundo and also at us that only about 80% of the words were translated and about 90% of what was translated was understood by us Americans. So...we got most of the sermon.

After that we went to lunch at Mr. Raimundo's father's favorite restaurant. We got lots of food, tons of meat.

Lunch:

pork,

steak,

chicken (we'll come back to this one...),

two types of fish (Sea Bass and Grouper),

sausage,

Mondongo (cow stomach),

tostones,

plantano maduro,

garlic bread,

spanish tortilla,

water,

it was lots of food...

We came back to the main apartment (were the Grove/Raimundo group lives) and just chilled for a few hours, until it was time to walk over to the church we painted at to have evening service. There we used the head sets for the translation, and during offering the translator forgot to hit "mute" and so when he hummed along to Amazing Grace we listened to him...it was awesome! We tried not to giggle, but it did remind me to ask myself:

When I worship...why do I change my behavior if I know someone can see/hear me, do I worship Christ the same in public as I do when no one knows?

After church we just stayed at the church for about 1.5-2 hours letting people check their emails/post on their blogs, hold babies, sing songs, talk with new friends, and enjoy the AC... Then taking our new friends (and some old ones: Patrick and Emanuel) we all went to a pizza place.

Supper:

Pizza

Lemonade (FRESH!!)

After this we all went to our homes for one last night in Santo Domingo.

Please Pray for:

- Jorge Santana to recover from the crash.

- That we continue to have safe travels.

- That in Jarabacoa that we would bond as a unit and grow together in love.

In Summary:

Time is useless here.

Watches are just for looks not telling time.

Church is epic.

Singing in Spanish is fun.

Singing in English while everyone sings Spanish is hard to do.

Coke is amazing...

The Providence of God puts me in awe every time I get a glimpse of it.

God protects His children.

The 20 something passenger van was cool....literally.

I John 2:6

“whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 

love,

Jessie Bear