The past 11 days while I was overseas have been some of the most incredible days of the summer. I got to work with two awesome teams, one in Honduras and another in the Dominican Republic. It was a crazy adventure with a lot of different plane, bus, and taxi rides but also included many life long memories where I watched God show up in the teams in really amazing ways. This Blog is the second blog covering my time overseas “Part 2 The Dominican Republic ” and if you didn’t read you can read “Part 1 Honduras.”
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Back Again 6/7-6/13
The original plan was when I landed in the Dominican Republic around 3:10 I would have to get through customs, grab a taxi and make it to a bus station a hour away to meet up with the team as they depart at 4:30 to head off to their new location that they will be at until coming back to CO on June 19th (my birthday)! It left little to no time for delays without having to figure out a whole new plan to meet the team. But plans changed before arriving to The DR and CMA, the boarding school the team was headed to, picked them up in Puerto Plata, where they had been the first 5 or so days, and then swung by the airport and picket me up before heading to CMA (Caribbean Mountain Academy). This is the first country I have been in more then once. Last time I was in the DR was two summers ago when I was on the Experience and we spent 6 days in Haiti and then came over to the DR to work with the students at CMA. It was so good to be back in the country I didn’t realize I missed this place so much until I landed and walked out of the airport. I was greeted by Nate (KBM staff) and Mikie (one of the students) and soon I am greeted by the rest of the team in the van, my team! the weeks leading up to the international stage there were several occasions where there would be team dinners and I was with the DR teams during these meals so I claim the DR team as my team. I was super pumped to be reunited with these guys even though for the first 30 minutes I kind of felt distant and was afraid I wouldn’t connect but those where all lies from Satan and soon I felt welcome and apart of the team. They shared with me about there past several days in Puerto Plata, click here to read the KBM blog about that time. They were all on fire and saw God do some awesome things! Now with the team we made our way to Jarabacoa about a hour from the airport to Crosswinds where we would based out of for the rest of the time in the DR. We spend te first few hours getting settled in and one of the CMA staff gave the download on CMA and got reunited with Hunter Yates, a 2013 Experience Alum that is now full time staff there. We went into town with some of the staff and summer interns for an authentic DR meal, super good!
Already I feel super connected to the team and I feel ive been with them the whole time. It’s really cool to the way the team has shown love to me and made feel part of their family. When they found out that I was not staying with them the whole time they found my passport and hid it and kept telling me that I need to let headquarters know that im not coming back and they need to accept that, which I was perfectly ok with. I never saw my passport until the minute I had to leave. The next day was Sunday and Tiana and Jesse lead the worship portion of the service which was awesome to see Tiana because she had never lead worship outside of her church. After Church the guys (both KBM & CMA students) went into town to go play soccer and basketball and the girls went on a hike up through a river in the jungle to a large waterfall. I didn’t realize how much I missed playing soccer but it was such a blast getting to play and also it was a great way to begin building relationships with the CMA students. That night The DR team started their hot seats. Laura shared her story first and then Jesse D shared his story.
The valley where Majaguita is
The next morning we packed up and headed to Los Calabazos/Majaguita with some of the CMA interns, a village about 30 minutes away that we would be staying at for the next 2 and 1/2 days. When we got where we were staying looked from on top of the hill into this beautiful valley where the village was, just completely blown away by the view. as we made our way down into the valley to the village down the 180 something stairs. I had been in this village once before two years ago but it was only for several hours so i was really excited to be staying here for multiple days. I recognized several of the kids and Julito, the man who is like the leader of the village and has a huge heart for God and has desire to see the whole community come to Christ. Such a sweet guy with a huge heart for god and the people of Majaguita. After a short download about the village from Julito we made our way across a wooden bridge which had been repaired and no longer had massive gaps where you stood, and then made our way up the other side of the valley to this area where a house had been build, but it had collapsed on one side and needed to be re dug out and filled with rocks. for some reason there was this barb wire fence right next to the house and i walked under it but Grant, who was right behind me, didn’t see it and ran into it with his face and had a nasty cut right above his eye and had to leave for a little while and get a stick. So while Grant was running into barb wire the rest of us built a assembly line from higher up the hill and moved a pile of rocks to the house but had to end after that we moved the rocks because we didn’t have any tools to dig at the house so we went back down the hill to the village where we got to play Frisbee and basketball with the kids and soon were served lunch after we got a tour of the whole village. This village a tourist attraction just because of the beauty of its location and use to be a rafting location but this village is not under the government in any way and basically doesn’t exist they are self-sustaining village with their own hydro-electric system that powers the whole village, they make their own methane from sewage, they have a restaurant, and grow hanging food crops and raise pigs, they have fish pools that they use for food for themselves and for tourist that come where they can pick their own fish out and then the people from the village catch it and cook it up for them. The whole village works to keep the village working they all take turns cleaning the cabins that visitors use and any and every maintenance needs that come up Julito and the village are right there to fix and help keeping the village functioning. After we toured the village we spent some time down at the river and the inner wild man came out of several of us and there at the river the Vegetation Tribe was formed. After dinner the Julito who loves bonfires built one and we all, team and locals, gathered around the fire. Jesse and Darren played some worship music, Mikie started making finger shadow puppets for the kids, and Mikie, Tent, and I did some goofy skits and then some of the teens of Majaguita put on a few skits of their own, that were actually had a spiritual lesson in them. It was just a really awesome night where the team engaged with the village, jumped into activities with nothing planned, and saw the Dominica’s engage in a way the KBM staff have never seen before from here. It really help build a connection between the locals and the team.
After Breakfast we played some basketball and interacted with the kids until several of the CMA interns came with work tools and then the guys went back up the hill to the house to move more rocks and dig out a trench on the side of the house and the girls went up the hill on the other side of the river to paint some houses. The work we did was some tough manual labor and there was some sweet, tears, and blood shed. mostly because Darren was tossing me rocks in the assembly line and instead of one of the rocks going to me hands it went to my shin and then to my toes… but at least we didn’t have any more run-ins with barbwire. We finished up as much as we could in a few hours and then made our way back the village for lunch then the team had some time to plan for the nights session around the fire while they were planning i played with some of the kids and then they took me over to this massive mango tree that is in the middle of the village and pointed way up to the top of the tree and where there was several mangos. The next 15-20 minutes I spent throwing sticks, a soccer ball, and then a hard mango up into the tree until finally i knocked down 2 very ripe mangos! 😀 several of the guy CMA students came and we all went to the river. CMA students went up river and then the rest of us went and jumped off this massive rock into the river which was below the bridge. We made our way up the river and met up with the CMA students. after several hours of this we went back to the village and then Branson, Jesse, and I went back down to the river to take a shower…which turned into the three of us jumping off this 25-30 foot bridge into the river and then turning back into the vegetation trip and then washing again. The DR team as a whole is just a crazy bunch and It is a beautiful thing! The next few hours we just spent with the kids which become one of my favorite memories of the trip. Karolina, Jesse, Tiana, and I and then later Branson as well, were sitting on the porch of one of the cabins and playing with several kids. Somehow it turned into “zombies.” It made our day when they knew what zombies were so we chased each other around like zombies infecting each other and hitting the zombies with big blow up balls! so much fun! we did this for about 30-40 minutes. This kids were the cutest things ever especially Emily and Ricky, if I could I would have adopted them both. Emily was the cutest little girl ever and it was so funny watching her run away from the zombies and being a zombie. Then several of us got the kids on our shoulders and raced around the village. Highlight of the trip. We finished up the day with another bonfire with worship, the Everything skit, and other games.
the last day in the village started with Hannah sharing her story before breakfast and then just spent some time playing basketball and then more of the team jumping off the bridge. Before we left Julito shared about the village and his dreams and hopes for it as well as prayer request for the village and the people of Majaguita. Then the team surrounded him and prayed over him and the village. At this time and right after several of the students had a breaking point where they where touched and burdened for the kids and the people of the village so cool to see God work in their hearts. It was one of the hardest things to do but we had to say goodbye to all the kids and families of the village. several of the students were in tears or close to it including myself. we left part of our heart in Majaguita. several of the students helped carry up our stuff and made the steep climb to the road, where we said our finally goodbyes. Once back at CMA the students had a time to debrief and talk about the past several days with their highs and lows and heart tugs this then led into a awesome time of opening up and sharing about struggles they saw in themselves or the team and they spent the next hour discussing their strengths and weaknesses and how they could better work as a team. This team is already super close but this time brought them even closer and what was cool to watch was that they didn’t only talk about things they need to do different but over the few next days that i was with them they fixed those things and just thrived as a team and individually and they were already working great but after this they just flourished and came alive. This team has such a wide variety of personalities and skill sets but they all began to shine in their individual ways and all brought awesome things to the team! they became the working body of Christ in so many ways! A beautiful picture! that night we had our first youth service with the CMA students this first night was spent just getting to know each other and the team put on the “doctor office” skit to introduce themselves and had several games that got everyone involved. the students loved it and we were told afterwords that they never get this and it really was a big blessing it helped to begin to strengthen the relationships even further between CMA and KBM students. Afterwards we had to more hot seats Darren and Mikie.
the next morning until until 1:30 int he after noon we worked on to work project at CMA. A group of guys went and hand made concert and then laid it and made sidewalk porch area on the side of the house. it was hard work but very satisfying when completed and the others did some gardening. After lunch we played some soccer with the guys int he field by there church building for a hour or so and then had some team time where they planned the evening youth service. Then we all went and watched the opening game of the World Cup. That night we had the second Youth night starting with some minute to win it games followed by worship and then Mikie and Branson sharing part of their testimonies. to end the guys split into two groups and the girls into another group to discuss and ask questions. they were not sure how this was going to work but the student began opening up and asking lots of questions and sharing their beliefs and thoughts. Some deep stuff but so incredible to see the students actually engaging and listening. So many cool things happened that night including Pedro, one of the students, sing to the worship, this was his first time ever singing in public like this! God blew all our minds and expectations of the night!! Afterward we debriefed about the night and the team shared stories of what happened. Karolina then shared how she felt that we need to usher the holy spirit in if anything was to happen and to cover this place in prayer. so we all picked a student to pray for specifically and just entered into a time of praying without stopping.
Today the 13th was my finally day with the team. As we left CMA to go to a village I remembered the team still had my passport hidden so they had to go get it. But it was locked in a room so when Hannah wen to throw the key to Tiana so she could get my passport Hannah throws the key but instead of going to Tiana they went on the roof but luckily I could walk on this ledge shimmy around to a back porch and get into the room. So i got my passport back even tho i didn’t really want it back. We entered this village that Melisa, our CMA host/guide, works with and where a family has adopted her as their daughter. She shared some about the village and then we went on a walk around it. First place we came to was school house where a group was catching a chicken. Once they caught it they strung it up to kill it. In sheer shock and curiosity most of us watched as they killed the chicken. It was something you wanted to see but you couldn’t take your eyes off it…poor thing. we walked around the circle that made up the village on one side was this wall that separated this poor village from this wealthy mans property but what was so cool was the wall was covered in art work. paintings of all kinds covered this wall in so many colors and pictures…it shined rays of hope and joy for this village. we made it back to Melisa’s adopted parents home where we had juice..some after it was time for me to leave but before that happened the team, my family, surrounded me and prayed over me. I then handed out personal notes to each of them that I had been writing the past few days. It was SO hard to leave these guys. I love them also much and wanted to be there to share in the rest of there overseas experiences and be apart of what God was doing in and through them. On my way to the airport I road with David’s dad, George. David was a student that had just came to CMA a day or two ago. On the way to airport and at the airport George shared about his son and why he was at CMA and over a meal that George payed for we shared stories and I prayed over him and David. As I walked to the plane i almost was in tears! my heart was still int he DR with the CMA students and my DR team but God blessed me on that flight from DR to NJ because I got a row of three seats to myself, the two flight attendants where so funny and joking around with everyone the whole time, and when I went to buy a $9 meal the guy took my card handed it back to me winked to me and walked off. So i got a free meal. God knew I needed it. I had an incredible time in the DR and basically became part of the DR team. They are crazy and so diverse but they work so good together and God used them all in mighty was when I was there and after I left. So proud of all of them all!
Thanks for reading! continue to pray for the whole experience team as they enter the deep camp and then wander stage of the Experience! Excited to see what God as next for them all!
Love,
-Relentless Warrior
the team giving me there goodbye hugs
I Love this team and would do anything for them! proud of you all!
Branson aka Cousin Chad
Darren
Grant aka Uncle Grant
Jesse aka Grandpa Disney
Mikie
Karolina
Hannah aka Aunt Gerney
Tiana
Trent aka Dad
Journeys of Relentless Warrior 