I arrived safely in the Dominican Republic on Jan. 15. About a week later I made arrangements to leave the Dominican on Jan. 27 to return home. This has been an agonizing decision, and one that I've struggled with for over a month.
I completed my first semester, and learned so much during that time. I learned to trust God in my loneliness, and in my fears. I came to love my two roommates, Emily and Leah. We have grown so close, and I think we will always be close friends. I've loved working at the Nursing Home, and loved the people I've met there. Two of my closest friends there have died in the past 6 weeks. One went to live somewhere else. :(
Our leaders have recently welcomed their firstborn into their lives. It was fun to see her and hold her upon my return. She is so beautiful, and I can tell going to be a huge blessing.
My decision to return home was my own, although my parents support me in this. I don't believe I can be effective in ministry when I feel so empty myself. I am struggling with a lot of health issues due to the stress, and think it's best that I return home.
I appreciate every one of you, and your support of me (financial and prayer support). I'm sorry if you feel I'm letting you down by leaving the Dominican. I did come here with the intent to finish the whole time.
I would be happy to speak with any of you who wish to speak with me about my decision, or about my experiences living here.
Thank you again for supporting me financially and prayerfully
We made it back. Today was a nice day of visiting all of our friends, who were very happy to see us.:) I havenīt gotten to make it to the nursing home yet. I am excited to visit my friends there though :).
Please keep our team, and my health, in your prayers. thank you all very much!
We made it safe! Atleast, Leah and I did. I have yet to talk to Angelo.
Let me give you a recap of our day yesterday: We woke up at 1:30am Caught 4 hour taxi ride to the capitol at 4am Got on a plane at 10:45am for 2 hours Went through Customs in Miami, then had a 3 hour lay over there Got on a plane to Atlanta at 3:40pm FINALLY landed in Atlanta at 6:30pm instead of 4:50 after flying around aimlessly for an extra hour and half cause of the weather. Ran off the plane ant to baggage claim to see Robby Randleman for about two minutes Got our baggage Caught a plane out of ATL to Detroit at 8:40pm Had the worst turbulance ever and thought the plane was going to crash FINALLY arrived in Detroit at like 10:30 or 11pm And there was a lot of snow waiting for us I finally made it to the house at about 12:30am And went to bed at about 1:30am
So needless to say, it was an extremely long day. But luckily, we were blessed by meeting some amazing people. I met missionaries from Jamaica, Haiti, and Costa Rica. I also met a Principle and teacher from a school in CostaRica that speak 4 different languages. I met a guy on the plane ride to Detroit who I talked to the entire flight, and he gave me some good advice on life! Turned out to be definitely in my "Top 5 coolest people ever".
I love being home. Theres about a foot of snow on the ground, and its still snowing. I have friends on their way, and i am looking forward to just staying in the house all day and watching a movie or something. And eating my moms amazing food.
Thank you so much for your prayers for a safe trip. They paid off! We are home, and ready to see everyone we've missed so much. :)
One week from today, at this time, Leah and I will be boarding our plane.
It's crazy how fast time has gone. It almost doesn't make sense. No, it doesn't make sense. Just last week we were stepping off the plane into this foreign country, this foreign country that we now call "Home". This foreign country that we have grown to love. This foreign country that will forever be apart of us, in one way or another. I finally stopped and thought the other day, "This is my town. This is my home. This team is my family. These people here are my friends."
Now it's time to get things ready, and go home for Christmas. Which, doesn't even feel like Christmas! Well how can it, when its 80 & sunny everyday? I'm sure reality will hit when I walk out of the airport in Detroit! Hopefully my parents bring me a jacket.
Well, enough of this stuff. I guess I have a few things to share.
This past week I haven't felt too good. First stomach problems, then a cold/allergies. My good friend at the nursing home, Fransisco, hasn't been feeling too well either. Infact, he was coughing up blood, and not eating for a couple days. So Thursday afternoon when it was time for our internships, I decided despite my health to head to the nursing home. I wanted to bring Fransisco a juice, and see him for a little bit. Em and I got to the nursing home, and I immediately went back to Fransisco's room. I found him in bed, laying in the fetal position, sleeping. He looked so frail. The room reeked something horrible, something so thick. I set the juice down and went out to see everyone else. After a little bit of visiting I found the nurse, Altagracia. I asked her what was going on with Fransisco, she said he hasn't ate in 3 days and barely drinks any water. She also told me he has lung cancer- what I have been suspecting for quite some time. She gave me a surgical mask and walked me back to his room, she told me we had to wear them because of some virus or something he has. We went into the room and she showed me the basin next to him. A basin full of blood. His blood. My Fransisco.
Needless to say I didn't stay in the room long. We walked out, I found Em, and told her what Altagracia had shared withme. I was struggling to keep my composure infront of everyone and just wanted to go back home. So I went to go grab my umbrella and handbag, and my handbag was gone. I asked around and someone said a man who was there, who own the horses across the street, took my bag. I talked to the same nurse about it and she took off after him. Inside the handbag was our cellphone, the house keys, like 7 pesos and my chapstick. By this time I don't even have any emotions to give, I couldn't even get angry. So Em and I left and came back to the house to wait for Miguel and Kristen to get back with the spare keys to our house. We ended up having to change every lock on the house- 5 deadbolts and a new door knob. We tried calling the cellphone- the guy PICKED UP, and talked to Miguel. We never ended up getting any of the stuff back.
The funny thing is, is the cellphone is as good as useless. Its battery lasts- from fully charged to DEAD, about 1 hour, MAYBE. And it can't place calls out, or send text messages. So the only thing it does is recieve calls, and if you don't have the phone charger (Which he doesn't) it is worthless. He stole a worthless phone. Worthless keys. But some darn good chapstick.
Oh, something I didn't share was when Miguel went to the nursing home to talk to the people to get info- no one said anything. No one knew what he was talking about.
Please keep this situation in your prayers. Keep this guy in your prayers, who obviously needs money, but more importantly Jesus.
I love you all, and I appreciate your prayers AND comments!!!
Well, it's nice to be back to the normal scheme of things around here. Although it's sad, because in just over two weeks we head back home. What weird thought.
I wanted to share with you all a little bit more about Claorpha, my darling friend at the nursing home.
I got the oppertunity to actually sit and talk with her on Tuesday I believe it was. I told her about the stomach problems I had had in Las Cucaritas, and how I was better from them. She was praising God right along with me and it was really neat. I also made myself a little bit more vulnerable and shared how sometimes I get really scared during the night, and for no reason. I told her I pray about it when it happens, and she started tellin me "You need to pray HARD when that happens, and rebuke it!" And I told her "I know, I do. I know it is not of God, and it is of the devil, and I say it." It was really nice to open up to someone like that, and have them be so fired up for me. Then, my vulnerability paid off. I asked her a question, I asked her "if you could have one thing, what would it be?" She didnt really understand the question, then I offered up some examples: "like a house or a dog or something" And then that's when she broke. She started to tell me about how she DOES have a house. Apparently she was living in her house, happy and fine, and then some people moved in with her. (She wasn't clear on who they were thru the tears) Shortly after moving in with her, they took her to the Nursing Home and left her there. She still owned the house, and I believe is capable of living on her own. She doesn't have any medical conditions, and is there mentally also. It broke my heart.
It just doesn't make sense to me. Quite a few of the elderly at my nursing home are fine. Healthy. Normal. Why are they there?
Twice a week I spend my time there with them. It's not enough. They have no sorce of entertainment, no fun. They are in their last days, and being bored to death. I almost mean that literally.
I am sorry that there is no "happy ending" to this blog, or no resolve. But that's just how it is sometimes.
My heart breaks every time I enter that place, in the best way possible. I don't know how I'm going to leave them in May.
Please keep all these things in your prayers. I miss you all!
We got in yesterday at about 12. We had an amazing trip. The mountains were so beautiful, it was awesome to be there emersed in that for 5 days.
We did VBS two days there, and then the other two we helped working and such with the people there. It was so much fun watching all the litle kids playing all the time. I decided that there, would be the best place ever to raise little boys. Always a mountain to climb, always places to get dirty, games to play, and animals to ride. I was almost jealous thinking about how neat it would have been to grow up there.
Our last day there the girls and I had one of the most awesome oppertunities. We got to bathe in a waterfall there. I just couldn't get it out of my mind- we are in a waterfall in the Dominican Repubic! And it was a nice size waterfal too, about 15 or 20 feet. I do believe that there aren't many other places that could top the beauty of this place.
We did take some pictures, which I will post. The hard thing was is that sometimes I would look out and say "Wow, that would make a great picture" but then I kindof got the sense that God didn't want us to. Like it was a precious secret we could share, the beauty of this country.
Our entire trip up there, from the time we left, we were under intense spiritual attack. We hadn't been in the truck an hour before we popped a tire. POPPED a tire. It was shredded. Then once we reached the mountains and got to the Pastora's house, we were all exhausted. It was horrible. Then the next day I had stomach problems that I haven't had in months. Side Note: I used to struggle a lot with stomach problems and finally once I got here it dawned on me that it might spiritual warfare. So I started praying about them when they would happen, and they stopped! Back to story: I got those stomach problems again the second day there. So I prayed more and eventually felt better. The third day Emilia burned her hand really badly, almost a 3rd degree burn. The Fourth day Angelo woke up with a horrible cold and allergies. He ended up taking 5 tylenals and was then OUT the rest of the day sleeping. The fifth day Angelo got pink eye!!! On top of all this our batteries for our CD player ran out one day so we were unable to do our Drama's. The devil CERTAINLY did not want us there, but we pushed on none the less!
Your prayers helped us through the entire trip, and we are all so greatful for them! I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving and remember your family here in the Dominican. I love you all!
Well, I already typed my full blog once and when I went to save it, my not so trustworthy laptop decided to fail on me! So now I will try AGAIN.
We had an outreach yesterday in the small neighborhood in which we work three days out of the week. It's where we spend the majority of our time. The outreach Went really well we all believe! We sang songs, did our DRIME's (wordless dramas to music) and Angelo shared the Gospel. We were happy because there were a handful of rowdy teenagers there who really watched the DRIMEs and listened to Angelo's message. After all of that, Angelo played basebal with the guys, Emilia and Leah played some games with a group of girls, and I sat myself down with quite a few adorable kids who just wanted to be loved on. And that's what I do best. Love on them.
Then last night I cooked dinner for a couple of our Dominican friends, and we all had them over for pizza! We had a lot of fun, then after I went to youth group at Ronnie's church with Ronnie & Angelo. I enjoy their youth group a lot, the teens there are so energetic and FUN. It makes me sad that I can't bring this youth group back to the states with me! Oh and after that we all went out to go eat... CHINESE food! haha.
It is so hard to believe that we have just over a month here till we go home for Christmas. Oh, and never in my life have I gotten a sunburn in November! haha.
A quick update on the prayer requests I asked of you guys last time. My Aunt is out of surgery, it went really well. Although now she is in a lot of pain (which is to be expected). Please continue to pray for her! I haven't gotten to go back to the Nursing Home since I last posted, but when I go on Tuesday I will try and post and tell you all how Claorpha is doing.
I cannot explain how much I appreciate all of your prayers. Keep them coming!
We have completed (basically) a normal week since tropical storm noel. It was a good week, we went to Elias Piņa (Hatian Market) today. It was hard being in a car for the first time since two months. I definitely got car sick!
We have an outreach in the community, and I am really excited for it. Please keep it in your prayers. Also, my Aunt is going in to surgery today for her Heart Valve. (i canīt spell, forgive me!) Oh, and my friend Claorpha in the nursing home is having really bad headaches. She canīt get out of bed too much anymore.
Tonight we are having our family night, and we are initiating our Prayer Room, which I am really excited about.
Alright, sorry for the short blog, but family night with Enchilladas is calling my name! :)
Things are getting back to normal, the power is finally back on! But the main bridge to the Capitol is still being fixed, so please rpay for that. Also be praying for the people that may have lost their houses, or family members.
Today will be a great day of rest. The sun is out (and in full force) and us girls are enjoying the day! This week we are getting back to our normal schedule. I am happy for that since I only got to go to the nursing home once last week. It makes me sad when i miss going there for a day because I enjoy the people there, SO MUCH. Please pray for one lady imparticuar, Claorpha, who is having really bad headaches- so bad that she isnīt leaving bed. The doctor jokingly told her ĻIf you donīt leave the bed, the bed will eat you!Ļhaha.
Thank you all for your prayers, we certainly appreciate and need them. Itīs so weird how some days I will wake up and just FEEL the prayers. I can feel being protected by prayer, and itīs the most amazing thing.
