"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brother of mine, you did for me.'" Matthew 25:40
What an incredible experience! Our team, which consisted of 30 people, 9 adults and 21 youth, returned late in the evening on July 22nd from our short-term mission trip to the Dominican Republic. We left Central Wisconsin airport at 6 a.m. on July 12th on three different flights to eventually meet and regroup at the airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The travel presented challenges throughout the trip but God is faithful and everyone arrived where they were supposed to be and lost only one suitcase!
Our trip was arranged and sponsored through Solid Rock Missions, which has been working in the DR for 20 years. Their main ministry has been in the town of San Juan. Over the years, a guest house, clinic and school have been built and are firmly established in the area. Over 80% of the students who graduate from the Christian school go on to the university. They are looking to expand a similar ministry in El Cercado, which is where our team was ministering. As of right now, a clinic has been built and is operating. Anyway, we began our trip by staying in a hotel in Santo Domingo on the 12th and the next morning traveling by bus for 3 1/2 hours to El Cercado. Once we arrived in El Cercado met our host families. I stayed with a family of five whose children were 21, 19 and 16. The middle son spoke some English so we were able to communicate a little bit. I am hoping to improve my Spanish before I go back again.
Saturday was the beginning of the construction project. We spent the day painting their multi-purpose building, inside and out, with two coats of primer and a finish coat.
Sunday we attended church with Pastor Morales. After church we had the opportunity to take a bus ride to a dam about 1 1/2 hours away to go swimming. After the previous day's work in the warm weather, swimming felt pretty good.
Monday through Thursday we did Vacation Bible School with the children in the morning. The VBS was awesome! We started with 83 kids on Monday, but by the end of VBS on Thursday, we had approximately 300 kids waiting in line before we even started. We had to limit admission to 100 kids due to a limited amount of craft supplies, but the remaining children stood outside and participated in the worship, dramas, etc. Then we all took off to the park for game time. And after lunch we resumed painting the multi-purpose building. Through this 4-day VBS program, approximately 30-40 children raised their hands indicating that they had prayed to ask Jesus to be their Savior. God is good!
Thursday was a powerful day for me as instead of painting in the afternoon, we traveled about 40 minutes into the mountains to distribute rice and beans to extremely poor families. These were not poor in the sense that they had little; it was poor in the sense that they had almost nothing. Many children we saw were malnourished and it was heartbreaking that we could not do more. However, despite the difficult circumstances, the joy that these people conveyed was incredible. I will never forget these people or this experience. To share the love of Jesus in such a powerfully tangible way was truly a privilege.
Our "mission" ended on Friday with us completely finishing the painting of the multi-purpose building. Saturday and Sunday were full travel days and despite some interesting challenges, the Lord was faithful to bring us all home safely.
I can't help but reiterate how inadequate words seem to be to describe how mightily God worked in my life and in the lives of others. I learned in a completely new way what it means to serve the Lord and appreciate what he calls me to do, both at home and wherever else I am. While it was a joy to serve and give, it was made clear to me that I cannot out-give God. I returned feeling that I gained more than I gave up.
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:7-8
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