Hoy es Domingo. I an finding myself speaking Spanish even when I don't have to, and even thinking in Spanish. I am so glad that I know as much as I do, but wish I knew even more. I would like to take classes when I get home I think. So today started at 6:30 again. Breakfast was doughnuts and scrambled eggs. I LOVED them, but couldn't finish them, I started getting kind of sick to my stomach. I had to go to the little girls room several times before we left. Heather and Jen prayed for me though and it wasn't long and I was feeling better. I found though that even if I clean out my water bottle, the taste of Gatorade DOES NOT leave. So as long as we still have Gatorade packets, I will only put Gatorade in my bottle and I'll just drink water when I am here in a plastic cup. We have to buy our water to drink because it is not good from the tap, we could get very sick.
We got to the location Cerros de Mogollon around 9AM. We had to go back around and invite everyone again and apologize for missing yesterday. It was so muddy! My shoes got horribly filthy! Our translator today was Boris. He is a tailor, 28 years old and going to the University. He was very nice. We then started Bible School. We had about 50 kids there. We sang songs, had the story and then broke into groups to do questions and the craft. We had a lot of fun. The older kids (mostly boys) hung out with the boys on our team playing hackey sack and what not. Most of the crafts and things were done by the moms and daughters. The first story was creation. My baby was there, with clothes on. I called him Mi Corazon. He was so cute! After we played some games like hot potato and frisbee. I was feeling better, but Brooke still was not. We came back for almuerzo. It was yummy rice and beans and chicken again. Francisco stayed and ate with us. After lunch he gave us his testimony. It was great to hear. He said his son got cholera and was healed by God. He's never looked back since. After lunch we watched the rain fall...HARD! It was falling sideways, it was incredible! I've only seen the rain REALLY fall like that in the tropics, one time before and that was when I was in Jamaica. We weren't sre about VBS, but it stopped in time that we did go out. It was SO muddy though! My feet were heavy from the mud. My shoes look awful, but they can be cleaned. The kids were so excited to see us! As we drove down the road and passed houses they would wave and run along side the truck saying, "The Americans are here!" It was neat to see. So we did Bible School with them again, played tons of fun games, sang songs and did a craft. There weren't quite as many kids there in the afternoon, probably because of the rain, but we still had a great time.
We came home around 5 and ate very quickly because we needed to leave again at 6 for church. They do church in the evenings here because of the heat. We ate PB and J sandwiches, Cam and I ate crackers and cheese. We got cleaned up for church, got in our dress clothes and headed out. We went to Mogollon for church. It is up a little further than the community where we are doing VBS. We got there and all piled into wooden benches. There were about 6 rows of benches on either side. There was a pulpit, one speaker and that's about in. It had three doors that remained open and lots of windows that were also opened. Their windows here aren't like the windows in the US though. They don't have glass in their windows. Its just like a bunch of shutters. There was a party going on across the street. A lot of loud, booming DR rap music. It was very difficult to pay attention and to hear. It was an awesome service though. They sang some incredible songs. A capella as they don't have much for musical instruments...lots of loud voices and clapping, lots of dancing. It was incredible! Then we had a couple songs to sing in Spanish for them. Then we sang up front for them in English. We sang How Great Thou Art and they joined in with Spanish. After we sang, they said "Mas!" So we sang a couple more! Cam was SO nervous, he was sweating and almost hyperventilating. Dan spoke and did a great job. Then Mark spoke and sang some more. Then we heard testimony from Jen and Kelly. They both also did incredible jobs! The service lasted about two hours. But it went by very fast, even in the heat. They ended early because of the music across the street. So he turned on his iPod connected to the speaker and some really loud music came on. We danced with the kids and adults and even did a conga line! The Dominican people are very touchy feely so they hugged us all multiple times and we did that for almost 30 more minutes! It was truly fascinating to watch them worship God in their way! We took group pictures and piled back into the vans. We did have translators at the church too. Frankie and Hector were there.
We came home and I bucket showered in the dark. When we got home there was no electricity. We were told that electricity would be hit or miss. So I hung my flashlight in the shower and even shaved my legs! It was fun! Quite an experience! I started out the day not feeling well, but ended the day on a very positive note! God is Good!
I had trouble with picture placement this time...so here are some pictures......
Here are some of the parents that were watching the kids doing Bible School. Dan Holmes is the white guy in the back! :-)
Dios es bueno!
Here are a few of the kiddos.
