Day Seven, Wednesday, 7/27/11

 Here is Kelly washing his clothes in the bucket.

 The Dominican version of the Ice Cream Man...only it is Banana Man!

 Frankie, Daniel and Hector.

 Trevor and Cam...ready for the ride to Cerros de Mogollon.

Cam and little Adrian.

 Mark and the pastors after a hard day at concrete work.

 Playing with the kids while the men are doing concrete.

 Little girl fetching water.

 Dan working concrete in the home.

 Dan and Pastor Rigoberto working concrete...the old fashioned way...

 Little boy looking inside his home....wondering what the white men are doing.

 The pregnant lady we met with.

We woke up really worn out from our day of fun. Not to mention Jen and I stayed up until 11:30 talking about Mops stuff....I am the coordinator of mops childcare....she is the co-coordinator of the whole group.

 Here is Tayler with Maria.

 Yolandri and I.

 Little Leti.

 Yolandri and Cam.

 Naked Yolandri with his mamma.

 Singing time!

Cam and Yolandri.

We all had a tough time rolling out of bed. We were on our way to Cerros De Mogollon at 8:30. But we ended up just going to Mogollon. We would be doing concrete work at a church members house (she had a dirt floor like many people there do). One team stayed at the house to do concrete and play with the kids, and two different teams went walking through the area speaking to people. Hector, Maggie and I were one team, Cam went with the other walking team. Hector was our only man, but we felt comfortable with him and safe. We started at one house, they were good Christians, but we still talked and and prayed with them. The next house were also good Christians, but we still talked and prayed with them. The next house had only men there, but since we had Hector we stopped anyway. There were two men there talking and working on a moto. One man was scarred up and missing fingers and half of an arm. Apparently he got into a fight and his arm was cut off with a machete. We asked them about heaven, and they didn't know, so Hector explained what heaven and hell was. We explained Romans 6:23 and Romans 3:23 and did the gospel presentation. I then shared my testimony. The one fixing the bike decided to accept Jesus. The amputee still did not. He said he wasn't willing and/or ready to give up his alcohol and women. We prayed with him and two more men walked over. We did the same thing, but they didn't want to either. I looked at the amputee and said, "Listo?"....which means "ready?". He said not yet. Then one of their mothers came out, and we did the whole thing again. She also accepted Christ. Then another came and we did it AGAIN, but he also did not want to. I asked the amputee if he wanted to yet, after each one, he smiled each time and just said, "not yet.". We left with two more lives ushered into the Kingdom of God....and we became pros at the gospel presentation after all of that. We asked Miguel, and he said that Dominicans will often tell you what you want to hear....so I am hopeful that they were truly being honest. We left and went back to the concrete house. Dan asked us to go down the dirt road to a pregnant woman's house...we would be staying about an hour later than planned. We went...she also had a dirt floor. She was eight months pregnant in this horrible heat! She had five other children. She offered us juice, but I didn't want to take something from her that might be hard to buy. We did the gospel presentation with her and then her husband came home. We did it again with him. Then I shared my testimony. We asked them if they wanted to accept Christ. She did but, he didn't. I felt an urge to figh for it so I said "por que?"....which means why. He said he could't go to church, he was too busy. We explained that going to church doesn't make you a Christian. He finally accepted Christ with his wife and they were so excited that they hugged and kissed eachother and us. It was great we went back to the concrete house. We waited for awhile in the shade while they finished. Then we came home and ate quickly because we had to get to Cerros de Mogollon. It was our Samaritan Man story. Cam was the guy beaten up and I was the good Samaritan. It was a neat story. Trevor was the donkey and I had to put Cam on his back. Yolandri was there, I just love that boy! His big sister Maria has become special to Tayler too. He spent half the day with us naked, but that is okay. I spent a lot of time with mi abuela and Daniel. Daniel was a big help with her. She keeps talking about chocolate milk. I might have to get her some. We went home for dinner. It started raining while we were out there and it was fabulous. It cooled us righ down.  It felt Fantastico! After dinner we took a walk to El supermercado. I exchanged $20 into Pesos, and Cam had to have Tostitos and dip of course. I got dad some coffee and me some crackers and a Twix bar. Dan bought all of us yummy ice cream on the church. Just with what I bought, it cost me $547 pesos. I know in the whole scheme of things that isn't much....but it sure seems like a lot. That was almost my whole $20 though! They charge 26% tax! That's incredible. It's no wonder no one can afford to live here! Just like with the dirt floors. So many people can't afford concrete floors.....but with dirt floors when it rains EVERYTHING in your house gets MUDDY. Can you imagine. YOUR PLATES GET WET, YOUR FOOD, your bedding....wouldn't that be awful.....anld it rains almost daily.
I have absolutely fallen in love with the Dominican people and the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Lifestyle. I truly don't want to go home....except to be with my kids...but I feel like I belong here.

Jen told me that Cam actually prayed with people and shared his testimony. I am so glad for that. Thank you Jesus...I want to raise my children to seek after You.