Tuesday, Day 6, 7/26/11

Tayler, me, Serenity and Jen....hanging out...enjoying the day!

 The beautiful lake.

 Where we enjoyed swimming...and the cave we would climb through!

 Where we jumped from...and the waterfall we went down.

 The cave.

 The waterfall we all tried to climb...but couldn't...except Miguel...but he's had practice!

 Ethan and Cam.

 Cam climbing up to get to the little hole we had to climb through...it was interesting...

 Miguel and Teeka.

 God's Beauty.

 The water...the waterfall...the cave....makes for a GREAT day!

 The cave.

 Cam dodging a bat that he didn't know he was dodging...but everyone else did!!!

 Climbing up to get to that hole!

 Not sure WHAT kind of spider...but we steered clear...just in case....

Ethan and Cam...waiting to go down the waterfall!!



Today was, as Miguel put it, the most awesomest, cool, wonderful day of our lives.  And I have to say it was pretty awesome, cool and wonderful!  We got to sleep a little bit later, which was fabulous.  Then we left around 9am.  I rode in the back of the truck with Cam for the hour long ride.  We went through a bunch of little towns and saw quite a lot.  It was a beautiful drive.  The mountains were just incredible to look at.  We stopped at one place and took pictures by the amazing lake that we would kind of play in.  The lake was dammed and we were playing on the other side of the dam where it became a river.  After we took tons of pictures we got back in and went to the other side of the dam.  It was beautiful beyond belief.  I could live here, Jeff would LOVE to live here.  Miguel explained where all of the adventures were.  We got in and the water was freezing but refreshing.  We walked over to the waterfall and fell on the rocks a few times.  We tried to climb the waterfall.  Miguel had no problem climbing it, none of us could.  Serenity and I cut up our hands trying to climb.  We kept falling and getting caught in the current.  Then we climbed a rock wall after I fell into a deep hole in the water and hit a rock on my knee.  I got a nice bruise.  The wall climbing was surprisingly easy.  It ended in a bunch of bushes so thats how we pulled ourselves up was on the bushes.  Dave fell into the same hole I did except he twisted his ankle badly.  Once we climbed the rock wall there was a cliff.  Miguel jumped from one spot, but was sure to warn us that there was an irrigation canal that sucked water out right where you jump, so when you jump you have to be able to swim good and fast to not get sucked in.  Cam and I decided NOT to try that, but then we found a spot right next to that which we could jump from  that didn't suck us into danger.  So Kelly went first and he stayed down there to make sure none of us got stuck in the sucking current.  Others went, then Cam, then me.  It was tons of fun!  Once you jump off that then just about 5 feet away is the water fall.  When you get to the top it is hard not to get pushed down but you get on your feet in a squatting position and slide down the waterfall.  Tons of fun!  That one was scary for me though. 

 ME...climbing to that hole...I did it fairly quickly...I was surprised!

We played around a bit more than had lunch.  During lunch Miguel spoke to us about not having a spirit of timidity.  We are not to be fearful because God is with us.  We need to trust and have faith.  It was a wonderful talk, the best one yet.  Then he took us to this HUGE rock formation that has caves in it.  We went cave exploring.  There were 2 teams.  1 team took the easy route and one team took the challenging route, of course Cam and I were on the challenging route.  We climbed through small holes on all 4's through goat poop and Guana to get to an enormously beautiful cavern...full of bats!  I was feeling wet stuff hit my head, it was Guana!  ICK!  Then we had to literally CLIMB into another hole that was smaller yet to get to the outside ledge.  Beautiful scenery!  Then we had to climb through another hole that was even smaller!  I really didn't think I'd make it, I had to shimmy.  Int the mean time Cam is crawling thorugh the second hold and he is sprawled out and a bat comes down and hits him, he was freaked out, because everyone knew what it was and THEY were freaking out, but he didn't know what it was!   

 Tayler and Cam

 Jen and I

 Random motorcyclists

 Jen, Miguel, me and Teeka

Ethan, Trevor and Cam

When we got to the end of the hole we had to get out on a ledge about an inch thick and find footings to step in order to not fall down the face of this massive rock!  Miguel was helping by teling us where to place our feet, but that was a HUGE scare for me.  Cam did a nice job too.  Then we climbed all the way to the top and yelled at Heather who was down and across the river so she could take a picture.  Then down we went and crossed the river again, one last jump, one last trip down the waterfall, one last try at climbing and we had to leave.  The rest of the day we rested and played more Rage.  Cam played more Hackeysack.  We went to the supermercado to get money exchanged and then we went to the open air market.  That is where all the street vendors are.  That is a ton of fun too!  We didn't stay too long, but we saw some extremely yummy fruit and everything else you can imagine.  When we got back, Miguel was waiting for us.  He was taking us to his house to eat a special dinner.  He lived about a 5 minute car ride away in a nice little area.  He has a nice little house.  I played with Nicole mostly then Francisco brought the food.  It was TACOS!  and they were THE best tacos EVER!  They were Dominican Tacos.  I ate 4!  And they were big!  We cleaned up for Kristin then went home as a storm was coming and we had to ride in the back of the truck again.  One thing I did forget to mention is we almost all got leeches on us in the river.  Some worse then others, I was one of the worst with about 14 bites.  Cam didn't get any.  I have these big nasty bites on me now.  I had noticed a snail looking thing on Darwin's shoulder before, but didn't know what it was.  Apparently it was a leech.   I was so proud of Darwin for jumping in off the cliff because he is terrified of water.  He can't swim.  Ethan can't swim either, but he also did and Ellen is afriad of heights, but she also jumped.  Everyone faced a fear of some sort today.  God is with us.

Miguel and Kristen Shaul need our support!

Miguel and Kristen Shaul...along with their beautiful daughters Nicole and Samantha, are missionaries to the Dominican Republic.  They are incredible people with incredible hearts for God and His people...especially the Dominican people.  Miguel grew up in my church and he is one of the reasons that our church took their first ever parent/child trip.  I don't think we would have gone if he hadn't been there for us to connect with.  He and his wife are both free spirited and fun people.  I have learned a lot from them in the short time that I was with them.  Currently on their blog they outline their current status.  http://theshauls.myadventures.org/  If you are at all interested, please check out their blog.  They work with Adventures in Missions (AIM) and love every minute of what they do.  Thanks in advance for any support you can give them whether it be monetary, spreading the word, or prayer.  Anything is helpful!

LOVE AND HUGS!
T

Monday, Day 5, 7/25/2011

Wow...I am SO behind on posting....So sorry...no excuses...just busy!!!  Here is Day 5 in the Dominican Republic!!

Little Adrian

Today started out good. I had breakfast and then went with Jen, Taylor and Dave to get clean water. On the walk there I started feeling yucky again. I had had some orange juice and wondered if that didn't bother me. I had it yesterday morning too. So no OJ anymore in the morning on this trip. We left for Cerros de Mogollon around 8:30. Miguel came with us today, so I rode in the back with about 9 other kids. All of the mud and holes made for a fun ride out there! I was happy to have Daniel again as our translator. The kids were very excited to see us, but our mission today was to do home visits in the morning. A lot of kids came out though so we had one team stay at el play and play with the kids and four other teams went visiting. My team was cam, Darwin and I with Daniel as our translator.

Cam and Adrian

We started at one house where the older gentleman kept talking about how terrible the government was and how they take so much. In fact....and this is true...thie Dominican government taxes 26%! That's insane! We found that most families are born in Cerros de Mogollon and all stick together. It is not uncommon to see two houses on a property with MANY generations together. After we prayed with them we went across the street. We didn't take too long with her. We prayed with her and moved on. Then we went to the little "store" and spoke to them. Their "store" is attached to their house. They sell a few things, as well as clean water. They sit out front their "store" most of the day. The man was fun to tease. He had four children. One was going to med school in Santo Domingo and another, Westcar, was there doing VBS with us. Westcar and his mom Sandra, attend the church in Mogollon, but nobody else in the family does. I asked the dad why he didn't attend. He said it was too far. When it rains and gets muddy it is very difficult to get around. Their rainy season is May-September.

Ellen and Lettie

Taylor and Maria

After we prayed for them we went to another house. One thing I forgot to mention, when they pray they pray out loud. For example, Sunday at church when the pastor prayed...or like when we prayed for them, they pray different worded at the same time. Agreeing or what not, so at the church, there was a lot of noise during prayer. Anyway, the next house we had to sit inside because there was no porch, they were surrounded by rice patties. The woman of the house was three months pregnant. She was very sweet. We prayed with her and moved on to the next house. This house was so full of men, women and children that I can't even begin to tell you how many there were. They were really awesome people. One man was a teacher. Miguel said that teachers, doctor's and nurses make NO money hardly here. Street vendors can make more money than they can. Anyway, they offered us Canapés. They are kinda like grapes, only you have to peel them, and they have to be sucked because there is a huge pit inside. They are VERY sour. But they were tasty! Then they brought us a Guava. We were told before the trip not to eat the outside of things. However, these people told us to eat it like an apple. I said no...so they gave me a machete to peel it. It was sharp and not the cleanest. So then they said to stick the whole thing in my mouth, seeds and all. So...I just took a bite, and it was NASTY! I had seeds stuck in my teeth and I said, "lo siento, pero, no me Gusto!" They laughed. After we prayed we left, I kept burping guava, it was terrible! Daniel and all the other translators said they love guava! ICK! So we were late getting to the vans, in fact they came looking for us.

We went back to the house, ate lunch, I took a siesta, and then we were off again for VBS. It was nice out. There was a little old lady, her name was Ramona, she looked about 85-90. We asked her her age and she said she was 60! She was so skinny, I told her she needed to eat chocolate to get muy fuerta! She laughed. She had such a cute laugh...more like a giggle. Her eyes were beautiful brown with a rim of blue around each one. Very pretty....my moms mom had eyes like that. We talked and teased for awhile, then I had to go help with VBS, so I said goodbye and she hugged me and smacked me on the tushie! It was funny! Our story was Jesus walks on water. Ater singing and the story we broke into little groups. We had some really young ones, so we did the craft, then the blind train game where one leads with eyes open, but everyone behind had their eyes shut. It is a trust game....it's a lot of fun. Then we left....but not before I introduced Cam to Ramona.

Some of our translators, Thomas, Frankie, Maggie and Daniel

Yolandri in the Sponge Bob Shirt

We had dinner, yucca, plantains and meat again. We debriefed a little...then I played hackeysack with the kids and some other adults. It really is fun! Then Mark, Serenity, Gabe, Darwin and Dave, taught Cam and I how to play Rage. It was such fun...we played two games, and I lost both horribly...I was in last place, both times! (I liked it so much, as soon as I got home I went on eBay and bought it!). Then off to bed. Jen, Serenity, Taylor and I talked for awhile...then we hit the sheets!

My baby, Yolandri

Mi y mi corazon, Yolandri.

Sunday, Day 4, 7/24/11

Sorry this has taken me a lot longer to get through then I originally expected.  Something always seems to come up.  This last lull in movement on this blog was due to the 105 degree temps that MaKenna and Major were running.  Then...as not to be left out apparently, I got sick as well.  Not 105 degree fever...but sick nonetheless.  I am on the mend though.  And hopeful that no one else gets sick as our Labor Day weekend is supposed to be in Kansas City at Schlitterbahn!  PRAY FOR US!!  There are only 3 more that could get sick....3 out of 6 isn't bad...right?  :-)  I miss the Dominican more and more each day.  I am REALLY looking forward to my Spanish Communications course that I am taking.  It starts on the 6th.  Well....here is Day 4!!

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!  :-)

 Here is my best friend travel buddy Jen Lempke, me and Abuela (Ramona).

 This is our kitchen sink.  It was totally open air.  You almost always got wet while doing dishes too as there are no pipes from the sink to the floor.

 Here is my sun burnt Cam eating one of his lunches when the rest of them had PB and J.  Poor thing is allergic to Peanuts and eggs in case some of you didn't know...

Dios es bueno!

Here are a few of the kiddos. 

Saturday, Day 3, 7/23/2011

Banana trees in our backyard!  Very convenient!

We started today at 6:30 am.  Kristen brought breakfast, oatmeal, so I ate crackers!  :-)  We had stopped yesterday at the Supermercado and gotten cereal for Cam, so thats what he ate.  Miguel came and got us around 8:30.  We had a devotional time before he got here.  We loaded into 2 vans and Miguel's truck.  I and Keri were the only adults in the bed of the truck with 8 kids!  FUN!  The view was gorgeous!  Very breathtaking!  It took about 15 minutes to get out there.  We parked in a field by their playa.  A few people came out to greet us.  Miguel had never been to this area before.  It was really run down.  Their houses were just shacks with tin roofs.  They sit outside all the time, because it is just too hot inside.  They have a lot of animals, chicken, goats, cows, dogs and cats.  A lot of them have some sort of field, like rice, corn or beans. 

The people were all super receptive, just like the rest of the Dominican.  We started with a prayer walk.  We split into groups of 3 and went out walking the "neighborhood".  We prayed out loud as we walked by people's establishments saying HOLA!  At one house there was a mother, and a grandfather and 3 children.  One was a baby boy about 4 months old.  The grandpa asked if I wanted to hold him.....so I did...he was SOOO sweet!  We headed back to the Playa.  Then we prayed and broke up into the groups again.  This time we were telling people about our Bible School at 3 in the afternoon.  We went to a house with a thatched roof.  They asked us to sit.  There was a couple of older women.  One had no kids and one had 13 kids!  They lived there with her neices and nephews...and there were a bunch of them!  I asked what she did during the day.  She said she cooked, cleaned, worked the fields and trees.  She said "very busy".  I asked her if she knew Jesus.  She said Yes.  I asked her if she knew what Heaven was.  But I used the word Cielo....she said, "no".  I said do you want to know about Cielo?  She said "no".  That took me by surprise.  I was stuck then.  So we told them about bible school at 3 and went to the next house.  It wasn't until later that I asked Miguel about it and apparently, my word Cielo, which I was taught to be Heaven....is understood as "the sky" in the DR.  Oops.  She probably thought I was a crazy lady asking her if she wanted to know about the sky!  :-)  Anyway....at the next house there was a grandma, a daughter and 2 kids.  Chiquira is about 8 and has mental disabilities.  She acts more like a 3 or 4 year old.  There was also the cutest baby boy.  I don't remember names well, so I don't know his, but he was about 3-4 months old and naked as most of the kids under 5 are.  This really bothered Cam...but he got used to it.  Anyway, I was asked if I wanted to hold him....so I did....when suddenly I felt a warm fluid on me...he peed on me!  But then he didn't want me to leave, he put out his arms and cried everytime I walked away.  He must have "marked" me or something!  :-) 

We made it back to the truck.  I piled in the back with 10 other people.  I had to sit on the side this time.  Brooke wasn't feeling well.  Poor thing, we had to pull over at one point so she could throw up.  We made it home and I laid down to take a nap.  When I woke up it was lunch time.  We had the same things for lunch that we've had at every lunch...rice, beans and really bony chicken.  Cam loves the rice!  A man named Francisco brings it by motorcycle.  After lunch it started raining hard.  The decision was made that we couldn't go back.  We were told that rain will even cancel schools here and so the people would expect it to be cancelled.  We decided to evangelize in this uppper scale neighborhood. A  team also went to plant banana trees on Miguels prepoerty where he hopes to build a house some day.  One team went to talk to adults, and one team (mine and Cam's) went around looking for kids to do a little kids play time at our house.  We found a lot of kids, about 10 came over.  We played games, sang songs, colored and blew bubbles.  One little boy was Antoni.  He was about 18 months old.  He mom was 18 and lived down the street.  Kristin told me she had a Haitian accent.  The Dominicans HATE the Haitians.  We asked her and her mom was Dominican and her dad was Haitian.  Apparently Kristen could tell because there was Creole in her accent.  I was none the wiser!  I told her I was going to take him home in my luggage and she said "Esta Bien" (that's fine).  A lot of mom's try to push their babies off on Americans so they can have a better life. After lunch and dinner Cam and I took the leftover food to the neighbor.  She lives with her mom and her 4 children.  2 are twin girls with a bit of a mental disability.  They are sweet though, they crawled all over me.  They loved my watch and my earrings.  We stayed until they cleaned the tupperware then they pull up a chair also.  My Spanish is limited unfortunately ( I only had 8 years of it...you'd think I would be better...but they talk so different in the DR.  They don't always pronouce their "S"'s and they usually drop the tail end of the word off...which makes it difficult...so it makes for some awkward pauses. 

This is one of the twin girls....

Miguel eating lunch with us...also picture, Heather and Jen.

 Miguels daughter Nicole...also known as Buga!!

 Playing Hackeysack in the rain...in the street....

After dinner Miguel came back to share his story.  He has a fabulous story.  His heart has beein in the DR since he was 17 years old.  He left home and moved to Mexico for training at 18 and never went back to the states, except to visit.  He's been inthe DR for 5 years now.  I pray that someday I will have an AHA, or God moment like he did.  I pray that Jeff will too.  He needs it bad.  Speaking of Jeff, I hope everything is okay back home.  We've been so busy I haven't got to think about it too much, but when I'm around the Dominican kids, I miss my other three babies.  We had some time last night to talk within our family units.  Cam and I came upstairs.  He said he's having a great time, but he hasn't felt God teach him anything yet.  I'm a little worried about it.  I'm having fun too, but I've also had my eyes openend to a lot of things and realizations too.  He says he hasn't.  Jen told me not to worry about it, he would.  I hope so.