What a week!! While we were still in the planning stages, someone from the Resurrection team named the week, "Mission Possible!" Looking back, I just have to smile and praise God. So much happened in such a short amount of time - I still can hardly believe it.
From the beginning, the idea for this week was that the Resurrection Team would work TOGETHER with our team of Dominican leaders. We'd been talking via SKYPE and planning for several months.
The Resurrection team asked the Domincan leaders how they could best support them in their work for the Lord and wanted to learn more about what God is already doing here in the Dominican Republic.
It is hard to comprehend the depth of God's love for us. I try to imagine how the disciples must have felt as the Son of God humbled himself, taking the position of a slave and washed the disciples feet. Not only did he was their feet. Later, Jesus allowed himself to be hung on a cross in order to pay the price for all of our sins. Now, I am free from my sins and allowed to live in the power of God's love now and forever.
When we grasp this, and hold on to it for longer than a few minutes, things suddenly get flipped upside down, and we start living for something or someOne much bigger than ourselves. We pray that our fragile and finite time here on earth could somehow be used by God to accomplish His purposes. We give all that we can - regardless of the cost - to be a part of His awesome, unending story.
The two teams united and continued working out the last-minute details for the different ways we would serve together throughout the week.
Construction - A small group of guys and girls took a few afternoons to extend an awning on the side of the church in Prudencio. Now, when our youth team goes out for their English/Discipleship classes, they have shade from the sun and protection from the rain. This is a gift!
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| Pastor Lee and Benoi, one of the men in the discipleship class digging a hole for the posts. |
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| Working together on the structure. |
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| Latly, adding the tin for the roof. |
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| All done. Way to go team! |
Medical Clinics
Maritza, one of the members of Shalom church is a doctor. She has always wanted to have her own clinic in which she could help provide medical services to families who can't afford it. The Resurrection Team included a doctor, nurse and occupational therapist. They were interested in learning more about how they could partner with the youth and the church in meeting some of the ongoing medical needs here in the Dominican Republic.
Maritza recruited two Dominican doctors and the doctors worked together to do two days of medical clinics. The US team brought some of the medication that is cheaper to buy in the US; Maritza and I worked together to gather the medications that are cheaper here in the Dominican Republic.
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| Doctora Maritza working with a mother and her child. |
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| Doctor Sue and Nurse Ann worked together to diagnose and treat patients. |
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| Kenia and Lujany are training to be nurses. They were a great help in gathering and organizing the medical supplies. They also got lots of practice taking peoples' blood pressure! |
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| The prayer team also consisted of people from MN and from the DR. They prayed together for the patients and shared with them about the love God has for us. |
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| Couldn't have done any of this without the translators and the folks working outside in triage. |
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| Everywhere we went Krissy was a kid-magnet. They loved her instintly and played all sorts of fun games. They only got in trouble once, that I'm aware of, while playing baseball with a stick and a can. Someone hit a foul ball! :) 
With the medication that was left, Maritza and I are planning to do another clinic in an area with a lot of need. She's going to gather a few of her colleagues again, and we'll recruit a couple more volunteers to help with triage. Who knows, maybe someday Maritza will have her clinic after all!
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Children's Ministry
As the Shalom leaders talked to the Resurrection team about their children's ministry, we discovered that Deb, the occupational therapist, works in schools to help children with handwriting all the time. We've been needing a systematic way to teach handwriting to the children in the communities we've been working with. Deb taught us a lot about how to teach kids to write, and she brought all sorts of tools and activities we can use to help students improve.
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First, Deb taught us how to use the tools.   Then, we went together to the communities to teach the children. We are now using these resources every week with the students!
Icing on the Cake - Sewing Machines
The ladies on our team were ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with a sewing machine. They made cute dresses out of pillow cases and then got creative and designed some purses. The sewing machines are in my house right now. We are looking forward to using them in the near future.
   Nice job, Ladies!
How do I sum all of this up? On the last day, we went together to a quiet place where we could talk, reflect a little and celebrate the week. This time together was really special as well. In the morning, we talked about what went well during the week, and eventually (as people got more and more comfortable opening up), we talked about the areas in which we can improve next time.
In the afternoon, we all went swimming in the pool - the first group to test the pool at Camp Shalom!
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We thank God for our new friends and for the opportunity to serve together with them.
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