Day Three in the Dominican Republic
Today was filled with accomplishments, joys, and some more of that overwhelmed feeling.
Today, I had a bunch of work to do around the Ministry Center. My day kicked off with office devotions at the Center. They gather at 9:30am every Monday morning to have staff devotions. It was fun to be a part of it. I was even able to pick up quite a bit of their conversations and the songs we sang. The rest of the morning was spent participating in a webinar with Steve and Mario about incarnational ministry. We had some great conversations about what that might look like in general and in the DR in particular.
One of the highlights of my day was hanging out with a group of young adults from La Romana. We will be serving in La Romana in a couple weeks. I was able to spend a few hours with these young men planning out the ministry we will be doing in La Romana. It was great to have a better picture of our time in La Romana. However, the best part of this meeting was seeing three young men, in their early twenties, passionately serving the Lord. These young men were dedicated and diligent in the work God has called them to do. They cared very deeply for the communities they were serving. They also cared very deeply for us and the work we wanted to do. It's exciting for me to see the younger generation of the Dominican Republic serving the Lord. I'm curious if this is the case throughout the DR. I'm planning on looking into it.
Some of the accomplishments today involved going to the mall. One of the quirks of living in Santo Domingo is the roving power outages. Power goes out somewhat randomly during the day. We have a battery backup that runs the fans and lights throughout the apartment. However, we have had it a couple times where the battery ran out too. That happened today--a day that even the Dominicans were calling "muy caliente" (very hot). So, we decided to try calling for a taxi on our own and getting to the mall so we could spend some time in a building with A/C. Most of the other Americans staying at the Ministry Center haven't been able to do this successfully without needing help from a local. We made it work! However, I think the guy who I spoke to told me that my Spanish was bad....LOL. Oh well! The taxi showed up, we all crammed in, and headed for the mall. We spent a few hours walking around the mall, looking at some of the shops. Then, we ate at a nice Pizza place to have some sort of celebration for Rachel and I's anniversary (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that today was Rachel and I's 13th anniversary). We were even able to order without too much confusion. We also made it back to the Ministry Center without any problems. So, we are chalking this trip up as an ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Personally, I became more and more overwhelmed as we walked throughout the mall. I get overwhelmed shopping with my family in the US. Multiply that by fifteen or twenty when doing it in a foreign country. It takes so much concentration and focus to do anything because everything is different and everything is in a language you don't know very well. It's exhausting and overwhelming all mixed into one. Honestly, I've never really experienced this mix of emotions. I've always been the type of person that "get's things done" and doesn't question if I'm able to do it. I just assume that I can figure it out. I've still had that attitude mixed in with the "What were we thinking?" attitude. It's weird to be experiencing both at the same time. At the same time we were celebrating our ability to call a taxi, tell them where we lived, tell them where we wanted to go, and get back home, I was asking myself, "How many more days do we have left?" (the answer is 32 :-).
Yet, we are rejoicing because the power is back on and it should remain on for the rest of the night. Steve told us that we would rejoice when there was no power during the day because that meant we'd have electricity throughout the night. That's true. Having electricity throughout the night, meaning that we have fans throughout the night, is a big deal. So, we rejoice.
This has me thinking about a phrase Paul uses in 2 Corinthians "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (2 Corinthians 6:10). That seems to be where I'm at right now. I suppose that's not a bad place to be.
Here are some things to pray for:
Continue praying for our bodies to adapt to the heat
Pray for some rain so that things cool down for a bit
Pray for our day tomorrow. We visit the Colonial Zone and do some touristy activities
Pray for good sleep, rested and recuperated bodies
Pray that we continue to stay healthy
Thanks for all the prayers so far. The Body of Christ is a powerful thing. We appreciate each one of you more than you realize. Your prayers have given us strength and support. We have felt them!
Buenos Noches!