I Can't Think of a Title for this Post!

Wilna. She's sweet, but sassy....like me. 

Well I have been on the island of Hispaniola for 9 weeks tomorrow. I just recently got back from a week long mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Okay, here's a geography lesson for you. In case you didn't know, Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island in the Caribbean known as Hispaniola. This is where Christopher Columbus first landed back in the day. Haiti occupies the western third of the island and the DR  the eastern two-thirds. The DR is slightly special to me because it was the first place I ever visited outside the US and my first mission trip. I always get to work with the best people when I am over there. But before I talk about that, I will wrap up Haiti since I last wrote, if I can remember back that far...it's been like 3 weeks.

J.J.'s selfie. :)

Summer school wrapped up on July 25th and we all celebrated. :) Teachers and kids were worn out. But overall, I did enjoy teaching my class and hope they improved their English reading and writing skills. 

Testing substances for pH. 

Looking at various organisms and samples under the microscopes. Most of them had never used a microscope before. They were trying to look at everything from their own fingers to grains of rice from their plate. 

Classifying fingerprints. The picture on the bottom left is them scrubbing their fingers on the sidewalk to get all of the ink off. My American students would never have thought to do that. lol :)

The day after summer school, David, April, and Richard left for the DR. We left a day early and were supposed to go on a nice bus that would take us all the way to Santo Domingo (capital of the DR). Well, it turns out you really need to buy your tickets the day before because by the time we got there, they were sold out. :( Soooo, Edmond was nice enough to drive us over to Jimani, just over the border so we could catch what we call the "goat bus". Now, I road the goat bus last summer and it was surprisingly

nicer than I expected...air conditioned, but super crowded. So I was totally okay riding this bus. So we get there and I get on the bus toward the front because that's closest to the door. Immediately, before we even leave, the guy in front of me starts passing around a bottle of rum. And all I'm thinking is, please don't give any to the driver!!! Well he didn't, but this rum feat lasted throughout the whole trip. The man in front of me was passing it between himself and three other people, one of whom was the conductor, who stood at the door and collected the money and made sure everyone was back on the bus when we stopped, etc. The thing about the goat bus is that it gets stopped a lot by what I assume is like border patrol, to make sure everyone on board that is not Dominican has a passport. However, I find out later that there were some people in the back and probably the front who didn't have passports and the conductor was paying them off every time we stopped. Yeah and he was hitting that rum and I didn't see this, but my David, Richard, and April could see all of this going on from the back of the bus and confirmed that he was indeed lit. By the time we got to Santo Domingo, just about everybody that hadn't been drinking was ready to throw him off the bus! And despite what David Gunter will tell you, this Baptist wasn't offered any rum. Although, it probably would have made the trip easier. Yes. I just said that. It was the worst bus ride ever. But we got there all in one piece with all of our bags. 

So I am going to summarize the whole trip by day by day and here we go... 

Myself, David, Richard, and April with Rodney and Sharon Coleman.

Sunday, Day 1

We were privileged to get to see and have dinner with two IMB missionaries to the Dominican Republic named Rodney and Sharon Coleman. They have been in the DR for 15 years and were such a joy to be around. We thoroughly enjoyed sharing with them about the work we are involved with at Christian Light. Later when we met up with the rest of the team, we ate at McDonalds (I just had to put that in, I was super excited, a Big Mac never tasted so good :)) and began our journey up the mountain to Jarabacoa. This is where the Vida Joven (Young Life) camp is located. We spent the night there and did a medical clinic and VBS in the outskirts of Jarabacoa. Young Life is a youth camp ministry located in the DR and many of our translators are deeply involved in the camp. The camp truly breathtaking, but more important than that are the lives that are forever changed there because of Christ. The missions teams I have been a part of to the DR have helped sponsor teens to attend this camp. Please pray for this awesome ministry that God is using to touch the lives of Dominican teens. 

Young Life camp in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic

Monday, Day 2

Our first medical clinic was Monday and it was my favorite type: rural. It was held in a church building, but it wouldn't look like a church to most people. I love medical clinics because you get to come into contact with so many people in a shirt amount of time and meet so many physical needs, before meeting the spiritual ones. This is exactly what Jesus did! Bibles were passed out, the Gospel was presented, and people were prayed for, after seeing the doctor and the pharmacist. 

When doing medical clinics, I am put in the pharmacy and I love it! 

A few shots of our first medical clinic in Jarabacoa. 

Random shot of our bus driver in the DR, Mello. As far as drivers go, he is second only to our very own Edmond Auguste at CLS.

Tuesday, Day 3

This was the only day this week that we did not do a medical clinic. We moved to San Cristobal which is about twenty to thirty minutes outside of Santo Domingo. The majority of our work for the rest of the week was centered here in this city working with Pastor Salvador and his lovely wife Juana. 

Pastor Salvador and his wife Juana

On this day, we held VBS in a building that is being used as a school for many local children. There were probably 50ish kids and it was rowdy on this day, but good! They learned about Jonah and the whale. Our evangelism visitation teams started on this morning as well. VBS is also something I enjoy sing because ou get to touch the lives of the children and let them know there is someone who deey cares about them. Seeds are planted during a VBS that God can nurture into a beautiful new creation. 

VBS in San Cristobal. It was Jonah and the Whale story day!

Random shot: In the Dominican Republic, the popular sport is baseball. In Haiti, it is soccer. In both countries, you see kids playing their sport in the streets, sometimes barefoot and without the proper equipment like a legit ball or bat.

Wednesday, Day Four

Back in San Cristobal we hosted a medical clinic in a very nice school complex. It was probably the best medical clinic because the facility was perfect to see as many patients as possible. It was a great setup! In this day we saw roughly 330 patients. And thy were all prayed for and told about Jesus. Amazing to think the seeds that were planted. There were also home evangelism visits and VBS going simultaneously as well, albeit in different locations though. 

Second medical clinic in San Cristobal at a very nice school building. Pictured on the bottom right is John Wayne adn Morgan holding up the registration cards of all the patients we saw...all 330ish of them!

Thursday, Day Five

I'm literally sitting here counting up the medical clinics and trying to figure out where we were on this day! Luckily I remembered....finally. Our third medical clinic was at Pastor Salvador's church. The patients were registered and assessed or "triaged" where there temperatures and blood pressures are taken in the sanctuary part and in the room behind the sanctuary, is where the doctors and the pharmacy was. It was our tightest squeeze so far. But it worked out well and saw many patients, though not as many as the day before. But it was a blessing to meet the needs of the people directly surrounding the church. We also went to a beach somewhere near San Cristobal for sunset....it was beautiful, but not as those in Haiti. Hey, I'm semi biased towards that side of the island. I was so tired, this is what I thought of the beach:

Third medical clinic held at Pastor Salvador's church, pictured from the outside on the top right. On the bottom left, you can see a woman being fitted for reading glasses. They use John 3:16 to test to see how well the glasses prescription fits the patient.

Our team picture at the beach near San Cristobal. This is an awesome group of people right here. 

Friday, Day Six

Again, I'm racking my brain trying to figure out where we were that day! I got it, today we were across the highway in a community center type of building. This was the first clinic where everything was all in one big room. As usual, things ran smoothly despite any attempts by the enemy to disrupt our little clinic! 

The people I was privileged to work with in the pharmacy pictured on the top left. On the top right, even the lizard showed up for the medical clinic. In Haiti and the DR, lizards and geckos are everywhere! Pictured on the bottom, a view that shows the simultaneous parts of the medical clinic going on all at once in the same room.

We even had a little bit of what I call tropical weather during it which cooked things down a lot, but like most good things it didn't last. But we were thanking Jesus while it did! :) That afternoon, I got to go on home visits with the pro, John Gunter and got to share my testimony with several families. Most of whom said they were already Christians. We still prayed for them and have them medicine for Chikungunya pains and have out baby clothes to several mothers and one mom-to-be. 

John blessing a soon-to-be mom with some sweet gifts for her baby. 

The ladies of Pastor Salvador's church dishing it out at the Fundraiser Dinner.

That evening, we attended a fundraiser dinner to help the youth of Pastor Salvador's church raise money for camp. It was soooo delicious and a great way to support the youth in their endeavor to attend camp and grow closer to Christ. 

Saturday, Day Seven

Today, we went to the "Mercado" downtown or the market where you can buy souvenirs and things like that. It is quite an experience going there because every vendor tries their hardest to get you to come into their booth and look at their merchandise....and you can get easily lost in there too. Yes, I sort of did for a few minutes. We also visited the home of Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus. More importantly, this afternoon saw us hosting the fifth and final medical clinic in a community of Santo Domingo known as Pantoja. There was a nice couple from a local church that we have worked with in the past who lent us the use of their restaurant for the clinic. It rained during this clinic and I just had to soak up that goodness because we seem to rarely get rain whenever I'm in Haiti. With the patients we saw at this last clinic, it brought our total patient number for the week to over 900 and pretty much all of them were given a bible and prayed for. God used us to touch many may lives this past week in the Dominican Republic. Though it was exhausting, I feel glad that God was able to use me there in whatever way he saw fit and that he will continue to do that for as long as I am in Haiti. 

The Diego Colone House in Santo Domingo

Another group picture in front of the house. You can't really tell, but we are all squinting in the picture. :)

This is Wilness, on the left. Imagine that face singing.
You have to come hear him. :)

Seeing as how summer school has ended, I am very much enjoying having some free time to spend at the orphanage with the kids. They bring such joy to my heart. As I sit here typing this post, Wilness, who lives next door to the school is singing the most beautiful song sitting by a quinep tree. His has the most precious voice and calls me his sister. I have no idea what he is saying, but I don't need to. It is beautiful just the same.

Do I really need to say who this is???? Okay, it's Jean Wilson. 

It reminds me that even when I am not sure what God is going to do with me here exactly, I can enjoy his beautiful time and soak up as much of this beautiful island and its' people as I can. 

"Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desires." 

  Psalm 37:4

I love sweet Pame. <3

Magdala shows off the sombrero and her new hairdo.