Friday, March 24, 2017

DR - March 24 - April 1, 2017

March 26, 2017

Yesterday (Saturday) we got to sleep in at the hotel. Then we stopped on the way to Barahona to shop at a market and bargained for some great purchased! Afterwards, we enjoyed a "take out" meal of delicious fried chicken and plantains.

This morning we attended church after joining in on a community outreach trip. We shared Christ with people in their homes, in a hospital, and on the streets. Tonight we attended church again, where our team performed a skit and Josh shared a message. At the end of his message, three people accepted Christ as their Savior! There was awesome worship and dancing and giving glory to God.

Thank you for praying for us, and please keep them coming! We're all doing great so far and looking forward to what God has in store for our team this week!


Pastor Kevin giving the message at church in the morning.


The group doing outreach ministry


Josh giving the message this evening.


March 27, 2017

This morning we started our day with a tour of the school facilities. Here is (most of) the team in the computer classroom!

We spent the rest of the morning teaching English to 1st-8th graders using worship songs!



After lunch with the Ebenezer students, we took a trip to the beautiful beach for some time in the water and sun!

March 28, 2017

On Tuesday morning, the 4-8th grade students split into boys & girls and learned about the benefits and blessings of sexual purity and abstinence.



Afterwards, Josh gave a talk to both groups about the dangers and warning signs of human trafficking.

We traveled to the villages of Cristoble and Las Salinas to visit churches that some of our team members had helped build a few years ago.  At Cristoble, we spent lots of time playing with the kids and took a prayer walk around the village. 


The picture below is a view in Cristoble.


In Las Salinas, we attended a worship service and the team performed a skit for the congregation. It was a long, hot and exhausting day- and there is a lot more coming tomorrow!!


March 29, 2017

On Wednesday we had our first preschool time in the morning. The team read stories to the students in Spanish, played with hot wheel cars and geo boards, and colored some pages about the days of Creation.

Josh was reading a book about zoo animals!


Our preschoolers napped well after we played with them!


Lots of coloring fun!


On Wednesday we also started several painting projects, including two classrooms, a mural wall, and the large wall surrounding the school property.


After school, we started our three-day VBS program about the creating power of God. Our time includes a scripture lesson, a craft, and a sports/game time.


March 30, 2017

The team's biggest project on Thursday was washing, scraping and repainting the entire school yard wall. We couldn't believe we were able to get it all done and finish a couple of other painting projects as well!



For our VBS craft, the students made bead bracelets that showed all the colors of God's creation.


The students learned about the first four days of creation, and really loved playing wiffle ball!



March 31, 2017

We've had a great week and are ending on a high note for our last day... here are a couple of practical jokers locking some team members in the showers!


We had more preschool time this morning while two team members finished the last of our painting projects. We also had our last day of VBS where Pastor Kevin and Pastor Moise shared the gospel and invited students to give their lives to Christ. After three sessions, a total of 16 students accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior for the first time, and 6 more re-dedicated their lives to Him!


For game time, we tried to teach students the "over-under" game and "ultimate frisbee" but neither of those seemed to translate well. In the end, volleyball and basketball were huge hits! The students also made origami cats and colored sheets about the days of creation in the craft session.


We ended our meals in the DR with the popular corn pizza and some soda with ice! After cleaning and packing, we are ready for our long day of travel tomorrow... but not excited about having to load the bus by 6:30am. Thanks for your prayers this week -- we'll see you all back in the USA!

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