Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Hello everyone! We're having a lazy Sunday afternoon around camp after an intense day of orientation yesterday. We spent basically all day Saturday dividing up jobs among the interns. I am in charge of events and finances. This means that I will be in charge of making sure VBS's, Puerto Plata Day, Community Day, as well as anything else the groups participate in runs smoothly. I'm excited about this job even though I know it is going to be a lot of work.

Our first group arrives on Tuesday, so please keep them in your prayers! We are excited to get started, and we are ready to see how this first week goes.

As I'm sure some of you are wondering, I finally got to see the kids from the Children's Home. It was soooo good to see them! They are always so much fun to be around. However, I wasn't aware of this, but practically all of the kids go home over the summer. The babies will stay, but most of the older kids will be gone. While this makes me sad, I have some good news as well. Porfi and Carla, the couple in charge of the Children's Home, are looking to add one new child between the ages of 0 and 2 for the next 32 months! This means there will be so many new children, and I am so excited about that!

I have had a question about the food here. It is very good, and Norm, the MannaDR Field Director, makes sure we are very well fed. We do eat Dominican food, but I actually like it a lot and it is very filling. The only thing so far that I'm not sure about is cow tongue. Haha. Ronald, Rosi, Porfi, and Carla, some of the other missionaries, cooked the other night. They are all from Costa Rica and they made cow tongue for us which is a delicacy there. It kind of tasted like roast, but it was kind of weird, too. I don't know that we'll be having that again anytime soon. Haha.

We might get to go to the beach this afternoon if the rain holds off. Tomorrow we are going to buy all of the food for the first four weeks! We're leaving bright and early in the morning. Wish us luck!

Welcome to Caraqueña

The last two days have been incredible. Yesterday started with clearing out a ditch full of water with the other interns to allow us to get into the entrance to camp more easily. Just to inform my faithful readers, the other interns here thus far are Audrey, Nikki, and Carter. I'm sure I'll refer to them in several of my posts. Anyway, after that project we all got cleaned up and left for Puerto Plata. Glenn, another intern, was joining us yesterday and we all got to go pick him up at the airport. Before we went to get him, we made a trip to La Serena which is like a Dominican Walmart. We were able to get a few things we need around camp here. Just to let you know, places like this are rare and are only available in the bigger cities. It was definitely an interesting experience with different currency (they use pesos here) and a different language (they speak Spanish here). After our shopping excursion, we finally got to go get Glenn!!! I was so excited to see him, and I am so happy he is here. I know he is going to be such a comfort to me this summer and I know he will do great things for the Lord. The rest of the day was spent traveling back to camp, getting Glenn settled in, eating dinner, and playing Taboo. :)

Today has been wonderful! This morning all of the interns completed a personality evaluation to help us get to know one another better and recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses. This was a lot of fun, but it was also very helpful. After that, the interns and the rest of the missionary team went to Carmen's house for lunch. Carmen is a lady who lives in Caraqueña. She has two daughters and she cooks for us when the groups come during the summer. Lunch was so yummy and it was fun for us to meet and visit with her family. The people of the Dominican love to talk, eat, and visit, so lunch can be a pretty drawn out affair. It's very different from the United States, but it shows you that the people here appreciate each other so much. After that Chad took us to some of the homes in Caraqueña to meet some of the families. This was my favorite part of the day. It was so good to actually meet some of these people that I have been seeing for the past three times I have been here. I hope over the summer I can continue to get to know them better and communicate with them more effectively.

On another note...Manna Global Ministries is looking to establish a church in the Rio San Juan area. I am so excited about this! Our goal this summer as interns is to help introduce the people of the Dominican to Christ, bring them into a relationship with Christ, and help them grow in the Lord as Christians. For so long, this ministry has been focused on Bobita and Caraqueña, the smaller villages where we live, and providing physical help to those people. Now, after years of that effort with little return, the effort is moving to Rio San Juan with the hopes of establishing a church and bringing people to Christ. While this will be a big and difficult change, it is also exciting. Please keep this effort in your prayers. I will try to keep you posted as the summer moves along.

I Made It!

I made it to the Dominican Republic! Me and three other interns arrived yesterday afternoon around 2:00 P.M. We met all of the missionaries at the airport and returned to camp for dinner. Today, we did some work around camp cleaning and getting ready for the groups to come. So far the transition has been very smooth. The weather has not been too hot and we've already seen some rain.

I can already tell I'm going to love this summer so much! The other interns are incredible. The missionaries are so helpful and loving. I can't wait to see what else is in store!

One Week

One week from right now I'll be in the Dominican Republic!!! I'm so unbelievably excited, but I'm getting a little nervous as well. I've already started to pack just to make sure I don't forget anything! I know God has great things in store for this summer. Here are a few things I'm personally excited about:

1. Seeing all of the kids at the Children's Home
2. Becoming best friends with all of the other interns
3. Meeting everyone who comes with the various groups
4. Sunshine!
5. The unknown

If you read this, please keep me and the other interns in your prayers as we prepare for this summer!

A Glimpse of What Is To Come