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.