Leader Reflections- Michelle Brandsma

Dominican Republic 

What a week! As a school employee and a small group leader at Sonlife, I get to spend time with some of these great teens every week during the school year, but this week was different. I got to share some great highs and lows and make memories that will last a lifetime with all of them. It was awesome to see how this group quickly became family. We laughed, cried, sweat and sang together all week!

We started each day with breakfast and a short time to talk and get to know each other better and a prayer for all the activities of the day. Most days we did construction projects or strategic mission time and played with the children in the Village of Ascension. Our group fell in love with the village and everyone that lives there. Seeing the village children come running and the smiles on the faces of the people we were helping every time we arrived made our kids want to work harder at all the projects we did. We ended each night with dinner together and a time of sharing our highs and lows of that day and praying for each other and our village. There is something so phenomenal about teenagers being truly present and engaged in something so much bigger than them and praying about wanting to do more for the children, more for the church and more for the village. Many of us are hopeful that God’s plan for us will bring us back to the Dominican Republic and back to Ascension, but for now we pray for all of our new friends and trust God’s perfect timing.

Michelle

Leader Reflections- Candace Smit

Not only do I get to spend time each week with these students, I had the privilege to spend a whole week with them in the D.R! I wish I could tape the entire trip so parents & grandparents and others could see the growth of each student that I get to see. From the first day we went into the Village of Ascension and visited in the homes and being somewhat shy to the last day of seeing them cry with tears of sadness to leave them! The students were so kind and caring to the Dominican people and also to each other! Many of them could speak Spanish to some degree with the people which was nice and encouraging to them and their Spanish teachers😊For all of us to know that God will be watching over them comforts us. And that they continue to share Jesus with other neighbors in the village. I so treasured up the moments I got to see these kids sing praises to God at the top of their lungs as we headed to the village each day and back home again in an open canter. Thank you for all of your support and prayers said for our week in the D.R. 

Feeling Blessed, Candace

Leader Reflections- Hope Cupery

I wasn’t supposed to be on this trip. I’m not a regular youth leader in Friesland’s youth group. I never even attended Friesland’s youth group when I was younger. Sure, I have my connections to the group, but I came into being a leader on this team tentatively. I was afraid that I wouldn’t fit or that I would be in the way, but God, of course, knew exactly what He was doing. 

Throughout the past week, God has shown me so many amazing, beautiful things, and I wanted to share a few of them with you. I’ll even be nice and put them in a list. 

Things God showed me in the DR:

There is beauty in the waiting-

When I first was asked to come along on this trip, we were planning to serve in Haiti...last year. Everyone was crushed when we couldn’t go, but God brought so much beauty up from that waiting period. The year gave each of us time to grow and get to know each other better. I hate waiting... a lot, but I learned that if I’m in a season of waiting, there’s a reason. I learned to trust more in the perfect timing of our awesome God.

There is beauty in simplicity-

I love stuff. I love getting new stuff, doing stuff, and making stuff, but I never truly realized how often all of this “stuff” gets in the way. During our time of ministering to the people in Ascension, we often asked them what they like to do for fun. It helped break the ice and lighten the mood. I was amazed to hear each of them answer, “pray and read my Bible.” I fill up my life with so much stuff that I often forget to see the joy than can be found in Christ alone. Instead, I want to fill up my life with things that matter in the lens of eternity.

There is beauty in brokenness-

Over the past 8 days I have seen poverty, broken families, poor health and so much more. While defeat would likely be my chosen response if I was in their shoes, these people chose to find joy in Jesus. They found healing and redemption amidst hurt. We are never too broken to be mended by our Savior. He makes all things new, and I’m so thankful that I got a front row seat to that this week.

There is beauty in community-

I never knew the impact a pot full of rice and beans could make. Everyday for lunch, the women would spend the morning making us lunch and we would set up plastic chairs and break out the styrofoam plates and just fellowship. Despite the language barrier, we formed many relationships that will last a lifetime. Friendships within our team and with those we met in the Dominican were gained by visiting at lunch or working alongside each other throughout the rest of the day. Every kid that we saw we loved on deeply.  Our team experienced true community, and we can’t wait to bring some of that back with us to the States. 

Even though I started off on this trip a bit skeptical, God blew me away. He taught me to find beauty in this journey we call life, and I encourage you to do the same.

As always, thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. God changed hearts this week.

-Hope

Day 7 Travel Day Home (We Think)

Today started out with lots of tears.  We first said goodbye to our interns at 10:30 this morning when we left our Beacher Campus.  We then went to the airport to get all settled and upon arrival we saw some of our translators there waiting to say goodbye to us.  It was another sad and heartfelt moment before we got all our bags checked in and boarding our flight back to the states.  Many of the students shed a lot of tears saying goodbye to people we didn't even know a week ago.  It is amazing how God can knit people together in such a short amount of time.

We said good bye to the Dominican Republic and headed back to the United States with our first stop being Miami.  When we landed everything went smooth except McKenna had to go in a separate line because they flagged her passport.  The main group went through while Darrin and Michelle waited for McKenna.  McKenna kept us updated on her progress through the line and got through with no problems.  We then boarded our plane to Chicago or so we thought.  We did take off and because of bad weather, we were forced to divert to Indianapolis to refuel and wait for the storms to clear Chicago.  Currently at 10:44 PM EST we are sitting at the end of the runway waiting for air traffic to thin out so we can finally get to our destination.  We are all tired and ready to get home to see our families and sleep in our own beds but God has other plans at the moment.  Hopefully we will take off soon and be able to complete our final leg of flying.  Our bus driver has kept in contact with us and we know that when we land he will be waiting to pick us up to take us home to Friesland.
We can't wait to share about all that God has done on this trip with all of you in person. We will be having a time of sharing this Sunday during our morning worship service at First Reformed Friesland.  Come on out at 10:am if you would like to hear more.

Thank you all for your prayers.

P.S.  Our leaders will be posting their blogs in the next couple days sharing their thoughts on the trip.

In Christ
Sonlife Mission Team

Day 6 Afternoon/Evening- Noah Cupery

This afternoon we went back to the village of Asscention. At ascension we were able to connect with the kids and some of us were even able to reconnect with kids that we had met earlier in the trip. While some of the boys went and played basketball, others played soccer with them, blew bubbles, or simply were an ear to the kids as they talked about their lives. Towards the end of the afternoon, we had the chance too visit local shops to purchase bracelets, necklaces, and fun items to to bring home. As we wrapped up the afternoon we gathered and prayed for Pastor Francesca and her husband and thanked them for how much they impacted us. After that, we said our goodbyes, though tough, only 95% of us cried. Towards the evening, we shared our highs and lows of the day and the trip. As we closed the evening, we gathered and prayed for our precious interns. Today was a tough day for almost all of us. As we had to say goodbye to friends that we have cultivated for the past week, say goodbye to kids we connected with, and as we drove away and saw the village slowly disappear in the distance. We are sad but we have a peace knowing that God has a watchful eye over them.
Tonight we had a all campus debrief and talked about all our group's weeks.  We then had our daily debrief of highs and lows.  Our Interns, Morgan and Kevin, joined us.  We ended our time by laying hands on them and praying for them before we got to have free time.
Overall this week has been a blessing to our group. We have grown closer together, grow spiritually, and grown as kids. Please pray for the people of the Dominican Republic. Now to Him who is able. Amen

Noah

Day 6 Morning-McKenna Murphy

Today we returned to the house I worked at the first day.  It looked much different than it did before which was encouraging. A whole room in the house had been torn down! Our job today was to tear apart the foundation and floor so they can rebuild a new house with future teams. This required shoveling lots of dirt and many bucket brigades to clear everything out.  Though the labor part wasn’t that fun, it was exciting to meet all of the locals working on the project and form relationships with them.  Pastor Francisca, her husband, and the members of her church have been so opening and inviting to us.  Everyday she and Rosa have prepared us lunch and today we had opportunity to help prepare it again. To prepare the rice we had to pluck out any wood slivers. After this, we soaked the rice and “squished it” clean.  After this, Rosa mixed it in with the beans she had already made.  We also got to boil the noodles for spaghetti and put chicken (including the feet) into a pot.  Passion fruit juice was made for us to drink and it was delicious! The people of Ascensión’s kindness and openness to us has been overwhelming.  Seeing people so on fire for the Lord has been truly inspiring and I hope to be as bold in my faith returning back home in my community.

McKenna