Day 2 Team 1-Carter Beaulieu

Today was the second full work day in the local village. Emily has introduced you to the store front project our team has been working on. We were also able to continue erecting one more wall. In the morning I was assigned to be the job site manager watching Derrick, Kobe, and Noah repair a roof, build the storefront wall, and finish the concrete wall in the bathroom. I was job site manager because I had one of the local children as a helper. Robér and I hung out all day! Just before lunch, our team gathered in the church and danced to Christian music each holding onto one of the children from the village. My morning with Robér ended at lunch as we went our separate ways. He had found a new friend (Camber) and our team had joined up with the others (including Grace and Candy!!!) at the local basketball court. Many children noticed the commotion created by us and joined in. Some us on the team played 5-on-5 basketball with translators and MOH interns while others played with children, teaching them simple hand games. Rock, paper, scissors and different secret handshakes were the kids' favorites. We are looking forward to continuing the same activities on Monday and Tuesday, but to also enjoy our off day tomorrow.

I felt blessed to be given the opportunity to bring so much joy to this little boy's life, along with many others throughout this trip. It seems at times we are not providing enough help, but it was reassuring to some of us to be told by the locals how much our presence helps and encourages their village. Tonight we prayed to continue working even harder on Monday and Tuesday and to help spread God's word to all here. Thank you for your prayers of safety and God's hand in the lives touched by this trip. Thank you to everyone who helped our team come to this blessed, joyful country!


Carter

Day 1 Team 3 Myjah Drews

Today was our second day in the Dominican Republic and the first full day. It was full of forming new friendships and learning about another culture. The first part consisted of taking a bus ride to the village, Ascension. It was there that we began our mission work. After making our work groups, we said a prayer and headed off to our work sites. My group consisted of Pastor Darrin, Hope Cupery, Jessica Bahr, and myself. Our job was to dig holes for sticks that would serve as supports for an extended roof. It was difficult, hot and time consuming but in the end, I believed it to be fun. In one day, we finished digging 3 holes and got a good start at another couple. After completing the work for the day, we ate a home cooked meal by the community’s  pastor. They cooked rice and chicken for us and gave us fresh pineapple juice. It was fantastic!
After lunch we did our SMT, strategic mission time, where we went to people’s houses and asked them about their culture and relationship with Christ. Everyone we visited had already been following Jesus and loved reading their bibles. In fact, everyone we met with stated that in their free time their favorite thing to do is read their bibles. For me, that was something that really stuck out. Other things that were prominent were: the garbage littered everywhere, how dark the insides of the houses were, the starving stray animals, the condition of just about everything, and especially how happy many people seemed even though they lived in poverty compared to most Americans. That was inspirational for me and that’s when I realized that I was going to get a lot more out of this trip than just sharing the gospel.

Myjah

Day 1 Team 2 McKenna Murphy

Our group consists of Candy, Kobe, Samantha, Camber, and I.  For our work, we went to a house further away from the church to dig a trench for a walk way for a family.  We also had a translator named Ronny and an intern from MOH named Morgan.  When we got to the house the women who lived there, immediately offered us fresh mangoes and pineapple.  They were so delicious!  Though we were only at this house for less than an hour a lot of work was completed! We’re excited to be able to go back tomorrow and help some more!  Our trip to their house we had the opportunity to see more of the country and farms.   During our strategic mission time we had a new translator named Oliver and the local pastor Francisca joined us.  We had the opportunity to go to three different houses throughout the village.  The first house we went to they were already believers but it was reassuring to hear all that God has done in their lives.  The second house was also of a believer.  She was a mother of four kids in between the ages of 2 months and 15.  Some of us had the opportunity to hold her baby and she was so precious!  The mother was also encouraging and said some extremely empowering things!  One thing that she said that really stuck with me was that she used to have a lot more and felt like she had nothing, but now she has a lot less and with Christ, feels like she has a lot more. This statement was extremely convicting to me because I have so much and often want even more, when I have all that I need through Christ who has saved me. The final house we went to was of a woman who was questioning her faith in Jesus.  It was good to tell her that even in her times of questioning God never stops loving her.  Overall, our group had a great time and excited to share more of God’s love to these people!

McKenna

Day 1 Team 1 Emily Ford

Thursday was a work day so we went out to a village. We were assigned in smaller groups to split off and help with smaller projects. Derrick’s group had Devon, Carter, Noah, and Emily. We were helping a group of guys build a cement wall with bricks. Everything started out slow and it was getting frustrating because we all wanted to do something. Once a guy came, we started mixing cement and things were still slow. Derrick tried to help with the wall but there was a language barrier so we watched them start to see how it was done. The boys eventually started working on the wall.
Pastor Francesca invited us to her house for lunch and made rice, beans, chicken, and salad. We brought chairs from her church and ate in the street.
After lunch we went to houses for strategic mission time. That is where we go to houses and see how they live to collect information for Mission of Hope. We went to three houses and the house of our translator. The second house we went to, one son had been in a motorcycle accident and had multiple fractures in his skull and eye socket. That accident brought the man to God and he prays for him to help heal him.
Today was a good day even if we were dripping in sweat and speechless by the huge culture shock. At the end of the day, we are all wore out by are satisfied with what has happened throughout the day. It was a great day overall and we are all ready to shower and go to bed.
Emily

First Full Day In The Dominican

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for reading our blog!  Today was the first full day our team was in the Dominican and it was a lot to take in.  This morning we headed out to our village that we were going to work in and do ministry.  Today and the rest of the work days for this trip we split into 3 groups with Derrick leading one, Candy leading one and Darrin leading the other.  Today, Friday, Monday and Tuesday we will post 3 different posts from all three groups as each group will be experiencing similar but different things.  Today and all the other days we get to our village, split into 3 groups to do different work projects, meet for lunch and then go out into the village to visit with people.  We then go back to our campus for dinner. Today Grace was not feeling well as she had been sick before coming on the trip. The travel day really wore her down so we made the decision to have her stay back at the campus and get some rest. Michelle stayed with her as well some Mission of Hoe staff. Even though Grace has to stay back, her and Michelle saw God at work in conversations they had with Mission of Hope Staff. When we got back from our work day, Grace was already looking much better and we hope that after another good night’s rest, all of us will be back out serving in the community. 
 After dinner we all debriefed the day together and prayed for each other.  We will do this every day. Then after that we have free time where we hang out together.  Some play cards, some talk and some just hang out.  Whatever we are doing though we are doing it together.  It is really great! We also have a pool to cool off in after a hard day.  It is a great perk!  Today we played Marco Polo for a good amount of time.  We are really starting to bond as a team and we are excited for what God is going to do the rest of the week.  Below is some of the pictures of our group time together.  

Travel Day to the Dominican Republic- Kobe Smit

We started the day meeting at church at 2:15 A.M. We then loaded the bus at 2:30 A.M. and headed off to O’Hare. 

When we got to O’Hare, Pastor Darrin had the time down a little to perfect, we got there and we were on the plane very quickly. When we got to Miami we had just enough time to grab a quick lunch and board our plane. 

Both of the flights went good also. When we arrived in Dominican, it also went smoothly. There was a Mission of Hope. person there waiting for us and we took a bus to their beach campus. 

We then had time to meet all the Mission of Hope. interns along with having an orientation meeting for the week. We had spaghetti tonight for our meal. All in all, the day went very good. 

Tomorrow we start our work projects. 

Blog post by Kobe Smit