Day 4 and AMAZED

Hola Amigos es Amigas!!



All is well here in Puerto Plata. I thank you for the ongoing prayers and encouragement and support. These last few days have been pretty awesome-- at times overwhelming, but man, it's so great to see how God is working and the presence of the Holy Spirit in Aguas Negras. I will go into greater detail post-trip about each day, as I still have a lot to process and want to be open to what God is showing and teaching me, but I'll give you a brief rundown of what has been going on...

After our arrival on Friday and getting settled, we dove into Saturday with full force. We started by taking a gondola up to a mountain, where we were able to see the city of Puerto Plata. It was a great way to start the trip-- it allowed us to see the beauty of the city, and also to be able to point out where the community of Aguas Negras was within the city. We were able to spend a little over an hour in quiet time with God, which was pretty awesome. I spent my time in prayer really thinking about what it means to serve and to show love and grace and compassion in every situation and in every place. When the team came together after our quiet time, we talked about this for a while, and what it means to live a life of service, rather than just to DO service. There are many people in our own community of Denver that need love and compassion and hope. Yes, there is a great need to have work here in Puerto Plata, but God has a lot of work for us in every place we are, and we really wanted to focus on what it looks likes to bring that life of service back home and in every situation. How can we serve and love others in our own hometown where there is a need, too? And during this week, let's make sure we're serving all of the time... not just when we're being assigned tasks to work on. One of my teammates said his theme was to "Be aware of God's presence in and all around us at all times." I personally decided I would stick with that theme as well. Watch where God is working in all places. And man, God is working in all kinds of places here in Aguas Negras.

After our quiet time, we headed into the community to tour and meet the people. As many of you may know, I speak very LITTLE Spanish, and was not very successful in making time to learn pre-trip. This became a huge concern for me, knowing that most of the people here speak Spanish, and hardly any speak any English. How would I relate? How would I connect? Smile and wave? That doesn't seem super effective. I've continued to pray that God would not let that be a barrier to serving Him and letting Him use me, and I felt He immediately started responding to that prayer as soon as I stepped off of the bus into the community on Day 1. I was greeted by a young girl named Laura... as soon as I stepped off the bus, she came running towards me and wrapped her arms around me with a huge hug... and many hugs! I would have to say I was very grateful for such a welcoming greeting, where the language did not create a barrier. We toured the community, and kids guided us around... many kids of all ages... on our backs, holding our hands, anything goes... I noticed at any given moment, you could see all 8 of our team members with at the very least having three kids somehow connected on or next to them!

The community of Aguas Negras does have more work to be done, yes, but there is SO much joy there regardless, and to me that is so encouraging.

After our tour, we went to pray over a woman who was sick, and I will discuss this more later as I go back through the days and process, but it was a pretty special moment, and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless her body.

After having dinner that first day, Sondra took us around to show us many new churches in the community. Just in Aguas Negras, there were 8 churches! I wish I could have taken a video of the services... I think we as Americans could learn a few things from the way they pray down here! People of all ages were praying loudly, exclaiming, praising, pleading to God, lifting their hands, outside on streets, inside buildings, everywhere for long periods of time. Lots of singing, and joy in worshipping the Lord. Man, would it be cool to see people worshipping God in that same way in our own churches. My prayer that night was that God would allow me to pray boldly in all circumstances and in all places regardless of the situation. I felt so encouraged, so rejuvenated, and felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in that place was so strong!

Day 2 we spent most of the time at our house. Sondra's four kids and some of their friends came over, and we took them to the beach. Part of me felt guilty at first that we were at the beach, but I know that it was a time where we could grow in our relationship with these kids and learn about them on a deeper level so that we could better serve them and their community, and give them a chance to just have fun and be a kid! They are AWESOME kids, and I love them so much! Although I don't speak much Spanish, and they don't speak much English, I was still able to connect with them, and felt very encouraged that God was not allowing my weaknesses to get in the way of serving Him. That's a big lesson I'm learning this week. My weaknesses will not limit my abilities to serve God, unless I let my weaknesses limit me. I'm grateful to see God is using me through this, and am even learning some Spanish from it, too :)

Today we spent the day in the community getting into more dirty work. We worked on a few houses through construction... carrying bricks (heavy ones, mind you), and I had the specific task of laying concrete for the bricks to lay on. Lots of work, but awesome to see that it's helping families in this community. I also went with a couple of girls to teach the Girls Club some English words. The lesson went well, and afterwards, we were able to give them the dresses we brought down for their prom dress collection, which they rent out to other girls/women in the community for special occasions. It was so cool to see the joy on their faces, and THANK YOU so much to those of you who donated some of your beautiful dresses to these girls-- they LOVE and appreciate them! (I have some great photos I will post when I get home)

Okay, that's all for now... time to get to bed, but please continue to pray for us. Thanks for your prayers and your support!