A Beautiful Last Day in the DR

Today was another great day in the DR! We toured a hospital and found out that nurses make $7800/year. We invited the community to join us for a pool party. We also did another impromptu medical clinic. We saw families from the community- most of them had scabies. We were able to treat all of them because God had been so generous to us and we sent money ahead to buy the medicine. Praise the Lord!

This evening we were treated to an amazing BBQ banquet- YUM! After dinner we gathered as a group and answered 3 questions: 1. What did you learn about yourself this week? 2. What did you learn about the people of the DR? 3. What did you learn about God? WOW! What an amazing night of sharing- lots of laughter and lots of tears. What a blessing this has been to each one of us and we have all been changed by this experience!

One of the students wrote the following and I believe it speaks for the whole group.

Lord, give us sight
and open ears.
Please show our hearts
Just why we're here.

We're here to give.
We're here to grow.
How we will change.
We still don't know.

Bless our action,
Use our voice,
Guide our footsteps,
Lead each choice.

The things we do,
don't seem like much.
Yet we are blessed,
To see hearts touched.

It's worth the heat,
the work, the sweat;
the bumpy roads,
slow interent.

It's worth it all,
And this is why:
We've learned a lot
It's opened eyes.

We can't do much,
For pains and aches,
But just a smile
is all it takes.

Their pain returns,
The meds go fast.
But kindness sticks
And that will last.

By Sara

Catching Up

We have not had internet so this is a catch up blog from Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we held a clinic in Los Martinez in a community center. We saw a lot of people and they were all so sweet. We give each family a "family pack" filled with hygiene items and a handmade cloth from Patty Walker. They are all so excited to receive the pack and so very appreciative.

Saturday evening we walked to a local church for an amazing worship service! The music was wonderful- our own Trenda sang and played a beautiful song. We clapped, danced and prayed together with our Dominican brothers and sisters. It was a JOY-FILLED night- we even danced our way to the give our offering! It was a beautiful service and we are praising God that He allowed us to experience it.

We did have an uninvited visitor to our service: a big frog who caused a lot of commotion when he hopped up a lady' skirt and no one knew what it was- people were screaming and jumping until Ramone, our security guard, came to the rescue and smashed him!

After church we enjoyed each other company and told some of our stories (lots of laughter)! This team has really bonded together from this experience.

Yesterday was our last clinic day and we were a little sad. We held our clinic in the community of Arrollo Vuelta. Each clinic begins with a prayer by the pastor, These men and women of God have prayed for us to be blessed by God and those prayers have been answered a thousand times over.

Last night we talked a little about how God formed this team and each one of us was called by Him to serve. All 28 members play a special role in this team.

This morning we are going on a tour of a local hospital and then this afternoon we are having a pool party for the community children. We will also be seeing some children who are sick in the community and helping them with medication.

God has been so very good to us this week. He has given us this opportunity and we will be forever grateful.

Tomorrow we will be leaving the DR and each one of us will leave a little part of hearts here in this beautiful place. Adios amigos!

A great day in Zombador

Our second clinic was today in Zombador. A beautiful community filled with beautiful people. Our clinic was in another church today and the day opened with the pastor praying for our day.

We met many wonderful people. We work with translators in every room, but we are finding that many things like love, hope and joy can be shared without words. It has been a humbling experience to work with the people of the DR. They have such joy and they are so happy to meet us. We feel so welcomed at every clinic.

Everyone is doing well and we are all being changed by this experience: collectively and individually.
None of us will return home the same. God has been so very good to us!

We are playing cards, talking, braiding hair and just enjoying each other's company. It has been an amazing experience that we have shared and we have developed a special bond.

Tomorrow we head out for another clinic and then we are looking forward to going to church tomorrow evening.

Thursday: A great day for Nurses on a Mission. The students were amazing today. Everyone worked really hard in hot conditions. We saw almost 70 families: babies to 80s. The people were so friendly and so appreciative. We had a long clinic day and came home to a delicious meal of meatballs and rice.

We have enjoyed this evening sitting and relaxing with lots of laughter!

Thank you for your prayers and your support. They have been felt. Please continue to pray that we will show the love of Jesus to the people we are serving.

Adios!

We have arrived in the DR! It was an interesting trip from beginning to end. The picture shows the truck when it was half packed with our luggage. Believe it or not all of our luggage arrived at our destination. The 4 hour bus ride from the airport was wild- rough, dirt roads for a long way! We all survived. Our evening meal was delicious: chicken, rice beans. We had our class on tropical diseases taught by our own Anna Russ, RN.

Everyone is well and excited to get started in the morning.  We are so thankful for all of the donations. God has truly blessed us and we thank all of you for your support.

Glory be to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask or dream. Ephesians 3:20

Getting Ready

February 10,2018

We are gearing up for our 5th medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Today we had our annual Make a Donation Yard Sale. We had lots of "stuff" and fortunately we had a lot of people come out and support us. We made over $2,000. The money will be used to buy supplies and medications.

We have a big group going this year: 28. We will be having 4 medical mission clinic days. The first day we plan to see 450 people and then 500 people on our other clinic days.

We always look forward to seeing our friends from the Foundation For Peace. We truly feel blessed to partner with such an amazing organization- check them out at foundationforpeace.org.

We head south on Wednesday, February  28th. Please pray for us as we go to serve in the DR. Watch for our daily blogs (hopefully, we will be able to post daily, but the internet service is "iffy" at best).