Saturday in the DR

 We woke up to this gorgeous view before studying chapter 2 of second timothy

 this is a view of the back side of the resort.

 cora found a crab!

 this huge hole in the sand (surrounded by hard sand aka rocks) provided much entertainment for the kids. it really was an awesome sight! It was about 4 feet deep and had sand that was connected to the ocean on the bottom. whenever a big wave came along it would shoot up the hole and splash the kids. it reminded me of a blowhole.

 searching for shells

 We got dropped off at the safe house so the girls could finish their shorts and learn how to make a pillowcase dress. Day two went much better and felt more laid back because they came in at different times. Even though the girls had to wait a long time for their turn they were very patient and just hung out and talked. We worked with girls age 10-15.

 madeline is 21 and SO VERY sweet! she helps with the youth at the church and sings on the worship team. Cailey and I loved talking to her so much! She only speaks Spanish and I was quite amazed at how much I remembered from school. (There were also people there to help translate but usually we only needed help with a couple words).

 The first finished pair of shorts!  This is Laura and she's 10. Her dad is Miguel, who drove us around.

 silly girls eating lots and lots o' jolly ranchers....ALL the girls loved them:), Dominican and American

 my job at the sewing machine was threading the needle:)

 Cana and Bethany were 15 year old twins from Ohio. Their parents became missionaries and went to Costa Rica for a year of language learning. Then they moved to the DR to help at a boy's home. These girls were SO sweet and were already fluent in Spanish..just from hanging out with the other girls. They loved living there and feel like even though they had "a lot going for them and lots of stuff" in the US, they felt so much closer to God in the DR and want to stay there. They have become best friends with the girls there and are thankful for the little things. They live in a 'typical' Dominican house with no hot water, etc. They truly were great examples of teenagers who want to live for God.

 Bethany braided Cailey's hair (they have an 11 year old sister and a 4 year old brother, too). And Mercy is in the picture on the right. She's a sweet 10 year old.

 all the girls with their finished shorts..and Diana

Diana is another missionary with a great story.... I loved meeting all the missionaries! She is a nurse at the Las Palmas School and married a Dominican named Yenzi who she met years ago on her first mission trip. They were really good friends and kept in touch over the years. Once she decided she was moving there for good they started dating. (He liked her but didn't want to be the reason she moved there). Yenzi preaches at the church on Sunday nights and helps out with the youth. LOVE their story..and Diana is SO very sweet. She translated on both Saturday night and Sunday morning.

 After making the shorts Lora did a bible study with the girls..you can see Diana standing up to translate.

 Lora showed them how to make pillowcase dresses after the bible study. We had hoped they could make one but since only one machine was working that wasn't going to happen.

 This was right beside the safe house. This was normal. There is trash ALL OVER the place. It's normal there.

 We walked back to the church after teaching sewing. This was really the only time we were out walking in this area. I did ask the missionaries if they felt safe (since some were single women) and they told me yes, but they wouldn't go out night. Steve said his stuff wasn't safe but he was..so if he didn't have bars on the windows then most likely they would be robbed. Every building we saw had bars on the windows.

 we didn't see crazy bugs, etc. but found lots of these cute guys climbing outside of the church

 The ladies

While we were teaching sewing, Nolan, Xander, and Brian M. were playing baseball with some local kids at the baseball ministry. They had a blast!

The other boys/men were painting the house out at Visionland. They got the whole thing painted (YAY)! I don't have pictures but they worked super hard to get it done in just a couple hours.

We met up again for lunch then tackled the next project; organizing a whole lotta random stuff. 

 This is the before picture. Craziness. There was everything in this room..decorations, technology equipment, a pool table, a couple air conditioners, lawn mowers, books, etc.

We worked hard emptying out the room (there were many hands to help) and separating it out into categories.

 The men and some of the boys worked on building shelves

 After a couple hours it looked like this!

This was a great learning moment for me on standards and flexibility. Ana was SO VERY THANKFUL we organized it for her. My vision was a bit different. But I'm type A and have access to a lot more things to use for organizing. Seeing the joy on her face made me so happy.

 giving Lora a sweaty hug

 They were preparing the baptismal for the next day when they would have the first baptisms there!

 I loved the old buildings and architecture..and made the kids pose by this cool window in the toddler room for me:).

 After we finished the room, we came back for an hour and a half to rest, etc. The kids decided to swim in the very GREEN hotel pool for half the time.

 us mamas preferred to watch while the daddies either swam or took showers/napped.

 dawn was teaching cora and cailey how to dive. i was really hoping it would be successful..but she just won't keep her chin down!

 there were fruit trees all around and coconuts on the ground.

 cora found this coconut that she named Harry:)

 all clean and ready for the youth church service

 race ya to the bus!

 a family picture by THE tree

 They have the youth service at Las Palmas school so they can play games, etc.

 Cana wore the shorts she made with us to the service! And of course the girls loved on Callie and Chloe (MK's)

We started off singing some worship songs in Spanish. It was so cool because they were all songs we knew the English version of. 

 Then it was game time..so so fun:)

 the judges

 more games...communicating in Spanish was a necessity! :)

 They held the service under the tent and Jeremy preached while Diana translated.

 one of the songs

After the service we all went back to the church for dinner. The first dinner, that is:).  When we got back to the hotel we walked to a pizza restaurant together. It was so very fun!

 there were random horses tied to trees all along the way. so strange! cailey thought they were starving and wanted to feed them or let them go.  poor girl was so sad for them!

 our group walking in the pitch black..thankfully there was one (tiny) flashlight

 we ordered five pizzas for the group. bacon, veggie, supreme, and two cheeses

 there was a singer that cracked us up and got us singing the next evening:). He even sang "my way" by Frank Sinatra in English for us Americans. We had another great/long day so both Cailey and I crashed when we got home....

but Brian stayed up to watch the final tournament basketball game. in Spanish. So now he's seen the Super Bowl in Korean and the Final Game in Spanish. :)