God is revealing himself in the DR in ways I never could have anticipated. I've honestly been avoiding this blog and have been volunteering every other member in the group to write it each day for fear of diluting the mighty things He's done. Sharing the gospel in the DR is a wonderfully encouraging experience because of the people's willingness and even eagerness to sit and listen to you talk about Christ--for hours even. I have never been turned down or ignored. It's mind blowing, coming from a culture where simply making instantaneous eye contact with a stranger is painful for most.

I was stoked to be back on campus yesterday to share Jesus with the students after the riots prevented us on Wednesday. I had the opportunity to share the message of salvation with many students before bible study on campus, and many of the people I met were interested in joining the study. After Ashlie and I shared with a few groups of people, I asked God to provide a Dominican translator so I could dive deeper into the Gospel. Israel is our only Spanish speaker in the group. I am only able to get through the Gospel using Way of the Master in a very basic fashion and carry on simple conversations. At that time I saw Andy and decided to go chat with him for a minute. Andy had Estevan with him (a Christian Dominican who has devoted a lot of his time to translating for us). It turned out that Andy's group needed to leave that moment to go teach one of the English classes which freed up Estevan to come translate with me. Really God? This gave me the opportunity to share many more analogies, examples, and parts of my testimony to help get across the reality of eternity. What's even more strange to me is that I've had 5-6 Dominicans tell me my Spanish is good and my pronunciation even better. This is just whack, but praise God for bridging communication gaps! I make no boast in this.

Because fellowship is basically nonexistent for these students, the idea of us leaving tonight is breaking their hearts and ours. Please pray that fellowship on campus would grow and that they would be one in Spirit and purpose. Also pray that we would return to Des Moines ready to blast the city with the love of Christ, maintaining our current pace. In the words of Herschel, "We know too much to kill time." I appreciate your prayers and support. I'm excited to tell you all more about how God is pursuing people, renewing my mind, and reviving my heart.

Kayla (Heavenly Realm Gangstas)

Wow, what a crazy week! It is hard to believe that it is already Thursday night. The week has flown by. The Lord has provided in unimaginable ways. I truly believe that any words I type will not do justice to the work that the Lord has been doing in the DR. It can best be summed up in the bible study that we had today @ 4. This is the foundation and heartbeat of the Church that is forming here on campus. We had over 50 Dominicans that came and worshipped with us during this time. Many were believers (a decent number became Believers and were saved within the past 2 weeks) but many are still not yet believers. It is so obvious that the Lord has a desire to reach this section of the world. There are also what appears to be many faithful men and women who have a desire to labor for their fellow students on campus. The hearts of the Dominicans are so soft. Our prayer for the final 24 hours is that we would finish strong as a group. The we would love the Dominicans to the end, just as Jesus did in John 13.

Our additional prayer is that men and women on campus would unite together and form a body of believers that will be used to reach the campus for Christ. It will be very easy for Satan to destroy the work that the Lord has begun here if he can keep the new believers out of fellowship with one another. Please pray that relationships would be formed and built upon amongst the students.

We thank you for your continual prayers for the time down here. We have seen many salvations, and have witnessed the gospel go out to literally thousands of people over the week. You know you have a good problem on your hand when you run out of bibles to give away! We have been humbled to see the ways in which the Lord has used us, knowing that he has worked many times over behind the scenes.

We are all sad to leave here, but many are missing friends and family back home. We look forward to seeing you all. God Bless!

Erica, Jon, Jassey, Alison, Alexandra, Japheth


Praise God!!

JC's Birthday Party

French Fry Pizza

Hola de DSM2DR!

The last couple of days have flown by. Tuesday began with yet another delicious breakfast spread, followed by some encouragement and exhortation from Herschel. Herschel spoke of Hebrews 12:1-2, entreating that we fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter (finisher) of our faith. In the afternoon, we shared the Gospel, and Greg led Bible study, with Leslie translating. It was a very powerful time as Greg shared his testimony, followed by Becky! The amazing stories, of how Jesus captured their hearts, freeing them from the sin that had entangled them, clearly showed God’s greatness, and were relatable. We all face similar temptations and lies, but Jesus Christ has given us victory over the power of sin in our lives. Hallelujah!

By God’s providence, our mission team was invited to share the Gospel at a local school, by one of the teachers who met the mission team last week through our English classes. Seizing the opportunity, six of us (Pastor Tim, Gregurio, Andy, Leslie, Tara and Becky) departed around 6:45am Wednesday morning, with one million dollar bill Gospel tracts and supplies for bracelets. The Lord provided class after class of children, kindergarten-12th grade, who were invited to hear the Gospel in a fun and interactive way. Early on, principal came in and expressed her joy in our validating with the students what she has been working to impress upon them about our Savior, Jesucristo. Praise God!

We continue to meet up with and spend time with our Dominican friends, building up relationships. We praise God for our Dominican friends, and we ask that you join us in prayer for those who have been hanging out, attending Bible study, and the children who heard a clear presentation of the Gospel yesterday (at school!). Thank you so much for being of one mind with us. God bless!

Tara (on behalf of DSM2DR – Gregurio, Caleb, Shaly and Becky)

The Lord proved once again today that He is in control and that His plan is always better than ours. Carol was not feeling well and so we encouraged her to rest for part of the day. As we were ready to head to campus to share the Gospel and try to meet up with people we had contacted before, we got word that there had been rioting on campus and that classes were cancelled for the day. One group had already gone to campus, but made it back safely without incident. Now what? Well, Marcos, a guy the Lord led us to outside of Baskin Robbins, came by this morning to see us. He had the whole day off and so we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon with Him, sharing favorite verses and encouraging Him in his faith. He became a Christian about a month ago and it was awesome to here how well he understands the Bible and Jesus in such a short time. He also led us to the best Dominican food we have experienced yet which was half a block down the street from our hostel.

Later on in the afternoon, we invited people over to our hostel for bible study. Paul, Hannah, Emily, Alicia, and I went through John 3 with Marcos and Jason. Jason is not a Christian, but understands the Gospel clearly and knows he needs to make a decision for Christ. Please pray for him! He is so close to becoming a Christian. As a group, we have been praying that God would give us two people to build up in their faith and spend quality time with during the trip and He answered that prayer today. There were also about 10 others that came by the hostel today for bible study and so the other groups got to spend the same type of quality time, studying the Bible and sharing the Gospel with small groups of people.

Before dinner, Carol, JC and some others took a girl from bible study out for ice cream. While there, Carol handed a tract to a gal working and she turned out to be a Christian who has been looking for a long time for a church and is so excited to get connected with the Christians here. Praise God!

After bible study, we had a party at our hostel to thank Evelyn. She is a local who has been so great in organizing our trip here and getting us all the contacts we have needed to make this trip a success.

God is doing such a great work here. It is such a joy to see such soft hearts towards the Gospel, hearing stories of salvations and doors opening to other groups, and being a part of it. Today was so awesome. I am reminded, though, when the disciples returned to Jesus from seeing people healed and God doing amazing things, Jesus told them not to rejoice so much in what God had done, but that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). Being saved by God and given an inheritance with Him in heaven for all of eternity is so amazing. The love of God compels us to go and share the Good News and I am so blessed and privileged to be a part of this trip and see God working in the lives of the people here in the DR. Praise God!

P.S. What battle did Napoleon die in you ask? The last one of course. Ha!

It was an encouraging morning in the D.R. After starting the morning with some songs, we shared stories from so far this week. It was so awesome to hear what the Lord has been doing in the Dominican Republic this week through this trip.

There was a small team, including Andy, that spent the morning and early afternoon at a K-12 school teaching a lesson that included getting to share the gospel with pretty much the entire school.

As the rest of the group was getting prepared to make our way to campus, we found out that there was a protest going on at the campus protesting an announcement that the university hospital was going to be privatized. Due to safety concerns and the university president canceling classes for the day, we decided not to go to campus at all today. The morning and early afternoon were spent in our hostel praying, reading, and contacting people we met earlier in the week as well as people the team from last week met, to follow up.

After lunch we went to the sand volleyball courts near our hostel to play some volleyball and share the gospel. There were a lot of really good conversations and tracts handed out. We continue to be blessed having two fluent Spanish speakers on our team. Those of us who are, to put it kindly, less than fluent continue to make attempts at speaking Spanish and adding to our vocabulary.

The night ended with a party at the hostel to thank Evelyn for all the work she has done to make this trip the success it has been so far. We had many of our friends we have met in the D.R. join us for the evening. It was great to continue building relationships with our friends here. It is hard to believe we only have two more days left before we return to Des Moines. We can't wait to see what else the Lord will do in the D.R. these last couple days.

Andy, Ed, Sara, Kate, Carla, Muje

Alexandra, Erica, Jassey, Alison, Japheth, Jon

Praises:

Hola!

The gangstas from the Heavenly realm (Israel, Kayla, Stephanie, Ryne, Ashlie) are having an amazing mission trip. Today we went to campus and Shared like crazy! The people here are so nice. The Dominicans are willing to work with us even though our Spanish is broken! Yesterday I (Ashlie) talked to a girl who knew no English. I tried my best with the Spanish words I could remember. I mostly gave her the time and said Bible study. I didn’t expect to see her. I should have known there is no language barrier when it comes to God’s plan.

The Bible study went really well today. We had at least thirty people. Greg and Becky Shared some pretty great testimonies. The people were really touched. After Greg and Becky were done, the Dominicans had so many questions! A boy named Lukenson, thanked me for all of us coming and sharing about God. It really makes me feel like we are making a difference in God’s kingdom!

All of us missionaries miss all of you at home! Blessings on your day!

Special shout out to my Bible study and my lovely roommates!

Team Andy, Ed, Muje, Carla, Kate and Sara

This morning after worship and Herschel's message we went to campus to go sharing and meet up with people we had met yesterday. It was encouraging because everyone we made plans with showed up!! We had left "homework" with one of them and she actually read John 3 before we got together and had questions about it. we didn't have tons of time because she was late getting there and had to go to class. She wants to meet up tomorrow to talk more about the Bible so you can be praying for Triny and our timem tomorrow that the Lord will lead her to the truth of the Gospel. Keilis is another student we got together with again and he had good questions and wanted to know more. We got to share with a few more people. Two of the ladies from our group met up with 6 or 7 students they'd talked to yesterday and they genuinely wanted to know about the Bible.

This afternoon we went to the Haitian camps in San Pedro (a town about an hour from Santo Domingo) where mostly Hatian and some Domincan people live. It is an extremely impoverished community without electricity or running water. We split into groups and walked around the whole camp to pass out gospel tracts and invite them to watch The Jesus Movie which presents the Gospel and explains how we have have our sins forgiven only through Christ's shed blood on the cross. However, just before the movie was going to play, it started to rain and it hasn't rained in that area for a long time. As a result, we unfortunately had to pack up and head back to Santo Domingo. You can pray that in two weeks when Herschel comes back with a team from Maryland the Lord will provide and they will be able to show it.

The most encouraging part was on the way back to Santo Doming, we had time to talk with "Sammy Sosa" our taxi driver from last year and "chaperone" this year. After a while Neno (his real name) said that he knew he wasn't saved and that if he died he knew he was going to hell. He said he wanted to be saved and put his faith in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. We were able to pray with him and pray for him. it is so encouaraging to see how God is faithful to draw people to himself and reveal himself to those who don't yet know him.

Please pray for:

1. Triny that the Lord would open her eyes to the truth of the Gospel, her need for a Savior and that she would place her faith and her trust only in the shed blood of Jesus on the cross and grow to be a disciple of Christ.
2. Keilis that if he is not already saved, that he would come to saving faith in Christ and grow as a Christian.
3. For Neno that he would dedicate himself to reading God's Word every day for the rest of his life and that he would grow to be a disciple of Christ and become a godly man and a godly leader.
4. The Hatian camp and the people there. That the Jesus video would be shown in two weeks and that many people would get saved and their lives would be changed forever for good.

Wendy's restaurant became a hub of communication for our team at the outset of our day. We met there for lunch with Tommy, a student from our English class, who had prayed to accept Christ last week. Ryan, Emily, and Hannah studied the bible with him. We also followed up with contacts from last week. Two friends rendezvoused with us there to follow us to our class. A student Paul met last year joined us--an answered prayer!

A Haitian that Ryan and Alicia met on the street yesterday showed up and also a brand new Christian that Carol and and Alicia met at Baskin Robbins yesterday. English class went ten times better than the first day as we broke down into smaller groups. This allowed for more interaction. We stuck around for bible study and had many productive conversations. Many students have church backgrounds but are searching and many are unsure about God, but were willing listeners. It was cool to see around 40 students gathered in a circle listening to Greg and Becca share how God has changed their lives. They all had new testaments and flipped in unison to the passages that were mentioned.

At night, a few of us went down to Guiba, an outdoor volleyball park on the ocean to hang out, play volleyball and hand out tracts. It was a good time as many people heard the Gospel and we got to hang with people we met during the couple of days. We also met a guy dressed like a robot who beeped at JC when he handed him tract.

I (Ryan), was given a run for my money today. Tommy, who did a bible study with Emily, Hannah and I stopped in the middle of our study a couple of times to tell jokes. There was a quote from Napoleon about Jesus in our study and Tommy stopped to say "Do you know which battle Napoleon died in?". Stay tuned tomorrow for the answer tomorrow. :)

All in all, it was a productive day. Please be praying for people we have met to get connected to the bible study meeting on campus. We are really praying that God will raise up laborers and a church here that build up the young believers and reach many Dominicans with the Gospel. Hebrews 12 says that Jesus is the "author and finisher" of our faith. We have such an amazing God who not only wants us to enter into a relationship with Him, but He wants to mature us and use us to help others come into a relationship with Him. He is so good!

We are loving being in the Dominican Republic!

A tremendous hola from Groupo DSM2DR from Santo Domingo (Greg A., Caleb T., Shaly M., Tara B. and Becky H.)! We rose up at the break of dawn to spend time with the Lord, before consuming a scrumptious breakfast put on by the gracious staff of the Bella Epoca (the hostel we’re currently residing in). We then heard some convicting and challenging words from Herschel Martindale, one of the core founders of the Great Commission group of churches. He laid out how we should constantly be “ready to run when the sun is up” – in essence, encouraging us to push full-force for the cause of Christ. We then prayed it up and headed to the Santo Domingo University (which was a stone’s throw’s away from where our hostel was, i.e. was accessible by foot very easily).

The university hustled and bustled with life, with students hanging out everywhere, from the library, to the basketball courts, even to the edge of campus. Our group headed to the library, where we engaged in conversations with the students that were spread out in the patio area. Some of us were endowed with tremendous grace from God as we had the opportunity to be assisted by some university students that we just met who were proficient in English, enabling us to clearly get the message of the Gospel across in their native language, Spanish. The students who we conversed with were so open and had such soft hearts to hearing the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and why every individual requires Him to be his/her personal Lord and Savior. It’d be most excellent if the blog readers could lift up Patricia, Ibelka, Katherine, Ruth, Belli, Solangel, Yafreisy and Yael in prayers (some of the students we spoke to today). We invited them to participate in the English classes that we’re organizing daily at 1400 hours and to attend the daily 1600 hours Bible study that Greg leads.

The 1600 hours Bible study today focused on the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, and was terrific in following-up and tying together the Gospel in greater detail. Students that attended the English classes and others that were invited by the other groups were present there. We stayed to chat after the Bible study was adjourned. Last but not least, we finished up the night playing sand volleyball, at courts that were located just beside the picturesque ocean. Since there were locals “chilling” by the beachside while simultaneously watching the volleyball matches, some of us who weren’t involved in the games had the golden opportunity to pass out Gospel tracts and were able to share the Good News with those who were there. It was a grand time. Keep lifting each of our groups in prayer, that the Lord will be using each and every team member to advance His kingdom here.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3

Andy, Ed, Kate, Carla, Sara, Muje

Today marked the first of five days of sharing the gospel on campus. The day started great. Breakfast was extensive as usual and afterwards, Herschel Martindale spoke as I've never heard anyone speak before. Only the Spirit of God can touch a mans heart in the way the listeners were touched today. Praise the Lord for Herschel's willingness to be used by God all these years.

The group rallied for a time of prayer then it was off to the campus. After a brief 10 minute walk we reached the college campus and were utterly amazed. I've never been witness to so many young people walking from building to building, having lunch, or just sitting in the shade relaxing and talking to one another.

The sheer number was astonishing to me. The group split into groups of two and spread out to share the gospel and hand out tracts. The groups shared into mid-afternoon until it was time to teach an hour long intermediate English class on campus.

English class went well and many of the students stayed well afterwards to speak with us about Christ. Because my Spanish speaking skills are non-existent, it was great to have so many people who could not only speak English but also understand it as well. We were able to meet a lot of people today and began the process of developing real relationships with them. By the grace of God, the gospel was able to be clearly communicated to many many people.

After eating dinner and returning to the hostel for 30 minutes we quickly regrouped and walked to the sand volleyball courts. The courts are in a central part of town just a few feet from the shoreline. It's another great spot where many of the people like to gather and socialize. Through volleyball we were able to connect with many more people who are eager to hangout with the "Americans" later on this week.

We are excited to see the Lord continue to move and stir the hearts and minds of the people, including all of us as well.

Beautiful weather and abundant opportunities for building relationships were hallmarks of our first day of English classes. We kicked off the morning with an encouraging word from Herschel Martindale after our morning worship. His passion and care for people is inspiring and infectious.

After some prep, we braved the chaotic roads and walked to campus. The road rules dictate that whoever gets there first has the right of way. This sometimes requires stepping into a wave of traffic with faith that it will yield. En route, we visited with a group of Haitians and shared about Jesus. One of them is a willing future translator from creole to English.

Our Advanced English class started somewhat awkwardly as we had a large, very enthusiastic class and we were meeting outside. We broke the ice by teaching them the cha cha slide and demonstrating the English idiom of the bear hug. For the bible-reading portion, we split into groups and had better personal interaction. Many students had returned from the previous week. We made many friends and the gospel went out. I was able to call a few guys I met last year. Pray I'd be able to meet with and encourage them. We have  appointments with people in the next week. Pray we'd use our time efficiently and continually improve our classes.

We celebrated our first class day with Baskin Robbins, and even at the ice cream shop we were able to share with some people. In the evening,we visited the local hotspot on the beach. Some played volleyball and the rest conversed with new and old friends. We ended the day encouraged by conversation and ice cream. Pray for God to continue to change lives and give us more compassion. Also, a group will go to a Haitian community tomorrow, Tuesday. Pray God would use that opportunity.

God bless!

Groupo de Tortugas Rapidas:

(Lex, Erica, Jassey, Alison, Japheth, Jon)

We Praise God…

• For the incredible hospitality and generosity of Jassey’s family Friday night; housing us, feeding us, and being our own personal tour guides around downtown Chicago. What a blessing just to be in their presence. 
• For working miracles, making dreams come true, defying time and airline regulations to get our whole team down safely to the DR. Hooray! 
• For the enthusiasm of people here to come to our English classes. Some are willing to travel an hour away just to attend. 

Pray with us…

Team Equipo de semillo de apio
(Ryan, Hannah, Alicia, Emily, Carol, and Paul)


Day 1 in the Dominican

God has already answered prayers. After flight delays in Chicago, and a few close calls, all of group 2 made it to Santo Domingo nearly on schedule. The gospel went out during flights and during the taxi rides through New York.

After a few hours of sleep, we all bused to a Sunday morning church service in San Pedro. Members of this church are instrumental in the growing on-campus bible study and soon-to-be church plant in Santo Domingo. It was encouraging to be around like-minded Christians. Our bus rides give opportunity to enjoy the tropical weather. Pray for continued sun!

After lunch and a much needed nap, we scoped out the university campus for our class location. God clearly directed our steps to good conversations through some students calling us over to a basketball game. While our friend Ryne balled it up, Hannah got to know Julio, a student, and helped him understand that salvation is free. Paul and Alicia met sebastian, a high school student, and talked about why we should trust the bible.

we celebrated our first full day here by visiting a fancy authentic restaurant and enjoyed great seafood, meat, fruit juice, and mufango.

Please pray for our first English classes tomorrow and that we would efficiently use our time to share truth and build relationships. Also pray for effective follow up and continued contact with existing friends.


God bless!

The Travel Report : We were able to witness the faithfulness of the Lord first hand. I feel like we have talked about God’s faithfulness more in the last 2 weeks while prepping for this trip, but when the Lord comes through and reminds you in real life situations you can do nothing but stop and thank Him, giving­ Him all honor that He’s due.

Not only did we receive Andy’s passport FedEx-ed to a house in Chicago while en route to Chicago (that’s a story best left for another time….as it in itself is a ROWDY story), but we also experienced the delay of a flight that impacted 22 people.

We were told around 2pm that our 4:45pm flight from Chicago would be delayed until 5:50pm. This would put us at JFK 50 minutes AFTER our flight was departing for the Dominican Republic and they weren’t going to hold the flight. Needless to say, we were a little shaken. There always seem to be flight issues, but the thought of 22 people altering their flights and making it to the Dominican Republic on time just didn’t seem possible.

Hola from Santo Domingo!

Team TBD (aka Heavenly Realm Gangstaz): Israel Lopez, Ryne Oller, Ashley Baldwin, Stephanie Albright, Kayla Waters

Day 1 was a success. I, along with Israel and two others, we're on the last flight and arrived around 3am. We had better luck with flights and baggage than the other groups as everything went without a hitch. Not to get off track but they had live TV on our flight so I was zoned into March Madness on our connection from 30 thousand feet in the air. Someone's gotta suffer for the cause of Christ...

The highlights of the day begin with the church we visited in San Pedro. I managed to chime in a few "hallelujahs" during worship, too. Otherwise I was humming. They had a translator for the sermon and that proved beneficial for novice Spanish speakers like me. It was fun to see people of a different culture worship the same God we do.

Tonight we went down to the University of Santo Domingo to check out the area we´ll be targeting this week. As we were walking into the school there were a group of guys playing basketball. They noticed us and yelled at me to come over and play with them, "Americano! come here!" I had jeans on and no shorts packed but I went over to chat with them. They were very insistent that I play despite me very eloquently explaining that I had "pantalones" on. One of the guys apparently had an extra pair of shorts because the next thing I knew I had shorts shoved in my face. With the help of one of guys, I found myself standing inside some type of electrical enclosure box for privacy changing into those shorts. It was as every bit of shady as it sounds. But there was basketball to be had. I felt like I was in the move, "White Men Can't Jump". All the guys wanted to see the "gringo" play. I managed to rep fellow gringos decently and had a lot fun. It was a great opportunity for others from our groups to talk with people who were sitting out or watching the games. There were many people just hanging out waiting to be befriended and asked about Jesus Christ. I was really encouraged by how God was using us within minutes of being on campus. Our group has been praying for the Lord to soveriengly bring us across specific people and we´re excited to hang out with our new friends and tell them more about the Gospel.

We appreciate and encourage your prayers! God bless from the DR.

Playing basketball

Group photo (Israel not pictured)

The work continues!

This last week has passed by so quickly, but it was SO good to see everything that has been done to build up the body of Christ in Santo Domingo!

Shaly, Leslie, Megan, and I had a great day to simmer a little bit before the next group comes in. God has blessed us with some meetings with contacts we have had this week and continues to do more than we can even ask for.

I am humbled by the softness of heart that these Dominicans possess and am saddened that their hunger for truth and willingness to listen to anyone has equalled for them a trust in their own works for salvation.

As we go into this next week, please pray for wisdom and faithfulness as we follow-up with our contacts from last week. Also, pray for our missionaries, that they would begin and end the trip with a humble heart that is abiding in Christ. Also, that we would be a loving body who is "correctly handling the word of truth" 2 Timothy 2:15b

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!
Much Love,

Caleb Thompson

This is a picture of Mikel and I having a nice lunch ocean-side! (Remember: Sun's out, Guns out!)

Josh, Kaden, Mike, Kari, Kassie, Andrea

March 21st, 2012 (Sorry for the delay. We had no internet at our apartment the last few days)

Hola Amigos!

Our day was another eventful one! We knew we were going to have a good day when Evelyn decided to make pancakes and bacon for us for breakfast. After that we took a taxi over to the hostel where we spent some time in prayer and sang a few songs to prepare for the day. After that it was off to the University.

We again spent a significant amount of time hanging out in front of the library. This has proven to be a great spot for our group and we have been able to get in many conversations and form relationships with some of the students who spend time there in between class. Our group made it a priority to meet up with a number of people we had met last year or earlier this week so that we could have follow-up conversations and see if these people had taken more time to think about where they were at in their walk with Christ.

Two of the highlights of today were that there were two people who placed their faith in Jesus Christ! This first one was the man named Jorge that Josh, Andrea, and Kari had gotten to talk with yesterday. Josh was able to spend some more time talking with him and he said that he was ready today to place his faith in Christ. Right there they sat down on the grass and he prayed for a good two minutes in Spanish just pouring out his heart to God and expressing his need for a Savior!

Also, Steve (A local Dominican Christian who has translated for our group) and Mike were in a conversation with a man named Joel. This was one of the first times that Steve had ever led the conversation instead of just translating. He was very excited when Joel made the decision to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior! Steve said that this was the first time he had ever seen someone come to know Christ and he wanted to make sure that it was not the last!

Please pray for continued strength and energy for our group over these next few days. Also pray for wisdom on how to best spend our time. Finally, pray for Jorge and Joel that they would fully understand the decision they have made and really commit their whole lives to His service. We have plans to spend more time with them over the next few days so Lord willing we will be able to help them understand some of the basics such as reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and being in fellowship with other believers.

Wow. Thank you for your prayers. God is WORKING in this country! Almost everyone we have talked to believes in God, believes in Jesus, believes in the Bible, but thinks that their way to heaven is through good works. When they hear that it is only through Jesus and not through themselves, they desire Jesus. The challenge has been explaining that salvation is more than just saying a prayer - it is an intentional decision to make Jesus Lord in every area of life.

Here are some praises:

We were able to talk to the English class today where Abe, Ellie, Nicole, Scott and Matt each talked with a group of about 3-4 students. The professor had us help them with their homework then we were able to walk through Gospel tracks with them. Ellie thinks one student got saved! It rained most of the day so we spent a lot of time huddling under awnings packed with people - prime time to talk to people! We again ran into many familiar faces at Bible study and playing volleyball. Praises to God for bringing us so many people to share with—people just kept walking up to us wanting to play! For dinner, we were joined by a really excited Christian named Robert who only spoke Spanish and was very pumped to hang out with us. Our favorite line from him was "What political party are you part of?" "I'm a part of POJ - Party of Jesus!" At bible study today we sang worship songs and were so encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by many of our new friends - they love to sing!

We have invited so many students to the 'goodbye party' tomorrow so prayers for logistics—that we can get food to campus, etc. and that we can leave a lasting impression of Christ's love on the students we have met and are so sad to have to leave! All in all - GOD IS SO GOOD!

- Abe, Caleb, Ellie, Matt, Nicole, Scott

Hola! Team Equipo Gozo is so thankful!

Today looked a lot like yesterday in that we spent the majority of the day on campus talking with students and then played volleyball in the evening. Matt was blessed to have people help him with translating and had some really great gospel-oriented conversations with people that were really soft towards the gospel and seemed to understand. Many guys were interested in English conversations with the girls, so prayers are needed that the gospel goes out over their desire for a visa. Ha ha.

We were once again able to spend a lot of time with people Caleb and Shaly had met last year as well as new friends we all met this year over the last few days. Staying in the same place attracted many repeats, so we were able to reconnect and carry on conversations from days before. Scott and Ellie would like prayers for one individual specifically who seems close to accepting Christ. Nicole and Matt were serenaded by some choir kids and were able to talk to many of them, of which at least 2 were Christians and one is really excited to talk about Christ. We were able to see some of them again later at volleyball. Once again, we played with local Dominicans and many heard the gospel as well. We are so thankful for the relationships we have been able to establish and how God is bringing the same people across our path again and again. We have had some crazy conversations and ran into some interesting people. There are many kids that run around on the streets we have been able to love and share with, but they need so many prayers for food, money, etc.

We are scheduled to speak to an English class tomorrow, so prayers for soft hearts are needed as the professor said we could share the gospel! He is not a Christian. Also, we made some connections with the local Campus Crusade leader as well as a missionary group working for Campus Crusade from Oklahoma - the Lord is definitely at work on this campus and more people than we can count have heard the gospel and received tacts!

Things carried on smoothly even without the booth. We hung around the same place we were yesterday and had many familiar faces stop by again, which was so encouraging! Nicole met a Christian yesterday that helped translate for a while, Ellie was able to talk to an English Professor in hopes of talking to his class tomorrow where he said we could talk about the Gospel! Praise the Lord! He just has to get permission first so prayers for that. Caleb reconnected with Dominicans that attend the San Pedro church and they labored alongside us for parts of the day. Matt was very encouraged with the relationships he was able build - without the booth we didn't meet as many people but were able to spend more time building into a few people in hopes we could help them understand what Jesus Christ did for us all. We are so thankful for our team members that know Spanish; Ellie and Scott were an unstoppable team together and all of us snagged Abe at one point to translate.

We all ended up attending the Bible Study today and were encouraged by all the interest there. Another sweet opportunity we had was to play volleyball with the locals.

A trend we are seeing is that many people wanted to practice their English and the Gospel tracts were a convenient English/Spanish translation for them to use, so many prayers that they would look past English practice and understand the message.

This morning we had breakfast at the apartments and headed to the hostel to worship with the entire group. We headed to the campus around 11:30 a.m. Randy, Isaac, and Michelle went out sharing with students sitting around campus. They met two girls who were interested in hearing about Jesus. While sharing with them, a man nearby was having car troubles, so Randy was able to go help him figure out the problem. He was able to share the Gospel with the man and share with a woman who was translating for him. Adam and Allie were approached by a man that spoke great English and was wandering why they were in the Dominican. They were able to share the Gospel with him and found out he was a man that searching for a church to get plugged into. Afterwards, they had a quick lunch and headed straight to English class. They were encouraged by many new students showing up to class. The students seemed to enjoy the time today. After class, we all hung out around the Modern Language building. Michelle and Allie were able to talk with a man who was interested in joining the new church in Santo Domingo. He was a Christian without any fellowship. Michelle, Kaden, and Mike were able to share with two people; the woman had a soft heart, but she was not ready to accept Christ today. They are hoping to meet with her later this week. The man had an extremely soft heart, and I believe he will accept Christ when we meet with him on Thursday. Adam and Randy talked to a man named Angel for more than two hours. After struggling to communicate clearly, they were able to get a translator. After going through the Gospel with him for the third time, Angel made the decision to accept Christ. Tonight, Team No Show went out to dinner with Angel. You can pray that Angel gets hooked up with other believers when we leave so he has someone to help him grow in his faith.

Team Fortune Cookie- Josh, Kaden, Mike, Kari, Kassie, Andrea

Today we were again at the University campus. On the way from the hostel to the University, we grabbed some food at the Market to eat for lunch. We ate lunch just outside the Library at the University. Our friends, Estervan and Tommy met us there. Josh and Tommy had their guitars out and played together some. While they were playing and talking, we had many good conversations with the people hanging out around the library. Estervan was a huge help translating for Andrea and Kassie. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with people, sharing with people and some of us went to the Bible Study being held on campus.

On the way to get juice drinks for our group, Kari and Andrea met a guy named Jorge. We had a good conversation about the gospel and he was very interested. He recognized that He was a sinner and that God has given us the gift of His Son so that we may receive eternal life if we believe in Him. Kari and Andrea introduced Jorge to Josh. Josh was able to continue explaining the gospel and show Jorge verses for around an hour. Jorge is soft and understands the truth, but has not yet decided to follow Jesus. He asked for our contact information so he could let us know “when he made the decision to receive Christ.” Please pray that he follows through and we are able to meet up with him again!

We are so incredibly thankful for all that God has done the last couple of days!! We got up the last couple of mornings and got to spend a lot of time with the Lord and worship together as a large group. On campus we have continued to meet up with people we met last year. It has been so encouraging to see God continually answer our prayers! English classes have been going well. God tends to change our plans from time to time but this is always for our benefit and for His glory. We have been able to meet a cornucopia of people who have been very interested in hearing about why we are here and talking to us in English. Collin, Phil and Carlos (one of our Dominican friends) got to share with a student who prayed to receive Christ today and got to meet the pastor from San Pedro. We have also been able to hand out a lot of tracks, new testaments and other materials.

Thank you so much for the prayers; Bible Study went very well on Monday. God brought about 15 Dominicans to hear about Jesus. Some were encouraged in their faith while others were challenged to think about who they thought Jesus was.

Another highlight was Manuela professing faith in Jesus and feeling a burden lifted from her! Praise God!

Today we plan to do another Bible Study.

Please pray for a Gospel centered Community to form among individuals different groups have relationships with. Pray for wisdom in discipleship as well. We want God to build a long term community of people committed to Jesus not just a one or two week stint.

Thanks for all the prayers. God us revealing his glory and establishing his church before our eyes!

Matt

Team Gozo

Yesterday our team was in charge of the booth raffling away an iPod. We were able to collect soooo much contact information and had the opportunity to share the gospel with many people. There were an average of 4-5 people at the booth all day, so things were pretty hectic but so amazing. Unfortunately, we will not be able to continue the booth for security reasons. Prayers for follow up would be appreciated as there are a lot of people to contact that are interested - praise the Lord!

Keely, Charlie, Kodee, Jason, Jon, Michaeline

Hola! Today was a very exciting day (especially since it didn’t rain!). It was our first full day on the campus and our first day of English classes.

We arrived on campus around 11am and then split into smaller groups to talk to the students. Kodee, who went on the trip last year, went to the place where she met students the year before. While there she saw many people whom she had befriended the year prior. It was super exciting to see them and to talk with them. God is so faithful with people. Kodee was specifically praying she would meet six people from the year before (prayer answered). Also, God was faithful with chances to continue to share truth with them and show them the love of Christ!

After lunch, our group prepared for English club. We had a class of about 8 students, all of whom spoke English well. We taught them some idioms and then dove into the Bible and read the story of Jesus’ birth. It started late, but went extremely well. Many of them stayed later and hung out with us for a bit. The class was a great way to serve and love them and we are thrilled to get to know them better and teach them about Christ! Please pray for soft hearts and open ears!

After our English class, we continued to walk around the campus and talk with students. Evelyn’s daughter Saskia joined Jon and Michaeline for a conversation with another student, Hansel. Hansel (so hot right now!) spoke only Spanish, but with Saskia’s help, and God’s perfect timing we had a great conversation. Hansel was challenged by our message and expressed a desire to know Christ in a personal way. Pray that Truth takes root in his heart and pray that we can meet with Hansel again. Pray that he desires to follow the Lord with his life.

Please be praying for Cristina, Jessica, Yicel, Angel, Nelson, Jamie, Akeem, and Javier. Ask that God would lead us to people with soft hearts and give us a boldness and a great confidence to share truth in love.

Dios bendiga!

Los Liones Valientes: Ben, Caleb, Jeff, Liz, Erin, Elizabeth

Each day we have been in the Dominican God has surprised us with interesting and amazing situations. It was our first full day trying to be on campus sharing and our first time teaching the English clubs. Yesterday we talked a lot about our vision for the trip and how we thought it made sense to share with a lot of people but to try our best especially to build relationships with a few that we could talk to and hang out with throughout the week. We didn't know exactly how this would be possible especially since our Spanish skills were pretty rusty, but God gives so much grace! We were able to talk to lots of people in the square at the university with the help of our friends who translated for us. The overall spiritual climate is that people believe in God and heaven and hell and they say they know Jesus but they don't want to give their lives to him. It is hard enough to explain how to have a relationship with Jesus Christ apart from our works in English let alone Spanish but everyone we talked to was very patient and we are so thankful for the tracts that are in Spanish.

The best part of the day was the English Club. We teach an intermediate class and six students showed up to learn. All of the them were so intelligent, sweet, and eager to learn. This made our job so much easier and they knew a lot of English so we didn't even have to translate! The lesson is only supposed to be an hour but we got to stay in our group for two hours playing games and talking. Sometimes they knew more about English than we did! This group made it so much easier to build relationships and because they came to us it changed the whole atmosphere.

We are so excited for tomorrow! Everywhere we went today God gave us so many opportunities to talk to people. We met a man from the US at Burger King who is a Christian and was really excited about what we were doing, we talked to a man who was riding his moped and got hit by a truck, a man who stopped us on the street and started sharing with us in English and so many more people. It is so great to continue to see God's faithfulness and how it really is Him going before us and working and setting things up for us.

To end the night we went to El Supermercado and got some treats. We didn't eat lunch until 5 so we weren't very hungry but we got some fruit and pop that we had never seen. The mangoes here are amazing and half of our group didn't know that Grapples could be bought in the US...we laughed a lot. It didn't rain today which was a huge answer to prayer and it enabled us to talk to more people. God is so good!

¡Hola! God has been doing some amazing things down here. Yesterday, we went to the plaza and shared the gospel with people. Allie and Isaac were able to meet and invite people to our English class today. They met a man who encouraged them to continue to share their faith boldly. Adam, Randy, and Michelle were able to plant many seeds with people throughout the plaza. They were encouraged by a man whose life had been drastically changed by Jesus Christ. Then, Randy and Adam got to play basketball and share the gospel with a few high school boys.

Today, we started the day by worshiping with the entire group at the hostel. We spent the rest of the day on the university campus. Randy, Allie, and Michelle struggled with some language barriers today, but were able to clearly communicate the gospel with a few people. God’s grace was evident throughout the day.

Isaac and Adam had a great day sharing the Gospel. Before lunch a man named Ivan prayed to receive Christ and they have plans to meet with him later in the week. After the English class they went over to the basketball courts and were able to share the Gospel with a few more people. One man said he was not sure if he was ready to receive Christ, but would give it some serious thought tonight. They also had another encouraging conversation with a man who was already a Christian.

Our first day teaching English class was great. We had seven students, and they all seemed to enjoy the class. Now that we know how the classroom is set up, planning for tomorrow’s class should be much easier.

Thank you for the continued prayers!

God Bless

Hello! Our team consists of Cole and Dayna Meyers, Lans and Melissa Martin, Kendall Schroll, and Megan Lyon. Our group's adventure began with some interesting travel experiences, but the Lord came through, and we all made it to the DR with our luggage!

On Saturday, we walked to the university to become familiar with campus and where we would be teaching English. As we were walking, we met a professor of English. The Lord conveniently provided a sudden downpour, and we were forced into his classroom where we had a conversation about Jesus. It seemed like he was very interested in some of the things we had to say. It seems as though many Dominicans believe in God, but very few actually have a relationship with him. We were able to explain the difference between simply believing in God and asking God to save you through Jesus Christ. So, please pray for Antonio - that he would ask Jesus to save him from his sins.

Today (Monday), was the first day of our English classes. We were expecting that things would not go according to plan, so things went pretty much as expected. :) God gave us a lot of grace and just in time, he provided a classroom with a marker board AND markers! Many students came and seemed to have a good time. We shared the story of Jesus' birth, and then split into different groups to provide an opportunity for the students to practice their English by talking about the Bible passage. They heard the gospel, had a good time, and want to come back!

Please pray for these things:

1) That we would be faithful in keeping up with all of our contacts throughout the week
2) That many people would realize the difference between BELIEVING in God and KNOWING God.
3) That our group would be able to lead at least one person to Christ every day
4) For boldness and grace - we are all dependent on God to carry out his mission.

Thank you for your prayers - they make the difference.

-Team Equipo

Keely, Charlie, Kodee, Jason, Jon, Michaeline

On Friday, we departed from Walnut Creek Community church at 6:30am. Praise God for safe travels—despite a few delays, everyone arrived safely in the Dominican Republic by Sunday. On the way, Charlie and Keely stayed the night in New York City, where their taxi driver prayed to receive Christ.

Saturday was a quiet day as more teams arrived in the Dominican. We enjoyed one another’s company and ate dinner at a traditional restaurant.

On Sunday, we visited Evelyn’s church for an encouraging worship and message. We spent the afternoon outside nearby a cathedral and shopping area talking to people. God blessed many conversations and gave us grace though people’s willingness to talk.

We met a few Christians—pray that they are encouraged and growing in the Lord. Pray that Frank and Victor are encouraged and keep heaven in mind—even through daily struggles and suffering.

Pray for soft hearts; pray that Truth soaks into hearts and changes lives. Pray specifically for Oscar, Richard, Ezekiel, Alberto, Brady, Victor, Alphoce and Moises. Pray that Victor continues to pursue Truth and asks questions about eternity.

Our prayer for God to put people soft to the gospel in front of us has been answered. During our time in El Cande while speaking with people in the square we were rained out and ended up huddling around parts of the city square to stay dry. There was a middle-aged man that was lingering around us. Finally he was right next to us, and it was as though we had to speak with him. When we asked him if when he died he thought he would be in heaven or hell, he said he didn’t know, but wanted to. After hearing the gospel, he repeated it back in entirety and immediately wanted to go to church. God is so good, pray for Moises. Pray that we can contact him and continue to build a relationship. Pray that the Lord continues to soften their hearts and open their eyes to understand God’s unconditional love.

Today we will begin our English clubs and spend more time on the University campus.

Sam, Jon, Terry, Elena, Jessika, Emily, and Mel

Today we were able to go to a local Church which was such an encouragement and blessing for us all. They talked about Philippians 2:12-13 which was wonderful! After we had lunch, we prepared our English lessons for the classes we will be teaching tomorrow. We will be teaching the advanced English speakers which is a blessing because this will allow for more conversation about the Lord with them.

After dinner, we went sharing by the beach. We were able to have many good conversations; we prayed for a translator and the next person we met was Frank, who told us he was a Christian and that he spoke English. Praise God for his perfect timing! Frank translated for us for while we talked to a group of students. He wants to meet with us again this week and offered to walk around campus with us. That same night, we were able to hand out many tracks to people walking by.

Please pray for our English classes tomorrow. Also, praise God because Emily and Jon got to meet their good friend from last year who wants to walk around the campus with us this week.

This morning we joined Evelyn (our host) at her church where we experienced a great bi-lingual service. It was a great time and real encouragement before we headed out to the Plaza to go share the gospel later that afternoon. Once we got to the Plaza we broke up in to groups of two. It was at first nerve racking, but God’s grace was shown to us by providing great conversations for all the groups.

One example of this was a conversation that Andrea and Josh had with a man named Orlando. He seemed to have a very soft heart and indicated some interest in placing his faith in Christ. The only problem was that he didn’t speak a word of English! However, God’s grace was evident in how they were able to communicate the gospel to him in the first place. Furthermore, they were able to bring a fluent Spanish speaker from another group over to help with a few questions he had and present him a Bible. Be praying for Orlando that he would make the decision to follow Jesus.

Once again sharing was cut a little short due to another tropical down pour! This time we were fortunate to find some cover before we got drenched! (Most of us) We then met up with the other two groups staying at the apartments.

When we got back we made a great dinner and told stories from the day, laughed, enjoyed fellowship with one another, and were joined by a local that another group met. Tomorrow the English classes start at the University and hopefully we will meet some students who speak some English and catch up with friends from last year. Be praying both for the classes and the groups going around sharing across campus. Pray For: 1) Soft hearts 2) That the gospel would be understood clearly. 3) SALVATION!!! That people would recognize their sin and would put their faith and trust in Christ to find forgiveness!

1 Corinthians 9:16
"Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!"

Today was an encouraging day spending time in fellowship around the city of Santo Domingo. We had the opportunity to go to Evelyn’s church today. She has been a great contact for us to have in Santo Domingo to help make the most of our time here. It was the same church we went to last year. We enjoyed singing in worship to “From the Inside Out” in Spanish and hearing an awesome message on Philippians 2:12-13 that encourages believers to “work out their salvation in fear and trembling.” He expounded on how God’s work inside us produces obedience.

After we returned from church we enjoyed lunch outside. One of Allison’s favorite parts of the trip so far has been taking adventures to the super market and buying food for our large group. We then spent the afternoon getting prepared for our Bible Study tomorrow on Luke 2:1-20. We have no idea what God will do with it but we trust that his word will not return void and will accomplish its purpose! (Isaiah 55:10-11) We are glad to have Leslie in our group to translate the gospel into Spanish, to continue to help them learn English while hearing the gospel!

For dinner we headed out into the city to find some dinner with Cole’s group and ended up at Wendy’s/Sbarro. On our walk to and back from dinner, God gave us more compassion for the people in Santo Domingo, and our hearts were broken by the sin we see in people’s lives. But praise the Lord! All of our experiences today as a group has given us some truly genuine times in prayer, and has helped us to grow together as a group in our love for God and our love for these people. Matt was able to share with us some of God’s provision for his group last year, which allowed us to be encouraged in the same way Moses encouraged Joshua in Deuteronomy 3:21-22 in which Moses said to Joshua, “21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. 22 You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’

Please pray for Edward and Jose Luis. They met missionaries that were down in the DR last week from the Gainesville, FL Church. Our group will be contacting them Monday to see if they would like to spend time with us during the week. We believed they are saved and hope God will raise them up as dedicated laborers of him.

As you go on with your Monday please pray for our first time on campus and our Bible Study. God is for sure moving in Santo Domingo. It is such a great privilege to be a part of!!!

Thanks for reading!

-Matt and Mitch

Great news: SCOTT NILIUS HAS ARRIVED. Team Ultra Spiritual Ambassadors is finally whole.

This morning we attended a local church and were very encouraged by the Christians there and the message. They even had translators for us! The rest of the afternoon groups split up to put together materials for tomorrow. We are in charge of a booth to inform students about the English classes. To draw people in, we are holding a drawing to win an iPod! The booth will also challenge students with an interesting question: What are 2 things God cannot do? He cannot punish the righteous nor let the wicked go free. Their answers to this question will lead into meaningful conversations about the Gospel.

After prepping for the booth, we were hoping to go share the Gospel at the University. But, it was pouring out! We stayed in and 2 Dominican women that we met last year came over. They took Nicole, Ellie, and Shaly to a Chinese restaurant to order food to bring back for about 15 people... but Shaly over-ordered... and fed the 5,000! It was delicious! And it was a great opportunity to hang out and love the 2 women.

Tomorrow we will worship in the morning and then head to set up the booth at the University. We will spend our day there engaging people in conversations! Please be praying that people will be curious, want to talk, and to have interest in learning more about the Lord through our Bible studies. We are excited to get to know more students and to see how God leads us!

Yesterday, our group arrived safely in Santo Domingo. After our arrival we went to campus praying that God would have us meet some of our friends from last year. Within 15 minutes of being on campus we met up with a friend from last year, how amazing is our God! This morning we went to an extremely encouraging and convicting church service at Iglesia Bautista Internacional. Though it has rained the last couple evenings, God has really provided us with great attitudes and lots of fun. Tomorrow we will begin teaching English classes to students at the university and having a cornucopia of fun talking to the Dominicans. Please pray for grace with the language, divine appointments, continued relationships and continued good attitudes. BOUNTIFUL PRAISES!

El groupo Lechuga Tortuga
(Collin, Philip, Jessica, Meredith, Amber, and Laura)

Los Liones Valientes: Ben Van Walbeek, Caleb Davis, Jeff Olson, Liz VanderSchel, Erin VanderSchel, Elizabeth Bourland

For the Bold Lions it started out just like any other day. We woke up and had breakfast, welcomed our leader Ben to the Dominican since his flights were delayed, read our Bibles and got ready. We were able to visit a church in Santo Domingo that our friend Evelyn attends. It was unbelievable and opened our eyes to how vast and powerful God really is—that so far away people are worshipping and know the same God we do. The message the pastor gave was very encouraging as well and it was the perfect beginning to our week. He spoke on living out our salvation in reverence and how it fits into the process of sanctification. God not only has offered himself as a sacrifice for our sin, saved us and given us the Holy Spirit, but he also wants to cleanse us from ourselves. We tend to think that this is all from our own works, but really even the sanctification and becoming more like Christ is all dependent on God. He gives us the desire to obey and do what he asks because it’s what’s best for us. It’s easy going into the mission trip thinking that I have to do all these things God asks and it’s all on my shoulders. But EVERYTHING is from the Lord and our motivation must come from doing things understanding that he gives us the strength and that he has done so much more for us than we can ever do for him. Basically it was great. It was also wonderful to sing in a different language knowing that God is pleased no matter what language we praise him.

After church we came back, ate and prepared for the English classes. We still had some time before dinner so we decided to go down to the beach or la playa. There were people everywhere. We split into two groups of three and went out to talk to people about Jesus. Not a lot of people we talked to spoke English so we mostly handed out and went through tracts with people. As we were walking around, the wind began to pick up and the dark clouds started rolling in. You can only imagine what happened next…torrential downpour. We were soaked within seconds but we decided to go under a shelter with a few other people. A man next to us began to dance with Elizabeth and we talked to him for a while. He was a television cameraman (at least we think he was, he couldn’t speak any English) and he was very excited when we gave him a tract. After it had been raining for a few minutes we decided to run. After about five minutes of running we rested next to a wall, totally drenched. At this point none of us cared if we continued to get wet because we were soaked. So we walked back to the hostel and upon arrival, there was a lot of joy and laughing and pity. But we couldn’t stop talking about how it was the best experience of the whole trip. The streets were flooded and it seemed like a river was flowing so fast that you could get swept up in the current. But we didn’t get hurt and it was really fun and it was a great bonding experience. We ended up being the only group that got to go out sharing that day and it was definitely worth it.

Fish was the dinner of choice.