Hola from Santo Domingo

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)