Out of Team USA - aka Ultra Spiritual Ambassadors

Caleb, Matt and Nicole got safely to Bella Epoca with only a 20 minute delay to our flight. After a crazy ride from the airport to the hostel (many first timers to the DR driving experience), we reached the hostel. Those staying in the apartments had more adventures getting to the apartment. In the morning, we had a pretty American breakfast and spent time with the Lord and organizing the day. In the afternoon, everyone worked on calling those signed up for English classes. Some were really excited but some couldn't understand us (prayers for our Spanish!). 

Our big adventure was Mr. Matthew Hall getting lost in the morning. He had the opportunity to talk with someone while on a run, but in the process suddenly realized he was LOST. Luckily, he found a hotel that let him use a computer and he tweeted to the group as we didn't have our local cell phones yet. Direct tweet here "Hey I am LOst!! What is the address of the hostile. Please forgive me. The address where I am is ..." Lesson for the day: tell your group before you take off!! And don't get lost. 

Around 3:30pm, Ellie and Abe arrived, but we are still missing Mr. Scott Nilius! After, we headed to the University of Santo Domingo to get a feeling for where things were, where we will be able to hold English classes, etc. and had the opportunity to talk to some students. We had some great conversations about the Gospel and what they believe. We were blown away at how willing some were to talk to us. We have high hopes that we will see them again at the English classes or Bible studies. Matt's big red beard - "barba rojo" - was key in attracting the locals. 

Dinner was delicious and fish was the dinner of choice. 

Terry Amann, Adam Riley, Randy Young, Isaac Lopez

Josh, Kaden, Mike, Kari, Andrea, Kassie

Finally after many flight delays and almost getting no sleep we all finally reached the Dominican Republic. It has been a great experience so far. Some members who were fortunate to not have delays, got to the Dominican Republic at 1 a.m. and spent Saturday afternoon contacting people met on last year’s trip and calling students who signed up for the English Classes.

When everyone arrived at the hostel at 4:30 pm on Saturday, the mission groups set out to go to the University to get reacquainted with the campus and possibly have conversations with students. While on the campus we found the location where the English classes would be held and met up with friends that were made last year. 

It was almost time to head out for dinner at a local restaurant, when our group ran into two students Edward & Erick. We chatted with them for a little bit and found out that Erick was interested in the English classes. Kaden and Jeff (a member from another group) met Patrick and talked with Patrick about the English classes and they had an opportunity to share with Patrick. Patrick had a very soft heart and hopefully will be meeting up with us again or going to the English classes. 

After these conversations, Group Fortune Cookie was heading back to the hostel to go a restaurant for dinner and got caught in the rain, but the rain didn’t damper our spirits. Once we got to the restaurant, we sat down for dinner. Dinner was a great time to kick back and enjoy fellowship not only with our group, but all the other groups that were on the mission trip. Sunday we went to church with our contact Evelyn and later plan on going to the Plaza to go out sharing. Be Praying for Soft Hearts & Divine Opportunities!

Sincerely,

Group Fortune Cookie!

¡Buenos Dias!

After some unfortunate flight delays, all 55 people safely arrived in the Santo Domingo. Adam, Allie, and Michelle were in a group with 4 other people that went from Chicago to Detroit. The plane got delayed so they had to spend the night in Detroit. They flew to Atlanta Saturday then flew down to Santo Domingo later that morning.

Isaac’s group of 15 also had some flight issues. They flew from Chicago to New York, and had to spend the night in New York because of delays. Saturday morning they flew from New York to Santo Domingo.

Randy’s group of 15 flew from Chicago to Miami, only had a 30 minute delay, and flew to Santo Domingo Friday night.

Our group was reunited yesterday afternoon. We went to the college campus to see where we will be teaching our English classes and we talked to a few of the students there. As we were heading back to the hostel, it started to rain… a lot. We all got soaked, but it was a lot of fun. We went out to dinner later that night; we all got to try new Dominican food… Randy even tried out the fish eyes. Yuck. 

After dinner we got back to the apartments where our group is staying, and got settled in for the night. This morning, Evelyn (the woman who owns the apartments) cooked us breakfast. After breakfast, we headed to church with Evelyn. The service was in Spanish, but they had translator headsets for us during the message. It was awesome being able to worship together, even when we weren’t singing in English. We also met Missionaries from Canada and Missouri at the church.

Today we are headed to the plaza, it’s a historic landmark in the city. We are going to share the gospel with the people hanging out there. You guys can be praying that God would give us lots of grace with our Spanish, and that we would meet people who know at least a little bit of English. Thanks for all your prayers so far!

-Adam, Randy, Isaac, Allie, and Michelle

Matt, Mitch, Allison, Courtney, Leslie, and Stephanie

Our group is finally all here in the Dominican Republic! It was a pretty eventful trip due to many travel changes. Matt and Allison stuck to the original plan and flew through Miami to Santo Domingo on Friday night. Leslie's elaborate travel plan consisting of four different flights also went as scheduled. Mitch and his travel group were delayed in New York and spent the night there in a hotel before boarding a flight to Santo Domingo Saturday morning. They arrived in the DR around 12:30pm. Courtney and my (Stephanie) travel groups were re-directed to Atlanta, Georgia and eventually made it there around 2:00am after many delays. We took a flight to Santo Domingo at 10:30am on Saturday and arrived in the country around 2:00pm. We are thankful that the Lord provided ways for all of us to get here safely and had a perfect plan all along. Multiple people got to hear the gospel, and one accepted Christ, in New York and Atlanta, which we believed was exactly what the Lord wanted. :) Our group had time to connect together once we were all here at the hostel and it was very refreshing. Last night, we got to go to a local restaurant called Adrian Tropical and enjoy some delicious local food such as chicken and rice, goat, and some tropical drinks. It was a lot of fun for everyone to be in the Dominican Republic together and enjoy a meal before the week starts off. 

We are about to go to a local church and worship with the Dominican people and we are very excited! God has already blessed us so much and we are very excited to see all that He has in store for this trip! 

Prayer requests: for the people who received a tract throughout the travels that they would see how much God loves them and come into relationship with Him, for our health and safety, for boldness, and that we would be filled with the Spirit.  

Please pray for our Bible Study we are planning to start on Monday.  We are planning to host a Bible Study on the campus here at 4pm Monday-Friday. Tuesday and Thursday we will be joining with the church from San Pedro, which hosts a Bible Study throughout the year during those times. Please pray for the Spirit to convict the hearts of individuals that get to hear the gospel.

A verse that Leslie shared yesterday that we have been encouraged by is Isaiah 55:12 - "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

Thanks for all the support! God is using you wherever you are to help build his kingdom in the DR!

Because He loves,

Stephanie