Blog entry from Team Ciclon

Today was our last full day in the Dominican. Most of the groups who did not return today had a free day and headed to the Old Market or the beach to relax after a wild 8 days. We started the day by heading down to Guibia to watch the sunrise. It was very beautiful and was a great reminder of the amazing creation works of Jesus. After slamming down a quick breakfast, we hopped on a van with another group and went to a Hatian Batey. The Batey was a small, impoverished town outside of San Pedro, about an hour car ride from our hostel.

When we arrived, we went door-to-door inviting families to a children’s Bible Study at the church there. There were around 100 kids, and probably 40 adults. Sabino, the pastor of the San Pedro church, gave a children’s message. When he was finished, they sang a song for us. The next 30 minutes were very chaotic with things escalating rather quickly. We had brought 3 suitcases of items people from our church had donated, including toothbrushes, soap, toys and candy. When we first began to hand things out to the kids, they were fairly calm and patient. However, things escalated quickly as we started to hand out toothbrushes and hygiene items. It was humbling to see their desperation for items that we take for granted at home. Even though we were meeting physical needs through handing these items out it was important for us to remember that each of these people also has a soul and a need for Christ. We are excited about the weekly bible study and children’s church that will begin there soon, led by people of Sabino’s church. Our prayer is that Jesus will use those times to draw people to himself and meet an eternal need that we are unable to provide materially.

We are leaving our hostel around 5 AM tomorrow, so please pray for safe flights and good conversations with people we come across in the airport and on our flights. Living in this country for the past week among the people has been a great blessing for us and we greatly cherish the relationships that we have made with the Dominicans.

Emily, Greg, Liz, Katie & Taylor