I would first like to say THANK YOU to all of you who sent me funds to help in the various costs of living this life & then the cost of traveling home for the wedding. Again, as I said in the previous post, knowing that I have such an incredible support system keeps me going & I feel so surrounded by your love & care.
Now, for an update! I’ve moved on to another country & so it’s time to talk about the last one. It’s insane that we’ve now finished in country number 5. Wow.
Location: Mission of Hope, Santiago, Dominican Republic
Arrival: May 4
Departure: June 6
Days: 33
Team: Candor – Kayla, Jamie, Steph, Me. Also it was all-squad month, so all 19 of us were at the same ministry location.
Living conditions: A TENT!! There was a crowded bunk room for all of the girls & pretty early on my bestie & I moved our lodging outside & slept in my tent for the rest of the time! It was honestly SO much fun. I highly recommend it.
Best Food: 67 Steps Mexican was basically Chipotle & it HIT. We UberEatsed (yes I made that a verb) it every Saturday & thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ministry: Some background. Mission of Hope has been in Haiti since 1998 & are more recent in the DR. Right now they are in a very developmental stage & their priority is getting established & connected to churches. A very present issue in this part of Dominican Republic is the divide between Haitian & Dominican people. There is a lot of violence & discrimination towards the Haitian immigrants living there, who are there to escape the horrible conditions that their own country is in right now. The vision of Mission of Hope is to bridge the gap & create bonds between the churches. Let the body of Christ come together despite differences.
They are working with both Haitian pastors & Dominican pastors in their communities and trying to build relationships & spur on ministry from inside the already established churches. They bring in teams that do kids camps, medical clinics, & house visits all in an attempt to grow the local church & spread the love of Christ.
What did we do? We got on the bus every morning & headed off to a community (different every week) & had translators (more on that in a sec) & visited homes. Sometimes they were Haitian communities & sometimes they were Dominican. It was really hard to witness it some days because there is a lot of pain & heartache, especially in the Haitian areas. But also, really neat to hear stories & get to love people. Ministry was a lot of conversation: hearing them, sharing Christ’s love with them, telling them the story of how he came & died & saved us, and reminding them of the HOPE we have in him.
Fun Fact: “Bondye beni ou” means “God bless you” in Haitian Creole. “Kawolin di no” is how you say “North Carolina.” And the word for “water” is “dlo.”
Shoutout: TO OUR TRANSLATORS!!! Reggie, Pekat, Lidany, Nerva, Tima & Christian!! These guys were the real ones. They all spoke 4 languages. Yes. Four. English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and French. They put their heart & soul into the conversations & making sure everything was communicated clearly. They helped us understand Haitian culture & answered any questions we had. And bro, we had a BLAST with them. Such fun people.
Memorable Day: We did an adventure day at a place called “27 Waterfalls of Damajagua.” It started out with a hike then getting in a river & traveling down it, jumping over waterfalls & sliding down rock slides & wading through rock tunnels. The water was teal blue & the scene was magical in every direction. Felt like we stepped into “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” If you visit the Dominican Republic, make time to go there!
A Person: Or two. Paul & Kim. Two of the leaders at Mission of Hope Dominican Republic. They have been on the mission field for a while, but are newer to the DR. Their kids are grown & have families in the US. I was just constantly amazed their kindness, gentleness, care, love & quiet leadership. They look out for every single person they come in contact with in the most loving way. Kim was at the bus every morning to send us off & then was there every afternoon to greet us when we returned. She handed out vitamins to anyone who wanted them. Paul is always around, up to some kind of odd job that needs to be done, but also makes time to talk to people & hear their stories. Wow. They just really made an impact on me. I loved getting see how they exhibited Christ everyday to every person they came across.
That’s it, fam. Fifth country update! I have more to share with the recent move & so another post coming soon 🙂
How can we pray for you, Emma?
Thank you for the update. It sounds like you’re having really productive visits. We pray for your continued success and safety.
Love this Liz! Thanks for all the updates….they are so fun to read! Living in your tent all month….so good! Love you sweet one!
You’re an incredible writer & teller of stories. Thanks for the glimpse into DR!