Today is our last full day with the Dominican people. This morning we awoke to a delicious pancake breakfast and then headed out for a quick souvenir experience together. We were blessed to have the opportunity to visit the school, the church helps to run in Buenos Aires. With the children, we sang, danced, prayed, put on a fun skit about Daniel and the lion’s den, and reinforced the story with stickers and coloring activities.
The day was quite exciting, as the children were very active, and the teachers were happy to receive us and the break we offered them.
We came back for a quick lunch before concluding the week with a team bonding hike. This was not an easy hike, but the view was very rewarding.
We even had a Rocky moment with one of the team members who didn’t expect to have made it to the end without ‘medical assistance’. Of course we prayed prior to beginning the hike, and felt God’s presence along the way.
We rejoiced in song once the entire team reached the end of the hike, a cliff that overlooked the beach, ocean and El Zapato, a rock formation that juts out of the ocean majestically. Coming down the mountain, a few team members chose to commemorate their feat with daring pictures next to steel crosses that dotted our path.
We wouldn’t let the hike be the end of our bonding experience, and a brief conversation earlier in the week suddenly turned into an adventure we were willing to take. For some, it was a major challenge and for others, an adrenaline rush waiting to happen, but we all agreed to do this one last thing as a team.
Each year, our student ministries teams come here to Monti Cristi to serve this same Dominican family, and have had a tradition of jumping off of a local bridge, into the water about 20 feet below.
We wondered why the adult team couldn’t do it as well, and set our minds to conquer this challenge. One by one, we began taking the leap, going all in and making waves, both literally and figuratively! Not a single team member walked away dry, and we are happy to say that we all survived, completely in tact!
We ended our night with a dinner with our missionary family, here in the Dominican. We traveled about 45 minutes away to a restaurant called “La Madonna”. There were 22 of us and we sat at a big table as a family would at Thanksgiving. The meal began with a choice of goat, pork, or chicken. Some team members were brave enough to taste something new, while others stuck with what they knew. As we were eating, chickens were flocking around us and a cat decided to join us. We prayed as one and enjoyed our fellowship together.
We sit here exhausted and talking with one another, but our night is not quite over. We must pack and clean before bed. We have an early leave time of 8:40 am and a long day of travel ahead of us. As much as we are excited to see our families, we are also dreading the fact that we leave our family here in the morning. We can’t believe the trip has come to an end. We have seen lives changed, relationships formed, and our Father in Heaven praised. Thank you for all your prayers up until now, but please continue to pray for us tomorrow as we travel and say our final goodbyes. Gloria a Dios! (Glory to God!)
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