Cleaning Up & Packing

Tonight and tomorrow morning we are cleaning up and getting packed for our journey home. The next post will be from the airport in Santiago. Students will have their phones back when we leave and you can expect to hear from them when we land in the Newark Airport around 4PM (Pacific Time) on Sunday. Pray for our layover as we go through customs, immigration and security. It will be pretty tight to get to the gate in time.

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Saturday Excursions

Today most of us we went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall while some of the team went to visit a local coffee plantation. This was The first year that any of our teams have done this hike. It was pretty tough on the way down, but even harder on the way back up taking between 30-60 minutes to make the climb. Everyone is resting up now and then we will head to town for dinner, shopping and ice cream to finish off the week. The team is all doing well and they are anxious to call you tomorrow to share some of the great stories from the week.

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Ministry Sites Day 5

Today was full of laughs and great memories! Last night we spent two and a half hours debriefing the trip and praying over different needs. The students have discovered a lot for themselves on this trip. Today we said goodbye to many of the people we met this week in the community. We are about to leave right now for a banquet with our site leaders where we will get to say goodbye to them as well. Tomorrow we will have a day to relax and go shopping town. We can’t wait to come back and share about all the wonderful people we’ve met this week.

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Ministry Sites Day 4

Another fantastic day of ministry here! You can definitely tell that we are tired but the students are really building a lot of great relationships with others in the community. Tonight we will have a chance to debrief in greater length to see what the kids are learning and what God is doing in and through them. Steve & Dianne are feeling much better! Thanks for praying!

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Ministry Sites Day 3

All is good in the neighborhood here in Jarabacoa! The team is doing great and thriving. We just got back and everyone is resting up and preparing to go to dinner in the community tonight. Also, this picture is of Joel. The boys on our team think he’s the coolest guy ever. He’s studying psychology, teaching pre-school, leading worship at church, and he does some comedy and clown work on the side. More than that, he has an incredible testimony of what God has done in his life. Just one example of the amazing people we meet here each day.

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Ministry Sites Day 2

Today was another great day! Last night we were able to debrief and see how everyone is doing and I would summarize the night with a positive response. The girls at the medical site got to watch a c-section at the hospital and they were pretty pumped about that! We’ve had a busy day today working at our sites and learning from this community. Tonight we will end our evening with a time of worship. Pray for Steve & Dianne as they are both under the weather.

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Culture Night

We had a great service at church this morning at La Vid. They are currently building a new sanctuary and using the chapel on site temporarily. The worship was incredible! Such great musicians here! And the message was fantastic from Dr. Fernando! The students had some free time this afternoon and then tonight they got to learn about the history of the island and some information about the culture. We ended with the traditional cup game of Don Ramon. The kids are all doing great and looking forward to their first day of ministry sites tomorrow.

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