Day 2:
March 18, 2012
Los Liones Valientes: Ben Van Walbeek, Caleb Davis, Jeff Olson, Liz VanderSchel, Erin VanderSchel, Elizabeth Bourland
For the Bold Lions it started out just like any other day. We woke up and had breakfast, welcomed our leader Ben to the Dominican since his flights were delayed, read our Bibles and got ready. We were able to visit a church in Santo Domingo that our friend Evelyn attends. It was unbelievable and opened our eyes to how vast and powerful God really is, that so far away people are worshipping and know the same God we do. The message the pastor gave was very encouraging as well and it was the perfect beginning to our week. He spoke on living out our salvation in reverence and how it fits into the process of sanctification. God not only has offered himself as a sacrifice for our sin, saved us and given us the Holy Spirit, he also wants to cleanse us from ourselves. We tend to think that this is all from our own works, but really even the sanctification and becoming more like Christ is all dependent on God. He gives us the desire to obey and do what he asks because it’s what’s best for us. It’s easy going into the mission trip thinking that I have to do all these things God asks and it’s all on my shoulders. But EVERYTHING is from the Lord and our motivation must come from doing things understanding that he gives us the strength and that he has done so much more for us than we can ever do for him. Basically it was great. It was also wonderful to sing in a different language knowing that God is pleased no matter what language we praise him. I knew two of the songs we sang, From the Inside Out and A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
Breakfast at the Hostal
Sooo good.
Quiet Times outside.
The little lizards that run around!
Some of the flowers outside the Hostal.
Getting on the bus to go to church.
The bus was just a little crowded.
All of us at church!
After church we came back, ate and prepared for the English classes. We still had some time before dinner so we decided to go down to the beach or la playa. There were people everywhere. We split into two groups of three and went out to talk to people about Jesus. Not a lot of people we talked to spoke English so we mostly handed out and went through tracts with people. As we were walking around, the wind began to pick up and the dark clouds started rolling in. You can only imagine what happened next…torrential downpour. We were soaked within seconds but we decided to go under a shelter with a few other people. A man next to us began to dance with Elizabeth and we talked to him for a while. He was a television cameraman (at least we think he was, he couldn’t speak any English) and he was very excited when we gave him a tract. After it had been raining for a few minutes we decided to run. After about five minutes of running we rested next to a wall, totally drenched. At this point none of us cared if we continued to get wet because we were soaked. So we walked back to the hostal and upon arrival there was a lot of joy and laughing and pity. But we couldn’t stop talking about how it was the best experience of the whole trip. The streets were flooded and it seemed like a river was flowing so fast that you could get swept up in the current. But we didn’t get hurt and it was really fun and it was a great bonding experience. We ended up being the only group that went out sharing that day and it was definitely worth it. When we came back we decided to get Chinese for dinner. It's so weird to eat Chinese food in the DR. Yet another great day, praise the Lord!
The beach where we shared. This was right after it started raining so the people in the background are running away.
Our group with this man we met.
He soon started dancing with Elizabeth.
She's got moves!
With the shoe shining boys we met.
Taking a break from the rain, already soaked.
This is after twenty minutes of raining...it was insane.
Getting ready to cross the street.
The moment we got back it stopped raining...of course. Go Liones Valientes!
Shaly accidentally got a TON of chinese food.
She was embarrassed but we were excited to take on the challenge.
Eating Egg Drop Soup with an enormous spoon.
War of the Soups.
Chugging their egg drop soup.
El fin de la sopa! Victory!
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