By Ali DeWeerd, Brady Swinehart, Zac Carlson
Sunday morning, we had the amazing opportunity to attend a church service at the church we visited in The Hole the day before. It was a super unique experience to get to see how that church worships, and be in community with everyone during the service. This Sunday was also Mother’s Day in the Dominican Republic, so we got to celebrate with their mothers and hear an amazing sermon about Moms. After church we talked with some members and kids of the church and then started to drive to a resort in Puerto Plata, where we would spend the day relaxing and sleep there preparing for re-entry back to the US.
When we arrived to the resort we enjoyed a lunch buffet and got right to soaking up the sun. There was a beautiful pool and beach to enjoy. We spent the afternoon tanning, swimming, playing water volleyball, and overall relaxing. After that beautiful day spent in the sun, we enjoyed hot showers and another buffet meal. Following dinner, we made our way out to the beach to just catch the sunset over the beautiful horizon of the ocean and mountains, another reminder of God’s beautiful creation and power. As the sun finished setting we all sat on the beach and had a time of sharing and reflecting on our time in the Dominican Republic, all the things we learned, and the things we want to take back home with us. It was a true testament of God’s faithfulness and the work He has been doing in all of our hearts.
To finish off the night we all hung around the resort playing ping pong, pool, and most importantly preparing for the karaoke night that we were all going to participate in. We each assigned random partners and were given songs we did not know until we got up on stage. There were some amazing performances, like Brady and Chad singing “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, and Jake and Dan singing “Someone Like You” by Adele, just to name a few. There were many standing ovations and talented voices discovered.
All of the resort was singing along and had many laughs. After karaoke we finished up a fun day with Brady sharing very kind letters and words of affirmation with everyone in the group and it brought our team together even more. To end, a few of us went down to the beach and enjoyed each others company while watching the stars and listening to the crashing waves. It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful day.
After a good night’s rest, we began our final few hours at the resort Monday morning, a few people got up and watched the sunrise, while the rest of us enjoyed the lovely resort beds and a late breakfast. After breakfast we went out to the beach as a group and had another opportunity for Ali, Zac, and Emma to share their stories. It was another amazing moment of honesty and opportunity for us all to learn more about one another. These conversations helped wrap up our time at the resort, as we had just over an hour to relax on the beach and in the sun, and then it was time for us to leave, and head back to GO Ministries in Santiago. Spending time at the Gran Ventana Resort provided us some much needed relaxation as well as a time of reflection on some of the incredible work we have done this week, and as usual we had so much fun spending more quality time with one another.