Hey family and friends! This is Sami and Em!
First thing’s first: At 6:00 am, a few of us were up and at ‘em working out. We had an intense HIIT circuit that had some of us crawling away from the basketball court, haha! After the workout, Kevin gave his testimony to us. It was an incredible statement of intense drive and passion, all channeled through Christ. After Kevin shared his testimony, Brooklyn and I went on a walk through the Batey to say ‘Hola’ and ‘Buenas Dias’ to everyone in the Batey. These early morning interactions were my absolute favorite.
For breakfast this morning, we had eggs, pineapple, and a breakfast item similar to cream of wheat! After breakfast, we did our devotional about mentors in our lives. Then we traveled to Batey Cuchilla and met Pastor Francisco. We split into three groups and painted three houses. The first house was blue, the second house was green, and the third house was yellow! Sami was able to paint the yellow house which is her favorite color! While we painted, we could hear children inside the houses singing and laughing, and it was beautiful. At one point, the children saw an airplane go overhead and all sprinted to the street to shout: ‘¡Un Avíon!’ It was nothing shy of poetic. Em painted the green house and had the opportunity to meet a local named Alex. Alex is a native Haitian, but he moved to Pennsylvania and West Palm Beach, FL during his lifetime. He was deported back to Haiti, and he found himself going to the Dominican Republic to live in Batey Cuchilla. He shared lots about his faith journey. He had attended church regularly in the states, he says, but he stopped going when he arrived in the DR. Due to the language barrier (Alex speaks Creole, and the DR is primarily Spanish-speaking), he stopped attending. He also has fears of appearing ‘dirty’ in the church. I reminded him that the Lord does not care; He is loving of everyone, no matter their conditions.
The locals helped us paint without us even asking, and they were so patient with us. After we finished painting, we prayed over some of the locals and the pastor and headed back to Batey Nueve. For lunch, we had a delicious rice and bean mixture, the incredible Batey bread, and a vegetable medley. Then we started our drive back to the Med Center in Santiago. We stopped once at a convenience store and got ice cream bars! Oh my, talk about a drive… it was LONG, but Narciso got us home safely.
Throughout the drive, everyone had their time to take a short nap and reset from our journey. There was lots of small talk, hair braiding (thanks Amanda and Ruby!), laughing, and processing. A beautiful five hours for our team, I must say! We arrived back for dinner, which was spaghetti and pineapple. Next, we heard Em and Brooklyn’s testimonies and had some great conversation and prayer afterwards. We all hung out for the night and played cards, read, and journaled.
To have experienced the Batey’s with such a sound group of people was the biggest blessing. Together we were able to embody what it means to be a Christ-centered community. We all worship one God; we all know one story: The Gospel.
TTYLXOX:
-Em & Sami
