God calls for unity

Okay, so I'm a little late on writing, but this weekend the Christian camp moved to Jaibon. Please forgive me if I'm not as detailed in the blog.

Anyhow, last week was a crazy week. We had a huge church group and a smaller ministry group come down to serve. Apparently, the large church group comes every year and expects a lot of kids. They come prepared with all there lesson plans and everything. With so many people, the dynamics of the group changed. At first, the devil was trying to get a foothold by causing disunity and dissension within the whole group. I think almost everyone was frustrated at some point on the first day of camp. However, we dealt with it the way God calls us to by recognizing it and taking it to Him. After we lifted it all up to God, He blessed us. We were able to have abundant unity where we didn't have it before.

So in terms of logistics, we had one huge camp in the mornings at the orphanage site. There were 400 children if not more who showed up. It was crazy, but in a good way. That means that those 400 children got to hear about salvation, and were shown the love of God through us. Please lift them up in your prayers.

In the afternoons, we had two different groups. The big church group went to the Magacua batey (which we had camp at a couple weeks ago), and the smaller group along with the interns went to the Madre batey. The camp at the Madre batey was very small, but awesome. When camps are smaller you are able to form better bonds with the children. However, when camps are bigger you are able to reach more children, therefore, both have pros. Anyhow, last week a younger boy volunteer and I led recreation. We did different things with them, such as jump rope, baseball, duck duck goose, coloring, and bracelet making. All the kids went nuts over bracelet making. They wanted as many beads as they could possibly get. Even some of the mothers came over and started making some. One woman asked me to make a braid with beads in it, but I didn't understand how to do it. Nonetheless, there were no age barriers in making something as simple as a bracelet with yarn and beads. It's amazing to see how the smallest things can bring some light to someone's day. On the first 3 days of camp we only had a small amount of children, like 20 or less. But on the last day, there were tons of people, adults included. It was so strange, but so cool. Normally you expect more to show up on the second day, but not really on the last day. We had parents going from station to station, which is so awesome. They want to learn, and they don't really have the opportunity to do so. I wish that we could provide adult camps along with the children camps. It might be a suggestion I make at the end of the trip. It wouldn't really work logistically this summer, but it is so needed. One thing that has been neat about doing camps is realizing that now that I know how a camp runs, I feel confident that I could come back and do my own camps if I had enough people with me (if not through Orphanage Outreach). It's just neat how God prepares us to do His work. Oh yeah, like I was saying, on the last day we had a lot of people. And on that day, at the end of camp, we passed out stuffed animals, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. It was like Christmas for them. It's amazing when children and adults alike are excited to get a toothbrush and toothpaste. People in America don't get excited over these things.

As far as what I was struggling with when I wrote my last entry, God works in mysterious ways (as I'm sure was through some of your prayers). I knew from the first full day I set foot in Monte Cristi that the purpose I thought I had was different than the one that God had given me. So, for the last week, I figured I would focus on that, which was encouraging the other interns and volunteers in their faith. But isn't it mysterious how God works? When I wasn't trying to be intentional with the kids, they would approach me at the most random times. I was dumbfounded, honestly. The last week ended up being the best week at Monte Cristi in terms of spending time with the orphans and becoming more connected with them. I still don't understand it, but I praise God for it.

This last weekend was really hard because a lot of my fellow interns went home. It has been such an awesome summer with them. I have never been in a more cohesive group. During the whole month that we were together, we had no fights or dissensions among us. I feel honored because I was able to grow in my walk with God alongside them and to witness their growth as well. It's funny because at the beginning of the summer I was really nervous about how the summer would pan out faithwise with all of us, but honestly, I had absolutely no worries the last couple of weeks. I'm probably not making much sense, but that's because I'm not sure how to describe what I mean. It just felt like we were all close sisters growing in the Lord together. I think that says it well enough?

Friday night, Dan our Christian program leader, planned something really cool for us. We all sat on the rooftop after dark in a circle. We took turns going to the center and inviting someone to join us to break bread. During that time, we would tell the other person something about how we were encouraged by them or blessed or just whatever we wanted to share. It was a really awesome experience.

On Saturday, we (those who are staying longer than a month) moved to Jaibon. And let me just tell you, it is awesome!! I know I tend to use that word a lot, but it truly is. We live on a farm in the country. There is a pig, there are goats, cows, chickens, everything. The orphanage here is an all boys orphanage, and they are so sweet. I immediately was welcomed when I arrived, which was very encouraging. This place has a different atmosphere all together to it. The stars at night are amazingly breath-taking. They literally draw you into them. The food here is also great. Since we are on a farm, we have a lot of fresh herbs and spices, all of which they use to make the food deliciously yummy.

This week there are two church groups here. For camp purposes we are split into two groups. For my group, we go to a Haitian batey in the mornings (which means we are still in the D.R. but this batey/plantation is run by Haitians). I looveee it there, and cannot wait to share pictures with you all. It's a little harder to manage there because the space is tight. This week I decided I wanted to teach English, which I have loved so far. It's really interested to see how much the kids do or do not know. The first day, during the first rotation, we had little girls. They just kept repeating my Spanish, even when I would ask them a question in Spanish. So we though, okay maybe they speak Creole. Nope. One of the ladies here asked them something in Creole and they didn't answer. Their language skills were very little. I think they did know a little bit of Creole, but not at a conversational level or anything. Therefore, it was very interesting trying to teach them English, as I'm sure you all could imagine. The older boys were the funnest to teach because they actually wanted to learn, and they picked it up pretty fast. In fact, we had to change our lesson plan for today because they already knew the words we were going to teach them. Yesterday we taught the kids how to say day, night, bright, dark, sun, work, school, sleep, and wake up. Today we taught them some animals and had them make some animal sounds along with it :). It was a lot of fun. (We had prepared transportation words for the older boys, but they didn't show up). We, or a tleast I, really want to teach them words that will be useful. Since the area around here is a lot of farming, we thought animals would be good. I wish you guys could see this batey. It's a prime example of a third world country. There are kids running around with only a shirt on, no shoes, bathing in the street, etc. But they are so precious. Today I held a little girl who was only 3 years old. She was the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. She was definitely of Haitian decent. Her smile is one of those smiles that just makes you melt. And Sara, if you are reading this, she reminded me of you soooo much. I don't know what it was but I just was reminded of you by being around her. It's hard because you want to take all these kids home with you, and they aren't even the orphans. But hopefully, with each interaction we have with them, they can get a little taste of the richness of God's love toward them.

So, after this week, we are losing all of our Spanish speaking interns, except for me. Yikes. I'm not even fluent, only conversational. There are a lot of times that I don't even understand what a native is saying to me. Most of the time with the children I am able to understand, but not with the adults. Many people here kind of mumble, which doesn't help. Not to mention, a lot of their Spanish is broken. Anyhow, I could really use a lot of prayer. I forget to mention this, in the afternoons, my group works with the kids here at the orphanage. We teach them a Bible lesson, Spanish literacy, and English. The team leader here wants it to be a progressive type of thing, meaning we would build upon each week. As the only Spanish speaker, this is going to be really difficult. This means that I will most likely be the one preparing these lessons and translating at all the camps, which is nearly impossible. However, I have no idea who might show up each week as a volunteer. And there are a few girls here who really want to learn. Abby, who I've been with for a month and will be with for one more month, has already picked up a lot. I am currently teaching her how to conjugate verbs. I know that God will provide. I will have to be completely dependent upon Him not only for the ability to translate, but also not to grow weary, because I am sure I will be exhausted if I rely on my own strength.

In addition to the teaching the boys at the orphanage, we do work projects with them for an hour. The last two days, we went out to the fields and hoed. I'm enjoying being able to serve in whatever capacity the Lord provides. These boys get up at five in the morning to start chores. The kind of responsibility they have been given is impressive. For example, we have a tool room here that has machetes (not sure how to spell it), and we as volunteers are not allowed to use them, but the boys, however, are. It's crazy. Don't worry, we have used any machetes for anything yet. :) I trust them though. They've been working out in the fields from a small age.

This week, a girl within our group decided she wanted to study Ephesians. So we are going over a chapter a day. At first, I didn't want to study it since I just studied it last semester, but I'm so glad I did. It is such a great book of the Bible, and there is so much to glean from it. She asked me to lead the study today, which was over chapter 2. It was really interesting to dig into the role circumcision had in those days and to be able to connect it with so many other passages in the Bible. I'm truly amazed that the more you read, the more everything comes together as a whole and connects. I didn't realize how much I knew from different parts of the Bible, but had never connected. I'm thinking about after this week maybe starting up a Bible study. It is definitely something I love doing.

Anyhow, this blog is forever long now. And someone else needs to use the computer so I will close.

I love you all.

Prayer Requests:
-To have a gospel centered purpose constantly on my heart and mind.
-To have new revelations of the Lord and to be driven to share those.
-To love the kids with the heart of Christ. There is one boy here who is a little meanie sometimes. But, something really awesome is that is name is Imanol--which is similar to Immanuel, which in the Bible means God with us, so it encourages me to love him through his meanness.
-That those who are leaving this week would have safe travels, and that Abby and I would handle it well.
-That you all would be blessed by the Lord and have a rich and abundant relationship with Him ;)