Team Picture

Here you will find a picture of our Dominican Republic team. We made a quick stop on the beach and snapped this photo…

We made a quick stop at a beach near Pedernales and snapped this picture.

We’ve Safely Returned to the U.S.

Hello readers,

The DR team safely returned to Nashville Tuesday night at approximately 11:25 p.m. We arrived with all our bags, every person and a whole bunch of stories and pictures.

This blog will be updated in the coming days with more stories, pictures and perhaps even a few video clips.

As for now, however, it’s time to rest and recuperate.

Blessings,

~The DR Team

Stories from the DR

As you can imagine, we’ve already got lots of stories, funny moments and jokes from our trip.

We’ll get to the stories, but first, a few factoids:

There is an energy and water crisis in the DR. Consequently, we don’t always have electricity. And our bathroom procedure has changed significantly. There’s a phrase that goes as follows: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” To conserve water, we do not flush the toilet after every time we use it. Only after the “brown.” So we’ve gotten used to the smell of stale urine. Also, because of the bathroom plumbing situation, we don’t put the toilet paper in the toilet. Instead, we wipe and then put the used toilet paper in a trash basket. Gross, but true. Such is life here in the DR.

The tap water in the DR is not safe to drink. So we drink special purified water. We brush our teeth with the safe water, too. We cannot ingest the tap water at all. We can, however, take showers in the tap water. Although, our showers are really short so we can conserve as much water as possible.

Ok, onto the stories.

Many of us really connected with the children and families in Pedernales. We prayed for them, loved on them and encouraged them. I’m sure many of us would like to come back in the near future to see how those kids and families are doing. Each team member definitely has a personal story of their time in Pedernales. Interrogate them about it later.

Between all of us, thousands of pictures have been taken. There will indeed be a Facebook tagging frenzy upon our return to the States. Can you say 900 notifications? Haha.

A few funny things:

Luke fell on Ima. Allow me to explain, Ima was asleep on the bus. Luke was standing in the aisle. The bus suddenly stopped. Luke fell on Ima. What a startling way to wake up!

Brad’s impersonations of various people (himself, Bryan, Luke) have sparked many-a laugh.

The “your mom” jokes are rolling. i.e. “Your mom goes to college.”

In times of exhaustion and delirium, everything seems hilarious to Jenn Knore. Everything.

…Everything.

Our dances and times of worship have been amazing! Brad is attempting to tape all the dances so they can be viewed later. Brad’s the official videographer. Trevor is the unofficial photographer. He’s taken over 1,000 pictures in the four days we’ve been here. After the trip, I will post pictures on this blog. I do not have time to upload pictures at this time.

Twitter Update

Since we never know when we’ll get to blog, we added a Twitter widget to the main sidebar (on the left). One of our team members (Shay) has been updating Twitter with short status updates/pictures of the trip. Be sure to read those updates and click on the pictures to see what we’re up to.

This way you’ll at least have something to read and have a tiny idea of what we’re doing.

Hola from Santo Domingo!

Hello, everyone!!

Sorry for the delay in the update. This was our first opportunity to blog.

We made it safely to Santo Domingo (the capital of the Dominican Republic) on July 2nd. No bags were lost. No people were harmed. Our flight from Miami to Santo Domingo was slightly delayed, but we still made it alright.

July 3-5 we were in Pedernales. That is a six hour drive from Santo Domingo. Pedernales is the site of the first international New Song congregation multiplying into another international New Song congregation.

While in Pedernales, we showed the movie ‘Facing the Giants’ for a neighborhood of families. Several children received Christ that night.

On Saturday, we hosted kids’ ministry in the park and also built a portico for the pastor’s house. The pastors of Cantico Nuevo Pedernales are Elonca and Eliezar. Saturday night, we returned to the neighborhood where we showed the movie and held a worship service/dance presentation. We performed two of the four dances we prepared. Several children and a few adults received Christ that night. What an amazing celebration! Ironically, this was the 4th of July–Independence Day–so those people gained their freedom in Christ! Amazing!

On Sunday, we attended Elonca and Eliezar’s church. Soon after, we grabbed some lunch and we made the trip back to Santo Domingo.

The drive from Santo Domingo to Pedernales is beautiful! In fact, one of the spots along the way is called Paradise. And righrfully so. We saw beautiful beaches and gorgeous mountains. On the way back to Santo Domingo on Sunday, we stopped at the beach (la playa) for a little while to take in the beauty and snap a lot of pictures.

In the Miami Airport — Next stop: the DR

We’ve landed in Miami! The team has dispersed to grab lunch, coffee and take bathroom breaks.

Though we’re tired, we’re very expectant for what God will do through us in the DR.

Speaking of expectant, our leader–Mitch–shared a word with us about being expectant. Like a pregnant mother, we are all carrying something for this trip. We must have attitudes of expectancy.

On the plane from Nashville to Miami, part of the in-flight entertainment was the show ‘Deal or No Deal.’ The contestants on the show were pregnant! What a great reminder and confirmation from the Lord!

We are expecting great things! Please pray for us as we continue our journey.

At the Airport

We made it through baggage checking and security. We’re about to board the plane to Miami. Great start to a great trip!

Eager to Embark

Tonight we had our final team meeting before departing to the Dominican Republic (DR). The next time we meet will be at 3:45 in the morning to head to the airport!

We leave on Thursday, July 2, on a mission trip to the DR. We will return July 14th.

While we’re gone, we’ll be doing lots of different things. Here are a few examples:

* Planting a church on the border of the DR and Haiti
* Helping with the Alabaster Heart Conference — a conference dedicated to greater intimacy with Jesus
* Kids ministry, dance ministry, drama ministry, worship ministry
* General work and repairs
* Evangelizing
* Talking to and helping the people around us
* Growing in greater intimacy with God
* Having fun

There are approximately 18 college-aged students and a few leaders going on the trip. We are a diverse group of people. It will be exciting and interesting to see how everyone contributes their gifts and how God uses them.

While we’re off in the DR, we’ll try to update this blog as often as possible. We hope to post pictures and share stories and testimonies. However, mission trips are often unpredictable, so we do not know how much we’ll be able to update. At least there is always the option of a post-trip blog post!

Thank you for reading and please check back for updates.

Feel free to pray for us too!

Blessings,

The DR Team