Church, the Beach, and Bonding

This morning we attended church at Congregación Cristiana Restaurando Vidas (CCRV) in Barahona. CCRV is a church led by the in-laws of Franklin, a friend of Kristin’s as well as past St. Luke D.R. mission trip participants. Franklin greeted us each with a joyous smile and hug making us all feel right at home. For Quentin and Will S. (our two returners) the reunion was filled with laughter, big hugs, and wide smiles!

Church was led with passionate prayers, singing, and preaching! Congregation members called out to the Holy Spirit, raised their hands, danced, while the leaders called us all to worship with prayer and song. We recognized one from worship at St. Luke! “The Blessing” was beautifully in Spanish. “Santo! Santo! Santo!” and “Halleluiah!” could be heard in response to the worship leaders at any point of worship from people throughout the room. There was rarely a quiet moment, which is a brand new experience for most of us, and one that some of the youth were saying we should bring back to St. Luke *wink*wink*

The group at church

Jacque, Kristin, Franklin, and Pastor Jose Ramon Ramirez - Introducing the group to the church.

After church we stopped and ate a delicious pizza lunch before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the beach! Miguel joined us for our beach day, along with three of our other translators for the week, Germy, Natan, and Francis. At the beach we all immediately jumped into the ocean, which was quickly followed by a cacophony of youth spitting out water and saying “wow this water is really salty!” We swam and played games, some of us (a.k.a. me) were surprised by little fish swimming across our feet, and some had quality time getting to know more about Francis and Natan, who swam with us.

The beach!

Nora, Jacque, and Micah

For dinner we had a wonderful meal at the hotel restaurant. We had the whole area to ourself and were telling stories and bonding as a group. The staff turned on “American” music (mostly ballads) and we were belting out “All of me” by John Legend, “Someone Like You” by Adele, and “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston, among other songs. We sounded exactly how you might imagine a group of off-key teens and adults to sound, especially on the long, high notes that each of those songs in known for. Bill (one of our chaperones) said, “I like it better when the artist sings that song!”

Dinner - with a side of singing

Now we are hanging out at the pool and will rest well! Tomorrow, we begin work at three different work sites in Fondo Negro. We are all excited to meet the kids and families we will be serving.

As always, thank you for your prayers! Dios te bendiga (God bless you)!

Jacque

*more photos to come, wifi is spotty!

Swing set at the hotel

On our way to the beach, someone was still a little sleepy!