Youth Mission - Day 8 & 9 (8/3 & 8/4)

Saturday we were up at 6am, we left Barahona at 7:30 and drove the 4 hours to Santo Domingo. Our flight left at 2:50pm and we arrived in Atlanta at about 6:20pm. It took us a while to get our bags and get through customs, and then we had a 10-15min shuttle from the international terminal to the main terminal for the hotel shuttle. We waited for a while for a small shuttle to the hotel, and once we got to the hotel we had a late late dinner of domino’s pizza.

This morning we had another early morning - up at 6 for a 6:30 breakfast, then on the shuttle to the airport at 7:00! Once at our gate, we spent some time reflecting on the week. There are so many impactful moments and experiences to look back on from this week. All of us have had moment we experienced joy, courage, strength, hope, and unconditional love. I’m so proud of these teens for their hard work, for showing up in the tough moments as well as the fun moments, and for following the model of Jesus and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Our friends in Fondo Negro showed us how to do this so well. We all agree: we felt so welcomed, and so loved by our friends and strangers in the Dominican Republic, for no other reason than we were just there. We are grateful.

We’re on the plane now and headed home. We will see you all soon!