Hello! This is my first post from the Dominican Republic. My sincerest apologies to my readers and supporters — we have not had much access to internet, and I don’t have a computer with me on the race. Between trying to share computers with my teammates and the (very) limited access we’ve had to the internet, I have been unable to post on my blog. I’m also unable to post pics here at the moment (the bandwidth I’m on right now is not great), but feel free to add me on Facebook if you’d like to see photos: www.Facebook.com/KayEmEvans.
So here’s the scooby-doo of everything happening here in the D.R.:
1. We are staying with H.O.P.E. Dominican Republic, a ministry based in Lajas, D.R. (a village up in the mountains outside of the City of Santiago). They have two churches — one in Santiago and another in Moca — as well as an English program that they facilitate for the children and adults of Lajas as well as a school for the kids of San Fuegos, a barrio in Santiago. Some of the children from San Fuegos live in and around the city dump.
2. The ministry work here is extremely varied. We’ve taught English, both in Lajas and in San Fuegos (the kiddies are AMAZING and so sweet and loving), every week we switch between the two churches in Moca and Santiago, we go on prayer walks in Los Cerritos in Santiago and around the village of Lajas, and we also do manual labor and construction on the host’s main ministry site.
3. Teaching English classes have consisted of: colors, days of the week, months of the year, counting (to 10 or 20, depending on age group), parts of the body, phrases, vocabulary, games (in English – the kids love to play Duck-Duck-Goose and Ships-and-Sailors), and other miscellaneous studies.
4. Construction has consisted of building pathways and walkways around the ministry site (the teams retrieve stones out of the river for this project, so it can get a bit muddy), digging and laying pipes, cementing, digging a septic tank, and picking fresh fruit (for making juice!) from trees in the jungle that surrounds the property (bananas, limes, lemons, and tangerines are just a few of the fruits we pick!). We also do some housework, cleaning up the exterior for the English classes, doing laundry, and learning how to make (and then preparing) Dominican meals — yucca is a root that is cheap and popular for meals (it looks kind of like a potato but it’s a root), boiled bananas (they aren’t very sweet because they are not ripe), rice, beans, cornmeal, and corn crema are popular, easy-to-make dishes that are inexpensive.
5. We work six days a week here, Saturday thru Thursday. Friday is our day off, and we’ve spend it at the beach once and hiking on another day. I didn’t go on the hike (which was today), because I wanted to just stay home and relax. The rest was much needed, as we have been working very hard. For the first two weeks, we started our days at 6:30 am and oftentimes didn’t get home until 6:30 pm. They have been letting us sleep in a little bit the last few days, though, as some people have been falling ill – just colds mostly, nothing serious, but the extra sleep has been helping those people. We now start our day at 8:00 am and depending on where our ministry site is (whether we stay here in Lajas, or if we go into Santiago) depends on what time we are finished for the day. It can take a while to get up and down this mountain; the infrastructure needs a bit of shoring up, and so there are a LOT of potholes and ripped up parts of the road. In order to navigate all of that, drivers have to go pretty slow and maneuver past the massive ruts. It can take a bit of time as a result, adding hours to our day, but I usually take my Bible and study that while we ride. I also bring my iPod and listen to worship music, which helps make the time fly!
6. Speaking of worship music, I’ve been working out again — Woooooo! It’s been two weeks now, and I can already feel myself getting stronger! Strength and endurance is going to be necessary for Bolivia — we go there on the 27th, and when we land in La Paz we’re already going to be at 4000 METERS (that’s 12,000 feet) above sea level. That’s, oh…about 2 miles, I do believe. 🙂 The endurance training I’ve been doing, which consists of jogging and circuit training, will be very helpful, because my body will be able to process oxygen more efficiently once I get to Bolivia. Please pray that Jesus gives me strength and an iron will to continue this every week!
So far, this has been the most challenging but also the most rewarding ministry we’ve had. The people are great, the actual ministry tasks have been stretching me, and there has been SOME DELIVERANCE! Yes, I have been delivered of some things have been afflicting me for some time. I can now eat gluten, no problem, and my anxiety is GONE! I don’t even get nervous when I get constructive feedback from my team, no more fearful thoughts…nothing! JESUS IS SOOOOO AMAZING! More to come on what happened with the deliverance. For now, I’m going to say adieu. Stay tuned for more posts to come, and please ADD ME ON FACEBOOK if you’d like to see photos! (unfortunately, the server on this blog doesn’t upload photos very well, so that’s the reason for that).
HUGS to all my friends, family, and supporters. Much love and hugs! Regards from the D.R.!
