Hasta Luego!

Buenos Dias! Our time here in the beautiful Dominican Republic is coming to a close. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways and I want to extend our gratitude and appreciation for all the prayer and support that you have given us.

 Friday night we had a closing banquet to hear from the different sites and to say goodbye to the people who we have met and grown to love and who we may not see again. It was great to hear from site leaders of how they had been encouraged and blessed by the servant heart’s in LIFT 30 and to see how God has been working throughout the DR.

 One farewell really stuck with me. In Los Higos, at the education and social work sites as we were preparing to drive away Friday afternoon and bid farewell to the people in the community. Hector is a young Dominican man who has been helping to teach an English class at the Los Higos School and who is extremely dedicated to his work for the Kingdom of God.  I watched as he turned to say goodbye to Nate, a LIFT student who had been serving at his site. Hector placed his hand on Nate’s shoulder and told him what a pleasure and blessing it had been to work with him the past two weeks, he ended by saying, “If I do not see you on this Earth, brother, we will meet again in Heaven”.  It reiterated the eternal value of a life dedicated and working for the Kingdom and glory of God, along with an amazing sense of unity with all our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout every nation.

We have been reading in our classes about radical abandonment of our own lives and giving up everything for Christ, learning about Christians around the world and praying for the persecuted church.  This learning has been brought to life as we are seeing real examples in the Dominican and in the missionaries working with Students International.  It has been a privilege to serve and to learn. To come away with a vision for how each one of us has a responsibility to minister and lead by example in whatever vocation or mission that Christ calls us to. To be transformed by the renewing of our minds and to impress upon our hearts that there is nothing greater than Christ’s love.  Dios le bendiga!

-          Abigail Hanna

 

       Abi and Laura wouldn't write about this, but I will - these two young women who posted our blogs wanted to experience buying, slaughtering, gutting, de-feathering, butchering, cooking, and eating a chicken.  They did this last week on their own initiative with the permission of the missionaries they were serving with - all in a matter of one morning.  This was a step up from catching their own fish with a plastic bag, killing it, gutting it and eating it during the first week of orientation.  These ladies may soon be having their own missionary survival reality show.

      Saturday the group spent the day getting caught up on rest by going snorkeling at a reef off of the north shore of the island.  Today we attended two different church services to worship with our Dominican brothers and sisters.  Tomorrow we will start with a group run, then have a final class, have a session to debrief the mission experience and discuss what they learned, followed by interviews for second-semester students, then pack up.  We fly home Tuesday and should be arriving back at Camp around 8:30 p.m.

      Thanks so much for supporting us all during this amazing time of seeing God at work in the lives of so many.  We will be having an open forum presenting and reporting on our time and ministry at the Dominican Republic at the Sonju Sports Complex at Camp-of-the-Woods, starting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 20th.

      This is Tim signing off from the Dominican Republic with LIFT 30 and Students International.