Home stays are over :-(

We've been out of contact without access to the Internet for the past two days while we've been living with many of our new Dominican friends and helping them in their home towns. We spilt into two 16 person groups with six guys and ten girls in each group and headed to two neighborhoods to live amongst the Dominican people. We stayed in their homes where they gave up the nicest bedrooms in their homes to us. They fed us, served us and loved us. This was a very humbling experience as we came here to serve and love them yet they were serving and loving us!! Many of them live in houses smaller than one of our bedrooms but they don't complain or expect more. Joy flows from their hearts. They love the those around them, truly live depending on God with amazing joy and thankfulness and are a light to all those around them. We were blessed to serve along side them painting, cleaning, making benches and more. We were humbled to pray with them and for them, that God would open the door for the youth in their towns to go to Picondido Escondido, the Young Life camp we worked at earlier in the week and that those youth would come to Jesus! These two days hold so many stories, laughs, memories and blessings that we want to tell you about when we return.

We are now relaxing and reuniting as an entire team at a beautiful hotel in Santo Domingo right on the beach where will stay until Thursdays morning.  We just enjoyed a sweet time of worship and encouragement and are now heading off to some fun team games.

Thank you for all your prayers. God is definitely answering them. We are very excited to see you in two days!

Two Days. Twice the Fun.

Friday, June 7th

This was one heck of work day! We woke up bright and early, had our morning devotionals, and then ate a delicious breakfast (as always). Right at 8 o'clock we began our rigorous work day and man, it was rigorous. Part of the group went back to their painting of several different buildings. It was incredible to see the transformation made on that side of the camp. They made the new cement building look so inviting and it looked professional! On the other side of the camp, much of the group was up this giant hill, basically in the jungle, waiting for certain trees to be chopped down. Once they were cut down, everyone anxiously wanted to help haul the branches up the hill to the mulch pile while others carefully rolled the 500 pound tree trunks to the walkway to be placed on many shoulders; they hauled them up the mountain to be sanded. We did this for 4 hours in the morning before lunch, and then 4 more hours afterwards. It was hard work, but it was incredible to see the team come together and communicate at a whole new level.

After dinner, the team had a volleyball tournament and let me just say, it got heated. Then we had our nightly meeting and just enjoyed each others company! It was a day to look back on and be so incredibly proud of.

Saturday, June 8th

Today, just this morning actually, we went on the most beautiful hike/nature walk you could ever believe. We  turned onto this random trail off a road which took us deep in the forest. We hiked for about 45 minutes in through brush, river rapids and mud to come out to this clearing where the most secretly magnificant waterfall stood before us. We rushed over as soon as it was in view and jumped in. We also climbed up the rock near the waterfall and  did our own small version of "cliff-jumping." It was a great bonding experience and so relaxing after a long work week. We spent all the morning there and then came back for lunch. It is hard to explain the beauty of this place; just look at the pictures below to get a small glimpse of the amazing beauty here. 

*For some reason, it won't let us upload pictures. But hopefully we can upload them later. I hope you enjoy the little blurb about our day!

The Orphanage!

On Wednesday, June 5th, we woke up bright and early to have some quiet time and breakfast before we started work for the first half of the day. Extreme progress had been made in all of the work groups and it was incredible to see that we could do such amazing work. One group mixed a ton of concrete and laid down, leveled, and completed a whole floor of a new building being built. Another group tediously slaved away making stone columns for a walkway and many more wonderful jobs were being completed.

After lunch, everyone anxiously ran back to their rooms to get the toys and supplies they brought for the orphanage! We drove about 30 minutes and were met by Brian who runs the orphanage who explained to us their mission and answered all of the questions we had to ask. Soon enough we were able to find the kiddos and start playing with them, making incredible bonds. It is just so special to be able to speak so little of a language and still be able to communicate with any age group. We were all wearing the Diamondback's hats and the kids thought it was so fun to steal them off our heads and chase them around! It was just such a joy to see their smiling faces and them being so welcoming of us to play with them and let them into our lives.

That's it for now! Of course we have countless stories to tell about individual children that touched our hearts and we cannot wait to share these stories with you when we get back! We have been working so diligently and you would be so proud!

No news is good news!!

Our days have been full from sun up to sun down so we have not had a chance to give you an update! Consider that good news! Everyone is doing great. We completed the list of jobs that Pico had for us by Wednesday so they have been creating new ones so you can only imagine that we are working really hard! The team is doing great and we're having a great time! We will update you this afternoon with another update and some great pictures!!

We just finished our first lunch at Pico after a great morning of working. We are in four work teams doing anything from painting to mixing cement.

We arrived safely at Pico Escondido around 6 pm last night. The camp is just breath-taking, in the mountains of Dominican Republic, full of lush green trees, colorful flowers, a cool breeze, you would love it.

The Dominican served up a soup type meal which they love to serve when guests arrive with chicken, beef, carrots, plantain and some type of root vegetable. Yum, it was delicious!

We are joined here by a team of 12 from Colorado so we will make new friends from the US as well as new friends from the DR. Our new Colorado friends joined us for a sweet time of worship!

We called it an early night, everyone asleep before 10 pm since most of us had only slept three hours since Saturday night!

Thanks for praying for us and supporting us in so many ways! That's it for now from the DR!

Here are some photos from our send off at the airport last night in Phoenix, AZ.

Plenty more to come!!

Let the fun begin!! Here are just a few pictures from our send-off dinner! There will plenty more starting at the airport tonight!!

Send-off dinner

I would definitely say there are 32 people very excited about heading to DR in three days! What a great time we had tonight at our send-off dinner. We have an amazing team and also great parents that are supporting each one of us! We are so blessed!! God has adventures waiting for us stretch us and give us job.I am very excited to see what they are! Walk the journey with us through our blog. As you read about what we are doing, please pray for us and ask God to show you specifically how to pray! We'll be back soon!!

Six days and counting!!

Well, here we are, just six days away from leaving for Dominican Republic! People are busy packing (or at least thinking about it) and getting the last minute things ready. We are heading back to Jarabacoa for the second year in a row with an amazing team of 32!! Please pray for our team as we get ready to embark on the exciting adventure, anticipating God to work in us and though us!

We will do our best to keep you up to date while working in DR but please be patient with us!

Thank you for your support and prayers!!


The DR13 team!!