Last Day of work

Today we spent our last day working. It was supposed to be a half day of work followed by shopping in the local shops and then a dip in a river about 10 minutes away (a clean one). It turned out that our project was not done by lunch so we decided to stay and work another hour or so after lunch. These guys are great. They gave up some swimming time to make sure the fence that we were working on was completed.

The shopping was interesting to say the least. There is a group of women who sell their hand made crafts to take care of their families. It is a Christian run organization of women. After that we then go to some of the other locals who sell their handmade items. They swarm you and literally rake your hand so they can lead you to their shop before you can go to another. Once you are in their house/store they would begin to sell you on the quality of their items. If they see that you are not interested, they next resort to making you feel guilty by saying, “please buy from me so I can feed my family.” If that doesn’t work they may even follow you out of their store and just flat beg for a few pesos so they can eat that night. It is heart wrenching to say no, but that is what we were instructed to do unless we were buying their goods.

After that we came back to the house, got ready for swimming and were off again. We got to swim in a private area of a river because of someone who is connected to the Care Center at Kids Alive. It was the cleanest water we have seen yet, but we still decided to shower afterwards. It was like a little oasis and quite beautiful. The guys really enjoyed the “cool” dip in the water that was probably 80+ degrees.

In the evening the KAI team took us to the beach for some time of worship together. Our times of Bible study and sharing have been very rich and meaningful for our team, but this was a treat for us because we don’t have any musical gifts on our team. It was a great time of worship and sharing. One of the guys said that this was his first time on a missons trip and that he can’t wait to do another one. A second student said that it’s felt SO good to make a difference in the lives of these kids in the Dominican and that he can’t wait to get back to Kalamazoo and make a difference for Christ there. Another said that he has “loved being unplugged” this week from all of his electronics. He commented that he has been able to hear from God so much more. What an encouragement to see God’s work in these young men and worship Him there on the beach as the sun set.

Scott