The Answer is Always Airways.

Well, Marcelo. There you are. It’s super cool that I get to be on this trip like my brother was last year with so many other people I love at WC that have now graduated. This trip has been great, but it’s also been hard. I’ve been sick almost the entire time, but it’s been incredible to spend time with people I’ve never really known before as I’ve been recovering. I was able to go on one full ministry day to the Ensanche Atlagracia school and a half day to a village. Being half Hispanic, it’s been a lot of fun being able to communicate with the natives here.

In the school I was able to see how my plans sometimes fail but are renewed for the plans of Christ. In the village I was able to be the canvas of a blooming artist: a little girl named Maria who wanted to cover my pale skin with flowers, hearts, and her name. Leaving her, knowing that I would never see her smiling face again, was an ache in my heart. I kissed her sweet head as I went, disregarding the warnings of illness and bacteria that I could be struck down with. Doing so reminded me of something important: we are all human. No matter the skin color, no matter the status, we are humanity, and we live out our lives in the best way we can, whoever we are.

I was reminded of that tonight as Dr. Buzz spoke. He admonished us to gather our tomorrows because they are the meaning of today. Buzz harkened to that as he mentioned his son fighting in Iraq, and I was reminded that teachers are humans too. We see them every day, hold secret grudges towards them, hatred for the way they deal with us, and anger because of their actions, but when we stop to remind ourselves of the humanity of each one of us, problems become miniscule. The truth becomes more clear and we are able to rise above our sinful nature and see the love that Christ wants us to see. I’ve known this truth in my head, but during the week that truth has made it’s way down to my heart. These are the truths behind the smiles and friendships that I won’t easily forget.

-Elena Villalobos.

Time Flies

Can you believe we are even here right now? This is a question I have found myself repeating over and over again throughout the time we have spent in the Dominican. Being the youngest of three kids, the senior trip has always been something that has seemed so far away. I watched my sister go 4 years prior and my brother go this past year, only by the grace of God. (broken foot) Now it’s my turn? Already? I guess I am just still slightly in shock. Where in the world does the time go. Not only am I blown away by the passing of time, but simply by the opportunity of being here. Not many people get to say, “oh yeah, I went on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic with my senior class.” In fact, I’m one of millions that gets to say that. I’m realizing more than I ever have this week, that I am just indescribably blessed. To be given the opportunity to share God to people that are living in such heart wrenching poverty is something I will never forget. Back home, we expect so much to make us happy and entertain us. Because of this, there was a very high stress level in the VBS preparation area for the kids. Being down here and seeing these children, I realize that they are completely different. A simple “caballito,” a.k.a piggy back ride, can make their entire day. Things didn’t have to go perfectly, because God’s hand was guiding us the whole way. So its Thursday… tonight is everyone’s last night here. As I stood in our last group devotion, surrounded by classmates with a fire burning inside of them for Christ, I felt so overwhelmed with love. The end of this trip reminds me of the end of experiences like this. Before we know it, we are all going to be separating to different parts of the world, experiencing people that don’t believe the same things we do. This is new to many of us creating a fear for the future. I am so filled with joy to say that this trip has showed me God in a way that has settled all restlessness in my heart over what’s to come. Overall, I am just truly overwhelmed and thankful. Thankful for my classmates, my teachers, my family, friends, my God… everyone. My Senior trip has been life changing. I cannot even wait to share all about it.

– love, Rachel Maloney

p.s. Mom & Dad … tell Kia and Koda I love and miss them SO much and I cannot wait to see them tomorrow;)

Unspeakable Joy

Hello everyone! Today my team was at the Vision Trust school for our last day of ministry. It was by far my favorite day because we had the opportunity to see all the same kids as yesterday, so a lot of them recognized us when we came back today. It is an incredible feeling to look into a child’s eyes and see them light up when they recognize you, because it means that you were able to make an impact despite the language and cultural barrier. God’s love can transcend all obstacles and truly is so powerful! Many have spoken of the pure joy that these kids have despite living in poverty. Personally, I think their joy may actually be a result of their poverty. They have next to nothing in their lives to distract them, so their time is mostly spent building relationships with people. In fact, a lot of the kids would choose people over material things. Today at the end of our program, we handed out bags full of toys, clothes, school supplies, and hygiene products. At the time, I had about five kids sitting on my lap and climbing all over me. When they brought out the bags I expected them to get up and run to get to them, but they were content to just sit on my lap. I was so amazed! These kids have next to nothing and they were more interested in playing with me than getting more stuff. God’s number one command is to love God and love others. This took on new meaning for me today as I saw the kids demonstrate the fulfillment they found in loving God and loving others. Tonight in devotions, Mr. Walton asked us what we would take home with us, and that is definitely the lesson I will be taking home!

~Lauren Osborn

Ps- love you, family!

Red Team

Its the middle of the day and I’ve already had a couple great experiences. First we got to visit one of the sugar cane villages. These kids as soon as we walked in lit up. They were amazing. The whole time we were there they had smiles on their faces. Everything went as smooth as dancing with little kids could go. We got to color on bags with bible verses and the kids tried to get everyone’s name on their bag. I felt like my name was a collectable. They also really liked the spider I drew on one boys head so 10 more were grabbing at me to draw one on their head as well. Finally after the coloring settled down and we moved outside we had to leave. We left so suddenly it didn’t feel right leaving but they had to get back to their school work. Our translator knew that we were upset because we all truly loved those kids and didn’t want to leave so he surprised us with a little trip to a beach/concrete stones. We all were drawn to the stones in the ocean and climbed all over then came the scary part. We all wanted to get to the other side but that required jumping onto slanted stones. A couple of us overcame that fear and jumped on the rocks including John Routzahn. He was the only one to come back with some cuts. I saw all the cuts and decided that I wanted to practice more of my medical skills and bandage him up. According to john I was his “hero”. We have our last village to go to in the afternoon and its going to be hard to say goodbye to those last kid. I just pray that the red team can make a true impact on this last group of kids.

-Hadley

P.s I apologize in advance for my grammar

A New Day.

Timothy here Just felt the need to share. ever since we got here it has been one revelation after another new experiences and new relationships begun. We feel the power of God moving freely in this place and it moves us to really rethink and revaluate our life and walk with Christ. Those of us who have been spiritually asleep have been challenged to wake up and start this new day with Christ in control. I just wrote this

Time and time again

we seem to be a pain

you have showed yourself

but we are so caught up with our self

we failed thee to see

who you want us to be

children to you

but we don’t have a clue

you died for us

so there is no need to fuss.

I almost went to Jail today (and other stuff)

today I almost went to jail by accident, but I will save that for the end. I started out the day in a so so mood but that mood slowly went down the toilet. As I got dressed I had to keep in mind that I have to cover my tattoo which meant I had to wear a long sleeve shirt, and if you didn’t know by now we are in the Dominican republic which is very close to the equator. as I got on the bus going to the villages I had a flurry of emotions and did not know what to expect. When our bus entered the village it was truly a heart warming experience to see the excitement on the kids faces as they were chasing our bus. and if you know anything about me you know I am not the type of person to have these types of emotions. At both villages we set up a puppet stage and put on a show, but at the first village the kids were not having it and decided to attack our puppeteers. the kids got a little more settled as we sang them songs and put on a skit. The thing that struck me the most today in both villages was how little these kids had but how much happiness and joy they showed. I know it sounds cliché but it truly came to life for me today. I think these kids taught me a lesson today about what it is like to be happy without material objects. And it couldn’t be more obvious that this is the lesson God wanted me to learn on this trip, because the first day my phone slipped out of my hands and broke. Ok now on to the story of my close encounter with jail time. at the second village we were playing baseball with the Dominicans and for some reason they really like baseball which is on a downward slope in popularity these days. So its the Dominicans versus the Americans and it is just a slug fest for the Dominicans thanks to the pitching of THE Devon Feigenbaum. So it is my turn up to bat and I’m thinking home run the whole time because I got to get the Americans back in the game. I swung my bat with as much force as I could humanly exert but I did not make contact with the ball. To my dismay, I see my bat fly in slow motion straight towards Lisa D’nofrio and a little Dominican girl. It was nothing but the grace of God that the metal bat flew upwards about five feet above the two sparing their lives and sparing me 25 to life. Also on our way back to score Mr Roads thought it would be funny to have the bus driver suddenly stop the bus and scream,” there is a snake on the bus!”,but I did not find that too amusing. All in all it was a pretty jam packed Monday,probably the best I have had in awhile. P.S. mom and dad, I tried calling you but our phone carrier is pitiful so I hope you somehow read this so you don’t think I’m dead in village somewhere. love you guys.

– Brian Lambright

Let the children come

For anyone who has seen the recent release of Cinderella… you will recall the quote “be kind and have courage.” this is what I told my friend Kathryn last when she told me about being nervous for today and all the children. I also understood this sentence when it came to attempting to speak Spanish with children and ending up just shaking my head in frustration and saying “no Española.”But my mistakes didn’t destroy my day, I had so much fun outside the vision trust school which ending up being much smaller than I anticipated. we entered the school nervous and were greeting with the sounds of screaming children from inside the building which was crammed to the max with desks and children. We were welcomed by a song and dancing which the children performed themselves. Then the fun really began, we were given a group of small children which helped us dance and sing to songs we had worked on for a long time. Yes, there were times where there just wasn’t enough room to spread out and dance, but that didn’t matter because most of the children were on our shoulders. We performed two groups in the morning and two groups in the afternoon. When we finally broke for lunch, both teams gladly walked the stairs to another cramped room even smaller than the play space below. We took a much needed nap for the hour we had to rest until the next group of bigger children came. In that time I met our translator Hector who made fun (in a good way) of my lack of Spanish. In the end I used my courage to say certain words and feel blessed beyond words to have had this opportunity.

– Andriana Polsdorfer

P.S- Love you mom, dad and rest of family, missing you every day… 🙂

Hannah Sayre Entry

So today was our fist ministry day of the week. I was on the medical team today with a few other seniors. We went to a small village and set up a clinic in their church. Though when we first got there, the church was locked and the man who had the key wasn’t there because his bike broke down. So our first act of the day was breaking into the church– literally with a hammer. Until Michelle suggested we check the back door, which was indeed unlocked. I was stationed in triage with one of the translators to help get medical histories and check vital signs. We saw around 40 people today and most were children. Jessie’s main goal for the day was to hold one single baby and you should have seen her face when a mother of twins handed her one of them! We took a break around noon and the guys took us down to see some of the village and river. One of them found a small crab which Devon proceeded to throw on Hadley who then proceeded to yell and flail around:) All in all today was awesome and exhausting but mostly awesome. Can’t wait to take a nap!

Little Debbie vs. Big Devy

Our room woke up with 10 minutes time to leave for church. We got on a bus to go  45 minutes away to a church where we didn’t know what was going on or what was being said. Seeing everyone there was weird, but we could obviously see that the Dominican people love God and that He is working here through the people. The language barrier was there but God was there too. The way home was super hot especially in our very warm pants and collared shirts. I rode a horse for the first time too! I never really liked horses before except for the horse in War Horse and Seabiscuit so I was super excited to do that! With my luck, I got the most obnoxious horse that has probably ever been put on this earth. Not only that, but she was super stubborn!  I named her “Little Debbie.” She knew I didn’t like her and I knew she didn’t like me. Many times she disobeyed me, tried to embarrass me, and sped up and almost made me fall off! Its all good– it was an amazing experience even though the sun burnt me to a crisp. We went through out the streets around us and saw the poverty all around and still saw how happy these people are with what they do have. After devotions we all got our groups ready for our big day tomorrow when we start our 3 ministry days that all of us have been extremely nervous about. We were in the hottest room here sweating bullets but all our anxieties went away dancing and making fools of ourselves singing songs in a language we don’t know and dancing with puppets. I love my classmates and I love it here and I am so excited to see what God has in store for tomorrow!

I’m out, love you, miss you, Grandma.

Devon Feigenbaum

Yes Mom, I Would.

I have a theory that in hospitals around the globe while proud fathers of newborn babies briefly leave their wives unattended to pull up the car from the hospital parking lots, the nurse silently slips the new mother a book. The book. This piece of eclectic literature contains everything from cooking the best lasagna for Christmas to the most efficient and effective way to restore a pair of torn jeans to near perfect condition. Across the top of the book is a title, scrawled down in handwriting that matches the grocery list on the counter: How To Be a Mother.

The most used feature of this book is by far the idioms chapter, with jems like “You’ll shoot your eye out” and “because I said so.” As I stood atop a cliff on Catalina Island today staring down at the blue ocean that waited with anticipation, there was only one phrase going through my mind, a phrase that had been embedded into my mind from countless instances of why I couldn’t have a phone when I was 8 years old or why I couldn’t watch an R-rated movie at one of my adolescent birthday parties when everyone else was doing it. As I stared down the waves below me, my mother’s voice echoed in my head, saying “if your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?” Yes mom. I would.

-Wesley Murray