Let me recap for you...
The last time I posted a blog, I believe it was Friday -- the night before our last day at the orphanage. And....it had been raining a lot (since Wednesday night actually.) Well, once again we woke up Saturday morning to rain, which kinda turned out to be a bummer for us since we had a field day and a picnic planned for the kids. Unfortunately for all of us, the rain didn't really stop all day so we had to make a few adjustments to our plans. We had indoor activities instead (lots of singing and dancing, "simon says," "hot potato," and a game called "statue" which the kids really loved.) We had passed out the Dayton Christian tshirts to the kids the day before (and we asked them to wear them on Saturday) so we got them all together for a picture and that was really cute. Towards the end of our time with them (before the cooked-indoors-and-not-grilled-out hot dogs came -- with chips, cookies and pop) we also passed out the beanie babies and match box cars. That was a really fun moment for all of us. I just loved seeing the looks on their faces when they received their toys....and the looks on our students faces as well. There truly is such great joy in giving!
Well, the time came for us to leave El Arca and these precious little ones whom we have spent so much time with this past week. It had been kind of a bittersweet day since we knew that when 1:00pm rolled around we would hug them one last time and tell them "goodbye" instead of "see you tomorrow." What a joy it is to have these children as a part of our lives, even if just for a brief moment in time. I absolutely loved watching my students pour themselves out for these little ones all week....whether it was through chopping down tall grass with machetes, cleaning concrete walls in the rain, making paper bag puppets, singing "the crocodile song" for the 500th time, playing soccer or basketball, or simply just holding them and trying to communicate through hand gestures or simple Spanish phrases. Yes, it truly has been a wonderful week of ministry....and we all have been blessed because of the time we have spent here im Jarabacoa, even in spite of lizards and mosquito bites.
Arriving back to the capital, Santo Domingo on Saturday around 6:00pm or so....we were disappointed to find out that it was raining here too. We gathered our dirty (and stinky) suitcases and headed back to our host homes for a hot shower and a warm bed, all the while crossing our fingers that the sun would be shining this morning. I'm happy to report (as I jump up and down with joy) that that wonderful Dominican sunshine was shining bright and warm this morning and remained that was all day!!!! Woo Hoo!! Having been in the rain since Wedesday night, we were soooooooooo happy to see the sun today....especially since we will be spening the whole day at the beach tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed with us that the sun keeps on a-shining cuz we surely don't want any rain on our beach day!
Today we all spent the day in church and then the afternoon with our host families. It was a good day to get some well deserved rest...and get our suitcases repacked and oraganized. It was good to be together again today in church...and to be wearing clothes that don't smell like the stinky cabins that we lived in for the past week. As I mentioned above, we ended our evening together in every teenager's favorite way....just hanging out. It truly was a great way to end our memory filled, crazy adventure together. We even had a "rerun edition" of our "Dominican Idol" that we premiered Friday night and each group performed their song once more.
Team One: "The Eliminators" performed "My Girl" (with guest soloist, Mason.)
Team Two: "Muy Rica" performed "You Are My Sunshine" (with our own Korean Sun as the "main attraction.")
Team Three: "Supercharged" performed their own version of N'Sync's song "Bye Bye Bye" now known as "Mangu: Bye Bye Bye." (And this team was the overall winner of the whole week long competition, by the way, so they had to throw in a verse of "We Are The Champions" as well.)
Team Four: "Los Chimichurris" performed a half English/half Spanish version of the Jonas Brothers' song "Burning Up." (And our own Josh S starred as one of the "hotties" himself.)
Well, the hour is getting really really late and my crazy alarm is going to be going off in just a couple of hours, so I guess I better hit the hay and catch at least a couple of Z's. Please pray for us in the morning as it will be quite an emotional start to our day as we say goodbye to the Logos team. Pray also for a warm and sunny, safe and fun day as we spend our last moments together soaking up the rays and enjoying the beautiful Domincan sand and water! A great reward for a job well done.
I will try to post again if I can while at the hotel. But if not, we'll see you back in Ohio really late Tuesday night. Hugs to you all. =)
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