Things have been going very well here in the DR. We have kept very busy between our groups and Dominican disciples here. Last week my girls (that you met in the last blog post) were able to come with us to Puerto Plata day. For those of you who do not know, Puerto Plata day is a day that we travel into the big city and visit the people in the hospital and in the dump. I was really looking forward to experiencing this day with the girls because I knew it would force them outside of their comfort zone. After having had this day with them before I had a pretty good idea of how to best engage them. In each of the hospital rooms there are close to 10 beds per room. We normally spend about 10 minutes passing out bags, talking, and praying with people. Then we will sing some songs and have a prayer over the room. The girls were great about going up to people. I loved just to stand beside them at times and watch them go. It really made me proud how they made an effort to get to know these people. There was one lady in a wheelchair, very old and feeble, and they all three went up to her and laid their hands on her and started asking her questions. It was a great reminder to me to step back and let them take the lead. Another thing that really impressed me was that morning I found out that Jailinnee had prepared a prayer in advance to pray over the rooms. This can be a really scary thing for a 14 year old girl, to pray out loud in front of 20-25 people. She did so wonderful though and I know that her prayer encouraged Graisy and Estefanie to pray in front of others as well.
Another exciting adventure me and the girls were able to have was a sleepover! They had been asking me about this for a couple of weeks and I knew it was something they would enjoy. So Wednesday night after community day, they all came back to camp with us and the festivities began. We enjoyed dinner, volleyball, and lots of other things. Rachel allowed us to use all of her paint and the girls painted canvases for their moms. I thought that was sweet because they came up with the idea. So we did that for awhile then they all played capture the flag. It is incredible to me the energy level these kids can maintain here. I am still trying to keep up. They must have run around for 2 hours chasing one another. It was very enjoyable to watch. Then once we were ready for bed, gracious Jordan allowed us to use his home (mine had no power at the time) and we all headed to bed. After a movie and nonstop giggling they fell asleep around 2 am. The next morning we woke up bright and early, cleaned up and went to breakfast. When we were sitting at breakfast the group went into quiet time. I had not planned to do anything specific with the girls during this time but I felt the urge to pull them aside for a little more serious of a time. After bringing our chairs into the grassy field, somewhat more isolated from the group, they really began to open up.
I started by asking them things they struggled with and asked them what they had been praying about. It was amazing to hear their answers. The thing that surprised me most about their prayers and answers to these questions is that none of them revolved around themselves. They continually mentioned their families, people they cared about, someone that they knew was struggling. So often my prayers are for myself, my work, my struggles, and all things Audrey related. I realized that they have so much to teach me and others. These girls have so much potential and I have no doubt that the Lord is leading them down a promising path. After much talking, which these girls LOVE to do, we had a prayer. You really know a person on a deeper level when you hear them talk to God and that it what it was like for me. I felt very blessed for our time together that morning, as well as the experience in all.
God is doing great things here. Know I love each of you and think about you often. Keep me, my girls, our team, and my Pappaw in your prayers.
Love and blessings,
Audge
No comments:
Post a Comment