My trip came to an abrupt and unexpected end on Thursday morning when I got a call that my grandmother had passed away. I left the DR Thursday afternoon, flew to Philadelphia, drove to Princeton, unpacked, repacked, slept for 4 hours, headed back to the airport in the morning, and flew to West Virginia. It was really difficult not only to leave, but to leave so unexpectedly, without goodbyes, without any kind of end. Please pray for my family, for the team still in the DR, and for my friends who are driving to Haiti today. 

Love to you all

I haven't posted in a few days, but I don't have a lot of time, so this will be short! The week is going really well. I am having a different kind of week here than I normally do, because instead of spending a lot of time in the village with Dominicans, I have been spending a lot of time in the Haitian community here. Mission Emanuel started a Haitian Care Team right after the earthquake, which is providing lunch for children everyday. I have gone with them to serve lunch each day this week, the first two days for about 80 kids, and today, to a smaller group of 40 students who attend the Haitian school. The difference between these Haitian children and the Dominican children is astounding...the Haitian children are so well-behaved, polite, easy to work with, and very appreciative of the time we spend with them. They have loved the simple songs, games, and crafts we have done with them, even if they are not as exciting as they could be. I can't explain why, but I am loving entering into the this new community. This week is opening up a whole new side to Cielo for me, and I am so thankful for the moments to learn and see something entirely new. I jump at the chance to go spend time with these kids everyday, and am passing up work on construction projects to do it (if you have ever been on a mission trip with me, you know this is rare). God is doing something beautiful in this Haitian community, and I feel so lucky to work alongside great people and be a part of this crowd for just a few days. 

On Saturday, a few of us from Mission Emanuel are going over to Port au Prince to visit some of the aid and relief organizations we have been sending our supplies to. I am excited to go and see what the disaster relief looks like and is accomplishing, but I also know it will be an incredibly difficult and emotional day. I would love your prayers for safety, and even more for my return and what it will mean to process what I see there. Only 5 of us are going, so please pray for our time on the road, our conversations, the people we encounter, and the work we may do. Most importantly, continue to pray for the Haitian people who continue in need of water, food, and shelter. 

It has been a good few days, relatively low-key and uneventful until today. We have mostly been doing preparation work for a ground-breaking ceremony tomorrow for a new expansion of our medical clinic. A lot of cleaning, moving things from one room to another, setting up for the events, etc. Necessary, but certainly not exciting. A great part of that time has been working alongside friends and getting to catch up on what has changed in their lives in the last several months. Several of my closest Dominican friends have changed jobs, moved, or had major changes in their families since I last saw them, so it was a blessing to talk with them while doing some mundane tasks. As things get busier over the next few days, it gets harder to find those moments for extended conversation, so I am thankful for the time to be with them. They enrich my life so much, and I am always most challenged and enlivened by my time with these friends while I am here. 

Sundays are always special here, and today was no exception. We started the morning at a Haitian church, which is backed by and connected with Mission Emanuel. This church is where our Haitian Care Team is doing much of its work in response to the recent earthquake. The church community has grown a great deal since I was last here, because of the number of refugees coming to Santo Domingo. We got to sit in worship with them for about an hour (probably only 1/3 of  their worship service!) and enjoy their prayers and memorization of Scripture. I love sitting in the room with them when they do this...one person stands up and walks them through several verses, phrase by phrase, asking them to repeat after the leader, until the whole group has succeeded in memorizing the verses without ever seeing it written down. Then, a few brave souls will stand up and prove their skills of memorization. It is really helpful for me in learning new words in Creole or Spanish, and something about the repetition is entertaining for me. Grandparents, teenagers, little kids, all participating in this memorization together. I love it! 

After their worship service, we left and went to Cielo to the Dominican church. This feels like an extension of my own church family as I am greeted with hugs, kisses on the cheeks, questions about school and home, and am able to chat with families I only see on Sunday mornings. We got to work after this 2nd service of the day, and dished out 200 meals of what they call here the Dominican flag: a traditional DR meal of rice, beans, chicken, and salad. We took the packaged meals over to the Haitian church, serving each person 1 box of food of their own, and one to take with them to deliver to a friend. People ate together, laughed, mingled, and had a great time. This actually didn't feel drastically different from all of the meals we serve, eat, and share at Broad Street Ministry, where I work in Philly.  

The highlight of the day came for me as we stayed for some extra time at the Haitian church, about 6 Americans from the Mission, the Haitian pastor, and 2 other members of the congregation. As we stood and chatted, about 10 of the Haitian men began practicing music they will sing in a few weeks. They stood close together, and started singing this beautiful song in Creole. We all stopped talking, struck by the incredible beauty of the song, partly because of its simple harmonies and lyrics, and partly because they sang with such passion that you couldn't help but stop and stand in awe. Pastor John leaned over to me and said, "They are singing 'Father, Father, how long must we suffer? Father, Father, how often to we complain for nothing?'" These simple moments strike me...cause me to tear up...make tragedy real rather than abstract...teach me what psalms of lament really sound and feel like. 

Pray for this Haitian church, as they work to care for these new refugees in their midst; as they try to care for their own members who are grieving losses; as they try to blend these two groups together into one community brought together by God. Father, Father, how long must they suffer?

Back in the saddle...

Well, I am finally back in the DR after too many months away! I arrived safely last night, and have already been out to Cielo to catch up with a few old friends before the work begins. Our group of 60 college students from Wake Forest (Go Deacs!) and UNC (Boo Carolina!) will arrive on Sunday, so the next few days consist of preparations, relaxation, and updates on what has changed in my months away. It is crazy to think that since I was last here, the ministry has continued to grow and change so much that several friends of mine have joined the full-time staff, a new office building has been set up, our physical therapy clinic has been completed, a new generator is getting ready to be installed, and the Haitian Care Team has been established to help with all of the refugees that have flooded into Cielo and Nazaret. Things look different here so quickly...I miss a lot when I am away for 8 months! 

I would love your prayers for the group about to arrive...many of these college students have never been here, and thus will have a pretty eye-opening few days. You can pray for their construction projects, for the energy and strength to work hard at some seriously physical labor over the next week. For their visits with the Haitian Care Team, as they feed children each day and provide them with activities to fill the void now that they have left their homes. For the team dynamics...that they will love each other well and deeply, in spite of personality differences or conflicts, and the challenges of being in a new and unsettling environment. For their leadership, for their times of worship and prayer, for new relationships forming between Americans and Dominicans, for God's presence to be seen and known. God is always so evident to me in this place, and I hope this will be the case for these students as well. I long for people to love this country as much as I do, and to see how these communities have been so drastically changed, healed, and helped in the last 15 years of Mission Emanuel. The Dominicans who serve here constantly are doing incredible work, and we are blessed to come alongside them and be a part of it. It is a blessing simply to witness what is happening here! God is good, and I look forward to seeing prayers in action this week. Hopefully I will have some interesting updates to share!