After a VERY long week of studying and midterm testing, me and 5 of my very close friends leave for a mission trip to the Dominican Republic on Saturday! I cannot even begin to explain to you how excited I am for sunshine and 80+ degree weather :)
Last year, I went on the same mission trip with two of my friends, Kathryn and Hayley. Seeing as I have been on this trip before I have a a very good idea of what to expect and what I am going to see. Although, there are 3 girls who will experience their first mission trip over the next week. Please pray that God will prepare all of our hearts as we enter an area that has been violently stricken by poverty and disaster. Many of the people we will encounter will have severe health problems, extremely poor living conditions, little to no family and no knowledge of our Savior and what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Among the villages we will visit there will be many Haitians as well as Dominicans. After the hurricane hit Haiti in 2010, many Haitians did not have a place to go, so many immigrated to the Dominican Republic to escape the terror and political unrest that Haiti had been experiencing.
[Kathryn, Hayley and I getting our hair braided by girls from a near by village
on our trip that we took in 2011!]
Sunday Jan. 29th, will be our first full day in the Dominican Republic and we will use that as a day to recover from jet lag, rest and prepare for the week ahead. For the rest of the week, we will spend a majority of each day in a different village. The medical teams will set up a doctor's office along with a pharmacy, dental station and a vision station. Seeing as we have no experience in vision, health or dental care our main focus will be to entertain children and help out with VBS activities. Throughout the week we will attend different churches around town. We have the opportunity to spend Friday, our last full day, at a near by public pool hanging out with the team, salsa dancing and having a blast.
[Above is a church we attended on our last trip. This church in particular had an impact on my heart. It didn't matter to these people that the church had no windows and was unfinished. What mattered was that they had a place to worship and spend time in fellowship with one another. Nothing else mattered. This would never be something that you would see in the U.S. But perhaps it should be. Many times we worry incredibly too much about the outward appearance and we never really look inside to see what is really there. Many of us are even afraid to look that deep inside in fear of what we might find.]
We will fly into Santo Domingo and drive about 3-4 hours to the little town of Hato Mayor. By the time we finally get to the complex where we are staying it will be about 11 pm Saturday night. We will be staying in a gated and locked missionary compound. If you are looking for more information on the group we are traveling with check out the website below:
If you are looking for a way to support us, prayer is ALWAYS welcome and VERY much appreciated. Please pray for: preparation of our hearts and minds, guidance for doctors, dentists, and ophthalmologists, safety and health, communication with Dominicans/Haitians and that God will give us the words and tools necessary to touch the hearts of the people we come into contact with. Also pray for the hearts of the team members, that they too will be impacted by what they see and experience. Pray for a positive and incredible experience for all, and that we leave with a new and improved mindset than we came with. I cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support.
I will not be blogging while I'm in the Dominican Republic, but I will most definitely give you an update on how the trip went and post pictures when I return.
-Hannah
"Shine your light and let the whole world see."
