The Dominican Republic Part II

For those of you who know me, you may find the following statement hard to believe, but it's true:  Wednesday morning, I was awake before my alarm clock went off.  I was so excited to get the day started; to get to participate in my first ever missions trip, to help distribute the 100 MILLIONTH shoe box with Operation Christmas Child!

The morning started with breakfast, a small worship service let by Sid (an AMAZING man of God!) and a devotion led by Chris, the Regional Director for Operation Christmas Child in the Americas and Caribbean.  One of the songs Sid sang really caught my attention, and I thought it could not have been more appropriate for our first day - Fee's "Send Me Out"

Jesus, Lord of my salvation, Savior of my soul.
Send me out to the world to make You known.
Jesus, King of every nation, this world’s only hope.
Send me out to the world to make you known.
Send me out to the world.

I wanna be Your hands & feet.
I wanna be Your voice every time I speak.
I wanna run to the ones in need, in the name of Jesus.
I wanna give my life away, all for Your kingdom'’s sake.
Shine a light in the darkest place, in the name of Jesus.
In the name of Jesus.

Carry to the broken-hearted mercy You have shown.
Send me out to the world to make You known.
And to the ones in need of rescue, lead me I will go.
Send me out to the world to make You known.
Send me out to the world.

Here am I, I will go.
Send me out to make You known.
There is hope for every soul, send me out, send me out.
Here am I, I will go.
Send me out to make You known.
There is hope for every soul, send me out, send me out.

After breakfast and devotions, we boarded the buses to head to the first distribution. After an interesting ride passing palm oil factories, we arrived in the community of Sabana Larga del Gonzalo. The distribution took place at the school in the community, Pedro Mir. As the buses pulled up on the dusty dirt road, we pulled up alongside a fence filled with little brown and black fingers with sweet brown eyes staring at us. This is when my heart started beating a little faster. We got off the bus, walked through the gate in the fence and suddenly there were all of these adorable faces staring at us!

Some of the kids at Pedro Mir

We immediately went and started to interact with the kids. Although, my first interaction wasn't quite what I expected… I was standing amongst a group of some of the older girls at the school and before I knew it, someone had pinched my rear! I wasn't sure what to think, so I found one of our translators, Marcel, and asked him if that was some sort of way Dominicans great others and he started to laugh at me. His response: "HA! No! They are just being mean. You're odd looking to them with your white skin and red hair. They were making fun of you!"

The local Operation Christmas Child volunteers put on an entertaining puppet show for the kids talking about the importance of Christmas.

Puppet Show put on by the Dominican Republic Operation Christmas Child Volunteers

It was interesting to hear what the kids yelled out as what they considered important: Apples, Grapes, Presents, Family. In the D.R., apples and grapes are considered special treats. The kids were told about Jesus and his love for each and every one of them. And that Christmas was about more than just apples, grapes, presents, and family. That's when we came into play. Operation Christmas Child created cartoon booklets in Spanish that explains Jesus to the kids. We handed the books out to the 250-300 kiddos that were there. After that came the moment we had all been waiting for - handing out the shoe boxes.

One of the girls waiting to open her shoe box

The 100 Millionth shoe box was delivered by a young lady named Evilyn. As Evilyn sat down with Brenda, the little girl who received the shoe box, a forever friendship was formed. Not until the delivery of Brenda's shoe box did Evilyn and the Operation Christmas Child staff find this story out about Brenda: Brenda was born to an unwed Mother and Father and was unwanted by her Mother so her Father took her. Although, he realized he was unable to care for little Brenda so he reached out to his Aunt to care for her. When Brenda was 5 months old and weighed only 4 pounds (yes 4 pounds) her Father placed her in a shoe box, tied it to the back of his motorcycle, and rode to his Aunts house. He placed Brenda in a SHOE BOX! Only God could have arranged a story like that - Brenda delivered to her Aunt in a shoe box, and a short few years later, was selected as the recipient of the 100 Millionth Shoe Box from Operation Christmas Child!

Evilyn with Brenda and the 100 Millionth shoe box

One of the shoe boxes I handed out was to a girl who was around 12-14 years old. She was holding a little boy, but when I handed her shoe box to her, she handed me the little boy. He was adorable. After holding him for a few minutes, he fell asleep. At that moment, my concern changed from handing out shoe boxes to loving on this little boy - giving him a shoulder to sleep on. I could have held him forever. I ended up holding him nearly 30 minutes, but it was almost time to leave, so I found the same girl and gave him back. When I gave him back, she handed me back her shoe box. I couldn't believe it! I immediately gave it back to her, pointed at her and said "This is YOURS! Jesus loves you!"

Me with the sleepy little guy

As we were leaving, I noticed a little boy standing all alone blowing something up. As I got closer, I realized he was blowing up a soccer ball he had received. It hit me that the soccer ball he was blowing up very well may be the ONLY soccer ball he ever gets. I'm not sure why that hit me so hard, but it did, and the tears started to flow. Then I started to think about how my dog even has his own soccer ball to play with. Next year, I'm going to try to include inflatable soccer balls in my shoe box.

Blowing up his Operation Christmas Child Soccer Ball

After our first distribution, we took a lunch break (consisting of Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches - yes!) at a gorgeous waterfall not too far from Pedro Mir. We had to hike a bit to get to it, but once we got there and saw it, it was worth it! Although, we ended up surprising an unsuspecting couple enjoying a quiet moment (until we arrived) at the waterfall! Oops!

The second distribution was fairly similar to the first - hundreds of little kids receiving gifts from Americans that brought more joy to their eyes than I could ever explain. Gifts that many American kids would scoff at if their parents ever dared to give to them - items like toothbrushes and toothpaste, pencils, hair barrettes, and flip flops!

Our day started with us singing that we wanted to be Christ's hands and feet, we wanted to be His voice to everyone we met, we wanted to run to those in need, in His name. We wanted to give our lives away, all for His Kingdom's sake, we wanted to shine a light in the darkest place, in His name.  Seeing the eyes of those children as they opened their shoe box and received toothbrushes and toothpaste, crayons, stickers, and slinkies, and as we told them, "Jesús te ama" made me feel like we were the voice of Christ and helped shine Christ's light to those adorable kids that day.  There's no better feeling.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the little girl I wanted to pack in my carry-on luggage and bring home with me.