The Dominican Republic in Photos

As I've written these posts about my time in the Dominican Republic, it's been REALLY hard to pick out just a few things to share with you.  I want to write about everything that happened on the trip, I want to tell you about every child I interacted with and every morning devotion that Chris prepared for our team.  I want to tell you about all the children that forever stole my heart.  I want to tell you about the country that humbled me.  I want to tell you how God worked on my heart.  But I can't.  I can't put to words some of the things I saw and felt.  But I can show you through photos.

For my final post on my trip to the Dominican Republic with Operation Christmas Child, I wanted to share with you a little photo montage I put together with the photos I took on my trip.

It's never too late (or too early) to start "giving Christmas away" through Operation Christmas Child.


This video features the song "Give This Christmas Away" by Matthew West, (C) 2009 Simple Tense Songs (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.) Wyzell Music (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.) Songs For Delaney.

Build-A-Box on Christmas!

Even though we're just a few days away from Christmas, you and/or your kids can still help pack a shoe box online to make a lasting impact on the life of a child.  Operation Christmas Child has created a program called Build-A-Box, where, through their website, you can digitally pack a shoe box for a boy or girl by selecting gifts from their list of items, and even include a personal letter and photo of yourself or your child.  (This is a huge hit for the children who receive the shoebox so they can learn about where it came from and who sent it to them.)

You can start building your box at Operation Christmas Child's website or by clicking the image above. 

Mike and I packed a box for a little girl aged 2-4.  (Something I learned on my trip was that there are always a LOT of boxes for kids ages 5-9, but there's not nearly as many for the other age groups.)  In the box I packed online, I choose a stuffed animal, a slinky (I had taken slinky's with me to the Dominican and handed them out - the kids LOVED them!) a jump rope, a harmonica, an etch-a-sketch, sunglasses, and hair accessories. Automatically included in the shoe box are essentials like soap, wash cloth, toothbrush & toothpaste, hair brush, pencils, pencil sharpener, crayons, chalk, coloring pad, and a notebook.

After I chose what to put in the box, I uploaded a photo of Mike and I, wrote a note to the child who will get the shoe box, and then checked out.

For $30, Mike and I know that we'll have given a child, where in many cases is in a third world country where a toothbrush & toothpaste, a stuffed animal and sunglasses, would never be obtainable to them, a chance to be a child.  More importantly, we're helping share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bless kiddos throughout the world through Operation Christmas Child.

When we have children of our own someday, in addition to physically packing shoeboxes as a family, I can't think of a better way to share Christ's love on Christmas than to pack a shoe box online for a child.

The Dominican Republic Part IV

Our last distribution in the D.R. was at the Pedro Martinez Foundation.  To get to the Foundation, we drove through the city, which seemed like it took forever.  We saw all types of people, buildings, cars, vendors, animals, etc along the city streets on our way there.  (I was amazed at the number of dogs we saw just running the streets!)  When we pulled up alongside the Foundation, the first thing I noticed was the rod iron gate across the entrance and the stone wall surrounding it.  It was the complete opposite than anything else we'd experienced so far on the trip.  We walked through the gates and saw this beautiful building!

As we walked into the building, we were met with a sea or red and green shirts and the students standing and applauding us. To think that these kids, who had no idea who we were, stood to applaud us was humbling, very humbling. I wanted to say "No, No - we need to be applauding you!"

After the presentation and the shoe boxes were handed out came the time to open the shoe boxes.  In Operation Christmas Child style, they counted down while the kids very eagerly sat in their seats holding tight to their precious shoe boxes to open them.



I had a great time going around talking trying to talk to the kids in my very broken Spanish about what they got in their shoe boxes.  They had so much fun digging through the boxes to see what they got, and if they weren't sure on what it was that they were holding, they'd hand it to me, and I'd do my best to describe it.  If I couldn't describe it, I'd end up playing with it so the child could figure it out.

Opening his Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box

Another item I will try to include in shoe boxes for the kids are bags.  The kids LOVED it if they got a bag in their shoe box that they could store all of their toys in.

Sweet boy holding tight to the bag that came in his shoe box

My favorite part of the distribution took place after all of the shoe boxes had been handed out.  As the kids were leaving the building to go out to the AWESOME playground for a break, the Cha-Cha Slide started playing in the sound system.  A few of us in the group started doing the dance to the song, and some of the girls at the Foundation started giggling.  Kathy and  got the girls to start dancing with us.  We were able to grab a quick picture afterwards.

Group shot after dancing the Cha-Cha Slide

After the mini-dance session, we headed outside to get ready to leave.  I was surprised to see little groups of kids all over the playground huddled around their boxes.  Apparently, they were having trading sessions.  I could only imagine their conversations.  "Hey, I'll trade you this beanie baby for your match box car..."

Inspecting their friends shoe box goodies

More shoe box goodie inspections

All of the kids were wearing green and red shirts, the colors in Operation Christmas Child's logo.  While we were outside, a young guy walked up to me, and before I could understand what he was trying to ask me, I caught a glimpse of his bright red t-shirt.   What was the likelihood of me, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, finding a Ball State University t-shirt on one of the kids receiving an Operation Christmas Child shoe box?  (For those of you who are not in Indiana, Ball State University is about 45 minutes north of where I live and I have many friends who graduated from there.)  I couldn't believe it!  I had to figure out how he got that shirt.  Come to find out, many organizations like Goodwill and the Salvation Army will donate clothing to needy organizations overseas.

My new friend, the Ball State University fan!

The last photo I took before we boarded the buses to head to the airport was one of my co-workers that I was so privileged to travel with for the week.  Nathan thought it would be fun for us all to let our inner-child out and climb on the spider web on the playground.

The K-LOVE Staff monkeying around :-)

As we pulled away from the foundation and our last distribution for the trip, I started to think about the 1500+ kids we interacted with during the week - kids who were given shoe boxes thanks to the 1500+ people in the United States that took time away from their schedules to go buy some toys to put into a shoe box.  I had heard numerous stories from friends, co-workers, and listeners at work about shoe boxes and the impact they made, but never really got it until I saw it with my own eyes.

Matthew 25:45 has a whole new meaning to me now: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how you can pack shoeboxes online!

The Dominican Republic Part III

When looking back at my days in the D.R., I'd have to pick Thursday as the most memorable.

Thursday morning started like the others with breakfast, worship and devotions, and then we loaded the buses for our distributions.  Our group went to a small church, Iglesia de Dios Misionera La Gran Comision Tercera, in the community of Mata Godo.  We drove through the city and then into the country to get to there.  Once we arrived and pulled alongside the barbed wire fence surrounding the church, the director of the church, Filomena, came running towards our bus full of energy, obviously very excited!  This distribution was one of the smaller ones (only 150 kiddos) so we were able to interact with more of the kids in the community.

As we walked towards the church, we found all of the kids quietly waiting on the benches inside the church - some of them peeking out the window to look at us.

The same events took place as the first two distributions: the local OCC Volunteers lead a great presentation for the kids including singing "Jingle Bells."

After the presentation and signing, it was time to hand out the shoeboxes.  We all grabbed boxes and started distributing them to the kids.  This is when I learned one of my best lessons about packing a shoe box: I was handing out two boxes - one was cardboard and one was plastic.  I handed the cardboard box to a little girl and as I was getting ready to hand the plastic one to the girl next to her, the first little girl dropped the cardboard box and grabbed the plastic.  The kids LOVE the plastic shoeboxes because they can be reused later.  Mental note made!

As the kids started to open their shoeboxes, the skies let loose and the rain started to come down.  Some of the kids didn't mind - they were too excited about their shoebox.  But some of the other kids scattered - some inside the church - some inside the school bus next to the church - some ran down the street.  One little girl just stood next to me like she was lost.  She couldn't have been more than 2 years old.  That's when I remembered that I had some pillow case dresses in my backpack made by some of the ladies at my church, so I grabbed one and gave it to her.  With the language barrier, she wasn't sure what I was giving her, so I slipped the dress on over what she was already wearing.  It was perfect!

One thing that surprised me when handing out the dresses was that I didn't give them to just little girls like I thought I was going to.  I gave 2 of the dresses to 2 of the moms in the community.  They were so small that they could wear the pillow case dresses as tops for themselves.

Normally after our distributions are complete and we've had a chance to interact with the kids, we loaded the buses and headed to the next location.  But not this time, and that's why this distribution was my favorite.  Our bus had to leave to take someone to a bus stop, so we ended up being at our distribution site much longer than any of the others.  This is when I met the little girl I wanted to bring home with me.  She had the biggest eyes and biggest eye lashes!

I started playing with her, tickling her neck, smiling at her, and lifting her up in the air, and she was smiling and laughing!  After playing with her for a little while, through the help of a translator, her mom told me that I was one of the only people who was able to make her laugh and smile like that in the 1 year that she had been alive.  She told me that her little girl loved me! Cue the tears!  I couldn't imagine a little girl, who was 1 year old, barely laughing and smiling.  It broke my heart.  It let me know how different our worlds really were.

I was also able to teach a little boy how to play knuckles.  (When you bump fists, and then your fist explodes and goes "BOOM!")  After a few short times of repeating the action, the little boy caught on and eventually started yelling "BOOM!" at the end with a giant smile.  It made my heart happy that I could make him so happy with such a simple game.

Right before we left the community, our translators started playing a few magic tricks with the kids and before long, a group of kids had gathered around them.  After the magic tricks were done, they started singing and dancing with the kids.

The kids were having a great time not because we just brought them shoeboxes, but because we were spending time with them singing, dancing, laughing, playing games, giving them hugs, and paying attention to them.  We were showing them God's love.  It made me want to put them all on the bus and plane and bring them home with me.

The 100 Millionth Shoe Box Tour Grand Finale

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.