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 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.

He Knew

Have you ever prayed for something for a really long time, but never expected God to actually answer that prayer?  You thought that maybe, someday, in the far far FAR future, it might happen? Yep.  That was me, until this week.  This past Tuesday, God answered one of my prayers.

Growing up, I would hear people at church talk about mission trips, but really had no idea what they were.  Once I found out what mission trips were, I honestly thought, "Why on earth would someone give up their vacation time to go work for and help other people?  Isn't vacation time when you're supposed to lay around and relax?"  Knowing what I know now, if I could go back in time, I would say to myself "Oh, ye of little knowledge!"  Come to think of it, there's a LOT of things I'd say that about. 

Over the last few years, God has worked on my heart... a LOT! I've felt called to serve on a missions trip.  Really, I've had on my heart that when Mike finishes nursing school, we would serve on a medical missions trip together.  But missions trips cost money, which we don't have much of right now, so I figured that some day we'd be able to serve together.  I'd been praying that God would open the door for one of us, if not both of us, to serve on a missions trip - to give back to others.

Last week I was asked at work if I would be interested in going on a missions trip with an organization called Operation Christmas Child.

If you're not familiar with Operation Christmas Child (OCC), it's an organization that was started to share the love of Christ to children in need through gifts in shoeboxes.  The shoeboxes are packed with items like tooth brushes (to an American child, they would probably be upset to get a tooth brush, but to a child in foreign country growing up in poverty or in an orphanage where 30 kids share a single tooth brush, having your OWN tooth brush is a BIG deal) coloring books, crayons, small toys, hard candy, gloves, hair bows, hair brushes, pencils, paper, etc.  Basically as much stuff as you can fit into a shoe box that would bless the life of a child.  This year, OCC will be delivering their 100 Millionth shoe box.  Yes, I said 100 Millionth shoe box!  That's 100 MILLION sweet little faces who have been given, quite possibly, the best gift in their life.     

I talked to Mike about going on the missions trip and he responded with a fast "Go for it!" so I told my boss I was interested.  She said to hold tight and they'd get back with me soon to let me know if I was selected or not to go on the trip.

Because I knew the possibility was there to go on the trip, I went ahead and applied for my first passport.  The day I mailed out my passport application was the day before Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, and my passport was headed straight towards Philadelphia.  I was a bit nervous thinking about my application making it to Philly in one piece, or if part of it (including my original birth certificate) would be out floating in the ocean!    

This past Tuesday, I found out that I, along with one of my co-workers from our Kansas City office, and one of our DJ's from California, will be going on the missions trip.  We leave December 4th for the Dominican Republic!!!!!!!! Thursday, I found out that my passport application made it to the Passport Office in Philly.  Thank you GOD!   

I can not believe that God has answered a prayer, that He himself placed in my heart.  Every time I talk or even think about the trip, I get excited.   I'm as giddy as a child on Christmas morning just thinking about the trip!  Thinking about those kids opening their shoe boxes, the excitement in their hearts and on their face that a complete stranger cared enough about them to send them a box full of gifts!  To think that we have such a loving God that He would put into the hearts of people to create such a blessing program and ministry - and that I get to serve alongside them in December!!!!

Looking back, I've realized that God really knows what He is doing.  God really knew what He was doing when I left my job in 2009 to take my current job.  He knew I would FREAK OUT at the thought of walking away from a $20,000 raise.  He knew I needed to have faith and gain His trust walking away from that raise for my current job.  He knew that I was pretty self centered and really only cared about what was best for me.  He knew that I needed to have a serious reality check to figure out that everything ISN'T about me!  (Imagine that!)  God knew all along that He was going to strangely warm my heart towards others - specifically others less fortunate and orphans - and do this through my current job.  He knew what it would take to humble me.  He knew all along that my heart would lean towards missions and orphans.  He knew that on December 4th, 2012, he would send me to the Dominican Republic for a missions trip with Operation Christmas Child.

All I can say is, "I want to know what He knows!"