5:44 a.m. finds me staring at the alarm clock, wondering why it’s so early and more importantly, why it’s making noises and I’m awake.  Five minutes later my mind registers the fact that I’d mistakenly set the alarm an hour earlier than necessary.  The chickens and warring dogs outside our window don’t seem to care about my plight, but thankfully my sleep-deprived self had no trouble drifting off again.  Thus begins yet another day in the Dominican Republic – beautiful and amazingly loud.

Last week found me on the construction crew – finally in Boma once again.  Contrary to multiple photographic evidences, I did not spend the whole week sleeping on concrete blocks, bags of cement, unfortunate girls who stayed still long enough for me to assume their candidacy for pillows, and window sills.  The first few days were spent moving giant mounds of clay using pickaxes, trying to coax the anticipated rain water away from the church and down the hill.  The other days were spent hand mixing either “mud” or “soup” depending on Chet’s demands.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget the recipe for concrete – the amount of gravel/sand, cement, and water needed to glue each part of a building together. 

Church yesterday was once again an amazing experience.  There’s something almost intoxicating about the power of song in that building when we’re all gathered there – people of completely different backgrounds and languages who find it difficult to even acknowledge each other without awkward silences, worshiping the same God with overflowing hearts.  There’s definitely a unity in the body of Christ that I don’t think anything else can come close to.  And whenever we gather together with the same purpose and same desires in our hearts – to honor God and serve each other in love, the awkward moments and confused glances are immediately forgotten. 

Last night I didn’t think I could ever reconcile myself to coming back home.  There’s a part of me I know will never feel at home again unless I’m here with the people I’ve grown to love. 

This morning I hit a roadblock.  Stuffing over 20 VBS workers and a dozen Dominican translators into three vans, walking down numerous steps (the exact number is still under debate – I counted 223, others counted anywhere from 205 to 218, but my tally sounds the most impressive so I’ll stick with that one), to Majaguita where we found only 18 kids, because of a communication  problem the community did realize when we were starting.  Each of our three groups having exactly 6 children to our 5 group leaders (not including translators and craft/game station helpers) seemed such a waste to me, and I couldn’t get over this sick feeling in my gut that I would be more of a help back home or somewhere out of the way.    

After lunch we headed off to La Joya where Revani and Rovian run a Bible school for the neighboring kids.  The building is tiny and stifling, and immediately I thought there wasn’t a whole lot I could do aside from try to stay out of the way.  After the introductory songs, I decided to sit behind the building where there was an overhang and thus some shade and relatively cool air.  There I found Luisa, or maybe she found me, because God knew I needed her.  Luisa is 12, and we quickly discovered our ability to communicate with each other.  She knows some English, and I know enough Spanish to be slightly dangerous but mostly just insecure.  She adopted me as her special American friend, and linked arms with me as I mistakenly led her to the wrong group of kids.  Despite having to endure two consecutive game times, we came out none the worse for our experiences (and conveniently got double rations of cookies).  It’s really powerful how God works through us to touch other people even as they unknowingly encourage us to be strong and not give in to discouraging thoughts. 

It’s hard to believe we’ll be leaving on Saturday.  Somehow, it seems like the trip has only started.  Please be praying for more kids in VBS for the rest of this week as well as for wisdom for the construction workers as they prioritize projects for the remaining 4 days.  Greetings once again from the DR.  God bless you all.

Anna Rose