The DR: Days 1 & 2
Okay, so this is harder than I thought 
I’m trying to record what happened in the DR in an effective way, but it’s slow going. I’ll get it eventually though 
So, here, for your enjoyment, are days one and two, with three and four coming soon 
Well, the schedule for the time-frame we were there was quite simple. For the first three days we drove out to a little town called Los Niches to do VBS, door-to-door evangelism, and a service every night. We stayed in Dajabon as our primary quarters. The girls stayed in the house of Pastor Orlando and his wife Diones and the boys stayed with the caretaker of the Dajabon church.
After three days in Los Niches we went to the school there for a day and performed a human video and made a craft and played some games. That time we had a lot of kids because the school had a couple hundred. After that we did a church service that night, this time in Dajabon.
So now we moved primarily into Dajabon. We did a day of VBS there and another church service that night. The next day, Sunday, we went up into the mountains with a missionary who lives in the
Dominican Republic, Michael Shaul, for a day of rest. Then that night we did a formal Sunday service at the Dajabon church.
Then we did two more days of VBS and door-to-door in Dajabon. We went into
Haiti the next day. Then we were on our way home.
That was what happened, our itinerary at least. But, as with the best of things, there’s really more to this story. It began at nine or so, Monday morning, June 21st of 2008 as we kissed and hugged our loved ones goodbye and boarded a plane.
Actually, the kissing and hugging part of it was done by about seven-thirty, half an hour after we got there, when our families decided we could suffer the sleep deprivation; they didn’t have to as well. I, however, quickly discovered I was missing my ID so that I wouldn’t have a back-up if my passport went missing. So I was getting my last hug by eight-fifty…
Needless to say, I didn’t think this boded well for the rest of the trip. But I went through security and got on the plane with the rest of my group and it all worked out OK. We connected twice, in Chicago and Miami, without a hitch and landed in
Santiago around eight ‘o clock. Then we were shuffled into a bus for a three-hour (and rather bumpy) ride. But, guess what! It had AC J
So by eleven that night we arrived in the city of
Dajabon groggy, tired, and ready to stop playing sardines. We girls hurriedly disembarked at Pastor Orlando’s, grabbed our luggage, and claimed our beds. And that was our first day.
The second day we, or I at least, were still groggy, tired, and feeling terribly wrong-footed. So when our youth leader, Jeff, said he didn’t know if we would be doing anything that day besides some door-to-door I breathed a sigh of relief. After all, we were entitled to a day of rest after our long trip J Oh, how wrong I was. Before long we were given the order to get ready and be out for the bus in ten minutes. Inwardly, I groaned. Blech. Work, already? On a missions trip?! Why, that makes no sense!
So I got together my water bottles, backpack, and whatever stuff I managed to shove in there for our first day of VBS. Then, when the bus came, we again got a taste of an excellent sardine impression complements of an even smaller bus than before. Thankfully, we took two loads this time.
We drove for about fifteen minutes to get outside of Dajabon and into a much smaller town called Los Niches. We drove up to the church, disembarked, and were faced with a medium-sized group of kids ranging from age 2-12 just watching us to see what we would do. Needless to say, I, at least, was just a little intimidated.
Jeff drove away and a few other leaders started giving orders, which we awkwardly obeyed. We put away our stuff and clumsily began to play a game with the kids, not really sure about what we were doing.
Our first day of VBS followed this pattern. We did pretty good playing with the kids, but we were rather lost. Lunch was amazing. It rescued me from the midst of three million little kids, who were all trying to help me understand what they were trying to say (oh, did I mention that all Spanish I’ve ever learned except ‘hola’ just kinda vacated my brain?). It was a hard first day of ministry…