So I’m now back in the US after a great week in the Dominican Republic. I’ll attempt to fill you in on the last few days that i was there. The great news is that I am now officially Crismaili’s sponsor. Joe, our host at the Guest House at Solid Rock Missions was able to run out to CCED and talk with the principle and get everything set up for me. Thursday night I went to the fiesta and was able to spend time with Crismaili and her brother and mother. It was a fun time of playing let’s try to learn spanish for me and english for her. I also found out that she knew Noe Israel! I was a little sad to find out that he and his family weren’t able to come out to join us for fiesta that night because there were power outages running around the city that night.
Someone asked me to post a link so that others could find out how to sponsor a child if they were interested. And so here it is…Student Sponsorships.
Our last day was spent at the Barcelo Resort. It was a very great way to relax and reflect on our week of mission. We enjoyed the beach and spent a lot of our time looking at the merchandise being sold the vendor and a lot of our time trying to fend off the vendors that were selling merchandise that we weren’t interested in . After a wonderful buffet dinner in one of the most scenic dining rooms i’ve ever been in, we gathered for our last devotional time together. We talked about how it is very natural for us to constantly compare ourselves to others instead of just being the people that we are meant to be. Then we spent some time sharing how we had seen God reflected in the lives of each other as a team as we worked together for the week. The rest of the night was spent enjoying the culture and music at the tiki hut dancing the night away.
Heading back to the states was really smooth, except for one little incident. On our way down to the DR we had several bags full of things that we would use and/or planned on leaving in the DR to be given to people as they had need. So on the way back we had bags that people could put souvenirs or other items like coffee and vanilla that they had purchased. As we traveled back, I had a bag that had items from our team members that wouldn’t fit in their own luggage. Not a big deal, until security called my name. They wanted to inspect my bag and wanted me to be there. I wasn’t concerned in the slightest bit until i saw that the bag we were going to inspect wasn’t my actual bag, but the bag that was filled with items from our team members. I wasn’t sure what was going to be in this bag as i unzipped it in front of security. I opened it to reveal about 18 bricks of coffee. The security guy asked me if i liked coffee. I said yes, but explained that it wasn’t all for me. That i was a part of a large group and had offered to let them put their coffee in one bag. Laughable when they allowed me to go, but realized that it very easily could have been mistaken for a nice amount of drugs under an x-ray machine. After this fun experience, i’m now known as our resident drug lord.
We got back to Hendersonville around 11 pm and were greeted by family members and friends that missed us and were glad to see us home. Another great week of sharing life, love, and faith with others. My hope is that our lives continue to bring these things to lives of those we come into contact with everyday.
Izzy Rodriguez 