Happy and Crappy

As my time with the Rice team comes quickly to a close I am disappointed that I do not have relationships with them outside of this week long experience in DR.  It is true that once you go through an experience like this you become family. I only met these 18 people a week ago but it feels like I have known them for years and do that I am truly thankful! They have taught me so much especially the power of prayer. I felt like I was praying constantly being with these people. If something went wrong or someone wasn't feeling good the answer was prayer not medicine or chalking it up to stress. Prayer. That was surprising and yet somewhat weird to me. I know Jesus had the power to heal people directly and I was skeptical when listening to stories about physical healing through a pastor's prayer. After this week and some of the situations I was able to witness I am not as skeptical as I once was (if you want to know specific stories please feel free to Facebook chat me or contact me). The most wonderful part of this team were the very special ladies I got to hang with. Maggie W, Maggie R, Katy, Mylee, Addie, Allie and Jennifer are hands down the best. They all have amazing hearts that are open to what God has to teach them. I cherish the fact that I got to witness Dominican Republic change their hearts as much as it changed mine.

On the other hand, today I got to see my Dominican best friend, Dehuel, who was a translator on my second trip to Comendador. He was able to stop by the school this afternoon but like most plans in DR he showed up before I was expecting him. It was amazing. He told that he was going to come around 3 o’clock this afternoon but then he showed up at noon and I couldn't help but drop what I was doing to run and hug him. At one point today I was in a tiny school classroom with my almost my entire DR family. Ramon, Dehuel, Ronald, Ray, Billy, Doris, Oscar and Jordy (Nelson and Nehemiah were the only ones missing) and I couldn’t have been more thankful or joyful in those moments.