We’ve been “home” (in Dorchester) for about 48 hours and I now have the monumental task of trying to put into words what truly can’t be expressed, only felt. My real home seems like the Dominican - the communities in which we work and the families who have “adopted” us over the past four years. It’s my hope this post can help you feel a little bit of what’s overflowing my heart right now. Here are a few highlights and reflections related to our annual trip down to the Dominican Republic this week.

Hato del Yaque

Hato del Yaque is where we have stayed and done construction work the past three years. (Our first year, we did children’s ministry there). It is a poor neighborhood outside of the city of Santiago with a lot of kids, a lot of problems, a lot of hope, and a vibrant church. We love returning each year, connecting with the kids, and continuing to build relationships with everyone we see including the teenagers, worship leaders, watchmen, and of course, our cooks. Waking up in Hato del Yaque is one of my favorite things - getting woken up by roosters, saying “Buen Dia” to Nena our mother-like cook, walking outside and having the kiddos come running up to me, going up to the roof and taking in the sight of the gorgeous mountains under the hot early morning sun. It’s a little piece of heaven. 

Below, Nate and I take a break from hand mixing concrete at our work site in Hato del Yaque to take a photo to show you all: 

I also had the amazing opportunity of joining our nurses, Joylyn and Magen, as special guests in Jen’s girls’ ministry. Jen is our incredibly fearless leader from GO Ministries, the organization we partner with Pastor Luis through. She lives in the DR most of the year and has really invested all she has to build up Hato del Yaque. Over the past four years, we’ve developed an awesome friendship and partnership with Jen. She and Quersis, one of the young women from Hato del Yaque, are leading a group of girls aged 10-14 through a curriculum that teaches them to take care of themselves and take control of their sexual health. In an area where teenage pregnancy and single mothers are incredibly common, it’s an important message they are not receiving from other places in their lives. Magen and Joylyn taught the girls to understand the reproductive cycle as it relates to them as young women. I, not up to walking to empanadas with the rest of the group due to my leg injury, stayed and gave a talk on HIV: what it is, how to prevent it, and how to understand it in a way that doesn’t bring more stigma into the community. It felt incredible to share my knowledge and passion for HIV prevention and care to this group who described HIV as “a sickness that turns your whole body bad”. God truly showed me during this trip that He will use every ounce of knowledge, of strength, and of passion I have to redeem communities for Him.

All this should explain the picture below adequately. You can tell by Joylyn’s face that we were really excited to have such an awesome night of girl talk and to help these girls understand their bodies and how precious, special, and loved they are. 

Our other time in Hato del Yaque was spent doing more construction and a worship clinic with the local church leaders. It was incredible to sing to God in multiple languages, watch people learn new instruments, and praise Him with all we had. Our time there culminated with an evening worship service, produced as a partnership with our team and the local church. During the planning, I got to share with the group what we have been working on at REUNION the past year - making our Sunday gatherings accessible to everyone, including those who are Deaf, by incorporating American Sign Language interpretation. After sharing this brief experience with the group, one of the women from Hato del Yaque said she had never even thought to invite her Deaf friend to church because he couldn’t hear. Just planting the seed of the concept of accessibility made me walk away astounded, yet again, at how God uses us all, each in our individual ways, to bring the world back to Him. 

We also spent time in Hato del Yaque feeding the local kids at the nutrition center. This center, run by the church, provides kids with 6 meals a week - often the only ones they can count on. Jen gave me the task of feeding Evan, pictured below, who has meningitis, is nonverbal, and has lost the use of his hands. Hanging out with him was by far one of the highlights of my week. His joy was astounding, his smile and laughter contagious, and his attitude truly positive. 

The last highlight of our time in Hato del Yaque was reconnecting with Yoandi, a Deaf boy I met there last year. This year, he seemed more confident and less shy. Not having any Deaf parents or mentors in his life, he does not sign much at all. But we managed to go through the alphabet handshapes, which he knew a bit, and did a lot of “I love you”s. Below, we pose together after a lunchtime chat:

La Mosca

The main purpose of our trip, besides lending our hands in service in any way we can, is to continue building our partnership with Pastor Luis Vargas and his family as they bring hope to their community: La Mosca. La Mosca is a nickname - the true name of this area is Santa Lucia. La Mosca means “the fly” in Spanish and this area is named so because it is built directly next to the city garbage dump for Santiago. Luis and his family have been working in this community for almost two years now and have seen it grow in many positive ways. Though bouts of violence still plague the streets and drugs and prostitution are still present, they say they can see a marked difference in people’s attitudes and so can we. Below, our group poses for a picture in La Mosca after going to a church service together. Pastor Luis preached about the importance of sharing your faith in order to bring others hope and love. His vision of hope in truly dark places is one of the many reasons we are so confident in his work!

I also had the pleasure of meeting another Deaf Dominican in La Mosca. His name is Raul and he lives right across from the church with his Deaf wife and hearing sister, Maria. Below, Raul and I share a laugh over something I can’t remember now. Most likely, we’re chuckling about the differences in our signed languages… they were vastly different but we managed to chat a lot. 

Our team also set up a medical clinic to serve the community of La Mosca. They saw 850 people in two days! We supplied them with whatever medication we could (we brought down a lot), but provided valuable education and hygiene products, too. Below, Magen (who you might recognize as Nate’s groomslady in our gender-complex wedding party), listens to a patient’s needs with help from one of our amazing translators, Emily (who you might recognize from my previous post about our Triathlon): 

Hoya de Bartola (The Hole)

We have served in The Hole one day each year we travel to the DR. The Hole is a very poor community outside the city. It is built atop an active garbage dump. You can see from the photo below that homes are literally built on trash and their “river” of raw sewage is full of trash as well. As you can imagine, this area has a lot of disease, depression, and drug use. 

About a decade age, Pastor Felix Abreu went into The Hole to share with people the hope they can find in Christ. The people’s response? “Look around, God is not here”. Since then, Felix has been whole heartedly committed to showing the people of The Hole just how much God loves them - infinitely. Due to his work, there is now a completed church building there and a nutrition center that feeds the kids 6 meals a week. The church is growing, and people are learning to put their faith in God instead of drugs. The area is still controlled by a drug lord, but the church operates in a strange peaceful understanding among the drug dealing. Like Luis in La Mosca, Felix is bringing truth and hope into darkness in a bold and brave way. 

I also got to meet another Deaf friend in Hoya del Bartola. He is 15 and knew some of the alphabet handshapes. Below, I’m chatting with him before lunch is served:

Cesar

One of the last things we got to do was meet with our “GO Kid”, Cesar. GO Kids is a program run by GO Ministries. We pay monthly to support Cesar and our support helps pay for his education, his school materials, and even provides him a Christmas and birthday gift, which many children don’t get the privilege of having. Nate has been supporting Cesar every month for three years. I’ve been supporting my lovely girl, Katherine, for the past four years but she unfortunately had chicken pox the day we came through their area (it was going around). It was great seeing Cesar and his whole family again. We gave him some paint because he loves art and he said his favorite subject is math now - just like Nate!

Cesar with his mom and two little brothers below: 

So that was a bit of our trip! We’ll be going back next summer and might even go back sooner, too. Thanks for reading and for your support. We’ve been so blessed by the family and friends who have donated to our trip, either financially or through material donations, and we are so grateful to those who have held us in prayer through our preparation and travel. You can always support us any time of year by sending material (summer weather) donations like clothes, or financial support, as this has become an ongoing ministry for us. Also, please know there is an open invitation to come with us on our next trip - any of you! Our lives have been forever changed by our work in the DR, by the inspiration of our partners, the Vargas family, and by the way God continues to move and bring hope to dark places. We don’t want to keep that to ourselves. It’s just too good, too incredible, too amazing to keep that to ourselves. 

The stark contrast between the lives of our Dominican friends and our lives here in the States depresses me quite often. We see so many things on our trips to the DR (and in our community here in Dorchester) that are just not the way God intended - people picking through garbage in order to make money, families using polluted water in their homes, women being used as objects, children going hungry. However, I’m always reminded that our God is truly the healer of all people and redeemer of all things. He is always working to bring the world back to Him; back to creation as He intended. He pursues us, he rescues us, he strengthens us, and He loves us all more than we can ever imagine. I’ll leave you with some lyrics from a song we sang very often this week: 

Our God is greater, Our God is stronger

God, you are higher than any other

Our God is healer, Awesome in power

Our God, Our God

Dios te bendiga. May God bless you.