Day Eight in the Dominican Republic

Today was a long day for me. Steve and I left the ministry center around 7:30am for Monte Plata for a planning meeting. In a little over a week, the church in Monte Plata will be hosting a workshop on Developing Cultural Intelligence. They are expecting around 35 people to attend the meeting. So, Steve was helping the facilitators prepare for the gathering. I listened in, learning more about the workshop and the work that is happening in Monte Plata. We sat in that little office, with no A/C, all morning planning. The two women were very warm, but you could see how dedicated they were to making this happen--and making it happen well.

I also had some great conversations with Saturnino Perez. Saturnino is the World Renew Promotor for the Monte Plata Zone. He is very passionate and motivated about his work. The above picture is him shaking hands with Steve outside his office. The sign on the left says, "Center of Family Restoration of the Christian Reformed Church." The sign on the right says, "Youth Empowered for Transformation." Saturnino is the point person for both programs in the Monte Plata Zone. He is also the new coordinator for the Commission of Racial Reconciliation in the Dominican Republic. If you'd like to read more about the work he is doing in Monte Plata, you can read another blog post about him here.

On the way home, I had Steve drop me off at one of the local malls to meet Rachel, the girls, and Megan (one of the other young women staying with us). We spent a bunch of time walking around the mall window shopping. Then, we went to a couple different movies. Rachel, Lauren, and Zoe decided to watch Boss Baby but had to watch it in Spanish. They still enjoyed it. Megan, Olivia, Erin, and I went to watch Wonder Woman (which was in English with Spanish subtitles). We all enjoyed the movies. We wrapped up our time at the mall by buying some more groceries. Then called our faithful taxi driver Felipe. He has been good for us and always picks us up with a big smile.

I'm pretty exhausted after a long day. I left at 7:30am and didn't get back to the apartment until 8:30pm. So, I'll be taking a shower and hitting the hay. Thankfully, the generator is working and the A/C is running. Still praying for the power to kick on so that we have A/C through the night tonight. The prayer requests have stayed the same, so I won't include a new list tonight.

Tomorrow we spend the morning at church, lunch with Steve and Sandra, then we'll probably be taking some naps in the afternoon. Sounds like a good day.

Buenos Noches!