Day Thirty in the Dominican Republic

Well, another "last" today---our last Sunday morning worship in the Dominican Republic. It's been a treat to worship with this congregation during our time here. Each week this church has felt more and more like home.

As I sat in church this morning, I remembered how our family felt during our first worship service with this congregation. We were experiencing some culture shock leading up to the service and the service only increased it. We increasingly felt overwhelmed as the service went on. Yet, this morning, we felt at home. We all really enjoyed the service. Everyone was smiling throughout the entire service. Everyone was getting into the worship songs--singing, clapping, dancing (a little bit anyways). We were connecting with people. It was a great time.

We also had the opportunity to have communion with them this morning. What a treat! The entire time I had one passage rummaging around in my mind: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16–17, ESV). We had the opportunity to share in the "one bread" as "one body" in Christ. It's a powerful reminder and a great culmination of being welcomed into this congregation.

We also had a cool opportunity to witness the encouragement of the Body of Christ during the worship service this morning. During each service, they have an opportunity for member of the church to share. Sometimes its a song. Sometimes it's a prayer request. This morning one of the member from their church stood up and shared some of their struggles with feeling "worthwhile in the kingdom of God." It was beautiful to watch how the church responded. One of the members of the church brought a chair up to the front and placed it front and center, then had her sit in the chair. Then, bunch of people from the congregation began walking up to the front of the church, sharing about how this woman had impacted the kingdom of God through her prayers, her service, and her huge heart. It was powerful. There were many tears. I even found myself tearing up, watching the congregation pour out love over this woman and hearing/seeing the ways that she impacted this congregation without even knowing.

I also made sure to take some more pictures of the church this morning. I knew some people would appreciate getting to see this church building better. This church building is special because some people from our congregation worked on it fifteen years ago. It looked very different back then. When we arrived fifteen years ago, there were barely four walls and no roof. Some people from our crew were responsible for building forms so that a roof could be poured for the bottom floor. Since then, they've added the second floor. The inside of the second floor is pictured below.

One more picture from the back of church. I have pictures of what this church looked like fifteen years ago, before we worked on it. I will make sure to scan them and post them once I return to Minnesota. I think it will be cool for everyone to see the "before and after."

The rest of the day was spent resting--like a Sabbath is supposed to be. We had lunch with Steve and Sandra. Then we took some naps, read some books, painted some pictures, and played some games. It also rained a good portion of the afternoon/evening, which meant the temperatures were down around 79 degrees--which is really nice. We wrapped up the day by doing a Google Hangout with my parents.

That's it for the day. Throughout today our family has repeatedly commented about how much this has begun to feel like home. We still miss our home in the US, but we have all commented on how weird it will be once we return. In many ways this has become home. The girls keep talking about how they want to come back here again in the future. We'll see.

Buenos Noches!