Sunday

Sunday, February 8^th

The day to see the kids finally arrived!  Even though we didn’t get picked up until 10:00a.m., we were all wide awake and raring to go by 8:00 (did I mention we were excited?!) 

We went to the Ark Orphanage where we enjoyed worshipping with the kids and house parents at the orphanage as well as other local families and missionaries who came to join us.  We enjoyed familiar music in worship (in Spanish) and loved watching such a variety of people and ethnicities joining together to worship our awesome God. 

After service, we returned to the team house to enjoy a home-cooked Dominican meal consisting of roasted chicken, beans and rice, arepita (fried yucca), and a carrot/raisin salad. Upon finishing the meal, we returned to the Ark where we were able to take a number of the kids to the local waterfall.

 

 We had to cross four fun swinging bridges before reaching the water.  The water was quite cold (I know, I know, you’re in Indiana where the water is literally frozen so what are we complaining about here where it was 85 degrees today!). Jason, Chris and Jenna were brave enough (or dumb enough depending on how you want to look at it!) to jump in with the kids.

 

After dropping the kiddos back at the Ark, we headed back to the team house to get cleaned up before we headed to one of our local favorite restaurants. It is called Delicias Columbianos and had a variety of delicious foods such as empanadas and papas.

 

The evening ended with us working on preparing supplies for the 10 classes we will be teaching this week at Palo Blanco.  The school is in the poorest area of Jarabacoa.  We will be doing a lesson, craft and snack with nearly 270 children this week. Whew! 

 

More pictures and stories to come. Thanks so much for all of your support and prayers! We are feeling them!