Joan Jett and Katy Perry

Alyssa and I had the opportunity to live with a Dominican family for the first 16 days of this month.  They live in an apartment on a fairly busy street....we had a great window to view the daily commotion.  Day and night we often heard and felt the blasting stereos from cars driving by including songs from Joan Jett and Katy Perry at 1 or later in the morning!! I know the sounds that all the cars alarms make. Oh and rush hour in the morning and night was really something words cannot even describe! So that is a little bit of our living arrangements with never a dull or quiet moment.

View out of our window, not during rush hour :)

The family we were with included a mother, Paula, her 21 year old twins, Melissa and Julissa, and the twins' niece, Nicole.  Thankfully Melissa and Julissa know English, so we weren't totally on our own that entire time.  It was fun trying to communicate with Mama and Nicole, but was nice when the twins were there to translate if needed.  Every person in this family work very hard.  With their schedule we had the apartment to ourselves during the morning and sometimes even into the afternoon. Nicole is in school and would get home early afternoon. The twins work at a school in the mornings, which we had an opportunity to visit!

At the school Melissa & Julissa work at. This is Angela <3

And they sometimes had college classes in the afternoon. If they did not have college, they would come home and clean the house and often times cook.  Some nights during the week they had church obligations, some of which we were able to attend.  Mama left early in the morning for work and got home around 4:30 in the afternoon. When she got home she would cook dinner.  This family is absolutely wonderful!

L-R: Julissa, Alyssa, Me, Nicole, Mama, Melissa

During our stay we had the opportunity to see how Dominicans live.  There were always people going in and out of the apartment and they could really fill their living room with people! They love cooking for people and fellow shipping.  Oh and they think I eat hardly anything!!....and I always thought I ate a lot! Haha! They eat plantains at almost every meal and rice daily.  They work very hard, but when they have a spare minute will take a siesta :) And we were most definitely running on Dominican time! For instance, they said we were going to leave for church at 4:30 p.m. so we could walk there. We didn't end up leaving till after 5 and had to drive.  Or we went to a movie with them and were going to try to see a 7:10 p.m. movie. At 6:30 I ask one of the guys we were going with, when we were leaving and he told me that we should have already left, but Melissa had just gone to shower and get ready! Needless to say we didn't see that movie but one we got their in time for!  We learned to be even more flexible than we were before.

Sophia <3

 I always felt just a little out of my comfort zone while I was there because I was never quite sure how it was appropriate to act.  Remember when you were a young child and you went over to other people's house for a sleepover or dinner and it was sometimes a little awkward with the family because they did things differently.  Sometimes your parents were there to tell you what was appropriate to do. Well this was like that except I'm 21 and I didn't have parents telling me what was normal to do! You don't think about having to learn a culture, until you actually in a different one. It is good to know that happens, though!

Feliz Cumpleanos Luz! from Alyssa and Brittany

So now we are back at the guest house and is nice to get back into a little more regular routine and warm showers (I'm so spoiled), although living there was a nice change of pace. We celebrated Luz's birthday this week (Luz is the maid for the guest house, but also a very dear friend).  It was a blast!  We woke up early to decorate the house early before she got up. She was so surprised :) All the missionaries came over and we had a birthday cake and a little celebration, though she deserves much more.  Luz is one of the most incredible people I've met.  She lives to serve and give of herself with the best attitude.  Be praying for her because she has some health problems and she does not have much money especially since she gives much of it to here family, who live out in the country.

So the last couple weeks have been filled with birthday parties, and living the Dominican life...oh and I'll crack up every time I hear "I Love Rock n' Roll"!  I have learned very much, often times in humbling ways.  As always, thank you for your prayers...keep them coming!

give.live.love.

time seems to go faster in the Caribbean...

Well I can't believe we're on week number 7 in the Dominican Republic. It has been great, challenging, and growing all the same. I want to give a short summary my time here so far...

Oldest church in Western Hemisphere

HIGHLIGHTS: I can most definitely say that the highlight of my time here has been being with the people. Every week we attend youth group (people ranging in age from late teens to early 30s). I have really enjoyed hanging out with and getting to know Christians around my age and seeing their passion for God and life. We also attend a weekly cell group on Thursday with people from another church. That is with adults, so it is good to get a different perspective of life from them. There have also been times where we just hang out with some great people for coffee or dinner. Everyone we have come in contact with are very warm and have interesting lives that have been great getting to know.

People from my cell group and Encuentro church.

MINISTRIES: Some of the ministries we have been involved with include VBS, with a short term team that was here, at 2 different churches in the country, helping out in Sunday schools both in a country church and in Santo Domingo, beach clean-up community project, La Zurza (which I gave more detail about in the previous post), and helping teach/play with the kids at an English Preschool. I think that is everything up to this point! It has been great getting taste of all the different ministry options in the Dominican Republic.

English preschool <3

HARDEST PART: I would hands down say the most difficult part of living here is not knowing the language. Praise God I have been able to pick it up a little and understand significantly more than when I first got here, but it's still difficult. Another hard part is missing my friends and family, but I've been pretty good with that for the most part, thankfully!

Chilling at Punta Rucia aka paradise :)

OPPORTUNITIES: Some places we have gone in addition to places for ministry include Boca Chica, Colonial Zone (where Columbus founded the first city in the Western hemisphere) several times, and Punta Rucia in the North. I went to IKEA for the first time ever here, and Alyssa went to her first Cinnabon ever here! We've attended 5 different churches and met people from at least 7 different countries. We also got to hear the Senator of Santo Domingo's testimony, along with a very rare rags to riches story of a famous singer here in the Dominican Republic (he does concerts in the States as well!). Mary, is another person we got to meet. She is Dominican and left September 26th for North Africa for 9 months (so be praying for her too!).  It is so encouraging to see people from other countries going out to do missions! Many times people assume that it is an American thing to do to be a missionary, but it's great to see people from other countries going as well! Currently we are living with a Dominican family, which has been a blast so far! It is with a family we know from youth group; there are twins are age so it's a fun experience and a good change of pace :)

Mary and me.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Alyssa and I both got sick with a cold for the first time last week, so pray we stay healthy! Thankfully it wasn't worse.
• We're having a busy week with school, so pray we get everything done efficiently so we can spend time with our Dominican family
• Keep praying with everyone we come in contact with, that we will be salt and light to them! Just like every country, people need Jesus here!

As always your prayers are coveted and appreciated!!
give.live.love.