ODCS Missions

     Hello friends and family! Now that our trip is coming to an end, we want to express to everyone how incredibly grateful we are for your support; whether through donations, prayer, or emotional support, we appreciate all that you do and have done to give us this amazing opportunity.      Everyone woke up this morning to Kyro cooking sausages, potatoes, and eggs for breakfast and it was all delicious. Pastor Tito has been so incredibly welcoming and generous this trip and it was no different today, as he planned to take us to the beach for a day of fun and relaxation. While there were no direct service opportunities planned, we spent the whole day strengthening our bond as brothers and sisters. We threw a football and baseball in the water, which turned into throwing balls of wet sand and seaweed at each other. We spent some time eating food under the palms and talking and laughing with each other. Some collected seashells while others continued to talk ...

  Jake- Hello everyone! Thank you for the support you have shown us on this trip! This morning ShuShu Harp and Abby Wall made us a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes and lots of fruit. Everything was delicious except for the papaya. After that everyone went to Las Brisas to get mattresses that we delivered to people in the area. The first house we went to was the home of a family that was at Las Brisas on Sunday. They were so happy to see us and happy to receive their mattresses. Every house that we went to, the family in them was so nice and invited us into their homes and let us pray for them.  When we got back from delivering the mattresses we had an amazing lunch which was avocado and cheese sandwiches. I know it might not sound special but the avocados here are very good. Then it was time for Siesta. At around 2:30 we split into groups. The group of Kyro, Joey Yarham, ShuShu, Noah Lowe, Lily Perris, and JieJie Harp went to play volleyball at Las Brisas. While Tyl...

  Hi everybody! Today we have two students writing, Abby Wall and Ty Reaser. We are so excited to share what we did on this beautiful Sunday! Of course, on Sunday, we have church! Before that, Joey Yarham, Jake Flinner, and Ty made us toast and fruit, and it was great! After breakfast, we finished getting ready, then had Ben Comer, Lily Perris, Jie Jie Harp, Jake, and Emily go out to Las Brisas, the sister church of Kefale. There they danced, worshiped, and just hung out with the young students. The other 5 students, Joey, Abby, Ty, Noah Lowe, and Shu Shu Harp stayed at Kefale with Kyro, where they heard his amazing and powerful message on shame. During church, we had Abby and Joey sing in our service, and Noah played the box drum. It was truly a powerful service and our worship team did amazing! The Kefale church prayed over the whole team, and we felt so incredibly loved. After church, everyone stayed and had lunch together. We had chicken, rice, pasta, salad, drinks, and cake. I...

Hello everyone! It’s Shu Shu! Today we all traveled to a small town called New Jerusalem, where we got to meet and play with the kids in the community. Everyone had so much fun playing together! The pastor, Betania, was so welcoming and kind to us. She really made us feel like we were a part of the community. After hours of laughing and having fun, we all went back to the church, where we gave out sandwiches and shoes to all the kids. Then before we left the town, the people all gathered around us, and prayed for us. That was a very powerful and moving experience, listening to all the different voices praying over us, and us praying for them. You could really tell that the Lord has blessed them. After we left New Jerusalem, Pastor Tito took us to a place called Lily of the Valley. It is a house that he has spent years building, and one day would hope that a missionary family would stay there after it’s built, and spread the gospel to the people living there. You could tell the spirit o...

Thank you all for your support this week! We are already feeling the blessings pouring in and it is incredible what God is doing. We started today with a pancake breakfast by Lily and me and reconnected with the whole team. Then, we split off into teams to deep clean the entire church for Sunday morning service. I was grouped with Noah and Rosie (a girl from the DR) to clean the kitchen areas. I learned that “vamos a limpiar” means “let’s clean” in Spanish, thanks to Rosie’s lessons. She’s a fantastic teacher! Afterwards, we went out to eat lunch at a famous sandwich restaurant called Payan, which was really good. We returned to the church for siesta hour, where most of us recharged our energy and had great conversations.  Luckily, we were able to make a stop at Jumbo, a massive grocery store sort of like Walmart in the US. After reconvening at the church, we set out to the local park to connect with the community. I had the opportunity to play volleyball with the girls from the ...

  Hello everyone, it’s Noah Lowe!  We’re so excited to tell you all about what happened today! To start off the day we ate breakfast with each other and some of the Dominicans, cooked by Abby Wall and Shu Shu Harp. After breakfast we convened with Pastor Tito about some of the things that are going to happen throughout the rest of the week. Pastor Tito then introduced\reintroduced us to Mendoza, a friend of Tito’s and deacon at the church. Mendoza then took us out into the community with coffee and crackers to give out to some of the locals, in addition to praying and preaching. This was such an awesome experience, and I can speak for the whole team when saying being able to pray for others in the community despite the language barrier felt so wonderful. Many of us broke out of our comfort zones and were so empowered by the Holy Spirit during this! We all could really feel the spirit working through us and so appreciate the kindness and generosity of the community. We went int...

Welcome to the DR 2024 Winter Team blog. Here you will be able to get updates from the students on the trip and prayer requests as they move forward. The team left this morning bright and early. They made it to Santo Domingo and are ready to go! Check out the update for today from Lily Perris! "We made it to the Dominican safely! We flew from Cleveland to Miami and spent a couple hours in the airport for our layover. Then we landed in the Dominican and were greeted with huge smiles and hugs from Pastor Tito and Cheo! After a crazy ride back to the church, we got to meet Pastor Tito’s family. He promised us the Dominican Flag for dinner, which we later learned meant chicken, rice, and beans. It was so good (thanks Sugeily)!! After dinner, Jie Jie, Noah, Abby, and I went to hang out with Pastor Tito’s kids. Joy and Abby played some piano, Noah played the cajon, and the rest of us sang our hearts out! It was such a sweet time full of laughter and fun. We ended the night with some pra...