Day 1+ 2 DR Spring 2025!

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Hi everyone it’s Nolan and Ellie. We arrived safely in the Dominican Republic on the 19 in the afternoon. We got to the church, Kefalé, in Santo Domingo, and ate some scrumptious dominican chicken rice and beans at the church. We then got paired up for who will be making breakfast each morning and went shopping with each other to plan for our meals. Then we went to night church from 7-9ish. 

  Day 2 woke up and had delicious empanadas made by pastor Tito’s wife, sugelys. We got to a private school in the morning and it was French celebration day at the school. After we sat through a little conference, there was a fashion show. It was so fun to see them post and walk down the run way. Our favorite part was when a boy and girl, probably about 4 or 5 years old, walked down and posed, they were adorable. After, Nolan, Nate, Will, Mr. Bendik, and Lily played basketball. It was a full game of competitiveness and fun. We ended up losing 83-79. We play them again tomorrow and don’t plan on losing! While the boys played basketball, Ellie and Anna hung out with the little kids that were probably in Pre-K. It was really neat to be able to connect with the kids without talking much Spanish, it really shows how we are all made in God’s image. After the boys got done with basketball, Ellie, Anna, Lexi, Ava, and  Lilliana played volleyball. It was definitely rough meaning we lost by a ton, but it was still fun! They were good at volleyball. After, we came back to the church, hung out, then got dinner. We walked to the place and several of us got burgers - we think they were better than American burgers! The food is amazing here. Then we walked and got ice cream and did our debrief of the day, during it Nurse Emily shared her testimony which was beautiful!! Then we walked home and the boys played basketball at the church while the girls watched on the balcony.

     We were both heavily impacted by the way we were able to connect with the kids and people down here with the language barrier. Language is such a small part of communication, we both learned that by coming down here. The image of God is so evident.

    Please be praying for our group that we are being a good representation of the love of Jesus while interacting with the Church and the youth.


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