Overlooked

Dominican Trip

March 2019

About three months ago I crossed paths with a pastor from my childhood. We discussed going on a missions trip to Haiti and planned it. A week before leaving for Haiti our plans changed and we canceled our trip. By the next day we had a new trip to the Dominican Republic booked. I was extremely disappointed because I was so excited to go to Haiti. But as it says in John 13:7 “Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’” I am slowly learning the importance of meditating on what scripture says. We are to be still and know that He is God(Psalm 46:10)  and His plans are always for our good and His glory(Roman 8:28). I can testify to the truth of that throughout this experience, and I documented the whole thing. Here is my first blog post and the journal of my travels.

Day 1

Travel started around 10:30 pm. We arrived to the airport at 12:30am. Our first flight was not scheduled until 6am. Yes, that meant a night in the airport. We flew from Pittsburgh to Baltimore and had an hour layover. From Baltimore we flew to Punta Cana. Once we arrived in Punta Cana, we drove to Hato Mayor. That is when the adventure began.

Day 2

I had an 8am wake up. We visited a deaf school & the communication through signing was not the best. I know some American Sign Language(ASL)  and they know Spanish Sign Language(SSL). However, God was gracious and gave me that awesome experience. From there we went to another school, Compassion. That was awesome. The kids were a blast and we learned that God was giving us an opportunity to speak to 300 teenagers there the next day.

I will be sharing my testimony and Pastor Micah will be giving a gospel presentation. I pray God has something great in store there and uses us.

From Compassion we went to Kilo 9. This was life changing. I saw God work. I shared the gospel with 7 and saw 3 come to Christ. The one lady that wasn’t ready cried and cried. The Holy Spirit was working in her and I believe and pray that one day the seed that was planted will grow. This village was eye opening and I saw very explicit things.

Later in the evening I shared the gospel with 16 of the kids in that village and all of them prayed the prayer for salvation. I pray that they believed it in their heart.

Isaiah was a man that was in Kilo 9. When we walked up to his home he said, “I believe I am going to see the Lord today.” He had a very fast heart and was starving. We were able to pray with him and give him food. His faith was incredible to see, and who knows if he will be alive tomorrow. All I can say is I’ll be rejoicing with him in Heaven one day.

DAY 3

Woke up around 6:00 am to prepare for the day. We left around 8:45am to get to the school at 9am. The entire way to the school I was praying that God would use us to touch the hearts of the kids. I shared my testimony and Pastor Micah shared the Gospel. It was laid on pastor’s heart and it was encouraging to see him follow through. The audience was around 300 students, and what they heard from me was- “You can be a Christian, and still make mistakes. BUT at what point do you take a stand and live for Christ?” I trust that God took me to that school this morning for a reason. Someone needed to hear what we had to say, and we said it. God spoke through us. He has continued to answer my prayer “Use me Lord.”

After the opportunity to speak/serve/play with the students at compassion, we headed out to the village Pringamosa. Here we shared with 20-30 kids and I know without a doubt kids accepted Christ. It is a beautiful thing to see the joy of a child that lives in poverty. They love, they laugh, and smile. Yet they live with so little. The kids giggles will forever put a smile on my face.

In the same village we talked to several old men. One man- was blind in his eyes and his heart. It will be my prayer that he will one day accept Christ. The saddest part is that he knew how to accept; however, he just wasn’t “ready”. It’s a reality check for me when I hear this. I think “You are not ready?! What if your time is tonight?.” My heart aches for him. BUT God knows.

Day 4

Our day started around 9am when we headed to the local grocery store to buy 60 bags of rice and 60 bags of beans. From the store we drove about an 1 and 1/2 hours to Consuelo to give to 10 different widows, orphans and the Haitians working the cane field. Wow! I saw things yet again that I never in my life could have imagined. We started out by visiting the home of the Hendersons. There is 8 siblings and have been orphans for 5 years. They all had a role in raising each other. They had a two room shack, and they were the sweetest kids. We then went to give the cane workers their gifts. The first man we saw was completely deformed from the hips down. His hips were out of place, his knees where out of place, and his feet were out of place. He could barely walk... but was still working. Not easy work either. We gave rice and beans to 38 cane workers, and we saw 38 smiles. They were very very hesitant at first because they thought we were the government. It was then that our translator yelled “We are not the government.” The gospel was shared and all of them were prayed for. From there, we did a VBS with the kids in a village close by, and there again we saw kids accept Christ. Before leaving that area we stopped at one last village, and I signed with a deaf girl there for about 30 minutes. She knew Christ and was an encouragement. I never understood how God would use my years of studying sign language to further his kingdom, but this is another example of how God brings people into your life to impact. What an awesome God we serve. Finally, I made friends with the neighbor’s kids and played with them for hours.

Tomorrow I lead a VBS for hopefully 120 students, meet with the director of the deaf school, and I get to give food to the village up the road.

Not ready for Saturday. I don’t ever wanna leave this place.

Day 5

Wake up time was 7:30 and leave time was 9. We headed to compassion to speak to 120 students, but we ended speaking to close to 300. AGAIN! I unexpectedly got to share my testimony and present the Gospel to a whole different group of kids. This was not a part of the intended plan but GOD KNOWS! We spent a long time at the school. We made one last visit to Kilo 9, and guess what... Isaiah(the sick and starving man) was still alive! I gave a bible to one of the ladies that came to know Christ the first day. I pray that she is able to use it to share with others and grow in her faith. From there we made 200 peanut butter sandwiches for a village down the road. This was also a highlight of my trip. The adults of this village were rooster fighting and celebrating friday night. All of the kids were back in the village by themselves, and we gave sandwiches to a majority of them. Seeing the smiles on the kids faces over a simple sandwich was incredible(we did not even have jelly).

I got to hangout with the neighbors again... they waited for me to be home and came to the door saying “Chaseeee.” Little miss is SASSY. And it’s hard for me to communicate with my poor Spanish. Gabriel, the little boy wanted to play baseball with the kickball and a very large stick. Micah saw this and brought out a baseball bat and ball... He screamed and yelled “Pappy I got a baseball and bat” and was running everywhere. BOY COULD HE HIT. He never once missed a pitch.  

Day 6

We made one last stop to Pringamosa before we headed to the airport for our trip home. We delivered a Bible to the the blind man, and he said he would have his daughter read it to him.

It’s crazy how much God has worked the last few days. Lives were reached, the gospel was heard, and love was shared. AND MY LIFE WAS CHANGED!

On the plane down to the Dominican Republic Micah said, “I want this trip to be all about the overlooked. I want to go to the widows, the orphans, the teenagers, and the cane workers that are starving.” AND that is what we did. We went to the overlooked. God then provided even more opportunity. Isaiah the sick and starving man, overlooked. The teenagers, overlooked. The blind man, overlooked. The orphans, overlooked. The widows, overlooked. The cane workers, overlooked. The village kids, overlooked. God gave us doors of opportunity and by faith we went through them.  

I take away so much from this. Who in the United States is being overlooked? Is it the troubled youth that are “hopeless” but aren’t getting the right instruction? Is it the homeless people? Is it widows? Is it the orphans or those with disabilities? Not only in the United States, but the world. “God use me. Help me to love like Jesus and bring hope to the hurting.”  

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  Matthew 9:35-38