This past week a group of Concordia Seminary students from Saint Louis, went to the Dominican Republic. The trip’s purpose was a Mission Education Experience. What an experience it was. We were in the country all of 6 days, honestly, I don’t know if one can count Sunday as I feel all of my brain cells weren’t present.
Throughout this blog, there are names highlighted in Orange. These names will lead to outside links. These links will paint a better picture of how each individual or family is currently serving in the DR.
If I told their story today this blog would be never-ending.
I highly recommend reading each story to get the full picture!
Day 1 – Sunday
Was thankfully Church, followed by a lot of downtime, one awesome mural tour, and a delicious dinner hosted by two current missionaries, Danelle (Putnam) and Carlos Schumann. Most of us were functioning on broken pockets of sleep from the travel. We welcomed the chance to ease into the week.
Day 2 – Monday
On our second day, we were given the chance to sleep in! We woke to a bit of rain.
There was a beach day planned and a beach day it would be!
We drove about 1.5 hours to the beach in the rain, It let up just as we got there. This gave us time to enjoy a quick, unplanned, service project on the beach. Others on the beach also stopped to help! After it was lunch and a swim for those who were brave enough to swim. The rest of us sat around chatting, lounging, or walking the beach. It was a relaxing afternoon. Even if it didn’t necessarily go as planned. We then returned home in time to be spoiled by dinner from a group of Seminarians (Edwin + Family, Freddy, and Kairo). The single seminarians live a short, but very vertical hike up the hill behind the seminary, in a house named Golgotha.
Day 3 – Tuesday
Our Third day started at 8 am with the opening of the kid’s school, on the first floor of the building. We performed a skit on Jonah and the Whale. Afterward, we stuck around to make some balloon animals, play a game, and make some “cootie catchers” (perhaps differently named throughout generations.)
We returned back upstairs to the seminary to hear a mission talk by Ted Krey. He is the Regional Director for LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) it was a great talk/bible study! We were given the chance to go to chapel with the Seminarians, followed by lunch and Choir Practice with them! The guys were given a bit of time to sit in on some classes. That afternoon we headed to a local grocery store for a fun scavenger hunt, followed by dinner at the Krey house! Day 3 was light and local, a day of recharge.
Day 4 – Wednesday
We took off early in the morning to Km 28, to the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Hospital. This mission made me tear up a bit when we heard of its story. The DR doesn’t see disabled people as people. Few are even given social security cards or birth certificates “because they aren’t people” Most have families that have disowned them and can’t even be found due to not knowing actual details on the person searching.
Km 28 has a large care team. They are loved there. It’s built more like an independent living type of atmosphere. They are encouraged to engage with the community around them, they’re given certain freedoms, yet also have responsibilities, and they all work together. We were able to stay and hang out a bit with them and play some games, they LOVE bingo!
Once we returned to town we went out into the neighborhood of one of the Local Lutheran Churches and got to meet a few of the members. They were beyond welcoming, we had a lovely devotional outside in the neighborhood.
We then went two separate ways. The Ladies of the group back to Krey’s house for empanada making (not photographed) The rest of the group went across the street to Tirzah Krey’s for dinner on the roof!
Helping to find bingo spots!
Day 5 – Thursday
Another late start morning! The guys had the option to sit in on more classes. We then attended a Zoom meeting for the LAC which was an informative presentation highlighting the work they’re doing! Followed by chapel, and then a deaconess presentation. An afternoon of hanging out eating lunch and playing games with the group home.
In the late afternoon, we headed out to another area church plant in the works. We had a devotional with some students before their volleyball practice. We then were given the chance to get in on some volleyball drills. Saw a new building coming together across the street for the local church in that neighborhood. We paused to pray over the seminarian Jesus and the work going on in the community of Cienfuegos. We ended the evening at the Fritzler‘s family abode. Where we sang a bunch of hymns with an accordion. I’d say the highlight of my day was listening to the deaconess presentation, it tugged on some heartstrings!
Presenting were (Danelle and Tirzah whom I’ve spoken of above. Also Jamielynn and Cheryl)
Day 6 – Friday
We parted ways with Santiago and headed toward the Capital for our last full day in the Dominican. Our first stop was a public school. Spent the morning doing the skit a solid 3 times within different classrooms. Walked to lunch nearby, then over to our last church visit. We got to perform the skit one more time for the after-school kids. Post skit we headed to the park across the street to play some more and practice our balloon animals. It was a fun day with lots of laughter.
Day 7 – Saturday
The 7th Day was a half day. After Pan de Vida on day 6, we headed for the colonial zone! We checked into a hotel, headed to dinner, back to the hotel for rooftop devotionals. The next morning we were free to head out to the local shops in the morning until our 11 am departure.
Made possible by…Erin!
Erin is excellent at her job. She is the regional volunteer coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean. Meaning it is her job to bring in teams and show them the day-to-day work being done. You can tell, she loves what she does! The whole team there loves what they do. Again I encourage you to go back through and click on each name highlighted, to see what God is doing in and through their lives.
It’s such an important job, educating others as to what missions look like. Bringing awareness of the different missions going on across the world. It takes the whole church to come together and bring awareness to missions, to send missionaries, to pray over, be present in, get involved, and get educated on what missions look like. Both globally and also right outside in your neighborhood.
Mark 16:15 – And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.