Trip - Day 9, Feb 19

*I wrote two entries today since I was gone yesterday.

Cathedral built in 1500's

Ryan showing us what people looked like before the firing squad


The Ministry Center in Santo Domingo


This morning we went to visit some interesting places. The first place we stopped at was in San Pedro. Really cool note, real famous major league baseball players come from San Pedro. The place we stopped at was a Christian school that was built by volunteers. It is a CoCRef school (Collegio Christiana Reformada). It was really cool to see all the kids playing. These schools give kids an opportunity to go to school when otherwise they might not be able to.

We then went through downtown Santo Domingo, it was interesting to see all the traffic and the fact 3 million people live there. We went to the ministry center where most of the groups stay. We met Guido and he gave us a tour. He showed us the dorms as well as the new offices that were being built for CRWRC, CoCRef and other ministries. We had lunch there and met some of the workers and some from another group.

After lunch we drove to the colonial center. We were able to see the original fort built in the 1500's as well as the Cathedral there. We then had time to check out some stores. It was really interesting to see how badly they want Americans (or Canadians in this case) in their stores. How pushy they can be even when you say no. I had one kid who tried to polish my sandals. People will do anything for a few pesos. Kids will even was your windows while waiting for the light to change. Duane wont pay them unless they ask first.

After dinner we had a good discussion about the trip and the work. It was great to hear how everyone felt about the week. AFter Duane left, Jerry asked me my thoughts. I feel this week was really good. It truly opened my eyes to a completely different culture. We all said that someone really has to experience it to fully understand what people mean when they describe it. Some have said in the past that they feel closer to God. I don't know if I can say that, but I can definitely say it really excited me to see how other Christians live. It really excited me to see how they worship. We can learn from them in some areas as well.

The thing we also talked about was how do we get more people excited about these opportunities to want to come along. I wish that there would have bee more time spent in devotions and/or prayer that might have brought the group together even more.

In general, I am very glad I went, I got to know some people even better than before. I probably will write another one after I think more on the plane. 6:00 am will come pretty early.