Gifts of Joy (Part 1)

How life moves so quickly.  I started this blog entry 3 times now since our return from the DR in July.  I'm a bit embarrassed that it has taken this long but have to keep reminding myself that there are seasons and that's how life goes sometimes, or maybe I'm just trying to assuage my feelings about my long overdue blog post. ;-)

Part of this excerpt was written originally on 08-07-2013.

"It has been almost whole month since our return from the Dominican Republic.  I have been pondering our trip and wondering how I was going to encapsulate into words all that we experienced as a team and as families.  Joy, Resiliency, and Reflection, these are the words which reflect our days in the DR and hope to capture these words in the stories I share.

When I reflect back, there is joy weaved throughout this journey.  My concerns were for endurance and patience as we traveled a great distance with young children, the children were great travelers and did better than I had imagined throughout our trip.   In my very last post before the trip, I was anxious about everyone's health while we were in the DR.  Most of the team had a day or so of issues with traveler's diarrhea but thankfully had antibiotics on hand.  Even around the unseemly topics of bodily functions, much laughter and "togetherness" was established with the 3 families. There were no medical emergencies that would need evacuation as I had feared ;-) other than a swimming pool being drained (inside team joke).

When we finally arrived in Santa Domingo, 2 out of 3 families' luggages with all of their personal belongings were lost.  Other than the clothes they wore on the plane, the prospect of no clean clothes or underwear for days or even the whole length of the trip was disconcerting & frustrating."

Through a 12 member Ohio church team, God provided what our team needed.  The "Ohio" team graciously shared their clothes and resources (that were with the lost luggage) we needed to do our projects with the children of Los Robles & Don Bosco.  The gift of generosity of the Ohio team, reminded me of what happens when Christ's body works together, so much goodness.
By the persistence of one of our own teammates, our luggage did finally arrive on Wednesday morning.  Being in a different culture and country forces people out of their comfort zones and stretches your capacity to handle stress in very different ways than you are used to doing. It was very encouraging to me that the 9 months we spent as a team, forming our relationships allowed us to grow together.  The challenges and the stress points each of us went through as individuals, as families, and as a community, just solidified our team bond even more.  Being able to share this type of meaningful trip with our community brought a great deal of joy and satisfaction to me.
(to be cont)