Home again

Well, time has flown by and I am finally home again. We had a great last few days in the D.R., a few last visits to the patients we were following up with, and many hugs and goodbyes with the kids. Our last night, we walked back to the hotel from dinner to find a bunch of candles and singing kids outside. Some of the kids from Aguas Negras, along with Sandra (who we call the Mother Teresa of the D.R.) came to express their gratitude for Mercy Ships and the lives that have been touched over the years (Mercy Ships has been taking groups to the Dominican Republic consistently for over 6 years). It was great to see all of the relationships that had been built over the years and hear about the lives that had been touched and just to be a small part of that.

We all traveled back to Texas for debrief...all except one of us. One of the members of our group decided he wanted to stay two more weeks to continue on with some needed projects in the community and to travel a little bit in the D.R. and Haiti. It was a little wierd leaving him behind, but I know God will continue to work through him as he is there. After reflecting on our trip and sharing lots of stories, pictures, and answers to prayer, we all packed up and said goodbye. Theo (my new 7-year old "little brother") came out to my car as I was packing up and put his arms around me and started crying, saying that he didn't want me to leave. It was really sweet. It's amazing how much everyone has become like a family to me...We all bonded so much and got really close...Even though I had peace about going to the ship before this, I feel even more at peace now, knowing that I'll be there with my second family and I have a little reunion to look forward to in January!

I was very blessed to come home to a warm welcome from family and friends and got home just in time to celebrate my 25th birthday with many of them this weekend. It's crazy to think I only have about 2 months with them before I leave again for a longer time away, but I am enjoying the time I do have and feel blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life who love and support me!

Week 2

Well, this has been another great work week...we were able to finish with the foundation of the dining room and started putting up the walls...Sharon and I had fun with that part! I really love our team...everyone works so hard and works so well together! There has been a good balance between doing the hard labor, visiting patients with medical needs that we have been able to treat, and spending time with various families...we also had a soccer game on friday with some of the domincan guys...wanna guess who won that one...ya, we ended up buying them all sodas afterwards...


As much as I have loved pouring cement and laying bricks (one of the guys told me I was in my element doing that ha ha), I love spending time with the people the most....We have been able to get to know some of the families more this week...Ezekiel's mom asked me and a few others to come over for lunch on Friday...this was a special treat for us...We were able to give them some rice and sodas to help out with the meal and also printed some pictures we had taken of their family. These are all the kids....they are all such beautiful children.

A few of our work team after a long day

This weekend, I get to visit my friend Julia out in Santiago and spend time with her and some of her young life kids....I'm excited to catch up with her! I met her 2 years ago when I came to the DR with our high school kids from Scottsdale Bible....After this weekend, we'll just have a few days left in the DR...but I'm excited to see everyone back home...I'll post some more pics when I get back to Texas! Keep us in your prayers!

First week in the DR

Well, we have officially been in the Dominican Republic for a week now! It is going by really fast! Our main focus this week was working in a school in a village called Villa Ascencion. The majority of the people in the village are Hatian and they are all such amazing people. I have been working on my Creole vocabulary, as that is their main language...the majority speak some Spanish too, so that has come in handy. I had the opportunity to spend time in some of their homes, which was quite an experience. The people in the village are poor, but they are also very warmhearted and hospitable.

The kids here are so beautiful!

Me and my chicas

The majority of our time this week has been spent in a school run by a Christian organization called Kids Alive. It`s an after-school program for kids where they reinforce learning and teach them about God & the Bible...We spend a small part of the day in the classrooms doing skits, songs & crafts with the kids and the rest of the day has been spent on work projects. The main work project we are doing is extending their cafeteria which barely fits all the kids right now. Once the cafeteria is bigger, they will also be able to have more students in the program. So, needless to say, we were really tired by the end of the week after digging, mixing concrete, and hauling tons of wheelbarrows....it has been a lot of fun at the same time though and everyone has shown great team work.

One thing I really like about our trip is that our leaders have emphasized the importance of relationships and showing the love of Christ to the people....so they have given us freedom to follow God`s leading in our work days....if we have a specific person that invites us over or if we want to do a prayer walk through the village, we can. They recognize that the relationship aspect of ministry is just as important in leaving an impact as the physical work we do in the town. So, I took advantage of this on Friday and spent the afternoon at Tania`s house...she is a 17-year old girl that my friend Rachel and I met...She is a lot of fun, yet very broken at the same time...she has a 6 month old baby and the father stopped talking to her after she got pregnant....I tried to speak words of encouragement and hope into her life as we talked...it is obvious that she has a very low self-esteem, as is the case with many of the women here. Please pray that God continues to use me as a light in her life.

After our long week, we headed out yesterday for a relaxing day on the beach. The beach was beautiful and we had a good time swimming in the water and riding the banana boat...the typical beach activities....but one thing that really struck us was the huge amount of prostitution that was around. It was so sad and made us all sick to see not only women, but little girls with these old European men who had no shame over what they were doing. We were all shocked at how public it was. I had seen things like this before in Thailand, but I never realized it was such a huge problem in the DR. I found out that the DR is actually in the top 3 nations for the ratio of HIV positive people in the population.

My friend Annie and I were sitting there on the beach as some of the trafficking was unfolding before our eyes and decided to pray. We were definitely reminded of the spiritual warfare that we talked about during our Gateway training. Today, our whole group had a discussion time about the issue and had a time of prayer for the girls involved and the rampant problem in the country.

Another thing that really hit me this week was the poverty of the people and the conditions they end up in when it rains here. I have seen flooding in the US, but never anything like what we saw wednesday night...It started raining really hard and we had to go pick up some of our team in a place called Aguas Negras (this literally means black waters...I understand why they call it that now!) Even though our leader was driving an SUV, we nearly got stuck in the water...it was so deep that the motorcycles were half covered and barely getting through...the water comes up to the level of the houses and floods inside...but it`s not just rainwater....it mixes with the sewage, creating more problems with disease and contamination. Families were walking through the dirty waters...it was unlike anything I have ever seen....It`s amazing to me that the people can survive in these conditions....this is part of their normal lives...I couldn`t help but look out at the people wading through the water and pray for them...It is encouraging that in spite of what seems like hopelessness, the community is improving quite a bit. A woman named Sandra that Mercy Ships works with has a ministry where they build houses for needy families...the houses are higher up so that they won`t flood during the heavy rains...We were able to walk around this town and see several of the houses on our first day. I know they still have a long way to go, but it is great to see the progress taking place in the community.

On a more positive note, things are going really well with our team as a whole...there is a great sense of unity and everyone gets along well and works well together....We have a really great group and we have all been having a lot of fun together. The kids are amazing...I love the way they just latch onto us...There are several little girls that I`ve already bonded with...you can tell that many of them are starved for love and affection...it is a lot of fun to love on them.

This next week we`ll be working with the same school in Villa Ascencion with the work projects and doing some more things in the classrooms...please keep us in your prayers..thanks!

Basic Safety Training

Well, this has been a long but exciting week! Part of our training includes a week of instruction on firefighting and survival at sea due to the hospital being on a ship & the need for preparation in case of an emergency. Hopefully we will never have a fire to put out or the need to abandon the ship and get into immersion suits and lifeboats...but either way, I feel much more prepared after this week. Here are some fun pictures from our training.

Our little life raft

Me & some friends in our immersion suits

Look at those lobster claws!

Huddle time!

Getting on my gumby suit

Firefighting...suited up & ready to go!

More pics to follow soon....please keep us in your prayers, as we'll be spending the next 17 days in the Dominican Republic doing children's ministries, work projects, and some medical work as well....I'm excited to share about all that God does there! It's definitely gonna be an adventure!

discovering our purpose

One of the big things we have been studying this week is purpose. Sometimes it's a little intimidating to ask those big questions.... what is my purpose in life?...where am I now, how did I get here, and where am I going?...these are some of the things we've been discussing...For the most part, feel like I have a pretty good understanding of God's purpose for my life...at least for the season I am in right now...But it's good to be challenged and forced to answer the hard questions...Because if we don't understand our purpose we will just "float through life" (no pun intended :) without any direction....and I definitely want to live up to all the potential God has for me! So, it was great to spend some time this week discussing purpose and studying how we can use our gifts and strengths to be most effective in the kingdom of God!

So, I had a really cool experience that brought me back to one of the roads that God has taken me down on this journey to the mission field...some people would say it was a coincidence..I would say it was a divine appointment...I was sitting in our cafe having coffee with some friends and said something that started a conversation with another random girl in the coffee shop...turned out she served with a ministry called Teen Mania not far from here...I told her I'd done a trip with that group 7 years ago....we chatted a little more and she gave me her number so that we could get together later.

Well, last night she invited me to come to hear Ron Luce speak. I had told her that he is one of my favorite speakers so she had promised to let me know when he would be preaching..he is the founder of Teen Mania and an amazing man of God....so last night I went with her back to that same auditorium I sat in 7 years ago as an energetic teenager and listened to Ron talk about living to our full potential in Christ and following the dreams that He's put in our hearts..it was a little bit surreal to sit there and think about where I am now and where God has brought me from...

You see, the significance of that place is that it was right there in that same auditorium that I had heard God speak to my heart and call me to missions 7 years before...I had seen a drama on reaching the lost and unreached people in the world, spent some time in prayer and worship and wrestling with God over whether or not I was supposed to go into missions in the future (I was resistant at first...typical Becca :) and finally surrendered to God that I would go where He sent me and that I would follow Him where He led me...and here I am 7 years later and the dream that He has placed in my heart is finally coming true!

I am reminded of a line in an old song that says:

"Could it be that He is only waiting here to see if I will learn to love the dreams that He has dreamed for me

Can't imagine what the future holds, but I've already made my choice. And this is where I'll stand until He moves me on and I will listen to His voice"

After the service, my friend took me up to meet Ron and I told him my story of how God had used him and his ministry in my life to lead me to missions and to bring me to the place I'm at now with Mercy Ships. He smiled and said "thank you for following the dream" and gave me a big hug. It was really great to hear that and I hope it encouraged him to see that the work he is doing really has affected and changed lives. So, that was a really cool experience for me.

Shyla (my new friend from the coffee shop) wanted to hang out afterwards and hear my story of how God led me to missions and to where He has me right now...it's always so awesome to share that with people because I just see how good God has been to me and how faithful He has proven to be. I couldn't help but smile as I shared my stories about this journey that God has taken me on and I was able to see that it encouraged her....afterwards she told me "you make me want to do missions!"...it was really sweet...she is an amazing girl with a genuine love for the Lord and a hunger for more of Him that is very apparent. She also shared her story with me of how God brought her to the place He has her right now in the ministry that she is doing with Teen Mania and that was really exciting to hear.

God never ceases to amaze me at how He is so good at orchestrating all the events in our lives...He is aware of everything that we need and has such a perfect plan for each of us if we will just be willing and obedient in following Him...I can't say that I have always been obedient, but He has still been so faithful and hasn't given up on me....He never lets go of us and the dreams he has for us...Lord, let us learn to dream those same dreams that You have for us!

Me and Shyla outside of the Teen Mania auditorium

Hearing God in the silence

Well the last few days, we've spent a lot of time focusing on prayer and listening to God's voice. One of the major things we focused on is studying the way we hear God in the silence. As you all know, I am not a quiet person by any means. So silence doesn't come as often as it should. But even for people who are shy and quiet, in our society, silence is hard to find....we are constantly bombarded by noise: music, tv, cellphones, other people, and constant commotion... there is even "visual noise" like billboards, advertisements, computers, and the list goes on...in the midst of all that commotion, God wants to speak to our hearts, but oftentimes it is so loud inside that we are unable to hear Him. And if we happen to get quiet enough to hear him, many times we're not patient enough to wait for Him to speak.

One of the Bible passages we talked about in discussing prayer and hearing God's voice was the story where God spoke to Elijah...An earthquake passed, and so did the wind, and even a fire....but God did not meet Elijah in any of those ways...instead, He came to Elijah in a gentle whisper. Sometimes God will speak to us in a "lightning-bolt" kind of way...but more often than not, He speaks in that still, small voice...but if there's too much noise in our lives, how can we expect to hear Him?So, this weekend we had a "silent retreat"...4 hours of not talking to anyone but God...time to not just talk to God but also to listen.

I had a really amazing time with God where I really did hear Him speak to me....sometimes it doesn't occur to me that I should actually ask God what He wants me to pray for people...I admit that sometimes my prayers can be "cookie-cutter" prayers...they can be shallow and generic...But the Bible says that the Holy Spirit actually intercedes on our behalf when we don't know what to pray...that we can actually come to God when we're not even sure what our friends and family need prayer for....and God can speak those needs into our hearts so that we can pray effectively for them. I had several experiences with that this weekend and it was really encouraging to me to be reminded that God really does know exactly what we need and wants to give it to us if we will just ask....

So many times we miss out on God's blessings because we are too busy to stop and listen for God to speak to us...It was nice to take a significant amount of time on saturday to devote to hearing God...but I'm beginning to realize that it doesn't take 4 hours for God to speak...it only takes a moment where we stop to listen....and in that moment we realize how much He loves us and delights in blessing His children.

My view during the silent retreat

Overcoming our doubts

Well, I officially started my Gateway training program for Mercy Ships this week. I have been anticipating working on the ship since I applied in March and it finally started to set in as I drove to Texas that I'm really doing this...it was a small stepping stone of faith to come here, knowing that I haven't raised all my support yet and that I still have a lot of preparation to do before going to the ship with my job and things back home. So, taking 7 weeks off from work to come here (getting that time off alone was a miracle in itself and a confirmation from God that I'm where I'm supposed to be!) was a little bit nerve-racking for me....exciting, but still a little bit scary.

I think that one of the biggest things that many Christians struggle with is the feeling of inadequacy...this is often the case for me personally...the thoughts run through my head "I don't know if God can really use me"..."What if I'm not really qualified for this"...."Am I really gonna be able to make it when things get rough"...all these doubts cross my mind....doubts that I have come to learn this week are really messages from the enemy to keep us from being confident in our heavenly Father and His ability to use us. Today one of the scriptures we talked about was 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and a sound mind." So then, if fear is not from God, it is from the enemy...

On my drive here, God spoke to my heart about those inadequacies and fears through two different songs..

"I think I can't but I think you can gather my insufficiencies and place them in your hands" (From the song "For the moments I feel faint" by Relient K)

"Unafraid 'cause I know who you are, unafraid staring life in the face, 'cause I know who I am is who you made, so here I stand unafraid" (Unafraid by Joy Williams)

It's so awesome to know that we serve a God who is so much bigger than all our fears and inadequacies...If he can take some bread and fish from the lunch box of a little boy and multiply it to feed thousands of people, he can certainly take the little I have to offer to multiply it and use it for His glory.

God has been teaching me so much already...I have been challenged and encouraged as we have been studying the character of God, prayer, and spiritual warfare. I have been reminded of God's faithfulness as he has blessed me with some amazing friends here and I'm excited to share my life with them over the next year in Africa.

It was awesome that as I drove up to the base, the first person I saw was a friend I made at my introductory program here in June. It was like God was saying..."don't be afraid, child...I've got it all covered...see you aren't even out of your car and you already have a friend in sight...not to mention I am with you."

I have been having an amazing time here so far....we have a really fun, diverse group of people....4 people from England, 1 girl from Holland (who happens to be my bunkmate!), and of course the people from the South who seem a little like foreigners :) I have already caught myself a few times talking with a bit of a Southern accent and then saying something with a British accent a few minutes later....I'm gonna be a little messed up when I get home :)

I have been so blessed by Mari (my bunkmate from Amsterdam). She is the sweetest, most kind-hearted person you'll ever meet...Yesterday she said to me "I was emailing my friend today and told her that you are my blessing." I was so touched by that. She blows me kisses before bed and always has something sweet to say. We have also had a lot of laughs together already. Yesterday, I took her to Walmart for her first experience ever there....after a few minutes in the store, I asked her what she thought and she said in her cute Dutch accent "I'm speechless...I'm so in awe"...it was really cute...I took her to the bike section and made her try a bike out and ride it around the sports section...it was pretty funny....it was ironic too because the only thing she bought was a texas postcard and envelopes....she said she needed the envelope to put the postcard in...to which I responded that this was against the principle of a postcard and that she couldn't do it....but she said she had too much to write to fit on one side...funny girl....

Me & my new bunkmate Marianne

When we were checking out, the girl at the counter asked us where we were from...I assumed she meant what state/country, etc....but she was referring to what ministry we were a part of...It's cool that we can already be representatives of Mercy Ships and more importantly representatives of Christ...there are a lot of Christian ministries here in this part of Texas and the town where we go to Walmart is pretty small, so we stand out when we're there simply because they can tell we're not locals....it's pretty funny....Sometimes I feel like I'm in a foreign country just being in Texas....the lady at Walmart asked me if I needed a 'buggy'...it took me a minute to figure out that she was asking if I wanted a shopping cart...funny how different words and accents can be even in my own country.

Well, I'll stop with stories for now....I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow....Thank you for all your prayers...God has been good and has surrounded me with people who love me and genuinely care about me, people who have the same passion for missions, and who are so much fun to be around. Being here is kind of like being in college again...but better :) God has blessed me with more than I could have imagined...and it hasn't even been a whole week! Can't wait to see all that He has in store for me!