Friday, July 25, 2014

Week 1 in the DR!


Hola! I want to first thank all you have that supported, prayed and encouraged me on this journey. I am so excited to be here in the Dominican Republic. It has been a full week so far.

I am here in the DR as an intern with Score International. There is a group of about 8 that are here as interns. We fall under the leadership and guidance of Margaret, the Score Intern Director. She is a wonderful, encouraging women who spends time here in the DR and then goes back to the States to spend time with her grandchildren. We meet each morning as a group for devotions, weekly as a group to talk about what the week will look like, and the female interns meet weekly for discipleship.  I am staying in a little apartment style housing on the staff side of the Score complex. I am living with a score staff named Rachael who is a kindergarten teacher in the states and here working on activities and scheduling for teams when they work with the children in the different villages and with Kendall a college student who loved to spend her summers here going out with the different teams that come to visit.  

Each day is different and exciting in its own way. I was able to stay at the Emanuel House for two nights (Monday and Tuesday) and spent some time observing and praying as to how I could help. The Emanuel house is a day school for various age children. They have classes for a group of students in the morning and a different group in the afternoon. Emanuel House is run by a sweet lady named Mirqueya,: also Adrienne a Score missionary (who moved from Atlanta a year ago to live in the DR) I have been blessed to just meet these sweet women of God. I also got to meet and get to know Jessinia (an intern at the Emanuel House and this past year was a GAP student) a little bit, unfortunately her time here is almost done as mine really just began.  I am looking forward to going back next week to the Emanuel House spend more time observing and interviewing the teachers to learn more about each one.




One of the teams on Wednesday planned a women’s conference for the mothers of the Emanuel House children. I was able to go and be a part of serving the ladies there. It was a great opportunity for these mothers that they rarely get to do.  

Yesterday, Thursday I went out with a team of mostly youth to a village about 2 hours from the score complex. It area that we were in was absolutely beautiful. There were these big trees that offered shade and a breeze from the wind while the group was sharing and then a large open field with mountains as the backdrop to play with the children. The youth sang songs, did a skit and shared testimonies to about 200 children! We then we served a meal made by someone from the local church.
 

I have decided that one of my projects while I am here is to create a Teacher Appreciation week for the teachers at Emanuel house. So I will spend some time this weekend making gifts for these women to receive in two weeks during their teacher training week. Please pray that this idea is well received and an encouragement to the ladies for their hard work and dedicated to the children and to Emanuel House. Also please pray that God shows me how I can best serve for the time that I am here. I am finding that it already goes by too fast!

Walking by faith,

Jess