The Adventures of Bethany and Emily: Jimani and Duverge :)

Hey Everyone! It has been so busy since the last time we wrote. Bethany and I are going to write this blog post together because we have a lot to share about as we come to the close of our trip. God has been so good throughout our entire stay here in the Dominican Republic. We have been blessed with many opportunities to experience new things and to share the love of Christ with others. We are both very grateful for everything we have learned on this trip :) I believe that we were impacted more than the people we met.
This week was another adventure for us. Bill, Peg, Bethany, and I along with 5 other Dominicans and 1 Haitian took a trip to Independencia. After a short bus ride (maybe three hours?), we stopped in Duverge (Doo-bur-hay) to pick up Yani(the wife of a Pastor in Duverge) and her wonderful kiddos :) After picking them up, we continued on to an orphanage in Jimani (hee-man-ee). Jimani is a city right on the border on the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We spent most of our time there just holding the kids and loving them. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip. The youngest child there was only two months old and the oldest children were 13 or 14. Our team played with the kids for a while and then we had a short Bible school for them. I played the flute, one of the team members played guitar, and the rest of the team sang, Bethany told the story of Zaccheus (and did a fabulous job), Elizabeth translated for Bethany, the kids colored, and we played lots of games with them. It was a wonderful opportunity to shine Jesus' love to the kids and we would go back in a heartbeat.
After leaving the orphanage, we drove back to Duverge to check into our hotel and then we went to a church in Colonial. Our team was only planning on doing the music and the message for the sermon, but when we arrived, we were told that we were in charge of the whole service. So, on the curb in front of the church, we got together in a group and planned the service. The team did music together, we performed a simple drama for the group, Elizabeth preached, and overall it was a wonderful service. After a 10 pm pica pollo stop(long story :P) we returned to the hotel.
The next morning we headed out again to do a Bible school at a church in Duverge. We were expecting around 50 children, but we ended up having much more- which was a blessing :) Once again we did music, Bethany told a Bible story, two of the team members did a puppet skit, and we had a wonderful experience with the children. After the Bible school activities were finished the team split the kids into a group of older kids and a group of younger kids. Once again it was a great time of bonding with the kids and showing Jesus' love to them. That afternoon, we had our last Bible school in Bitoa (a town nearby) with nearly 150 children. It was very hot, but still the church was packed with children excited to be there and to participate in everything. Because of the amount of children, it was hard to play many games, but we still had a good time getting to know the kids/teens. I got to know a young lady named Victoria and her sisters. When I met her, I was holding Yani's youngest baby Yeimi and she wanted to know if it was my child :) Despite my still far from perfect Spanish, we had a great conversation (where I explained that Yeimi was not mine :). I love how open and friendly the Dominican people have always been. It is a hard thing to understand because we live very closed lives in the US, but they are willing to share everything they have with their neighbors- even someone they don't know very well :)
This open and friendly love was demonstrated again that night at Pastor Clemente's church in Duverge (a long time friend of Bill and Peg's and Maxie's father). The Clemente's live on the side of a mountain in a very small house with the church right next door. It was humbling to see what the church looked like- it had a new tin roof, but has no permanent walls or floor. The electricity also went out a few times during the service. However, the people worshiped God with all of their hearts anyway. In the United States we are very focused on materials, but here, people are more focused on God than materials. This has definitely been a learning experience for both Bethany and I. Putting God first is difficult sometimes, but anyone here will tell you that it is worth it.
The next morning, we all packed up for our return trip to Santo Domingo. Things were going fairly smoothly, until we had some bus trouble. Our bus ended up breaking down in a dangerous stretch of road where lots of robberies occur- both sides were sugar cane with no buildings. But God was watching out for us because and empty bus, much bigger than ours stopped because the driver was concerned about our safety. So after not even 10 minutes on the side of the road, our driver had hooked our bus up to his, along with the trailer attached to our bus and we started down the road. We looked like a funny long caravan but we were all grateful that God had protected us and sent a rescue bus. :) This two day trip was an amazing experience and we would both go back in a heartbeat.
As our trip winds down *sniff, sniff * we are spending time reflecting on everything we have learned and everything God has done. Thank-you for all of your prayers and continue to pray for CIFI missions and their work down here. Please also pray that the Bethany and I can return to the States safely on Monday and that Bill and Peg will return safely on Tuesday. Thank-you!!
-Emily and Bethany