Judson College :: Senior/Transfer

I have had a very eventful few weeks since I have been back in the US. Almost as soon as I got home, I got my sub license. I can now substitute teach in Baldwin County. So far  this part time job has kept me extremely busy. God has really shown me how much he wants to take care of me simply by providing work. I was slightly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to make it subbing but the Lord has been with me through every day.  It has been great to be back in the classroom again and I hope that I am “getting my foot in the door” in the county. I would really like to get a job somewhere near here next fall. Overall I would say that all of that is going very well. 

When I get home from subbing, I have the opportunity to check my Facebook. As far as I can tell the Judson College girls are in the middle of midterms right now. WOW, I am so happy that I am not in the middle of HUGE TESTS! But then again I miss it a little bit. I don’t know what to do with this extra time that I have. YES! After graduating college I found out what it is like to have no lesson planing to do and zero papers to write. It is amazing to me what college students are capable of doing. The amount of work that they have and the amount of time they have to be with their friends is incredible. 

So what I am saying is that on one hand I am happy to be out of college and away from the STRESS that it brings... On the other hand I miss JC a TON! I want to see my friends there. I want to catch up on the things that happened during the day over dinner with 75 of my JC sisters. I want to complain about the huge midterm paper that is due in 12 hours and I haven’t even picked a topic for it yet. I want to laugh with my roommate because she is dancing all around the room for no apparent reason... 

What I am saying is that I miss Judson. 

I miss the relationships that I built at JC! 

I am so thankful for my sisters there and I can’t wait to see what the next chapter of my life will be, but it is hard not to look back and to long for a piece of what I had in little old Marion, Alabama. 

What an IMPACT Judson College made on my life. I am so proud to call myself a JC girl and now I am excited to take what I learned at JC and to apply it to life in “the real world.”  

This is a picture of a Haitian girl eating sugarcane. The people that live in these villages often brushed their teeth with sugar cane as well. 

This is a home in a Haitian village.

This little boy was adorable.

Dominos were the most famous past time in the DR. Dominicans and Haitians alike

loved the game.

 La Coco was one of the villages where we passed out water filers.

It was strange to see this building in the middle of the city. 

Notice how narrow the street is here. It was common for there to be only enough room for one car on most streets.

We gave this baseball team equipment. They lived in a place called Hole of the Pigs. 

This community is called Auguas Negras. The name came from the sewage (black water) that washes up there. 

    We are on the flight headed home. It is hard to believe that we have been gone for 30 days. So much has happened in the past four weeks and I don’t even know how to begin relating it all to you. 

    To begin with, I have been given a perspective of missions that I had yet to see prior to this month. Through this experience, I have come to understand the things that take place behind the scenes in missionaries’ lives. I have seen what it is like for a “gringo” to live in a Dominican neighborhood. I have had the opportunity to see what it is like to work in a culture that is entirely different than my own. While at times I have seen that life in a world unlike my own can be frustrating, I see that the rewards of serving the Lord as He leads far outweigh the bad. 

    While here, I taught English in a private Christian school. I had the opportunity to take on a high school classroom for two weeks. During that time I can say that I learned more than I taught. I learned about the Dominican culture and how different it is to American culture. I studied education at Judson and I feel like I am prepared to enter the classroom in America. But throughout this experience, I have discovered that I am not quite ready to enter the classroom teaching abroad. I am far from fluent in Spanish and at times it was difficult to instruct students in my broken dialogue. I picked up on several new words while teaching and impressed some of the students a couple of times when I rattled off something quickly in Spanish, but I spoke far from perfectly. I will say that if God calls me to serve full time abroad that I will work hard to develop a better understanding of the language of whatever country that I am called to teach in.

  While at times I became frustrated in the school here, I was also extremely excited by things that took place in the classroom. Lauretta and I had the opportunity to share the gospel in a couple of our classes. We used salvation bracelets to share the effects of sin, the death of Christ, his resurrection and forgiveness for believers. The students in one particular classroom were specifically interested in what we had to share. Each student focused their full attention on us. It was a definite change in typical classroom behavior.

                          I pray that seeds were planted in that classroom... 

    While the time in the school was valuable, I enjoyed our time in villages the most. We had the time to just play with young people and to build relationships. I can’t tell you how many times I heard a smiling child laughing and saying, “Gringa, Gringa.” I loved playing baseball with the guys in Holos de los Puercos. Those guys out there have such a passion for the game. I hope that when the time is right and those young men hear the gospel that they will have an even greater passion for Christ.

      I also loved the kids that I meet in Augas Negras. When we went there, kids met us at the car ready to play. There were a couple of the boys that I was especially attached to. I wish that those little ones had different lives. It is so hard to see a ten year old limping around barefoot because he had no shoes and had stepped on a nail. It was even harder to see a 9-year- old boy with his baby sister on his hip because his mom is a prostitute and can’t care for all eight of her children. Stories like this break my heart but I know that God has a plan for each of these young boys' lives. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” applies to all people not just to you and me and I was reminded of that several times during my time in the DR. God has a plan for these young people, I may not understand it but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have one. Remembering that fact made it easier to leave those little boys behind when we left the village for the last time. 

    Overall, I can say that I have been given a new perspective because of this trip and I know that it will affect the life that I lead in the U.S. and the path that I take. I praise the Lord for my time in the DR and I can’t wait to see where the Lord will lead me in the future.

Dios te Bendiga! 

Well, it seems that we are two weeks into our trip. We have done many different things the past 14 days. In our first week we went to villages, we played with kids in muddy streets, we met with young girls that have been forced to provide for themselves at a young age using whatever means possible. In our second week we traveled to Santo Domingo for a glimpse of the capital of Republica Dominicana, and we have begun to teach in a Christian school in Puerta Plata.

See, each week offers a different experience. Each weeks offers a new way to serve the Lord.
 
While we were in Santo Domingo, Lauretta and I had two roles. On the first evening there, we acted as babysitters. Brooke celebrated her birthday during the week and the Jenkins parents needed a date night to complete the celebration. Lauretta and I also acted as tourists in the capital city. We toured Columbus’ home, and we also visited the first cathedral in the Americas.

On Saturday, Lauretta and I had the opportunity to be a part of an ESL class. We helped the students with their worksheets and helped them with word pronunciation. The sounds that come naturally to me as a native English speaker do not come natural to Dominicans. The “th” sound is killer. The teacher’s name is William. He is a really great guy and the Lord is using him to minister to several communities through ESL classes.

Lauretta and I began teaching at the school this week. It was a very interesting experience. I am a teacher, and I know how a typical school runs in the States. Lets just say that in the DR school is very different. We plan to go each day for our final two weeks here; I pray that all goes well.

I can say that one of my favorite things to do down here has been to hang out with the Jenkins kids. They offer so much love and so much compassion for the people here in the DR. They each serve in their own way and love doing it. I am going to miss the kids when we return home. Of course, I will miss Brooke and Brad, too. They have been so wonderful to welcome us into their home and to take care of us the way that they have. The Lord is truly working in this family and I look forward to seeing how they impact the world around them for Christ in the future.

Lauretta and I decided to help a young girl that lives in Augas Negras while we are down here. We decided to allocate funds given for our trip to purchase the supplies to help build a home for her. She is 16 and she takes care of her younger sister. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to care for my sister and to find my own place to live at 16.

There seems to be so much injustice here. Those that cannot really care for themselves are the ones that suffer the most. Young children have no homes and young women are  sold into prostitution. It is hard to comprehend that many of the children that we play with in the villages are orphans with no place to call home. I pray that God continues to meet the needs of those that live in Puerta Plata. The flesh in me wants to scoop up all of the kids and put them in homes, but I know that God has a plan for each of these kids' lives.

Sunday morning in church I became confused during the service. The pastor was preaching in Spanish and I lost the concept of the message. I flipped over to Proverbs and I found the verse “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” Proverbs 16:9. I pray that the Lord continues to establish the steps of the Jenkins family. I know that they want to listen to the leading of the Lord and to do his will. This family has the opportunity to impact their community in so many ways. I am honored that I have had the opportunity to serve with them.