It's not always easy being a missionary....

I'm not going to lie to you, sometimes being a missionary just isn't that easy. I mean, God calls us to go to the ends of the earth and we just have to follow. I was pondering this as I was lying on the beach sipping my Pina Colata. Yep, it's not all ways easy being a missionary...
Every two years all of the YWAMER's from all over the Caribbean, and even some parts of South America get together to have the "YWAM Caribbean Conference." Lucky enough for us, it happened during our DTS so that meant that we got to go. It was five days in an all explusive hotel. That included food, drinks, everything, even a day at this go kart place and an day at this water park. We had two sessions; one for 8:30 to 12:15 in the mourning and then another in the evening from 5:00-7:30, but other then that, the rest of the time we had free. We were right on the beach too, so that was really nice. And you want to know the best part of it? WE WERE ALL TOGETHER AGAIN!!! Africa team and all. It was great. It was really the perfect rest we needed after our national outreach and just before going to our international outreaches. The only thing that made it a little stressfull however, was that Sandra and I were in charge of the children's ministry. This meant creating a program for them to do while the adults were in the sessions, making sure we had all the materials were would need, making sure we had people to work when we weren't working with the kids and making sure that they had all the materials too. And lets just say that these weren't the easiest bunch or kids I've ever worked with. Well, other then that though, everything else was great. I can't even describe how great it was and how much we really needed it, especially having that time to hang out with the Africa team before they left. Almost every night we would walk on the beach and just hang out and stuff. And another good things was that we didn't have any certain time that we had to be in by so I usually stay out talking with people until like 3 or 4. I had a lot of really good conversations and especially with this person that I didn't really get to talk to that much before. He's a really neat guy. We had a couple really good talks. I also got to have some good talks with people I had already grown really close to. I really can't even describe how great this time was but, before we knew it, we were saying good bye to our Africa team at 4 in the mourning. It was a hard good bye. However, little did I know that is wasn't the last time we would see them before they went. Since we weren't leaving for Haiti until Tueday, Sandra and I decided to spend the weekend with Soraya in the capitial, that also meant that we could stop by the Santa Domingo Base and see the Africa team one last time. It was soo good, we even got to go to the air port to see them off there. I tell you, it wasn't easy. Honestly I felt a little sick sending these people I loved so much off half was around the world for a month. I guess maybe I got a little taste of what some of you felt. I'm not used to sending people off, I'm used to going. But anyway, that was that. The Africa team was off and in Tuesday we would be going to one of the poorest, spiritually oppression, difficult countires in the world. Yeah, I've felt better, but I'm was excited!

AZUA

The third and final location on our national outreach was the hot, hot, hot city of Azua. This city though, however, happened to be my favorite place. Oh, but before I tell out about Azua I need to tell out about this really crazy thing that happened. I don't think I mentioned this but, I almost died. Seriously. So here's what happened: I was doing my laundry outside in the sinks behind the building that I sleep in and I was just washing, washing and then I turned and took a step to put the clothes that I had just washed in a bucket and at that very moment CRASH! a palm branch fell right on the spot that I had just moved from. Now this was no small palm branch, not like the kind you see the little kids carry in on Easter Sunday at church, but it was thick. It was taller then me and when we weighed it, it weighed over 25lbs! That's heavier then a bowling ball! Now imagine that falling on your head. All I could do was laugh, I was a bit stunned. I went and told Sandra and after going over and looking at it a picking it up was just like "oh my gosh, Lauren!" It was pretty crazy. Anyway, so that was that, back to Azua. While in Azua we stayed at the house of the pastor of the church we would be working with and his pregnant wife. She was six months pregnant and while we were there her water actually broke so her, her husband, and Terry (one of a leaders) ended up having to talk her to the capital. So we were on our own for about half the time there. The last I heard was that she is doing fine and the baby is still alive and she hasn't giving birth yet. I don't really know what is all going on exactly but also, suprisingly enough she hopped on a plan and is now in Brazil with her family. If you remeber, she a little Samualito (the baby) could sure use prayer. So that was one thing that made Azua a little interesting. It wasn't an easy place to be. One reason being the heat. It was soo hot and most of the time we didn't have electricity so we couldn't use the fans. We usually had about two programs a day, sometimes three. Usually in the mourning we would go to a school or something like that and then at night we would usually have a street ministry (I liked those the best and you'll hear why) . But in between really, the only thing you could do was just lay there and be hot unless you were lucky enough to escape the hottness by falling asleep for a little bit in which case you would later awake up wet from your own sweat. However, I've had some of the best showers I've ever had in Azua, well they weren't really "showers" exactly, you see the thing was that in this city (and a many parts of the Dominican) there isn't really running water, well kind of. You see, everyone had their regular facets and stuff just like we would for the shower and sinks and everything just here, the city only turns on the water for a certain amount of time once a day. So they have these big pastic garbage can-like containers that they fill up with water and that was your water until the next time that the water came on, it was possible too that they would miss a day of turning on the water, which wasn't very fun. Now this wasn't our drinking water, as I think I mentioned earlier all the water that you drink in the Dominican has to be bought (usually in those culligan jug-looking things) this was was for wash clothes, cooking, dishes, etc. and, the reason I'm telling you all this, showering. So basically was you did was just bucket shower, using the water sparingly of course unless you were lucky enough to being taking a shower when the water was turned on, then you could use as much cold water as you wanted. But even if it was went the water wasn't on, showers were still amazing, because the water was cold you know (I think the only time I've ever REALLY enjoyed a cold shower. It was the one part of the day were you could escape the heat. Well, after telling you all this, you're probably wondering why on earth Azua was my favorite place, remember how I said that? Well, here's why: the people, especially, well mostly, the children. There were so many children there it was great. I think another reason why I liked Azua so much was because it reminded my of Haiti, the children did too, except for here I could actually talk to them a little bit. This town is also kind of used to teams coming in so when the little kids saw us white people there were like "Americana!" It was great. It was the best in front of the church because there would be all these naked little kids just running around and waving at us (I got a video, it's hilarious) they were so cute. The kids in the church were great too, I clicked with them right away. We had so much fun. Here they called me Lorenia because it was easier for there little spanish-speaking months to say. I have a lot of great stories about them. There was one time where we were waiting before church and one little girl just started putting flowers in my hair and then some other ones started doing it too and before you know it, my whole head was covered with flowers. I didn't get a picture when is was completely covered, but the little girl in the pictures here that I do have, her name was Angolina and she was one of my favorites. Also, we would have so much fun dancing during the worship times and the church services I can't even descibe it. It was one of the most wonderful memories I will even have. I guess that's was heaven will probably be like for me (except for the heat, that's was hell's for) Gosh, thought, these children were so great. I really wouldn't mind going back there for longer term. If I was fluent in Spanish, I would maybe have been looking for a home there to live after the DTS was over. Lucky for you all, my spanish is still lacking;) Oh, but this is my favorite memory. It was after one of our street ministry programes and all the kids usually find out where we are at that night so that came come watch and they know that I will play with them afterwards. Well, first I should describe how crazy these kids are, they, like, swarm you. Sometimes we paint our faces so they'll like us to rub our faces on theirs so they can get some paint on their faces too. You're pretty much surrounded by a croud of kids all the time, and we it's time to leave, you have to fight your ways to get through the kids to the van and then even when you're leaving they chase the van and ranbomly stream our names. It's kid of reminds me of a scene for 28 days later or Dawn of the Dead, when all the zombies are chasing the vehicle that all the people are in. First its a whole sworm of them, then slowly they start to get tired and give up until there are no more. But anyway, for my favorite story, so it was after one of the programs and I was (suprise) hanging out with the kids and then this one little girl gave me a little boquet of flowers tied together with a little piece of wire from the street. I just about melted. It was so sweet. But then another little girl saw how I reacted to the first little girl's gift so she brought me some flowers, then another, then another and then before I knew it, all the little boys and girls were giving me floweres (and did I mention that I LOVE the flowers here) it was really an undescribable moment, really probably one of the best little moments in my life so far. Another little girl even when to get me a cup with water in it to put the fowers in then she arranged them for me and took out the "ugly" ones. Then she wanted to take a picture of just me with the flowers so I took out my camera and gave it to her so she could take the pictures but the thing about most Dominican children is that when they see a camera, they come running. So, needledd to say, I wasn't in the picture by myself, which I was glad for. But the camera drew a lot of kids over, it was like a little mob. It was almost getting dangerous. I felt like a celebrity. Anyway, one of the little bit older girls saw that I was getting mobbed so she took my hand and took me to her house to get away for a sec. Her house had a gate, luckily, so I was able to escape the mob for a little while. She was such a sweet little girl, she when and got me a chair and we hang out and played with her baby brother for a bit. This was a very humble house too. I think I'm kind of getting immune to it but it still breaks my heart sometimes. well, then I desided that they might be looking for me and that I should probably get back. As soon as we left the house we could hear all the kids outside the gate screaming "Lorenia! Lorenia" It was great. When went out and gave them a big hug and we shuffled our way back to the van with kids on every side of me holding on to where ever they could, whether it be my hands, my shirt, my pockets, whatever. Then I get back and Sandra was like "where were you? some little girl came up to me and said that someone took you and locked you in there house and wouldn't let you out!" I guess you of the little kids that was outside the gate was telling my team that. I though it was pretty funny. Gosh, how I love those kids!
So that's why I loved Azua so much, I plan to go back after my DTS for a couple days, I'm excited to see the kids again. Another great thing about Azua too, was what we got to do, I think was the second to last day there, we went and got the van washed. Now, that probably doesn't sound all to exciting in and of itself but where we went and how we did it was great. We took the van down to this little river and we could drive it right into. This littl river also happened to be right next to the beach. Washing the van was great fun. We got eachother completely soaked, which felt SO good. Then, after we got done we went to the beach, it was great. I think it was probably the best beach I've even been to. It was like the kind you see in magazines. That day was really fun, however we had to major downfalls to the day, the first was I ended up pretty sunburn but that wasn't so bad, what was worse is that while we were down at the beach, Sandra got her camera stolen, she left it in the van. She also got her mp3 player stolen. We all felt pretty bad.
Well, that was Azua, I can't don't really want to end on a bad note with Azua so let me think of something lese to say about it....Oh yeah, I can tell you about this, it's not a great but it's kind of funny. So this was after I had been pretty badyly sunburned and we were walking around and just talking with people in the community and we stoped to talk with this one old lady and she invited us in to her little tiny house to talk and have a seat. It was me and Sandra, and we were talking to her for a little bit and I made the mistake of showing her my sunburn. Then she was all like "Oh my goodness girl what have you done!" (it was in spanish of course, but it was something like that, with that amount of concern. So then, this little old lady goes and gets this little jar of, or well what once was, lotion. It was who knows how old and all yellow and separated, and she started rubbing in on my sunburn. I didn't really know what to say or do. At then end she was like "oh, is it better now?" I just smile and said "oh, yes, much better, thanks" then she even offered to give me some for later. It was a really sweet gesture. And even though I'm sure the lotion didn't help, things like that have to be good for your sole or something:)
So that ends Azua and thus ends my national outreach. It was a good outreach. Next we have the Caribbean Conference in Puerta Plata then, it's off to Haiti (actually, where I am right now)

The Capital

So, I supose I should continue with may national outreach experiences. After Jumunuco we went to stay and work at the YWAM base in the capital. It was pretty cool. We did a lot of different ministries. One of the first places we went to was a Lepore colony (I don't really know how to spell it but Lepore like Lepresy) That was pretty cool. Most of the people there were older people who had been abondoned by their families because they had the disease. Also, a lot of them were mission body parts and had big sores. They don't really get a lot of visitors, much less people that are willing to hug them and hold their hands and things like that, so they were really happy to hae us. They were some really neat people. I talk to this really cool old guy for a while, in spanish. It was a little rough but he was really fun to talk to. It was really and amazing experience. Also we went to an orphanage. The kids were really fun. I mostly played with these to little guys. They were great. We also went to a couple schools and a man's youth prison, which was actually pretty interesting. I was not too excited to go there because I know how most Dominican guys acted to white girls and I was the only white girl there AND these were also guys from prison. But they were actually pretty good. I only got one little comment as I was leaving but that was it. Also, you see we have this program that we do when we go to these places with some Dramas, a message, and stuff like that and I didn't know how well these big tough guys would take it, but it went really well I think. Omira (the director of the Capital base) went with us and talk to them a little and when she talkes, people listen. She is a really amazing women and I have a lot of respect for her. Anyway, it was our last day of doing ministry before we got a free day and we were just returning to the base and who do you think was there waiting for us?? THE AFRICA TEAM!!! It was so great to see them! And we got to spend a day with them before we left for Azua. Gosh, the way we greeted eachother you would have thought we'd been away from eachother for years. I think we have a really special DTS. And I know that everybody probably says that their DTS is the best, but really, ours is. And even if you even do a DTS, it still probably won't be as good as ours ;) We're just all really close and we have a really special group of people. I've seen a lot of other DTS's (A DTS is the type of school I'm doing by the way, they have them all over the world) and their not all the same and I don't think any of them are as close as ours, but that's just me.
Anyway, that night I went to a movie with Kristen and Terry. We went and saw Mission Impossible III (which was pretty good by the way). And I tell you, there is nothing like watching a movie with a theatre full of Dominicans. They're are just...really....into the movie. It's pretty funny. The theatre was in a mall so afterward we went to a food court to eat and they had a KFC. I was really quite excited because I thought I was going to get to enjoy a crispy chicken twister wrap with no tomatoes and light on the sause. But let me tell you something, they are NOT the same. I was very disapointed. Oh well, they have other good foods here that we don't really have. but, oh, how I was looking forward to that twister wrap.
Well anyway, so that was pretty much the capital. We has a lot of really good experiences and I was so glad that we got to see the Africa team before we left for Azua. They had actually just come back for there and they said it was a really hard place to be. I guess we will see.

Wow let's see, it's been a while...

Well, I guess the last time I wrote on here was around Easter and well, I guess kind of a lot has happened sense then. Gosh, I don't really know where to begin. Okay, umm....well, I'm in Haiti right now, at the Jacmel base (you can find in on a map if you want) Now I'm in the "international outreach phase" of my DTS. We are going to be here for two weeks and then in St. Mark for a week. Then we get back, have a couple days of recooperation, then....then....we graduate. wow. I can't believe it. However I don't think I'm coming back until about a month after the school is over, I'm going to go to the Capital (Santo Domingo) for a little and then go back to Azua for a couple days (one of the cities that we did out national outreach in, which I will talk about in a little bit) Then I think, well, I'm pretty sure, that I'm going to go back to Haiti with a good friend of mine (who is Haitian) and we there for a couple weeks. I would like to go back to the place where I was the first time I went to Haiti (Grand Goave) and see Wildor and Samual again (the friends Jess and I made in Haiti) but also, I think it's going to be cool to go to Haiti without being under all these rules, I like that I will be getting a more first hand experience. (Something that not many people, even missionaries, get) Yeah, sure, it's a little dangerous but I think Peterson will take care of me (Peterson is my friend that is taking me). Anyway, I guess I should let you guys now what's been going on with me for the past month or so, so, well, here goes:

I will start with National outreach. The first location of our national outreach was in Jumunuco. It's a little village in the campo (which is like the country) and it's a pretty poor village. All the houses are kind of spread out. We went there to help two missionaries that were trying to get to know the villiage better so they could set up a ministry there. So our job was mainly to survey the town to try and get an idea of what the needs of the community were. Also, while we were there, we stayed with some people in the community. And let me tell you, these were humble homes. We're talking one room, no pluming, no electricity, sleep with the bugs and the rats, bath outside, kind of homes. It was great. serouly. I really enjoyed my time there. We mostly work during the day, but we would eat supper with them and then sleep there. Eating too, that's another thing. So, these people are poor, poor, poor, right? So when then give you food, you just need to eat whatever they put in front of you because their sacificing for you to eat. The first night was really great actually. The second night too. They made us fried egges and yuca. But the third night, they served up sardines, in this tomato sauce. Let's just say you would have been prond of me. Another thing to was not so much what they served, but how much that served you, because you couldn't throw away food you know. And that was one thing that was hard for me, but I did it. The other thing was that we are really, really not supposed to drink the water. But one day we forgot our water bottles and they gave us their water and, well, we drank it, we drank a lot of it. We prayed over it too and we didn't get sick, so that was pretty cool. The lady that we stayed with was kind of crazy too, I mean, we was really nice, just a little crazy. She kept trying to marry me off to her son. A night we would talk to Sandra and be like "Sandra, ask your friend if she likes my son, he is in love with her and he wants to marry and American. He's a really hard worker..." It actually we getting pretty bad. Sandra's not letting me go back there with her. when she goes again after our DTS. But for the most part all of the other people were really nice. When we wenet to survey, we divided in pairs and I was with Terry. The people were so hospitable, we always got offered a place to sit and almost always coffee. We even got offered placed to sleep and dinner. They really enjoyed having company and I really enjoyed the time I had with them. One family even gave us bananas to take with us. There was one girl that we met that was 19 years old and she had been married for 6 years! Married at 13, isn't that crazy?! She was a really sweet girl though, her name was Dalania.
The last day in Jumunuco, we had a staff day their, where all the YWAM staff for all of the Dominican came. It was good to see everyone, as we have worked with, or at least met, almost all of them. The only thing missing was our beloved Africa team. They had to work in the capital so they couldn't come. We all missed them very much. It had been almost a week. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you! Okay, so here I am, in this poor, poor house (the house we were staying at) this no running water, no electricity, roach infested humble little home and in this home, amazingly enough, there was a T.V. hooked up to this car battery looking generator thing and guess what was playing on that fuzzy little T.V.??? SMALLVILLE!! I almost died, it was amazing! I still have believe it. It was truely the mercy of God. Smallville. wow. Oh, and I should also tell you about getting water, umm, nevermind I don't really want to. Just ask me about it when I get back and that why I'll know too if you guys are really reading this.
So anyway, that was pretty much Jununuco. i'm going to go ahead and post this. but I tell you most about the rest of my national outreach in another post. Oh, and by the way, I know I have A LOT of errors on here but I'm just trying to go really fast (and I'm just a bad speller as most of you know) so I hope you can get the jist (is that how you even spell "jist"?) of it. And hey, at least it's English ;) so for now. Orevwa! Banjey Ben ou! (because I'm in Haiti now)