Dominican Republic 2024 Day Ten
1) Where did you experience God at work this week whether it was in yourself, in others, or around you. Give an example and explain the experience.
2) Give an example of when you were challenged or pushed out of your comfort zone, and how God helped you through it and what you learned.
3) If someone asked you if going on the mission experience was worth it, what would your pitch be to encourage them to come? Give at least three examples from your time here to help support your pitch.
1. If I could, I would give an endless list of moments but one of those would be when we went to church. From before you could even see the church, you could hear the pastor worshiping and praying. When I say that it was so loud, I really mean it. As we walked into the service, it was full of people of all ages singing songs of praises so passionately and dancing to the music. The whole time we were there, everyone was constantly moving and dancing while they worshiped. Also, about half the people spent time praying on their knees which is so cool to see. It was incredible to witness the longing and desire these people had to praise God. At the beginning of the week, we talked about the difference of warm and cold climate cultures and how in warm climate, people are more focused on relationships while cold climate is task oriented and that whole idea came to life. You could just tell they were a close and tight knit community and God calls us to live in community, so I take that as an example to live by. Another moment I’ll share quickly is any time we were out in the community, there would be a crowd of children who just wanted to say hi and hold our hands, and all those moments reminded me of how we should put love as one of our top priorities as God calls us to. So, in both of those moments, I felt Gods presence so immensely, and in such beautiful ways. ~~Abby
3. There are so many reasons why I would recommend someone to go on a mission’s trip, but if I were to answer this question to someone who asked me, I would tell them pretty simple that the spiritual growth that you can see in yourself, the team you go with, and the people that you serve is immense. For myself, I always find that on missions trips I have a heightened awareness of the spirit and can feel the spiritual growth within myself. I see this the most during times at the beginning and ends of the days where I can sit back and reflect on the day God has given me and listen to his word. For the team, I could see our spiritual growth through our nightly devotional times. As the week progressed, the questions that were asked and the interest that was shown had grown so much in depth and maturity, with almost all of our nightly devos extending well past the times that were planned for it. This was so encouraging to see on our journey because it became clear that God was doing something special through our team and felt called by the spirit to share that experience with each other. As for the people that we served, I was able to see the spirit move through the citizens of Villa Altagracia where the new vocational school is located. More and more as the journey went along, the children became comfortable with us being there with them, which often resulted in spur of the moment dance competitions, fist bumps, and brief Spanish interactions. Seeing the Holy Spirit work through the Lighthouse Projects team was so inspirational and has gifted me with so many special memories and a love for the Dominican Republic that I will never forget. ~~ Mitch “Tony” Gordon
1. Going to the DR this year has been an incredible experience this summer. Having 10 days to be embraced in the Dominican culture has opened my eyes to how truly blessed we are in Canada. Before going on this trip, I was told multiple times on how much of the DR lived in poverty, however it didn’t really hit me until I got there. Last Sunday we had the opportunity to walk through the community on our way to church. As we walked all I could notice was struggle. Homeless people laying helplessly on the street, garbage everywhere, houses barely staying together, I wasn’t sure how to respond but I felt a sense of grief. Then we walked into the church. As soon as I walked in all I saw was praise to an all-powerful mighty God. The entire church singing as loud as they could, worshiping our Lord. This church had their eyes set on the Lord and wanted nothing more than his presence to overwhelm them. Their struggle took nothing away from their worship. The truth is God deserves the glory in our struggles and in our success, our circumstances shouldn’t change that. So often I find myself in the trap of asking for more instead of looking on how much He has already blessed me with. With that, since everything I have has been given to me from His love and goodness, I should always look to give all that back to others. A verse that’s stuck with me this week is Luke 17:10 which says, “When you obey me you should say ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty’”. It has become clear to me this week that I’m unworthy of all that I have, and my mindset should only be to complete the duty my master has given me. I’ve learned what it means to be thankful in all circumstances and to trust that no matter what circumstance you’re in, the Lord will use it for His glory, so why shouldn’t we rejoice in the struggle and in the success.
“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be”
Luke 12:34
~ Jacob
2. During the mission experience I was pushed out of my comfort zone more then once. Every day we would push our bodies and minds to help serve the people of the DR the best we could. I was definitely pushed to the limit when it came to my interaction between me and my team members. I enjoy talking to and spending time with all the members of the missions team but 10 days together can cause arguments and disagreements. This is where I was pushed out of my comfort zone the most. Instead of arguing or saying what I was thinking I had to work past it with gods help. I had to demonstrate the fruits of the spirit and show gods love the best I possibly could. There was definitely some moments where these arguments could get out of hand, this is what pushed me out of my comfort zone the most. I would have to take responsibility and accountability for my actions and with extra encouragement from god, apologize to my team mates. I definitely learned a lot this trip and will definitely take many lessons out of this whole week. ~ Cash
3. If somebody asked me why they should go to the Dominican Republic I would say yes for a couple of reasons, it’s a fun experience, you can grow spiritually, but mainly it’s a great way to help out others who don’t have as much. When you get to the DR you’ll see how different it is, their living conditions aren’t great in many ways, most of them can’t even get clean water, good education, and many more things. With the lighthouse you’ll get plenty of chances to change this. For example, this year we got a chance to help build a school for the kids in a rough village close to the compound. The school will offer an auto, hairstyling, French, and English classes for the kids which will give them a much better education and different jobs opportunities. We also helped pour concrete for bleachers by the basketball court, and baseball diamond in the compound finishing up a safe place for the community to hang out with there friends and play sports. Finally, we got to sit in on a couple of the ESL (English Second Learning) classes and help the students practice their English and get comfortable talking. Overall, it’s just a great way to help out where we can. ~ Noah
1. In the past week I have seen God at work in many places, from laying brick and painting in village, to playing baseball with the Dominicans, to going to ESL classes. The place I saw God working the most was in the village. In the village we would do lots of brick laying and painting to build a school, which was hard work, but nothing could beat the feeling of knowing the impact you’re making in that community. ~ Hunter
1. This week I saw God working in many places. For example, the work that was done, brick laying to concrete and even painting. I could see him working through us and the locals who helped us. I also saw him in the people there. I saw this because of how friendly and loving the people in this community were to us. I also saw this in the lighthouse team, because of how providing they were to us and also friendly. I also saw God working in us when we interacted with the kids from the community. From playing baseball to talking in ESL and even just walking through the community. ~ Brayden
1. This week I saw God working in so many different places. For example, when we where playing baseball with the locals when someone did good or bad everyone was always supportive of each other even while speaking different languages. Also doing ESL just getting to participate in the class with the kids by helping them with learning a new language and them helping us with learning more Spanish. ~ Nick
