Mondays Leave You Exhausted in the DR!

Today was another full work day for the DR soccer crew here in the DR...we split into crews and spent the day working to help prepare new facilities here on the ministry site...many of us were painting the third floor of the gym (hence, the pictures I'm sure you will see with paint splattered all over our faces from ceiling work!) and others were helping get new apartment ready for the ministry director and school superintendent here who has been a great encouragement to us as a team...and we finished the days with tons of wheelbarrow runs full of moving dirt and rocks over to the new kitchen site...

One of the unique things about our partnership down here is the physicalness of the trips...in many ways, I think it is why our athletes love the experience...it gives us an opportunity to serve with our hands and feet and the rest of our bodies in a tangible expression of our belief in the Kingdom work God is doing here...we are simply being led by the Dominican leadership as we do some things we might not normally do back home...and there is a pleasure in that service that we find in knowing we are part of God's bigger vision...even in small and hidden and tiring ways...and I am quite certain God is pleased...

Tomorrow we will get to meet over 1100 new friends as the students at the Lighthouse school return from Christmas break...there will be energy and laughter and conversation all around us...and we see the very reason we are here...we'll be popping into a few classrooms on our morning work break and hosting another soccer clinic for kids from the school in the afternoon...

This morning we read several passages demonstrating the compassion of Jesus in action in the Gospels...pray that we'll chase after that example of compassion in action as we care for one another and develop a new heart for the people and children of this community...and may it move us to action at home and across the world as a result of our time overseas...

Ok, it's time for an earlier bedtime...or else this guy will be crawling to breafast! It is tough keeping up with the energy and work capacity of college students! (you should have seen these girls carrying huge tiles up 4 flights of stairs all morning...)

For the DR team,

CHIP