Hello again from the DR tonight...OK, to be honest, I can barely type this! My arms are so sore from all the work we did at the Lighthouse School today here in Los Alcarrizos...I am getting old and shoveling dirt and rocks for 9 hours in the Dominican sun has me struggling to get my coffee cup high enough to drink out of! Needless to say, today has been about hard work...work that is helping to provide an education for the children of this neighborhood and work where we join an amazing Dominican crew as they help change the future of this community...the CU student team here did a remarkable job as we poured the cement floor that will serve as the home for some cardiovascular work anddance classes for the community here on the 3rd floor of the gym building...2 years ago the men's soccer team laid the intial cement blocks on the floor below where many guys from the community work out in the only weight room in the area...it continues to be a privilege to be part of such a remarkable Kingdom vision that continues to grow and expand here in the DR...we love getting to be just a small piece of the story God is writing...
After our work day we hosted a group of Haitian girls for a soccer match...these girls are just learning the game and many of them have come to the DR to escape poverty and great struggles in Haiti...I loves seeing them welcomed into the community here and they now have a new place tp play soccer...we even had a male player from the school who has come to our soccer clinics and matches the last 2 years...after we finished the match, Kathy Butt shared with the girls why we are excited to be here and her own faith story...I always love seeing athletes use the platform of their sport to talk about what they are most excited about in life as followers of Jesus whom God has gifted to play a game that unifies people from cultures all over the world...
We debriefed tonight talking about the power of service for influence and impact in our world, and reveled in Scriptures we read this morning about each person in this world bearing the image of God...it's a pretty powerful thing to be able to help others whom God connects us to, whether here or in the DR, understand through our demonstration of His love that they are indeed created as humans who are marked with the very image of the almighty God, no matter what they have done, where they live, or what they have...keep praying that we will have opportunities to live and work and speak here in such a way that we will make that truth come alive for children and people in this community even as we grasp it anew for ourselves...
Tomorrow we will walk to a church where we will worship with our Dominican brothers and sisters, spend time in the community where people live, and host a soccer clinic for girls in the afternoon...we will think of you as many of us worship at the same time in very different places...
It is a blessing to be here and a blessing to be with guys and girls so eager to be part of God's mission...
We miss you and can't wait to share more stories in the next few days...off to sleep hard after this work day...
For the DR crew,
CHIP
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