Day 3: 2026 Dominican Republic
A different pace
We are officially on Dominican time! Today we arrived at the Mission ready to work. We helped with Vacation Bible School (VBS), worked in the medical and dental clinic, and started laying foundation at a new building site. The line and rebar were laid and today we started pouring the foundation. We formed a 70+ person bucket brigade up a steep dirt hill to move the concrete from the bottom to the foundation site at the top. It was an all-hands-on-deck affair! Whether it was mixing and shoveling concrete, passing buckets of cement, or handing out waters to our crew, everyone on our team and the Mission Emanuel staff stepped up in incredible ways. And an 11-year-old boy from the neighborhood came and joined us just because!
After breaking for lunch (a good mean can do wonders!), we returned to work with help from the St. Paul group. For dinner, we went to Jumbo, a food court and supermarket. We chose what we wanted to eat, washed it down with some delicious gelato, then browsed the aisles of the grocery store. The kids we’re obsessed with “Bon Bon Bum” lollipops recommended by the Dominican staff at Mission Emanuel.
HOw we saw god at work today:
Relationship: Mission Emanuel has given us the phrase, “The Kingdom of God moves at the speed of relationships.” We see this in our relationships with God, each other, and the Dominicans during VBS, at the worksite, and around the city of Santo Domingo. Although there is a language barrier, it has not stopped us from forming relationships with our Dominican family.
Patience: Moving at their pace and speed is much different than ours.
The Kingdom of God is one of downward mobility: Jesus reframes the way we think about him, the world, and others. He reveals things over time through dependence on him, relationships, and in our giving. Christ came down low for us and he calls us to go low for others. He calls us to sacrificial giving. To not just give out of our abundance, but to give out of all that we have. To be pinched and hampered by our giving—a “permanent pinch” instead of a temporary discomfort.
We don’t have to be perfect to help others: We need to depend on God to faithfully use the gifts he has given us.
prayer requests:
Continued relationships with the people of Cielo, and for us to boldly share the Gospel with them, love them, and to work alongside them
For the Haitians working in the DR and our relationships with them
The Lord’s leading on who to invest in relationally while we’re here