2 Months, The Offical Countdown Has Begun!

If you have been a faithful reader to my blog, you know of my mission trip to the Dominican Republic last year. If you are new to my blog, me and my oldest son went on our first international mission trip last year, and I can honestly say that it was a life changing event in our lives. This year, me and my hubby will be returning to the DR on July 11th. All I can say, is I am super excited that God has allowed me to share this experience with my son, but now, I am blessed to be returning with my husband!

God has laid this ministry in my lap, and trust me last year, I went kicking and screaming the whole way. I could not fathom why God was sending me, ME, in a plane to a place that I was certainly fearful of going. I questioned Him for 7 1/2 months on why me Lord??

For those of you that do not know, first and foremost I am PETRIFIED of flying. So scared of planes that I start having panic attacks at the airport. I do not rough it, nope my idea of a roughing it, is sleeping with the ceiling fan off. I am terrified of bugs. Spiders, roaches and anything with legs that remotely belong in the bug family, yep, scared to death of bugs. I am afraid of the dark, yep, I am, it's true and God is sending me to a place with out electricity???

So why did God want me there, on a mission trip??? How could I minister, help or remotely do anything that He wanted me to do, with the fears that I had? Did He need me to see that there is a world besides the one that I consume myself in? Did He need me to understand that my life's little issues, are not issues, that I need to count my blessing and quit fretting over the little things?? Did He send me there to draw me closer to Him? He sent me there for those reasons and thousands more.

All I can say is, I get it. I understand now why I need to go back. There is a need, a great need to help, to minister, just to listen to these wonderful, precious people talk about their life. The need to tell them about my Savior, to read to them scripture, to give them a Bible in Spanish that they did not have. To make a lasting friendship and know that one day in Heaven, there will be no language barrier and I will be able to talk freely without the hindrance of our language.

The village that we went to last year, La Represa, has been praying for someone to come for 13 years. Their church was very old and termites had eaten away at it, making it unsafe for them to meet there. They prayed for 13 years for us to come. 13 years, I can not remember praying for 13 years for anything, and here they sat rejoicing and thanking God for us, coming to help them build their church. Where was I 13 years ago when they began praying? I was at home, with three & one year old little boys. I was chasing after them, day after day, doing what moms do. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that they were praying for me. Praying for the day I would show up in their village to help them build their church. The excitement they had.

Here is a picture of a lady the day we arrived to begin working. She was so excited that she was sweeping the dirt that led up to the tent where we would hold Bible School for the children. God allowed my to fall behind the group a little bit, He allowed me to she her step aside as our group walked past her to begin setting up for the children. I saw her smile to each of the people of the group that walked in the tent, and when the last person walked in she peeked in, so excited at the possibilities.

This is one of my favorite pictures and it reminds me each time I look at it that God sent me there for a reason.

As we worked building the church for this village, an older lady came to watch. She was thankful and wanted to help. Here she is carrying blocks around the building to where they were being used to build the walls. These blocks were heavy, but that did not stop her. These pictures speaks volumes to me.

The children, the women & men that touched my heart. I can not express my emotions on how God opened my eyes to the need of international missions, and the importance of why we need to go.

We are still raising funds for our trip and are currently around $1800 shy. This weekend we are holding a car wash to raise some additional funds and I am am wanting to do a big push on my blog designs to help raise the remaining funds for our trip. If you would like to help, I have also placed a PayPal button on my sidebar. I have struggled for a few weeks with doing this or even asking for help, but we are having a hard time raising funds.

Our church is also hosting a "Buy-a-Block" campaign. You can purchase a cinder block for $25. In doing so, we have pieces of parchment papers where you can write a thought, a blessing, a prayer or Bible Verse and we will take these slips of parchment with us and place them in the walls of the church that we are building. This is a way for those that can not be there physically, but to be able to be there mentally. To be able to be a part of our ministry there in the DR. If you would like to participate in this, please do. I will send you the parchment so you can write on it what you feel led to and you can mail it back to me to take along.

If you would like to donate but are not a fan of Paypal, you can mail a check made payable to Calvary Baptist Church, with Pugh/Dominican in the memo to:

Calvary Baptist Church

431 DeJarnett Lane

Murfreesboro, TN 37130

Like I said, I am way out of my comfort zone here asking for donations, but someone told me it's the devil and if I did not ask, I could be robbing someone of a blessing that may want to be a part of this trip, but can not do so physically.

I am also asking for your prayers for our trip. I am still so very terrified of flying, and this trip is a very hard one for me mentally. I ask for your prayers, for a calming of my fears, a peace and for safe travels.

Here are a few more picture from our trip last year. It was so hard to pick just a few but if I showed you every picture that sparked special memories of our trip, we would be here for hours.

Thank you so very much for reading this very long post. I just feel the need to try to tell you everything that this mission trip means to me, and to those who we will minister to. There is just no way to explain it all here.