Missions Blog

Yesterday (Thursday) was filled with so many special moments. Our Bible lesson was on Jonah. We worked hard to develop the components of each day’s lesson for God’s truth to be clearly communicated. We prepared most parts of the lessons prior to arriving in the D.R., but we added and adapted throughout the week as we better understood the learning styles of the kids. Incorporating a painted whale by Deb as a visual and interactive tool was one of those additions. Our team pivoted together to accomplish the mission well.

  

After reading through the scriptures with the children, a child got to act as Jonah and get swallowed up, then spit back out by the whale! Then the kids played a game similar to “Simon says” to reinforce the importance of listening and obeying the Lord. The preschoolers made a whale to take home with a paper plate and paint, and worked on their counting with a numerical worksheet highlighting characters from Jonah’s story. The older students made bracelets and keychains with beads. When the children repeated the Bible verses, answered the review questions, had giggles and applause at the appropriate moments during the lessons, our hearts swelled in boastful praise of our Lord!

  

On Thursday, Dilo and Kevin completed the church painting project and even painted the home next door, too!

Weaved into the day was a lot of prayer over our travels back to Pittsburgh, given the predicted snowfall to come. Should we keep with our original flights on Sunday, switch to Saturday, switch to Monday…left to our own thoughts and concerns, we didn’t know, but we trusted that the Lord would guide us. Together we bowed our heads, humbled our hearts, and sought the Lord for His clear direction and guidance. Saturday flights out of the D.R. filled so quickly that there was no availability for our team. Then the forecast changed and showed snowfalls beginning on Saturday afternoon in Pgh, so that option likely would not have worked anyway! Praise God for that closed door! The Monday option soon closed too, and we all agreed that keeping our Sunday flights was not preferred. We prayed. We waited as conversations were had between the airline company and our trip coordinators in Pgh. And here we are flying home today (Friday), a day we had never even considered.

  
Surrendered.
Prayerful.
Trusting.
We could do all those things with a steady heart because just like we taught the kids this week, we know:
The Lord is faithful.
The Lord is our protector.
He is a promise keeper.
He is bigger than our giants.
He is mighty to save.

Thank you for following along on our journey, lifting us in prayer, and supporting this mission. Check back for one more blog entry to praise the Lord with us, as we will list out the many ways God’s provision was seen and felt!