Dominican Sunrise

Day 9 marked our last and final day in the Dominican Republic.

Last night, several of us decided we would usher in the last day of the trip by watching the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean from our beachside chairs at Playa Dorada in Puerto Plata. So at about 6 am this morning, a handful of us pulled our beach chairs right down to the edge of the tide as we found ourselves quietly watching the sun creep its way over the horizon with the Atlantic waves crashing before us. Those of us who positioned our chairs a little too close to the tide encountered a wet surprise when the tide that we thought was supposed to be going out, kept coming in and soaked us from the knees down! But it was worth it!! What a glorious start to our morning!


We then had breakfast together and once again, enjoyed rich fellowship and conversation with Hector and Patricia. How kind of the Lord to cultivate within each of us such affection for a family we didn’t even know nine days ago.

After a of couple hours on our own in the morning, we checked out of the hotel, packed up the van and headed to Santiago to board our plane for the U.S. – first to Miami and then to Minneapolis. This one-hour van ride again provided the opportunity for rich conversation and fellowship among the team and Hector and Patricia. We found ourselves deeply immersed in dialogue about US politics; biblical manhood and womanhood as it relates to leadership in the home and government; cultural customs that really are manifestations of sin even if accepted as cultural norms (i.e. not yielding to traffic signals, butting in front of people rather than extending courtesy to another person, etc.).

Once in Santiago, we experienced countless graces from the Lord from the moment we stepped foot in the airport to the moment we boarded the plane for Minneapolis. Our flights were on time, we made it through customs and immigration with speed and efficiency, all of our luggage arrived in Miami, and our layover in Miami gave us just enough time to do what we needed to do without any unnecessary waiting around.

One God Thing from today was experiencing and observing the affection between our team and Hector and Patricia as we said our goodbyes at the airport. Apart from Christ, is it humanly possible to develop such affection for people you have come to know in so a short time? I don’t think so. What a precious gift God has given us in the larger body of Christ.

In closing, if each of us were asked to note the highlights of this trip, we would fill pages in a journal. In fact, as this last day’s blog is being written, those journal pages are also being filled up. So if you have time, we’d love for you to take a few more minutes to read what we found to be highlights of our trip. We recognize you will not know the history behind these stories, but we hope that in some way, these highlights will draw you into this amazing experience we’ve just had in the Dominican Republic, and as a result, you will find yourself praising our Creator for the great things He has done.

Que Dios les bendiga. May God bless you.

Our last full day in the DR

Today was the first day without a gig and our last full day on the island, and it was a jam-packed day.

We check out of our hotel in Santo Domingo, piled into the van, and drove to Puerta Plata. On the way we stopped and spent a little time in a very poor community that Iglesia ministers in.

A youth group from Bethlehem Baptist built a small church building there last year, and families from Iglesia go there each Sunday to do Sunday school for the kids and pastoral home visits. It was a stark reminder of the poverty level in the DR, especially because our ministry there has been in areas with a higher standard of living.

Next, we went to a Dominican tourist hotspot called “27 Charcos.” www.27charcos.com This was easily one of the coolest experiences of my life. It’s basically a 2-hour hike up a mountain via a river/waterfall cut into the side of the mountain. We wore life vests and helmets, climbed straight up pretty high waterfalls, and swam through narrow mountain pools cut into the rock (all with the help of a couple Dominican tour guides). I felt like Rambo. Once at the top, we went back down the same path, except we jumped the waterfalls that we had previously climbed. Honestly, I think it was pretty dangerous. We were jumping 25-ft drops into pools that were really quite narrow, and the tour guides would warn us in broken English to only jump toward the right side of the pool because the left side was too shallow. Some of the waterfalls had been worn into natural waterslides, so we would slide for 15 ft and then dead-drop for another 15 ft. It was crazy. And there were no wavers, no medical team - and no real supervision at all. The tour guides would help us, but at one point my wife slipped while jumping and came very close to injuring herself, and the guide just turned to me and said “don’t do it that way, or you will get hurt.”

After another hour in the van we arrived at our hotel in Puerta Plata, which was a beautiful beach resort. Iglesia had arranged for us to spend the final night of our trip there with Hector and Patricia so we could have some debrief time with them. We enjoyed a late afternoon on the beach (Betty’s first time seeing the ocean!) and a wonderful dinner.


Over dinner we had a sweet time of reflection and sharing with the Santanas, and we were able to pray with them and thank them for all they had done for us.

Afterward, we went back down to the beach and spent more time relaxing and talking with each other. Everybody went to bed pretty early, but Jason and John and I stayed up and did a little late-night ocean swimming (the water there was incredibly warm) and ate the buffet. It was a really wonderful way to end our trip.