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.