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.