Alejandro and I have now officially been a part of the Solid Rock team for 2 months, and it’s taught me one major flaw about myself – I’m terrible at names.
Not only the names of people but also the names of churches and cities and states. There’s so many things happening here all at one time that I sometimes feel my head might explode. I’m realizing that there are so many people who have impacted Solid Rock and the community here in San Juan, praise God, and it’s genuinely mind-boggling how God has placed this desire to serve on so many people’s hearts across states and generations.
Although I’m terrible at remembering everyone’s names and where they’re from, I have been so encouraged this summer watching families and youth teams come down to serve. Seeing different churches desire to teach their younger generation the importance of serving others and sharing the gospel outside of their comfort zones reminds me of the first time I came to this country 10 years ago and fell in love with this type of mission work in a church community. Alejandro and I have been really blessed to have encouraging conversations with other like-minded church leaders to share what God is doing in our churches and ministries. We’ve taken away so many ideas that we want to implement not only here at Solid Rock but also at our local church – Central Mennonite.
Our children have absolutely loved meeting everyone this summer and playing games with them. Isabella has also loved being passed around and taking naps on the kitchen tables. To anyone who has played with our children this summer, THANK YOU! I feel so blessed that people would be patient, kind, and encouraging to our little kids from the moment they first meet them. Even after just two months, I can see Aiker, Elsie and Isaac come out of their shell more and more and I marvel at the ease in which they navigate bilingual environments and the love they are growing for serving other people. Even the simply act of waiting for the group to eat before we serve ourselves food makes me feel so proud, and I hope this heart for putting others first continues to grow in them as they get older.
Not only has this summer been busy with VBS teams at Solid Rock, but Alejandro and I also led our church’s VBS during our week off at the beginning of July. We were prepared for 80-100 kids, and on the first day received 280! The week was chaotic as we scrambled to manage all of these kids every morning, but on the last day, 91 kids said they wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts. On Sunday we invited their families to a special church service and another 15 adults accepted Jesus into their hearts as well. Seeing parents and their children accept Jesus as their savior together has got to be one of the most beautiful images ever. At Central Mennonite, we’re blessed to have the space and the team to be able to do evangelistic activities like these, and now we’re looking at how we can continue this momentum throughout the year and not just once during the summer. We also have a new prayer request for our church – more volunteers to help manage all of these kids!
This month is a birthday month in our household. Elsie and Isaac turned 3 on the 3rd of July and Madison made them some special birthday pancakes at the guesthouse to celebrate. Aiker turned 9 on July 11 and we celebrated by taking him and a couple of friends to the movie theater. Alejandro and I celebrate 5 years of marriage this week, and on Sunday we celebrate Father’s day here in the DR!
Although this summer has been overwhelming at times as we learn how to step into our new roles and change our family’s routine, it’s also forced us to step closer to God and ask Him what He desires for us in this new phase of life. Any challenge that forces us to draw nearer to God is a great challenge, right?
If you’d like to pray for our family, please pray that we would have wisdom to manage change with patience and grace. Pray that our children would see Jesus in action as they watch people serve at the guest house. And pray that our team would grow to become one body in Christ, shining like a city on a hill in every community we serve.
Thank you to all of our teams this summer who came with energetic and loving hearts, willing to serve in so many different ways here at the guesthouse, at the Lucille Rupp school, and in different communities around San Juan!
Next week we begin a new challenge – learning about barrio clinics… wish us luck!
