Today was the start of the journey home. Devotions were led by Jim and covered a wide selection of verses. After a quick breakfast the team went in separate groups to tie up a number of loose ends.
Pablito has not been able to take Dorcas back to his home of Puerto Rico. This is because of her Haitian nationality and the U.S. Homeland Defense. A few of the team met with a lawyer to better their chances with signed avidavits as to their marriage.
Meanwhile the rest of the team was back at the house and had time to hear Nataniels story of how he came to Christ. This is a powerful story of God's ability to regenerate any human being to include violence, ship wreck, selling drugs and being on the run from the law.
The rest of the morning consisted of packing up and cleaning the house, delivering some last purchases, setting up accounts with our contact at the bank, last goodbyes at the rehab center and meeting with Pastor Wilfredo about a huge blessing the team decided to bestow upon him (thanks be to God).
After saying our goodbyes to Carmen and the Puerto Rican families the team loaded the bus shortly before 1pm for the 2 hour ride to the capitol.
After arriving in Santo Domingo we found a nice place to eat along the ocean. The setting sun, warm tropical air and blue water made for a wonderful time. This was probably the first moment the team was able to relax and start to unwind since leaving Green Bay over a week ago.
We had a couple of hours to spend shopping in the tourist plaza and supermarket before checking into our hotel. While clean, it was a far cry from the place we stayed last year. We shared beds and a very tight space but they were beds (not mattresses on the floor) and the showers were hot.
A team meeting outside of the old (c.1525) cathedral ended the evening. Dan and Paul went over the mission fund expenditures. Dan talked about how the mission trip came to be and how important each one of the team was to the success of this trip. Others gave heartfelt speeches of praise and thanks and the meeting ended with prayer and the first verse of Amazing Grace. A beautiful scene it was.
As the team had a 3:30am wake-up time for their 6:45am flight the night couldn't go on forever so everyone walked back to the hotel for about 5 hours of sleep.
Good night and God's Blessings
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