Sunday

Sunday, February 24

We can't say how blessed we are having Ruth and Pablo cook for us. They are true servants of the team and our Lord. They stay at the Casa and have breakfast prepared every morning with lunches and suppers as required (about half the time). They also prepare the food needed for many of our visits throughout the week. 

Breakfast is basically a DR buffet. Coffee, orange juice, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, yucca, bananas, mango, pineapple, and pancakes is standard. Of course the fruit is the best imaginable as it's local and ripe (much different than what we can buy at home).

A morning devotion was led titled "One Spirit, One Body, Many Members. The ladies stayed at the Casa to bag food for the week. This was 625# of rice, 200# of beans and 250 bottles of cooking oil packaged into family sized bags to be distributed throughout the week. The men went to the prison where they were warmly received and gave messages of encouragement of the fact that all sins can be forgiven with repentance and faith in Jesus. They left gospel tracts, Bibles, and soap. One of our first time members exclaimed: "I have toured Alcatraz and it's a hotel compared to this place".

The next stop was the Compassion School where Dan, Paul, Shawn, and Duane are able to connect with their sponsored children. It's a yearly stop filled with face painting, playing games, serving lunch, ice cream treats and most importantly showing the love of Christ by Americans interacting with the Azua children.

The afternoon was spent at AMI (our mission compound Azua Mission International). Beside playing with the hundreds of children, the main focus of the stop was medical checkups and treatments as 4 local doctors were a part. It was both satisfying but sad how the local doctors needed the medical supplies we brought with us as they had very limited resources.

Pablo served supper back at the house of beans, rice, fish, vegetables, and fruit. The team split for the night showing the Jesus Film in a local community and attending a church service. Messages were shared, music was played, relationships made, and hugs given. 

After debrief at the Casa the team was back to the hotel by 11pm.