Week 2 - Julie Martin

I flew to the Dominican Republic to spend 29 days as an intern for Grace and Peace Missionary Fellowship in Casandra, Barahona. I was so excited to begin this journey of seeing and assisting all areas in their ministry. Everyday was a new experience. I absolutely loved having the opportunity to live in their culture, getting to see how they lived on a day to day basis. I spent most of my first week observing. I went on numerous errands into town. One of my favorite times this week was visiting the widows. We went to about 30 widow's houses. We dropped off beans and rice and took their blood pressure as most of the widows were on medication or had high blood pressure. It was really cool to have conversations with them in their own homes. All the ladies were characters. They were so sweet, appreciative, and hospitable. Everyone would offer us a seat upon our arrival. These people do not have much, but they are willing to give all they have to others. It was an extremely humbling experience. One widow claimed to be over 100 years old. We are not sure if that is true though. During this first week I met a lot of new people, which was awesome. I really liked how the ministry was set up. Americans run it, but Dominicans are involved in the operation as well. Most of my time this first week was with one of the Dominican translators named Keila. I spent the majority of my time planning and preparing for her wedding day. Also, I assisted Bill and Karen (owners) along with their son Mike in any way I could. A small team of two ladies were on their way so I did a lot of that prep-work too. It was a very refreshing and rewarding week to see some familiar faces from when I was visiting on a short-term missions trip of one week earlier this year. Overall it was a successful week.