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this time our AIM contact was quite a character...he was born and raised in NZ, but by age 14 had left home to travel around the area and to Australia, having about 40 different jobs in something like 4 years...he was a jack of all trades and had tried almost everything, including jumping off 20 foot bridges without a cord...and to top it all off, his brother had poked out his eye when he was little, so he had a glass eye and a blind spot...we loved him tons and had lots of fun with him...he loved us too 'cause he was able to set us to laying block and then he went off and built a hand pump for the local well (which at the time only had a rope and bucket for getting water), and all kinds of odds and ends around the place we were staying to make it more convienent...
we stayed in an old orphanage right next door (literally a matter of feet) from the church we were working on...it was a very nice facility, although somehow the girls had hot showers, but the guys didn't...we never figured that one out...
we had all kinds of adventures with trying to speak spanish, laying block, getting mortar all over each other (some of us more than others), building sand castles in the sand for the mortar, getting heat exaustion by not drinking enough water, eating fresh killed chicken and beans and rice, discovering a tarantula in an old well, washing our clothes in the sink, having it rain on cue every day at 3 pm, cramming 60 kids into a tiny building and then discovering that the great outdoors might be a better choice, jump-roping in skirts (all the girls had to wear skirts for VBS), going to the market and bartering, learning how to play dominoes--dominican-style, avoiding flirtatious dominican guys, drinking water out of a plastic bag, riding around in busses with purple windows and seats in the isles, having arguments that lead to being ordered to pray, eating ice cream, getting jelly-fish stings and sun-burn, and cuts from coral, and spines from sea urchins (our last day!), and generally enjoying ourselves immensly, and learning a ton about God and his power....
we had two off-days, one of which we used to go to the market and the beach, and the other to climb up into the "mountains" of the dominican...these high hills are covered in fruit trees of all kinds: coconut, papaya, lemon, lime, grapefruit the size of soccer-balls, and pineapple, all of which we ate to our hearts content...
our last night in DR we spent in a hotel, and we had plenty of fun throwing each other into the pool and staying up late and watching the stars come out...
we had several almost major health problems while we were in DR, too long of a story to tell, but the outcome was that, again, we learned the power of prayer...but more importantly, we figured out that, when we had such accidents, it was evident that they were of satan because God was using us mightly to tear down satan's strongholds in the area we were working in...so although the accidents were scary, they were also a great encouragement because we knew we were doing God's work....
one of the most obvious shows of God's working was the night that we went into town and did an on-the-street evangelism program...we sang and told our testimonies and then spoke to people individually about God...some of us hung back and just prayed and prayed, and we could see God working directly...and even little prayers like when we asked God to silence a car that was blasting it's radio and driving around and around the circle and disturbing our conversations was immediately answered!
Before we left the USA to go to DR, we set a goal for God that we might be able to see 75 converts....by the time we left we had over 100...
I think the most important thing i learned on this trip was that if you are in God's will, you will see wonders beyond imagination...