from the inside out is a blog by jason havner, student minister at fbc marshall.

Dominican Republic Mission Trip

Sunday March 13, 2011

 Wow, what an amazing two days we've had here in the D.R., I'll start by letting you know how it all began. About 2:45pm Saturday we left Marshall, Texas with 7 total people. Two teenagers, Taylor and Raegan Cotten, 3 ETBU students, Whitney Williams, Nick Myers, and Sulema Estrada, and 2 leaders, James Cotten and myself. We all packed our stuff in my explorer and set out for Austin. Our flight was at 7am on Sunday so we were staying with James' in laws to add some extra sleep time. About 10 minutes into our trip we had to stop to readjust the luggage, our first attempt at keeping all the bags from flying around was not successful. We had no further mishaps however! We got about 2 hours of sleep Saturday night and around 5am arrived at the airport to get checked in.   We would soon be on our way to JFK International Airport in New York City and we had about a 4 hour layover before our flight to Santiago, DR. Our flight was delayed about 45 mins and it took forever for the plane to takeoff but we eventually got in the air and arrived safely in the D.R. The airport was interesting to say the least, it wasn't very big but there were tons of people there. I took over an hour just to get out of the traffic leaving the airport. We were on our way to Jarabacoa which is about 45 mins from Santiago. Jarabacoa is a tourist city with about 50,000 people in the area in and just outside of the city.   Around 11pm we finally arrived at the Students International site and began a short orientation about what to do and not to do, what to expect, and a brief summary of the schedule. Our guys and girls are paired up with the guys and girls from Coleman, Texas, which happens to be the place I was born! The next few days would be extremely tiring so getting to bed early was encouraged. We all finallly settled in about midnight and fell asleep!   Jason

Monday March 14, 2011

Will hopefully blog tomorrow night. Internet comes and goes, same for the electricity. Awesome day today, I can't wait to share all that went on. It's 10:30 here and about time for bed but I wanted to let you all know that we so appreciate all the prayers and are super pumped about what God is doing in the lives of the Dominicans. I will update as soon as I can. "They will know us by our love!"   Jason

Tuesday March 15, 2011

Due to internet and electricity issues I was not able to blog about Monday so todays blog will cover both Monday and Tuesday.  

Monday March 14, 2011   I started my trip by choosing to visit the Microfinance site. This was a ministry site that I knew almost nothing about and honestly thought it may be the most boring. I decided to visit it on day 1 because I figured I would have the most energy and thus could get through a tough day easier. Boy was I wrong! This site is not located in a central location but in several communities surrounding Jarabacoa. Today we happend to be in Mata Gordo and met first at the SI school there and later in a church. Microfinance in a nutshell is where money is loaned to a group of women so that they can start their own business, expand their business, or other ways to produce income. The group is usually primarily women because in the DR men are often not associated with the family much. The women are the heart of the families here and are the ones that generally provide for the family. The group method is used to help with making sure the loan is paid, you see the loan is given out to the entire group and if one person doesn't pay then the whole group either picks up that one person or the entire group defaults. There are many more details and incentives I could go over but that is the overview of its purpose. It is about helping these women be self-suffecient, helping them become responsible and also providing for their families. It is also really about relationships, the entire morning we just walked around the community visiting peoples homes and businesses and talking to different women who were in a group currently or had been in one.   The groups usually meet once a week to make their payment and to discuss life, their business, and even have bible studies. I actually got to share my testimony with the ladies on this day, it was a really awesome experience to tell them who Christ was in  my life and also let them know that He loved them as well. We usually head to the sites at around 10am and leave sometime around 3-4pm. Monday we headed back to the site and I was able to get a few games of basketball in with some guys from California and Minnesota. At dinner we had some spice chicken and rice with corn, it was actually really good even though the chicken was on the bone. Side Note, I hate chicken on the bone! Our evening Activity was culture night, so we got information on how the Dominican culture is and all the little details that make this culture what it is. We were also taught a dance called Merengue, which was extremely interesting to say the least, let alone the fact that I was dancing with Raegan! We were both horrible but it was fun.  

 Tuesday March 15, 2011   Today came really really early and I actually slept 15 mins too long, missed a little bit of my quiet time. It was really one of the most peaceful times I've had in a long time. Just sitting outside in the mountains of Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, looking at the trees and the sun coming over the mountains. It was beautiful to see! I included a picture below. After Q.T. worship continued as we were led in song by a local teacher. We sang 2 songs in spanish and one in english. It was possibly the best time I've ever had worshipping God. I didn't know the words but it was great just singing to my God, it reminded me what worship is about. Not a particular song or certain words but a heart pouring out worship to our God. I was able to do that this morning and absolutely loved it. After worship we had breakfast and then headed out to our sites. James and I were actually able to change our plans and visit Taylors site. We were told at first that guys couldn't go to the girls sport site, but we asked and they said it wouldn't be a problem. To go though, we had to go to the guys sport first.   We arrived at an old baseball field that had many holes and definitely could have used some upkeep but the kids that arrived were so pumped to play ball. We did some stretching and running, James and I may or may not have been out of breath, and then picked teams and played a game. I was the last "americano" picked and vowed to prove my worth. I decided to take second base and the player coach promptly put me in the 8 hole in the order. Well, to make a long story short we got creamed, I did go 1-1 with a double off the wall and I got hit by a pitch. I only had one chance at fielding and made a simple flip to first for the out. The last inning our pitcher didn't give up a single hit and so he threw his glove in the air and we completed a legit chest bump at the pitchers mound.   We then rode with Jessica the site leader and the v-ball girls to their site. We picked up 2 dominican girls on the way and arrived at the school a few minutes later. I was really surprised at how well Jessica communicated with the girls, you could really tell that she cared about them and really put alot into these girls. Casey and Leely were actually really good at volleyball and we played a couple of games. Once we got back to the base we spent the free time playing around the world and volleyball. Tonight we had team time which meant we met together as a group and everybody shared stories from their sites and how God is being glorified through the things we are doing. Well a guy just gashed his elbow open on one of the ceiling fans......so I'm going to go help him. Talk to everyone tomorrow night hopefully!

  Jason