DR 2012 — June 29th (Journal #1)

Wow, what a crazy start to our trip this has been! We met at ARC at 9 pm last night so that we could prepare, bond, and leave at 1:30 am for our 5 am flight. Turns out I didn’t really sleep on the bus or planes, so I’ve been up for almost 40 hours straight! Pulled my first all-nighter. 😛 (Definitely the best reason to do it — mission trip — by the way!!) What has been so astounding about it all is that I haven’t gotten grumpy and You have sustained me. I had more energy this evening than I ever thought possible! Abba, thank You for providing. Continue to teach me more about You and about Your world. We also didn’t eat any meals for about 15 hours of those 40, so we were running on Your sustainence, nothing of our own!
Jesus, it has been SO fun to use my Spanish already with some of the Dominican TIME ministries people. I talked at length with Crismery today, learning about her and teaching/learning new words back and forth. It was a fun, guessing-game conversation! She is 18, too, so it was neat to have a glimpse of someone like me living in a different country and culture.
There are 3 sweet children here (children of Noe, a Dominican missionary): Megan, William, and Elda, who are all learning English, too! I tried talking with Elda, the 3-year-old, and it was so cute! She used “Spanglish” so much that many of us couldn’t understand her, but when I asked her something in Spanish she answered easily. Looking into her adorable brown eyes and having her smile at me was SO precious. I love her and the people here already, Abba!! They are so friendly and love You like we do. They are Yours just as we are. ❤

Posted by AJ Petersen on July 9, 2012

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