Seeing Both Sides to a Rainy Day

Ok funny story! So this week a new thing showed up on the lunch menu, hamburgers! I was so excited and could not wait for that lunch period to roll around. The day of, I started talking to my students getting them psyched up for this event. It was so much fun we kept talking about them saying things like, oh man I wonder what they are going to taste like! This is going to be so good. Ok I am going to pause because at this point you probably think I am crazy. Lunches typically consist of rice, rice and sometimes rice. So when something non rice is on the menu that alone is exciting, when something American is on the menu that is ecstatic! So we get to lunch and the look of the hamburger should have lead us to believe that something was fishy, but we were just so stoked nothing could stop our excitement. They were about the size of a quarter and much darker than expected, but one of my girls said, oh man these look like the size of White Castle burgers these are going to be so good! So I sit down with my students and we all take our first burger bite together and it is dead silent. My students are not allowed to talk negatively about the food, no matter what they have or where they have it, not just because of the financial state of the island we live on, but also to teach the kids thankfulness and respect for the labor that went into the meal. With that said the silence lasted for some time before one of my girls appropriately evaluates the situation by saying…umm Ms. Donohue I think I got myself a little too excited for these hamburgers. It was SO funny. Just like we fail at making Dominican rice and beans, the Dominicans struggle with American food.

This week was an intense one! The ministry has these events called parent visits and this particular week was the fathers visit. So depending on certain circumstances different student’s dads will come down. In total we had about 11 dads! I was able to meet four of my student’s dads and that was really neat. During these visits the students work with the counselors and they really focus on their relationship with their dad, they also do a service project together. This week they helped finish up the siding on a house our ministry has been building in the community for a little while. These visits are always intense because the students whose fathers are not here really miss their dads. For some of them this is really good for them to realize, for others this is super hard. The dads leave on Wednesday morning, please pray for the students who got to spend this week with their dad that they would have restoration in that relationship. Please also pray for the girls who are homesick right now, it’s not easy on them.

We are going through a big staff change right now. The house mom of the house I am working for told the girls last Saturday that she was leaving the ministry. Knowing this for months, and being on the staff end of things, it was easy for me to understand that she has been here for three years and feels God calling her else ware. I will miss her deeply; she offers so much to the students. When she told the girls last Saturday one girl’s response stuck out to me. After Meghann explained that God is calling her to leave, the student responded with a very raw statement “can I just say God wants too much sometimes”. That was intense and so true at the same time. We find stories all over the Bible where God is not asking for a part of you but all of you. Right now I am studying Jeremiah and the call God places on his life in chapter one is so incredible, Jeremiah could have told God, no that’s too much! He didn’t though and because of his response God used him in ways he never could have imagined. I had to spend some time thinking in my life where do I tell God “you want too much sometimes”. Is it when I feel tired and emotionally drained and God wants me to go step out of my comfort zone and talk to someone who is having a bad day. Do I tell God he wants too much when I look at my checking account balance? Or how about when I feel like God wants me to spend some solid time praying about something. Unfortunately I could think of many times in my life where the answer to this question was/is yes. Oh to live a life where this is no longer true is where I want to be.

Just something to ponder…these kids make you think!

Good news! Monday I am going to Strongburger and this will be redemption for lunch! I am so excited.

I have to admit I had an intense week; honestly I had a short temper with my girls and just felt off all week. It was not until I was teaching Bible to my students that the lesson really hit me. We focused a lot in Galatians this week, which is an intense book! I love it! Any way we were in the passage right before the fruits of the spirit (ya know the nice part of Galatians we all remember but I’m talking about the part right before that, the part we like to forget)

 ¹⁹The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Yeah that part….read the whole chapter, and book, and you know that Paul’s focus is not to make a black and white list for people to follow, in fact the whole book is about not following a black and white list, but rather having a relationship with Christ. Anyway I posed a question for discussion, questioning the last part of the verse, which is intense, go ahead and read it again. I asked them if you participate in the things listed there, could still be a Christian, and if you could go to heaven. Yeah I went there. They wrestled with it until I exposed my viewpoint. You see, participating in these things means when are turning our back on God and refusing to experience life the way he intended us to. To explain further, I asked, did it feel good in the long run when you participated in jealousy, fits of rage, lying and the like? Unanimously the answer was no. I connected the dots then a re-emphasized that you are no longer living the full life God wants you to live when you are caught up in these kinds of thing. I have to be real I get caught up in the sins listed in that list this week… I formed a hard heart, and hatred came out, and jealousy, as well as envy, and yeah it was ugly. I believe that had everything to do with my short temper and rough moments with my students leaving me feeling pretty rotten some nights. I hate it when these things get the best of me and I begin to believe that living life that way is ok, until I catch a glimpse of the fullness offered through Christ. I needed Bible class that day.

Now to take a spiritual break and tell you of another part of my week… This week we went to the most beautiful restaurant for a friend’s birthday! This was the highlight of my week! It was on top of a mountain overlooking the valley that we live in. It was a crazy drive getting up there but the view was worth it, and the food was out of control (cheesecake for the first time in 8 months! So good!) Our dinner lasted 3 hours and it was a group of friends where we just enjoyed the atmosphere and talked and laughed, it was much needed.

I also wanted to share a cool story from this week. A friend of mine rides his bike (motorcycle) into school; he is usually pretty bold and will take on a curve like a challenge. Wednesday morning was no different. He approached a curve he takes every morning, admitting going way to fast, and was surprised to see a herd of cows taking up the entire road. He slammed on his back breaks locking his tire, sending his bike into a skid that almost made him lay his bike down on the road (this is biker talk for falling off and hurting yourself really bad). He got control of the bike and got it upright and was feet away from cows, millions of possibilities went through his mind all ending in hitting a cow and being badly injured or worse…his bike being destroyed (just kidding death was supposed to be there, I know). Anyway he said that as he approached these cows they jumped out of the way, thinking it was odd seems how they had almost no room to go anywhere there were so many, he made it through the herd without hitting a single cow! When he got to school he shared the story with a my roommate who was getting off her bike at the time. Her response was unreal! She said I went through that same herd, much slower of course, and thought, someone is going to come around the corner and get into a real mess, these cows are everywhere! So I started praying for the bikers behind me. Isn’t that crazy! God hears us!

Well it was an intense week to say the least. After God reminded me of how essential Galatians 5 was, I gave it all to God and had a great day today with my students. It was weird they still acted out of control however my joy could not be taken away. God is so good, even when we are not faithful He is!

This week contained a lot of laughter! Please tell me you have seen The Office. A group of us gather around my laptop and watch The Office at least once a week and laugh really hard. A running theme through the show is, the main character essentially picking on another character in genius ways. A teacher, who is a part of The Office party, as we like to call it, approached me this week with a proposition, what if we moved someone’s desk a little every break so that they wouldn’t notice until it was really far away from the wall. Jim does this to Dwight; every time he went to the bathroom he moved his desk. So we picked another staff who is part of The Office party, and who conveniently has a desk placed in a very public location and we moved it about a ½ inch every break. It was hilarious! The desk started by a wall and by the end of the day was about a foot away and was almost blocking a common walkway, and he didn’t even notice! Eventually one break we came back and the desk was moved back to its original location so we moved it in between two aisles in the library. It was pretty much the best day ever. I couldn’t even look him in the eye without dying of laughter. It was a good week. My friend and I were also upset at a staff member’s announcement to leave us so when he was off, we went into his office with string and tied all of his stuff down to his desk and even to the walls and windows with a note that said “you’re tied down now you can’t leave”. Tomorrow should be a good day when he discovers it. We have a bunch of hilarious Office pranks up our sleeve so it should be a good month.

Tuesday in staff meetings the Jarabacoa marathon was mentioned as always except this time I was sitting next to my friend Sandy who tapped me and said “we’re doing that” to which I replied…umm no. After much debate (all in whisper so as not to disrupt the meeting) I gave in. It’s not a real marathon it’s only 7 miles, and doesn’t sound so scary when you put it that way. It has been good so far, I have been in the habit of running everyday but now I bring my A game. The marathon is in about a month and a week (the Saturday before Easter) I hope I can do it but either way I think it will be fun.

This week I had some really rewarding moments with my students. The girl I mentioned for you to pray for last week blew my sock off. I checked in with her to see how her and God were doing and we got to talk about the change you can see in her life, so when the little voice comes creeping in to tell her Jesus saving her life was just a joke, she has something firm to hold onto. We also talked about how we are washed of our sins and God forgives everything but we also have to deal with our past, own the mistakes and realize we are no longer that person. It was intense and so good. I hope to check in with her often on this topic. Please keep praying for her. On this same day I felt like I had more patience and heart for my students than I ever had. It was an incredible day. I really felt God working through me in ways that I pray to see more of.

What did one snowman say to the other snowman? It is so awkward to start a new post! Every week I stare at the curser and all come up with is the truth…some form of “well it’s been another awesome week!” I fear being repetitive so I broke through the awkwardness and started differently this time.

A story I forgot to tell you from last Sunday ran back through my mind and I thought, hey! That is blog worthy. Last Sunday morning my roommate left early for church leaving me in the apartment by myself. I needed to go ask someone in the apartment above me a question, so I slipped on some shoes and glanced at me keys and the thought, I will just be gone for a minute and don’t need those, actually went through my head. I then walked out reached onto the back of my front door and with one fast move I locked it and shut it. As soon as I heard the door hit the frame I knew it was going to be an interesting morning. So I went and got the handy man, who happened to be waiting in the van outside, way early, to take us to church. All he needed was a knife to cut a coke bottle so it was just a flat thin piece of plastic and he wedged that in the door frame, and on the second try flipped the lock over. It was a great learning experience; never again will I find any confidence in a lock that can be broken into with a coke bottle. Don’t worry I have a much more intense lock on my door, lucky for me I just locked the easy one.

Kind of on the same note, I mentioned to you guys that I needed prayer for myself, sense this last week I was sleeping on the first floor alone. The week was a little rough Tuesday and Wednesday night I hardly slept and Thursday I slept at the house I work for because I was working relief. Friday was a different story! I slept like a rock, for those of you who prayed thank you! On Friday afternoon one of my friends was over and I was telling her of how poorly I had slept that week, she proceeded to make fun of me and call me a baby.  I then told her the story of my roommate calling into my window at 2am and of the hand reaching through the window, and she changed her tune! In fact we were sitting on a couch in front of an open window, and shortly after I had shared those stories with her the curtain blew and touched her neck and she jumped so high she almost ended up in my lap. It was so funny and yes I did call her a baby.

This week I got to go on a hike to a local waterfall. We hiked up a river that took us to a beautiful waterfall that I don’t have pictures of because we hiked through a river, and water is a camera’s number two worst enemy. Anyway I have a slight fear of water with a current, this water didn’t have a strong current, but there was a lot of white water which made it look worse than it actually was. At one point I am on this rock face that is really slanted and the “foothold” I am using is like ½ inch! The girl I am hiking with, Sandy who’s middle name is danger, is coaching me to jump from this tiny foothold to her rock and then she holds out her hand, for I don’t know, moral support, really was she going to catch my hand and pull me on? So I debated, argued about my ability and Sandy was not having it, she was convinced I could do this. So, even though water with a strong looking current is below me, and a waterfall is what I would fall into, I do it. I jumped with great form by the way, eyes locked on hers, arm extended, however I was right and I fell into the waterfall! Totally terrified I pop up and grab onto a rock and freak out. Once I calmed myself, took ownership that I was being dramatic I actually got back on the rock face, gave it a second go and made it! It was a fun and beautiful hike! You guys should really come check this country out when you get a chance; and maybe you can find the Garden of Eden.

I do have a prayer request for one of my students, she gave her life to Christ this week after church! Please pray that her life would exhibit this change. Other staff and I were talking after lunch that day, that if she lives in Christ’s freedom, the transformation would be insane, and would potentially bring revival on the campus! Pray for that! You guys for your prayers!

SORRY I am sorry I have been inconsistent. Please tell the blog readers that I have now lost due to lack of posts that it’s ok, she said she was sorry and is now back and better than ever. Working in an environment that I am constantly correcting behavior I will be the first one to say I hate excuses so I will spare you. Anyway let me tell you about housetrip!

For those of you not saturated in Escuela Caribe lingo that is code for a vacation like thing that we take the students on. There is one every semester (remember paradise island and the weird trees, all the coke you can drink, .5 star hotel…is it coming back to you yet?) and this one is planned by the house staff, so basically we can do whatever the girls want. We left on Tuesday morning and drove to Buca de Yuma, which in case some of you are wondering is much prettier than Arizona’s Yuma. It was an all day drive so that we could camp out at the national park. When described what the park would be like we were told we would be camping on the beach, but I am coming to learn that to a Dominican “beach” does not mean sand, or even necessarily the sight of water, however I would argue there is a guarantee in the sound of water. We get to the campsite and it is on this beautiful open range type place with grass and farm animals everywhere and the only hint of the ocean is the sound of water when you listen really hard. Still not ready to face to facts we split the group into two groups, one beach camping and one stay here. The house father asked me which I would prefer and of course I chose the beach. By the time we got everything unpacked the tent set up and dinner it was already dark, so the beach group hung around and then began our hike to the beach. It was a funny hike, eight students, two staff, and one flashlight. I was the staff who had a flash light and so I was in the front and it was DARK. I had to make some judgment calls having came to a few forks in the trail, eventually the trail was getting less and less pronounced and so I yelled back to Sandy (the other staff in the back of the group) that I was losing the trail and wasn’t sure if we should go on. So she came up so we could have a little meeting. I want to pause and mention another fact about the Dominican beach, because you can always hear it, it convinces you that its just around the corner. Un pause. So Sandy suggests that she take our one flashlight and go up the trail to see if it leads anywhere and leave me with the girls in the dark. I agree and she leaves. Now when I say its dark, I mean it is DARK. The girls are still standing in a line and I can tell I have a girl on either side but I cant even see well enough to tell which ones were next to me. Of course not 3 seconds go by before one girl says “what was that, I think I just heard something” not wanting to loose complete control I suggest to the girls that they sing. So here I was standing with 8 of my students singing in the middle of the night in the middle of the woods, it was beautiful. Sandy comes back and reports that nothing is to be found except a cliff of the lava rock stuff (see Samana post) and the ocean 40 feet below. We turn around and decide to pursue another area of the trail when it forked. After a good rocky walk we turn around deciding to go back to camp. At one point I turn around and at the same time hear a girl say “hey when did we get more flashlights” Sandy (still in the way back) says what turns around and notices two Dominicans behind her, and one was on a horse, all the while I am saying “how do you miss that, how do you not just notice the path getting lighter, or the noise, the horse…how do you just miss that” it was really funny. In our broken Spanish some of the group tried to ask where this beach was and made sure to include the word sand, however the Dominican said he didn’t think there was one that was not just a cliffy beach. All in all it was a great experience.

Whoa I am making up on lack of blog with length of blog.

So the next day we got to explore a beautiful cave, pictures on Facebook. Afterwards we went to a great beach that was right in between two resorts. Those beaches are really nice; they keep them clean and awesome. We had perfect beach weather, and did lots of swimming. That night I was sleeping in my cot under the stars and am woken up to a panicked “Ms. Donohue, MSSS DOOOONOHUE!” I woke up and the girl sleeping next to my cot is in a ball on one side of her cot because she was being “attacked” as she put it. Somehow this blind horse who lived on the property kept getting out and during our time there we would find him everywhere, and that night was no exception. The blind horse was at the end of her cot chewing her bed. I was laughing so hard I almost fell out of my cot, I had no idea how to deal with this situation, I didn’t want to startle the blind horse. It was really funny and don’t worry after a while my student was able to see the humor. The next day we made our way to the capitol, Santo Domingo on our way we stopped at this breath taking church! Again I am not about to describe the beauty you have to check facebook out.  Then we went to a cave that was out of control. I wish I could have taken pictures but there were rules against it. So here is a link you need to click on right now it takes you to the Google images of this place http://images.google.com/images?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1W1SKPB_en&q=cueva+de+las+maravillas&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=G0pzS-WYLYG0tgfNi52FCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBAQsAQwAA

The first four images are legit and are completely what we saw, I know you are thinking I am lying but this place really exists. Anyway so after that we stopped for dinner at pizza hut and then went to our hotel. The next morning we got to tour Santo Domingo which is where Christopher Columbus first landed so it’s kind of a big deal. We saw some very old ruins which at the time, when the tour guide told us what they were I was totally into it but now can’t remember, so pictures are online. Sorry history major best friend, I know you hate me right now. After that we let the girls be girls and we went shopping…all day. It was intense. Afterwards we went to see the movie Avatar which is really good. The next day we made the journey home. All in all it was a great trip with lots of laughter.

This is a really long post that I don’t really have time to proof read, sorry, but I want to end with a few quick prayer requests. Two people from my school are going to Haiti to donate more food and relief. Please pray for safe travels for them, they leave on Sunday and will come back on Tuesday. Also if you feel led to give towards the craziness that is Haiti right now but don’t want to just give to something random, I can get the money to orphanage owners in Haiti or for the purchase of food, if God has laid it on your heart just send me an email. The other prayer request is for me, for the remainder of this week my roommate is gone and I generally do not sleep well in her absence, so please pray that I am able to rest. Also for my girls the house parents are off this week, and it throws things off so if you can pray for stability of their emotions and that they do ok during this time and connect with the staff they don’t get to spend time with up at the house. Anyway thanks for being patient with the long post. I promise I will try to be more faithful.