Sunday, March 20th

We started our morning off with a bang at the Nueva Vida church service. We were at a new satellite location for them, so a very small room (quite a change from Willow!). We loved watching our student really engage in worship and do their best to understand the sermon as Carlos translated for them on their headsets.

Listening to Carlos translate the service for us.The Dominicans got our kids up and dancing- what an amazing way to worship.
Greg and McCallister were picked to come up and lead the band. They were awesome!

After church service we ate lunch (sorry no pics of that, maybe tomorrow) and then gathered in the church. We broke into groups with just boys and just girls.

This was a great way for us to ask questions about what life is like for a Dominican girl/ woman. We loved getting to hear about their homes, a "routine day", dating, their interests and hobbies and more. We learned so much about our new friends.

While we chatted some of the children, who's moms were talking with us, sat with us. The girls loved getting to play with them.

Here are the boys/ men talking. Since I wasn't a part that conversation I can't tell you too much about it, but I sure heard lots of laughter and talking. :)

Carlos translating conversations between the Dominican and American boys...

Back to the girls side... Here is Kenya, one of the worship leaders.

Kenya's gorgeous daughter...

The boys decided to end their conversation with a fun game called "Ha Ha"

Girl Power!

Our next project was to head to the water filtration plant. We were working to prepare today all of the bottles we'll be handing out tomorrow during "World Water Day".

The first step was to label the bottles with stickers.

Then the bottles were carried to be filled up with clean water/

Here is a quick view of what the street looks like that we were working on. The water filtration plant that Willow has provided for Nueva Vida is located here (about 5 blocks from their church).

Next the bottles were capped with seals.

Some of the Dominicans watching outside.

Lastly each seal was "shrink wrapped" with a small heat gun.

Jamie passing the time playing guitar outside the plant.

Couldn't resist a shot of this cutie who watched while we worked.

All done working and ready to go back to the hotel.

We headed out for dinner and had a great time in the Colonial part of the city tonight. We ended our night on the rooftop with worship, prayer, journaling and time to talk through what we saw today. I wish I had the energy to write more- so many amazing thing we witnessed today. But hopefully the pictures will speak for themselves since my eyes are telling me to go to bed. Tomorrow we'll be heading out early to begin passing out free water and then the afternoon will be spent playing baseball with some children in the area. We can't wait!
Praise God for another perfect day!