Dominican Republic 2025 Day Eight

Welp it’s almost over, today was our second last full day. We began the day with morning devotions as usual, talking about the importance of being in, and being a community. The reflection questions of the day were very impactful, regarding where we’ve encountered the Lord, as well as the recent things He’s been teaching us. There were great conversations, yet again Keandra and Olivia trapped a victim (Taryn) on the roof and wouldn’t stop talking. The smell of pancakes dragged us down the stairs right in time for breakfast. We then grabbed our gloves, painting attire, well-worked in shoes from the week and hopped on the bus. Pharisees on the bus was pretty hectic; Keandra had no idea what was going on. Pharisees won, thank goodness that’s not how the bible goes! Once we arrived at Villa Altagracia, we got grouped off into pairs of four. Jacobs’ group was painting one of the ceilings in a classroom, which turned him into a stary night. Jacob seemed to have painted his shorts more than the wall... Nick’s group painted a staircase as well as the outside of the bathrooms, singing worship the entire time. Keandra’s and Taryn were painting a staircase railing and were at the top while Tymon and Abby were at the bottom working our way into the middle. A beautiful moment between Keandra and Taryn happened. (Keandra), I have never shared my whole testimony with anyone before, it’s always been a minimized version underplaying the severity of my situations. After knowing this wonderful soul for only a week, I felt so incredibly called to share my life hardships and miracles with her. We related in so many different ways I would’ve never thought I’d be able to connect with someone in such a spiritually intimate way. We talked for hours; the vast amount of time we spent there our lives became more peaceful by the minute. I have been praying for an equally yoked, Christian friendship in which I’ve never had before, and Taryn this flourishing soul met that need. I am so grateful, the love I have for this girl will continually grow increasingly.

Keandra and Jacobs group then got merged together to paint a huge door, and during this Jacob had some odd takes on life. Persistent in adult diapers is in the top 100 of human inventions… as expected it was his opinion against the teams. Tongue twisters in Spanish and English were then attempted by Angie and Christian. Tymon and Abby were talking about the better option between falling out of a plane or imploding, just as Tymon was sharing his response a baseball was then whipped at approximately 5000km/hr at the metal door and shook him to the core. After we finished, we got back on the bus and made our way back to the compound. About ten minutes from arrival we drove over something that smashed up against the bottom of the bus which made Tymon yet again jump and tremble, hopping into Olivia’s arms and she began to caress his head (Tymon here… This is pure exaggeration but quite funny). At this point tummies started to rumble, so we prayed on the bus then ran to wash our hands and eat up the delicious food our wonderful cooks prepared for us. It was sloppy joes mm mmm mmmmmm. During break, Julia and Olivia had mermaid competitions, and Tymon slowly inserted himself into it and then quit very quickly. Others swam, Abby got locked in her room so she was out of the situation, Jacob slept, Taryn and Keandra played pool then became lifeguards spectating the pool from the roof, where they then got into another intense life story sharing moment until Tymon abruptly slammed the door open (Tymon again… that was the wind), startling them making them jump out of their chairs, causing Taryns laugh to fill the city. Yet again we got back to work and split up, Nick, Olivia, Liv, and Anna all went to paint the curbs of the sidewalk yellow. The rest were finishing painting the metal crates for the water jugs that we started Wednesday. During that it poured for some time, and the girls did some salsa, square, and other dances in the rain. Everyone, mainly Keandra, Taryn, and Olivia finished painting completely blue. Everyone looked like Smurfs, Tymon being papa Smurf obviously. Right after all our hard work we had some yummy tacos, Nick eating nine, the rest not too far behind. Jacob went downstairs to test out the piano for our worship night and it began to play by itself, mysterious if you ask us… Then everyone got all dressed up, girls in dresses and guys done up look’n pretty. Nightly devotions started with a special guest joining, Jezreel. We talked about 1 Peter 1:9, asking questions regarding exiles, elects, the mercy poured upon us, and much more. Keandra got to share with everyone the great news of her being able to create a bond with Taryn. Olivia shared how she was fiending to hear everyone’s testimonies as she gripped the table in excitement. We finished off devotions with worship on the roof in solitude at first, tears were shed between Julia and Keandra, they began hugging each other so tightly practically squeezing the air out of each other with joyfulness in overwhelming news they’re going to be sharing together. They’re going to be stepping out in their faith immensely and it’ll be a beautiful thing, we just cannot spoil it yet. A crazy dance circle formed, we praised the Lord with all our might screaming on the rooftop expressing our childlike faith. And like that the night was over, day eight was finished and the students were off to bed. Knowing Keandra was writing the blog, her Jacob and Nick had to bend the rules slightly staying up till’ 11:00pm.

XOXO Gossip Girls ;)

By: Keandra, Jacob, and Nick