Dominican Republic 2025 Day Six
Greetings from the Dominican Republic. We switched things up today by staying in Los Alcarrizos. We started our morning on the roof top of the compound as usual doing our morning devotion. It is such a blessing to be able to watch the community start their day while we start ours. Today we talked about our favourite ways to connect with the Lord. We split off and took some time to worship God and enjoy the surrounding area. After breakfast we walked to a home near us in the community. The lovely family needed new flooring because the dirt floors of which they currently had were not sustainable anymore and because their son has a disability. As a team, we made two groups, one that mixed the concrete by hand, and one that made an assembly line to pass buckets of concrete. Once the buckets were brought into the house, members of the Lighthouse team laid the concrete down and leveled it. We had lots of fun working, with tons of singing and dancing to worship music of course! After some time we (as in Gabe, Julia, Olivia and Katie), sat down in a slightly shaded area. We were just chatting away and drinking our water, all while the owner of the home came by and begun speaking to us in Spanish. At first, we thought we were in the way of where he needed to go but we soon realized that it was something different. He grabbed a few sticks, wooden ladders and a couple sheets of plastic. With those materials he so kindly made a shaded roof for us to sit under. We were so thankful and touched by his actions and to make it even better!! He went back into another part of his home to grab chairs for all four of us. His hospitality was such a reminder of God’s presence, and we are so happy that we were able to connect with the gentleman in this way. We later went back to work and finished the flooring!
Next, the team headed back to the compound. We had a wonderfully made lunch and then a nice break to follow. Many of the team members spent their break hanging out while a few took naps and rested. For the afternoon we stayed back at the compound and helped with what was needed around here. This consisted of all but 3 members of the team working on: painting metal storage shelves for the water system provided by the Lighthouse, while the other 3…. or should I say the better the three (The Olivia’s and Nick) painted sidewalks. The large group had a nice time connecting with one another by chatting. The small group listened to music and had some good laughs in the mix. The common dominator between both groups was the amount of paint on one another.
Next was dinner! It was awesome as always. After that, a bunch of the girls went out to dance in the rain. And when we thought we couldn’t get any more wet… GABE!!!!! The emperor strikes again (go read day 4 for reference lol). His villain ark continues. When isn’t he reigning on innocent people, well specifically Olivia (Allen)! Himself and Jacob thought it would be a hilarious idea to push Olivia into the pool. Might I add she was fully clothed! Then came the other victims... Julia AND Anna. Who even is this guy after all?! Kidding. He’s the GOAT. Well next to Lebron James of course. The girls decided to embrace the terror and make some fun out of it. We had to then jump out and get ready for devos! Yay!!! Our nightly devotion perfectly reflected our time in the community. We read a story about a man who accepted a sip of coffee from a homeless man along with a hug. It mentioned how he originally resisted the idea, but later experienced God’s love through it, and the author quotes “if God gives you something good you ought to share it with people”. This line completely tugged on our heart strings and lead us into a beautiful night of prayer and fellowship with one another.
Signed the dream team: Julia, Gabe, Olivia (Allen)
