Month 5: Given a Mission of Hope

The squad has been in the Dominican Republic for just over a week now! We wrapped up our time in Costa Rica with a few days of debrief and rest, as well as a team change, before catching a couple flights to the DR. 

Full disclosure, leaving Costa Rica was hard. I loved the month I had there, the team I got to be with and the ministry we were doing. It wrecked my world in the best ways and gave me a deep sense of hope. 

But eventually we had to leave, as we signed up for the World Race, and that means coming and going more often than we’d sometimes like. 

Praise the Lord, we had the easiest and smoothest travel day to date getting to the DR! 

This month is “all squad” month, meaning all 19 of us are at the same ministry host, living and serving alongside one another. It’s been an absolute blast so far! 

My new team is called Wild + Free, and while we’re just getting to know one another, I love them deeply already and I am so excited to grow alongside them in the next few months. 

Our ministry this month is with Mission of Hope–an organization that began nearly 20 years ago in Haiti, working with local pastors to change communities and share the gospel through partnership with local churches. MOH came to the Dominican Republic 3 years ago to do the same thing here, and has a vision of being in every Caribbean country eventually, sharing the love of Christ and the hope of the gospel with every man, woman, and child. 

MOH is, by World Race standards, a really nice ministry set up. We live in large dorm rooms, have running water and electricity and tons of space to spread out, and have our meals made for us–a mix of American, Dominican, and Haitian cuisine. 

The MOH staff are a combination of long and short term missionaries from the States, as well as local Dominican and Haitian individuals. 

Our ministry consists of mostly evangelism and relationship building in different communities, alongside the local pastors that MOH is connected to. 

Because we’re serving in largely Haitian immigrant communities, we have a small team of guys that help us translate. They’re incredible men who translate between Creole, Spanish, and English literally without batting an eye–and most of them also know French! Truly some of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met. 

This month has so far been a sweet respite. Our schedule is very structured, so I love the predictability of it. It’s been a blast to get to do life alongside the whole squad, getting to deepen friendships and grow together. 

We just started month 5, which feels surreal. We’re almost halfway finished with the World Race! I have a lot of unformed thoughts about that, but for now, I’ll just say thank you to YOU, my dear friend and reader, for following along and for praying and for being encouraging from afar. I appreciate you, even when I’m slow to text back and rarely reply to blog comments and don’t check social media messages very often. Thanks for being here. 

Please pray: 

• for all squad month. That it would be fruitful and sweet. For depth in relationships and for joy to overflow. For every word spoken to be truthful and edifying. 
• for Mission of Hope, that there would be funding for a full-time medical clinic. That medical teams would desire to come here. That the gospel would continue to be shared with clarity and conviction.