Yesterday (Friday) was a non-work day. We travelled to Monte Plata, a city about an hour and a half north-east of Santo Domingo.
The reason why we went there is because there is a ministry started by the Christian Reformed Church in the Dominican Republic and that has strong ties with Resonate, called JET (Juventud Empoderada Para la Transformacion, which stands for Youth Empowered for Transformation). They are a ministry that focuses on providing "experiential education and service learning so that youth make meaningful changes in their lives and communities."
This is done in a variety of ways. They have the education programs in different communities and then also do service work for disaster response and for social justice and many other opportunities for service. We were able meet some youth who have gone through the program and here testimonies of how they were changed and we learned about some of the service ministries they have been involved in, ie helping people rebuilding after a tropical storms.)
After enjoying a nice lunch together, we headed out to a rural Christian Reformed community, where we met the pastor and his family and saw the church. But we also met the daughter of their pastor who runs a program that provides sows to some local families so that there is a breeding program so that the families can increase their herd. this provides opportunities to sell livestock and helps bring in necessary income.
After having the opportunity to learn about this wonderful ministry, we were able to enjoy a little bit of recreation. The Christian Reformed Church we went to was close to a waterfall and pool that we were able to go to, for an hour or so, for a refreshing swim. And after a week of constant heat and sweating, we were looking forward to something to cool us down. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity.
When we were done swimming, we loaded back into the vehicles to drive back to Santo Domingo and, following a bit of getting lost and some mechanical difficulties, we finally made it back and then finished off the day going over to Steve and Sandra Brauning's house (the Resonate Missionaries here) for a pizza evening, which was enjoyed together up on their roof.
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