Relampago

Happy Sunday!  Yesterday, we got to be a part of the Christian Sports' Association "clean up Sosua" event.  This event was hosted by the Association for all of their coaches and teams.  This is something they try to do 3-4 times a year as a great way to give back to the community and more importantly show God's love through the work.  What was even more exciting was that while we worked in El Batey (one area of Sosua), another team worked in La Cienega, another worked in Cangrejo, and another worked in Maranatha.  It was one of those moments when you feel God smiling as His Kingdom works throughout the city to bring glory to His name.  Here are a few pictures of the boys and the day (we forgot to get pictures after starting off):

Praying before the event starts.

 The boys and their coaches/leaders at El Batey.

During devotional time before the event.

And then as we all know, trials come in so many forms and Satan knows our weaknesses.  After a great day of work, the evening brought with it a storm.  The sky grew very dark and we saw flashes of lightning in the distance.  As the storm grew closer, we closed all the windows and turned off all the electricity.  The lightning began to hit all around when I noticed our outdoor light was still on.  So I quickly opened the door and reached my hand to turn off the switch.  At that moment, lightning struck within 100 yards on our neighboring hill (it was so bright it hurt your eyes).  You could feel the explosion of the thunder frightening us all but especially Aubrey.  This is not our first experience with lightning in the Dominican.  In fact, 2 weeks ago J had gone off with Raphael (one of our AIM staff members) to another community when a similar storm blew through.  In this instance, lightning struck either our roof of the roof of one of our neighbors.  It was then (and again last night) when we were reminded of the warfare being waged around us.  We sought refuge not from our physical home but from the fortress that is our God.  God reminded me this morning in 1 Peter 1:6-9:

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

 

 

p.s.  Thanks for all the continuous prayers.  Bible Study/ESL went great on Wednesday (Saturday was cancelled for the "Clean Up Sosua" event, but we restart this Wednesday hopefully with a book.)  It was actually a lot of fun to help teach (J is the teacher, I'm the teaching assistant, and Aubrey is the student aide.)  :) 

 

p.p.s.  And I had my first Spanish "lesson" with some neighbors on Friday night.  More of a communication partner but very much needed.  I am working on conjugating verbs again in the present, past and future.  I even bought a notebook (and most of you know how much I love getting new school supplies!).  The good news is it's slowly all coming back! (or most of it)  Thanks mom for making me take Spanish in high school. :)