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| In the Dominican Republic we worked at Caribbean Mountain Academy, a home/program for troubled youth that have been taken from their homes and placed in a compound (a beautiful one) for emotional, and mental healing. The program is amazing, and we got to just hang out, mentor and pour love into broken closed off teens. by the end of our stay there lives were given to Christ, and walls were brought down... SO BEAUTIFUL! I love each and every one of these kids, my heart breaks for them. This is our team with Annie, Nancy, Alec, Franklin, Kenzo, Aro, Nadia, Alexander, and Meski. |
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| In the Dominican we visited the village of Majaguita where we survived crossing an Indiana Jones style bridge, and played soccer with the kids. I told God that on this trip I would say YES to every opportunity great and small. I surfed rapids, jumped off of a cliff, rode a motorcycle through the crowded streets of Jarabacoa, witnessed in dark places, preached in church, snorkeling, serving in weakness, flipping upside down in a boat, eating whatever is put in front of me.... |
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| In Haiti we had a day devoid of grime and poverty where we worked on building a wall at a missionary retreat and then got to swim in the crystal waters of the Caribbean.... amazing. Destiny, one of the girls on my team, (in this picture) is from Hawaii and cried when she saw water. |
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| One of the precious faces we met at Compassion International in Haiti. |
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| In Haiti we spent a few days in a town call Babaco. It was one of the highlights. So dirty and full of poverty, swarms of children desperate to be loved. It was pretty rough conditions, but absolutely worth it. |
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| View from our house in Haiti. A place of such contradiction. Grime and beauty all mixed up together. One night we could hear people gathered in a nearby house singing "count your many blessings" with hands raised. At the same moment there were voodoo drums beating somewhere else. |
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| Two boys in Babaco. The kids LOVED the camera. My hands were filthy from being held by so many dirty little ones and I had bruises on my hips from hold kids so much of the time.... never been happier. |
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| Sleeping arrangments in Babaco. We were pretty impressed by our mosquito net skills :) it was 115 Degrees here. |
