It's over a month...by one day.

Well, it's been over a month.

All I can say is that I am being stretched to the limit.

Not much to say or think right now because I am still thinking upon them.

I think a lot about coming home and I just want to come home. This is one of the hardest things I have ever had to go through. However, I have had so many people come to me

Refinement is not easy and it's certainly not fun.

Things I have learned or continuing to learn:

• Journaling is good for the soul. I use to think that it was stupid, but it's a good thing to do. :) kinda revealing at the same time.

• Refinement is not as easy as I thought.

• The word has been my straight thinking. At times I have spoken without thinking, been lazy or even thought about quitting the program. The word has been my reasoning and helping in very low times.

• Water and electricity are precious things. We have been without water and without electricity a couple of times. It's hard to think that someone has lived their entire life with the power and water going off and on. My computer is one 25% because it takes a lot of time to fully charge. It puts into perspective everything that I have at home. heck, it's annoying to wake up and not have water or electricity. 

• Pray constantly. It has to be that way because here there's not much alone time. Frankly the only time you have alone is when you're in the bathroom, you don't attend an activity or you make a call in the hot wooden tardis built into the wall.

• Surrender is getting hard. I find my selfish ways being bucked by a third world country way. It's really testing and I'm really failing at this really bad. I take NyQuil to sleep because we go to bed so dern early here and it's hot.  It's 6:53 and it's almost dark. by 7pm it will be dark. Night owl Melissa is having a real hard time adjusting that it's hot (I can't sleep if I'm hot... hence when the power goes out we loose our wall unit air).

• I'm continuing to learn it's hot... lol UPDATE... It's 7:04 and It's pitch black outside.

My verse for the week is Matthew 11:28-30

"Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My Yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am Gentle and Humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke us easy and my load is light."

Sorry for this not being as informational... however, this next week we start ministries.

Things I'm blessed with.

An awesome, God honoring team.
encouragement from the unexpected people
Awesome leaders
wifi (even if it goes in and out) so that I can catch up on the 12 Stone Series Everybody.

Till next time!


Mel

I surrender...

Hello all!

Thanks for reading and all the encouragement. If you want ever send some encouragement feel free to email me at Hester.melissa@gmail.com :) As letters have to be brought down here by missionaries/groups coming to the complex.

Let's see. It's been a while my last post.

We have hit jumbo a couple of times and bought things like avocados, cucumbers, cereal, milk, pop tarts, and  other stuff too. On the right we have an avocado and on the left we have a cucumber and in the middle one of my house mates allison...yessss .It's amazing.

Classes are going well and hopefully soon we will be starting soon to go out and do stuff. We went out on Tuesday night and went and ate a nice dinner. I got a steak and a salad and some people got pizza and others got some kind of pasta. It was rocking.

Lots of team building activities have been going on. From cutting down a tree, to cleaning up our back yard, to game night and then lazy Saturday was ended by a wonderful movie night. The movie was the Book of Eli. I absolutely love that movie. :) Plus the inside jokes of cuddling with Jaime.

Lazy Sunday wasn't so lazy, but yet it was. lol  It was filled with building memories, getting encouragement partners and encouraging others. It has been a blessing getting to know my roommates and my housemates. I will say the best bonding times happen at night or in the morning. As everyone has seen, I am not a morning person, but on lazy Sunday... I was up and awake and left for church before anyone else!! It felt great. haha

Today is Monday and when we start doing ministries- our weekends will be filled up with work. I am super excited for the chance to do so. I am super excited about getting in the towns, and talking to the people.

I will say that somethings that we all struggle with are the language. It's hard to pay attention to the conversations because you don't know what they're saying. I can pick out different words and get the jist but saying it is quite the craziness.

If you guys could pray for me. Throughout the week I have felt like throwing in the towel and just coming home. Sometimes it's that I miss the freedom I once had. Other times it's I miss small group or church, and other times I just miss having personal space or alone time. Everything here is structured in a way where I can't just break out on my own. lol So different in the states. I know those are selfish things but It's been a struggle. I really miss home and all the comforts of home. I've never been thrown into a situation I couldn't control to some extent. It's been an experience getting to know these girls and bonding with them, and I am so blessed to call all of them friends.

The title is I surrender. Last sunday (september 8th) we had a worship service and I'll tell you what- it was amazing. This past week I played lead guitar and a couple of the girls sang. Maybe next week clay and play lead guitar. They are awesome singers and Jess is the one that comes up with the song list. I love that even though we are all Christians, we all have different Christian music/praise music tastes. I would be so lost without her, shannon, renee and clay. It was such a blessing because people love live music. lol (church music is those recorded tracks.) Our motto for this trip is I surrender. We all have ties in the US and It can sometimes be hard. When I come back from Christmas break, I know that I will be missing the birth of Beth's baby and that's so hard for me. I want to be there and I wish I could be. Unless I get the go ahead to miss another week- looks like Im gonna miss it. I am also dealing with thoughts of missing other things I took for granted. However, I have had to surrender that fully. I can't make something happen just because I want it to. It has to be his will. If you don't know the song by Hillsong here it is.

If you want to know the most played song on my ipod. Katy Perry's Roar has been overtaken by this song. I listen to it constantly because I have to keep my eyes fixed on HIM or else I will lose all focus and go home. I have been in the word so much I could burst. haha it's amazing. The song You Are More by Tenth Avenue North is another song I keep holding on to.

Well as It's almost lunch time I suppose I should wrap this up.

Pray for the coming week for all of us. Pray that my ipod touch makes it till Christmas. It's old and wonky and only works some of the time.

Remember if you ever want to skype or email feel free to let me know.

Miss you all!

Till next time.

well it's over a week

ello there friends!

Just kind of wanted to update you all on everything that's going on.

We started classes Tuesday and it has been a blast so far. We are only the 4th GAP to come down here and  so things aren't always planned out. Ha, it's funny how my easy going-ness is just like Dominican time. :)

If you've never heard of Dominican time... let me explain. It's slow. People get to places when they want to...well that is unless you're an American telling us to be somewhere... then you have to be on time. Dominican time is flexible. and when I say that I mean flexible.

The drivers here are crazy. It reminds me of young Melissa without any tickets and driving crazy. lol the only rules... they are no rules.

crazy huh?

yeah, anyways....

Classes are going well. I feel like it's gonna be a great year here.

It's hard to convey what all goes on here because there is just so much going on. The beach is absolutely beautiful and so humbling at the same time.

My team is such an amazing group of girls and our one guy. Frankly I couldn't of asked for a better male. He's like that little brother I never had. Hs's awesome and I'm so glad he's able to look on the female side of things also. :) Our leader is a pretty cool cat. Can't wait to get to know her and her heart.

If you haven't already seen our pictures...Here's my favorite. :)

It's an awkward family photo. Yes, oh yes. It's amazing. We are all crazy in our own ways.

The Avacado's here are freaking huge/awesome. They are all like little footballs. I swear it's amazing. (Pic to come) I bought two at the groccery store (Jumbo) Can't wait to dive into those and my apples that I bought last night.

Have I mentioned how I sleep? We have like apartment style "homes". My awesome roommates are getting use to my sleep habits. haha take a shower at night and then wait until the last possible moment to wake up and go to class or huddle. Huddle is like announcements. yep, I have to get up extra early just to hear announcements that are already on our whiteboard outside our apartment door.

So within the first couple of days we had to make apartment rules. Yes, it's quite amazing how we have a cleaning schedule and yes, we labeled everything in our apartment in spanish.That also includes things like : our rules, fridge, soap, counter, mirrior, my guitar, our sink, shower, towel and so on and so forth. 

Yes that's right, respect the homework time. haha I seriously have the best housemates. We even collectively get together and talk and occasional worship together.

One awesome thing I am loving is the worship team. I am lead guitar and clay is rhythm guitar and sometimes plays Djembe. Shannon, Jess, and Renee all sing and Alicia does our powerpoints. It's crazy how it all came together. I feel so blessed having this awesome opportunity. It's pretty cool seeing my family worship.

Also I heard there's a storm a comin' my way. Prayers for us.  It rains for a little while and then stops. our walk isn't long but it is muddy oh yes... it rains and pours all the while being extremely sunny out. It baffles my mind but it's true.

Pray for my team leader Jaime, my team and the score staff.

Also, pray for homesickness. I had it the first day I was down here but since then I haven't had it. The next couple of weeks will be filled with girls/guys that are home sick/culture shocked. Pray for the wounds to be opened and God to be glorified...in all that goes on.

Till next time!


Melissa