The Austin Stone Community Church
College — The Austin Stone Community Church

DR 12 Winter Finale: “Forever and Ever, Amen”

by missions on January 16, 2012

“Help me to be always devoted, confident, obedient, resigned, childlike in my trust of thee, to love thee with soul, body, mind, and strength, to love my fellow-man as I love myself, to be saved from unregenerate temper, hard thoughts, slanderous words, meanness, unkind manners, to master my tongue and keep the door of my lips. Fill me with grace daily, that my life be a fountain of sweet water.”

Valley of Vision, “A Cry for Deliverance”: 169

So, our trip has concluded. I am actually writing this from the comfort of my home. Our 6:15AM wake-up call went fairly smooth. The Whites had an awesome, quick breakfast laid out for us, and then we parted ways with Mrs. White. Mr. White and Juan drove us with a last “hur-guah”. Get it? Not hurrah, but hur-guah… like our last gua-gua ride. These puns are probably getting old. Fast.

We checked in, and this time there were no delays. Praise the Lord! Unfortunately, it is hard to tell everyone’s story on this blog during airport days because, well… we all sit in different seats. My flight neighbor was actually permanently moving from the DR to Phoenix for a mining engineering job. That is pretty nifty. Talk about a leap of faith.

We arrived in Miami and one by one (actually we were split in assorted groups; one by one is just a figure of speech), we trickled off, as our flights were at different times. Rachel was the lone wolf, Hillary and I flew together, Jonathan and Michael were the caboose flight, and the rest of the group traveled together.

Our time as a community on mission together has been much more than a learning experience. It has touched us emotionally and spiritually. It was so amazing to see God at work in the people, in our lives, and in all personal interactions. Furthermore, prayer was so important during this time to allow our hearts to serve to God’s glory. I could write on forever about just how much we were blessed and were able to bless, but I will instead close with fun, miniscule reasons why we know God was at work:

  • 13 of us was the perfect number; anymore, and the truck and gua-gua would have been stuffy
  • No one got sick—I am pretty sure this is very uncommon on any trip, much less one where kids constantly touch your face
  • No lost essentials, i.e. passports, suitcases, humans
  • The bonding between all of us with no visible arguments
  • No one on our trip was vegetarian…  chicken was a daily staple
  • Being blessed in such a house as the Menolds and Whites; both are amazing people
  • Having 5 children in the Menold household keep us busy, with never a dull moment
  • Finding time here and there to just get in the Word and in a little chat with our Father
  • Being at the beach
  • Having Jonathan, the jammingest Asian, to lead worship
  • Having Hillary, the lighthearted laugher, to cheer us up
  • Having Abby, the youngest on the  crew, take care of us as a fantastic nurse
  • Having Molly, the jolly that brings folly, encourage our spirits
  • Having Michael and Rachel as awesome leaders, always providing affirmation
  • Having Elle, the masseuse, to untighten our tightened muscular fibers
  • Having Shannon, the otter, provide a jovial atmosphere to all situations
  • Having Adrienne, the lioness, bring order and justice once and for all—this is a stretch J
  • Having John Michael, the faithful, equip us with organic faith and discernment for our hearts
  • Having Erik, the man of few words—albeit important ones, making sure we all had our passports
  • Having Nathan, the cool cat, give a very accepting and open approach to our community
  • Having Solomon, who holds the fanny pack, act like he was 10—childlike faith, anyone?

In conclusion, the trip has had way too much to process. The list goes on, and the Lord has given us a lot on our plate to chew on in the coming days. We have all taken so much from this trip, but there will always be new things to learn all the time on God’s great earth… onward, ho! Thanks for following all of these random and assorted thoughts. God bless y’all.

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DR 12 Winter #8: “Enjoy God’s Creation”

by missions on January 14, 2012

“Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”

Nehemiah 4: 19-20

Massage Train for soreness... please look at Jonathan's face

This day was filled with very enjoyable activities, all being performed at the beach of Dominica. We woke up and packed up all of our assorted possessions. Everyone was locating their loose items and articles, along with tossing their used towels and bedding into a pile designated for cleaning. A pleasant surprise: not one, but two gua-guas! What a great way to end the trip. Clean-up was a breeze, and then we made our way over to Cabarete, which is the beach town closest to us. It was very touristy, but it really put into perspective the imbalanced spread of wealth and existence of poverty in this society. Pretty interesting and sad, if you ask me, or anyone else on the trip. Jen gave the girls each a departing letter, and she told them not to read it until the flight. Talk about antsy. Josh reminded us that our time at the beach should not merit feeling bad due to a lack of work because God really blesses us with restfulness.

We had an awesome brunch at Dick’s Bavarian Bakery. At our table of 4 gentlemen, there was some pretty hilarious conversation about Josh’s children and their embarrassing childhood stories. We ate an abundance of baked goods. Hopefully, no one on our trip has diabetes. I mean… we ate A LOT of bread. Also, we ordered a separate meal in addition to our flour and butter based breakfast items. Eggs, bacon, and the like stuffed us for the entire day. The only negative about this is that I do not get to tell y’all about a variation of our awesome chicken and rice lunch.

Always dancing we are...

At the beach, we had a hodgepodge of fun conversations, threw the Frisbee and football, and just played in the water. Now that we are in college and do not have parents telling us to apply sunscreen, it is a bit difficult to force ourselves to apply it. In effect, many of us caught too many gnarly rays. It was really cool seeing a lot of kites that were part of the kite surfing culture. There were so many kites, I could have sworn that it was some sort of kite show. We just spent the day basking in community, God, and all of the nature that He has blessed us with. We went into town, shopped, and parted ways with the Menolds, sans Josh. We really did love spending time with these children, but we know that we will see them again, if not on earth, than forever in heaven! To the girls, Jen was a very awesome person to learn from and spend time with.

For those reading this that have previously gone on the DR trips, the traditional last dinner at Casanova is no longer. It was closed! We ate at LAX, which was a sort of beach-side restaurant, and the majority of the group ate pizza. Not chicken and rice, but good nonetheless. After dinner, we were a bit behind schedule at said goodbye to Josh, as Juan and another gua-gua took us and the luggage back to the Whites. About halfway into the trip, we stopped at some weird convenient store for Juan to get a phone card. As it was quite shady, Adrienne and Elle said that Juan was going to sell Jonathan and I for some snacks. Asians are on quite a high platform here, oddly. The organization would be called “Chinos for Cheetos.” Nice to know that some girls on our trip would sell the Orientals for some dairy-based snacks.

We ended up making our way to Whites, and many of us turned out to be extremely burned. After some dancing and wrap-up stuff, we rested in preparation for our unfortunate, early wake-up call. Praise the Lord for such a fun, restful, and burnt day. One more day, y’all.

Just a day at the beach

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DR 12 Winter #7: “Passport on your person…tomorrow”

January 13, 2012

“First of all, then, I urge that requests,prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, since he wants [...]

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DR Winter 12 #6: “Bless Those Around You”

January 12, 2012

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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 will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 This morning, [...]

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DR 12 Winter #5: “Gospel-centered Duties…with a budget haircut”

January 11, 2012

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 I would first like to take a moment and talk about the humidity level here. We wake up with our legs and arms stuck together. We [...]

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DR Winter 12 #4: “Encourage, Don’t Discourage”

January 10, 2012

“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 Christ desires our love, and regardless of our position in life, God has blessed us with an unconditional and sacrificial love. On that note, some comments on love: Hillary loves everyone when she is on coffee. Shannon [...]

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DR 12 Winter #3: “Social Networking, for the Gospel”

January 9, 2012

“For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:15 As we awoke this morning, we all had that “This-is-going-to-be-a-good-day-feeling.” I could just see it in everyone’s eyes, and the [...]

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DR Winter 12 #2: “New places, New faces”

January 8, 2012

“But He lifts the needy out of their suffering and makes their families multiply like flocks. The upright see it and rejoice, and all injustice shuts its mouth. Let whoever is wise pay attention to these things and consider the Lord’s acts of faithful love.” Psalm 107: 41-43 Fun fact: We learned that our ~12 [...]

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DR Winter 12 #1: “Change Of Plans”

January 7, 2012

By: Solomon Wang “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject to all things Himself.” [...]

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Lessons from a Start Up Missional Community

October 20, 2011

By Jared Pelley The clock on my iHome said 4:30 pm when the phone rang. I leaned back in my chair and pushed the finance textbook away. I slid the roller chair across the old wood floor in my north campus room, grabbed the phone, and said, “hello.” Someone from my missional community wasn’t going [...]

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