Better Together

I can hardly believe today is already the last day of October! My days have been so full since returning to the Dominican Republic last month. As I am thinking back over the past few weeks there is a phrase that keeps coming to mind: better together. Two weeks ago we finished up a barrio clinic in a small church at the Haitian border and the pastor asked if he could pray over the team before we left. Before he prayed he shared Psalm 133, and the first verse has been on my heart and mind ever since: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” We are better together, and it is with that mindset that I look back over the past month.

A few days after returning to San Juan, Pastor Enol, Bianca, and I took a little road trip to deliver a donated wheelchair. A year ago we did a barrio clinic in this community and in the afternoon I went on a home visit with one of the doctors to see an 11-year-old boy who has cerebral palsy. He is non-verbal and unable to walk, and the family was not able to bring him to clinic because they couldn’t carry him that far. I made a note on my phone with the family’s information in hopes that one day a wheelchair would be found so that this young boy would have the opportunity to get out of his house. Well, this summer one of the teams brought down a wheelchair and that prayer was answered! It was definitely a special moment delivering that wheelchair…this young man might not be able to speak but his smile spoke volumes! His family was also very grateful. We are better together.

The following week we hosted a barrio team with members from Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan. You never would have known that team members hadn’t met until they were in the DR together! It was a great first week back from summer break, and I was happy to be back providing medical care with the team. I was so encouraged by the team’s positive attitudes and willingness to serve in any/every way possible. Better together.

That weekend I discovered I have an irrational fear when I was getting ready for bed and found a rat in my apartment. Yes, you read that right! I live on the second floor and somehow a rat made its way into my home to get out of the rain. Now, I have taken care of spiders and snakes here but apparently a rat makes me scream like I never have before….like, embarrassing screaming. I sent a message about the situation in our SRI group chat and before long Katelyn came over with a sticky mouse trap that was already at the guesthouse from an issue we were having with mice there the week before. I’m not sure why we thought we could handle this together, but just try to picture the two of us walking into my kitchen and seeing that the rat had come out from underneath my oven and was now climbing on the window and at the moment we see/hear the rat, the power goes out. And yes, we did scream and run away. Eventually the power did come back on and we called my downstairs neighbor to come and help us. There was some additional screaming as the rat ran out from under my oven to go under the refrigerator, and then around the living room and into my couch, but eventually my neighbor saved the day! My words don’t quite do the scenario justice, but just know it was quite a show (that also included me stepping on the sticky trap and getting it stuck to my foot) and in the end I was able to go to bed without a rat in my home. Definitely better together!

That Monday a kitten showed up at the guesthouse and we all had to laugh at the irony…maybe God was sending an answer to the mouse/rat troubles we had been having! It is not common to meet a friendly stray kitten here, but all this little guy wanted to do was be with people. We made it our mission to find him a home and he ended up going home with Neyse, one of our incredible guesthouse keepers.

That week we hosted a group of nursing students from Neumann University. It was a great week of barrio clinics, and it was fun to see some of last year’s nursing students returning as alumni this year! Along with several of the students, I was able to donate blood that week. It has been encouraging to see the support from our teams when it comes to donating blood this past year. The clinic now has an agreement with the public hospital to be able to trade for different blood types in emergency situations. Recently there was an accident outside of San Juan involving a bus and the clinic was able to provide 16 units of blood. Had that blood not been readily available the outcomes for some of those patients would have looked a lot different. Better together!

The following week we hosted a barrio team of nursing students from Ivy Tech and a construction team from Brookside Church (both from Indiana). The barrio team got to see a full array of clinic sites, from a new university in the mountains to a one room church on the Haitian border. That week I got to try goat for the first time (a local delicacy) and walked across the bridge into Haiti. That weekend I went to the capital with the team and was able to take my dogs to the vet for their yearly visit.

That weekend a group of us girls made a day trip to a farm in Bani that had a pumpkin patch, corn maze, and sunflower field. It was definitely the hottest trip to a pumpkin patch that I have ever been to but it was so fun to spend the day with my friends! I am so thankful for each of these ladies and I cannot imagine doing life here without them. Better together!

Last week we didn’t have a team so I spent the first couple of days doing computer work, mainly doing communication and prepping for our winter teams. On Wednesday Katelyn, Kelsi, and I drove to the capital, picked Kamanda up at the airport, and then continued on to Las Terrenas where we spent the next few days doing Velvet Ashes “Equip” virtual retreat. I am so thankful we had the opportunity to do this retreat, and to be able to do it together and outside of San Juan so we could really focus on the sessions. I left feeling refreshed and encouraged. Thank you Kamanda and Solid Rock for making it possible for us to take part in the retreat!

Looking back over the past month I just see over and over again “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1) We are not meant to do life alone. We need God and we need each other. My heart smiles when I can look back over the past few weeks alone and see so many sweet moments of unity. For that (and so much more!), I end this month feeling oh so grateful. Thank you, Jesus! We are all better together.

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