Nurses on a Mission 2023

 We all are home! Our amazing trip did not end the way we anticipated, but we are all home. We missed our connecting flight from Miami to Indianapolis on Tuesday night due to understaffed customs in the Miami airport. It was a mess! God provided a wonderful American Airlines agent, Angela, to help us in our time of need. We came back in 3 groups: one group left Miami at 7 AM Wednesday morning, flew to JFK in NY and then to Indianapolis, another group left Miami at 2 PM and flew to Dallas and then to Indianapolis and a third group flew out of Miami at 9 PM on Wednesday and arrived safely in Indianapolis. Again, not what we anticipated, but God had a plan. Home feels good- our beds felt good- flushing toilet paper was fun; long, warm showers were nice...so many things we love about home. But we all have been changed by our time in the DR. We are aware of our materialism, our feelings of entitlement and discontent. We have come to realize that having more "things" does not equat...

 

 Monday was our last full day in the DR. We will get in a plane today (Tuesday) and head home. We are going home changed by our experience here. We are going home grateful to Foundation for Peace for their leadership and love- grateful to the people we have met from the DR who have taught us many life lessons on contentment, community, hospitality, generosity, love and the list goes on and on.  Out last day was spent doing home and “road visits” in a community in the morning. The afternoon was spent at a dam where we swam and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. After another delicious evening meal we had a beautiful time of sharing. Each team member answered these questions: what did you learn about yourself, what did you learn about the people of the DR and what did you learn about God this week. We shared some tears and some laughter as we opened our hearts to each other. God has been so very good to us.  Twenty people came to serve in the DR. Twenty people quickly became on...

 

 I’ve been thinking a lot about HOPE today. Where does my (your) hope come from? Do I place my hope in my money, my job, my family, my material things? Or does my hope come from the Lord? I believe today that I have been surrounded by people who have placed their hope in the Lord.  We worshipped in El Batey and we sat beside people who had little in terms of money or material things, but they had true joy because they had placed their hope in Jesus, Who is the hope of the world. The message today was wonderful: the familiar story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter walking to Him on the water until Peter took his eyes off of Jesus. As believers we must keep our eyes on Jesus and not look around at our circumstances.  This afternoon we did more home visits in a very poor community. As I looked around I asked myself where does their hope come from and I was reminded that sometimes when you have less stuff it’s easier to look to Jesus for our hope.  When we know Jes...

 Glory to God! By His mighty power working within us He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask or dream. Ephesians 3:20. God is doing mighty works through this team of twenty.  Today we did home visits in 12 Casitas. What an amazing opportunity to enter into someone’s home- we were warmly welcomed into each home. We met some wonderful people and were able to provide some healthcare.  I believe we have all done some inventory on our lives. We can see how much of what we have is just stuff. We have seen that people can be happy with less.  It has been another incredible day for Nurses on a Mission 2023. Early tomorrow morning some are planning to hike a mountain. Then we will all go to church and worship with our Dominican brothers and sisters. In the afternoon we will be doing more home visits. God is so, so good!

 

 Our first clinic day was amazing! We were able to see about 300 people. The team worked so well together. God truly called each person to this team. Weather was beautiful (sounds like IN weather was not as good today). The food has been delicious! In our sharing time tonight we learned a little more about each other- lots of fun.  Tomorrow we will be making home visits. We are looking forward to being in the homes of the people we are serving. The Dominican people have truly made us feel welcome.  Continued prayers for our group that we would serve with joy.  Will try to post some pictures tomorrow. 

 We will be heading to the Dominican tomorrow bright and early- need to be at the airport at 3:30AM. Our bags are packed- we have 20 bags of meds and medical supplies for our clinics. Any and all prayers are appreciated! To God be the glory, great things He has done!