cada dia, da gracias a Dios

Funny story I forgot to post earlier. My mom is the pastor of an Pentacostal church (it's actually attached to our house) and we have church every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday night. Our first day in our house we attended church that night. It's very different from my home church-much more charismatic. But I know that the people there love Christ and let it affect every part of their life, and I have much to learn from them. Anyways, the first church service that Amy and I attended, our mom asked me to get up and tell the congregation about myself in Spanish. Yikes! Amy had to do the same and we thought we were off the hook, but as soon as we turned to run back to the comfort of our seats, our mom preceded to tell us to grace them with a song. We argued that we didn't know any church songs in Spanish but she insisted. Amy knew a little big of the song "La nina de tus ojos" so there we were. Singing a capella (with terrible voices) a song we barely knew in front of the whole congregation. Luckily the church knew the song and joined in. What a humbling experience! But everyone loved it! That's what I love about the DR. There's no pressure to be good enough at anything. Everyone accepts others' strengths and weaknesses alike.

For the first 5 weeks, we have Spanish class Monday-Friday from 3-6 at the base. The first day was rough, but yesterday we had so much fun just learning vocabulary and joking around with our teacher. I had 5 hours of homework the first night and 2 hours last night. But every person in my family (especially the neighborhood kids) love helping us with Spanish homework. And they are great teachers! What a funny sight to see my little nephew Allen who is 5 years old help two college aged Americans with their homework! Everyone is so helpful and patient here.

We had a wonderful night last night with our family. It was kind of a breakthrough. We understood so much more than usual and we got our mom to sing a Spanish hymn with us. Our mom is very quiet, but she was belting "How Great Thou Art". Worshipping together is an incredible experience. AND I rolled my r's for the first time in my life! I think just being around the language helped me learn. We all were laughing so much together. It truely felt like we were a family. It's going to be so hard to leave these people. I've been here a week and even with the language barrier, they are some of my best friends.

I'm beginning to feel right at home here. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me and my group!