Day 1 – Dominican Republic 2013
Blog Post 1 – Written by Nick Morales and Alex Rogers
Life-changing and eye-opening are two words that describe our first day at the Manny Mota Foundation .
Life-changing is a word that we used to describe today because our crew got to experience things that we don’t have the opportunity to on a daily basis. Today we saw, first hand, what the lives of most the Dominican people look like daily. It made us appreciate the little things that we don’t really think about, like clean drinking water, clothes, and a place that they can call home. Now, we look at things with a more appreciative attitude like we never did before.
Eye-opening is the other word that we thought about when describing our first day experience. We had the privilege to see many homes of the less fortunate Dominican families. These homes were very small, crowded, and not clean. Next, we got the chance to meet the kids that come to the foundation everyday for lunch. As soon as the Dominican kids saw us (Americans) you could see in their faces how happy and how excited they were that we were there. The kids loved to get piggyback rides, play sports and mostly just get to know us. Something else that we had the chance to do today was pass out donations, which included: school uniforms, pants, shorts, skirts, shirts, shoes, and more. What we got to experience today changed our hearts and will definitely impact the rest of our lives.
We appreciate all the prayers and donations towards this trip because you are a big part of our experience. We ask that you keeping praying for us to be the hands and feet of the Lord.
Nick – The highlight of my day today was just being able to play horse (piggy-back-rides) and baseball with the kids. I loved playing with the kids because that showed us that you don’t need materialistic things to be happy.
Alex – A highlight of my day was handing out the donations because most kids came in to our little store with just an old shirt and pants. I just felt so fortunate to be able to bless these kids with something as simple as clothes and candy that we take for granted.
We feel so grateful that we got this opportunity because even though we’re here to serve them, we receive so much joy as well. We feel they’re serving us just by the smile on their faces and seeing their joy. We decided to pick a verse of the day to just reflect on what we experienced and being the hands and feet of the Lord.
1 Peter 4:10 “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s grace”.
Emily was able to distribute clothes and shoes to this little girl today.
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Very proud of all the students, teachers and parents for sacrificing their time away from their family during Thanksgiving week in order to serve others in need. It will be an amazing experience for everyone!