A Month of Adventures

Life overseas is an adventure all by itself, but every now and then there's some wild experiences that really stand out! April happened to have quite a few of these. I definitely have a venturesome spirit, and God's been giving me lots to keep me busy!

Here's a few tales from this month!

Operation Outdoors

It was time for Kindergarten's outdoor education excursion! Because I work with Kinder in the motor lab, I was invited to come along. Imagine this: 20+ little kids and numerous parents on buses heading to a forest! It was a blast. We spent a couple hours in a forest park learning about all kinds of plants, trees and flowers, doing scavenger hunts, learning how to wash clothes, and eating A LOT of trail mix. Each student even got to take home their own little plant to grow!

Training Trials

Young Life all across Jarabacoa was coming together for a Junior Leadership Training Camp. Of course, as a brand new WyldLife leader, I was strongly encouraged to go. So I packed up my things for this weekend trip, and then something dawned on me. It was gonna be a boatload of information, and I was gonna have to socialize with a bunch of young Dominican leaders from all over the island–entirely in Spanish. This wasn't a training camp for our little group of North American missionaries, it was training camp for all of Vida Joven (Young Life) in the DR. It was gonna be hard.

And it was hard! I was already so tired and worn out from the work week, and there I was in a strange environment, with so many new people speaking a language I'm still learning. I really struggled. It was frustrating, and multiple times I felt like I was gonna have a mental breakdown. But I persevered through as much as I could, drew near to the Lord, made new friends, showed off my broken Spanish, played guitar with some of the guys in my cabin, gleaned as much information as I could manage, and, get this, survived!

Road Trip (Dominican-style)

Just yesterday I set out with one of Doulos' mission teams to see some gorgeous waterfalls, and let me tell ya, it was a trip. We did not see any gorgeous waterfalls (they were closed due to bad weather).

So instead we drove for a while longer and went to a beach. Humorously, they did not let us get in the water (dangerous waves or something).

Then it was lunchtime, so we went to a beach-side restaurant. That place didn't work out, so we did not eat there.

We hopped back on the bus, all of us very hungry, to find somewhere else to eat. We drove to another restaurant, but the line was way too long, so we did not eat there.

But if there's one thing I've learned, it's you've got to be flexible!

So here's what we did do. We, 20 hungry adults, ate at a gas station restaurant on the way back home. That place was awesome. They let us play music on their speakers and it was hilarious to watch our mission team coordinator, Lauren, lose her mind in embarrassment as some of the team members started getting up and dancing like crazy!

But while it's certainly been a fun, active month, I'm a bit tired. Maybe it's time for a break from adventures. Hopefully things will slow down in May!

We'll see what God has in store!

Extra Highlights

• I got to share the Gospel with 20 middle-schoolers at Doulos' WyldLife club!
• Joel and I got to host a visiting friend of Izzy, one of our neighbors, for a couple days in our new apartment. Super cool dude! We had a great time. (Shout out to Harrison)

My Question for YOU!

What's your ideal vacation spot? (Beach, mountains, countryside, big city, etc.)

Author: Timothy Bemenderfer (04/30/2024)