Jarabacoa, The Dominican Republic!!

Whew... do you even know how long it takes to add this many photos?? A long time... and it takes even longer when every time your computer sleeps it likes to turn off and you lose all your work. Super fun fun sillyness! But all joking aside, it's totally worth it.

So have you ever gotten to a place in your mind where things seem to be converging? You whole life seems to be moving and being pulled in all sorts of directions and ... it slightly overwhelms you. Maybe overwhelm is the wrong word, it's more like... stress. It's right at that moment when Jehovah usually gives us a breath. It's just up to us to seize it. And we usually don't know what it is until after it's passed.

That's what this trip was for me. "Breathe Josh, I'm right here beside you", and you feel him lift you up and make you strong.

How can it be that we are allowed to live the lives we do? Especially in the sight of those who have so little? But still, there is joy. Really, it's not until we actually see happiness in the midst of poverty that we can really understand that materialism does not bring happiness, at least for me this is the case. And each time, the events shape us, open our eyes a little more to the truth. Life is actually quite easy and trouble free, the question is, do we put ourselves into a situation that will make our lives more difficult?

The ministry there in the Dominican Republic is amazing. You can actually talk to people. They will listen to you and will allow you to read SEVERAL scriptures. They ask real questions and listen to the answers from the bible. Riding a motor bike out to a remote village, crossing streams and going up small rocky roads is some thing I thought was only left for missionaries. It felt like I was living the experience in a yearbook. I met so many incredibly encouraging people who are putting Jehovah first in their lives. Money is an issue everywhere, but somehow nobody is in a situation where they have to yield the ministry to work. It all works... in one of the poorest location in the western hemisphere. They are ordinary people, who have put themselves into extraordinary circumstances. They are a fine tool in the hands of our father, and when you are around them, you become desperate to live their lives.

No matter what people say or how you feel, those that are serving where the need is greater are made of the greatest mettle and it is beyond words how much you are loved for what you do. It's emotional to Jehovah, you, with all your disquieting thought and feelings of normalcy. It is my goal to someday work in the presence of your greatness once again.

Keep it up.

A small hut in the forest by our house.
The first place we ate at. Our contacts in the D.R., Terry and Ilonka Holt helped us to find all the places we can eat and not get sick. Thank goodness for them!

super-licious

The house we stayed at. Not bad huh?
My hump shaped hide-a-bed. So that you can sleep AND get your back streached at the same time! Yay for that.... not really. So notice anything on my bed
Hey there little guy...
saw plant i have never seen before in my life. DO NOT EAT something no matter how much it looks like a fruit.
Why is this picture turned? Who knows the answers to these questions... But it's a common streetscape.
The Salon de Reino or Kingdom Hall to those spanish impared. :P
The Confluenza. Two rivers meet, one muddy one crystal clear.
At the Holts house.
Randy is the reason i got to go on this trip. He helped me out so much. Thanks Randy!
Ilonka and Terry Holt. The best hosts ever.
Their kids, Brian and Crystal. They let us borrow this scooter or "pasola". We ran it into the ground though. By the end of the trip it would barely move... not good. :(
going to the territory.
At a deaf study named Yadid's house. Go around the world and you find pictures of your friends in someone's house. Weird!
narrow alley
why are these pictures turned!! grr...
preaching.
only tourists hold on. you actually hold onto the seat when riding with someone on a bike.
house to house
Crystal and Yadid at another deaf call.
At the motorcycle repair shop.
Going out to Manabao, a remote town that is jsut bursting with response for the Truth. of the approx 150 people in the congregation, about 50 will be attending the soon forming Manabao Group/congregation.
HOw many people can you fit on a quad and then go over the most bumpy/rocky/wet terrain possible? Let's find out.


crossing the stream
Plantain trees grow like weeds over here. It's virtually impossible to go hungry.
odd picture...
the quad holdin up traffic.
pretty... i want one of those.
The Manabao Kingdom Hall.
Pretty isn't it?
Jean-Francouis Richter. He moved his whole family (wife and three boys like 13 and under) from a suburb in Quebec to here. It's really encouraging to see families becoming need greaters.
watch out for rikity bridges!
Found this stream out in service... so...
we decided to go swimming. It was hot ok?
Good thing you always bring a change of clothes out in service... sometimes...
Jean-Francios' rental overlooksteh whole valley and three rivers. Rent? $200/month including ALL utilities. Ridiculous.
Crystal and Brian at the Hilton in the Capital.
First sunday of each month is an ALL sign meeting. This is a brother in the Hatian Creole group giving teh public talk.
There is an apartment attached to the Kingdom Hall with a couple of American girls who are doing long term need greater work. They had the speaker and his wife, a couple of boys here to serve for a month, and me.
Not a bad apartment. This is where Lily lives too but she was in the U.S. working while I was there. It was a bummer to have missed her.
Me and Evan, a brother visiting from North Carolina. Great guy.
This is a van taxi, "guagua" with the slogan "Jesus guides me". Yeeeah!
Got a big group together to go horsebackriding to a waterfall and swim in a pool. there was like 15 of us.
This is Alexander and recently baptized deaf brother.
Getting onto our horses
First ones to make it to the waterfall trailhead, me, Cloe and Skyler.
Mine was the third one from the right.
Angry Nicole. :P
View from the top of the waterfall.
Crazy europeans! What's up with the camera dude?
Yay for waterfalls...
Crazy flowers.
Hanging out at a house that another couple need greaters are living.
This is Amy and Nicole. They live in the apartment at the kingdom hall. They're awesome.
Laundry day!
the kidlets.
odd picture once more...
not allowed.
getting the dance party going.
let's teach the americans how to dance.
... not working...
riding in the back of the truck is normal. Amy, Nicole, Skyler(from Atlanta), and Brian.
The whole meetin gis interpreted into sign. These girls are incredible.
Frenchy the daughter of an elder in the cong and Crystal.
Playing Jenga during our Siesta. This is from the 12 o'clock hour to around 2:30 to 3pm where you stop what you are doing and take a break and rest/sleep/eat/swim/play, etc. It's killing me over here, my body got used to it and shuts down during the middle of the day. Not fun.
more service.
Getting to the territory. Imagine saying "Ok, brother you brought your truck today? Ok so... it's you and that brother... we need 10 more people who would like to go with him" at a service meeting here. Usually it's more like "Sorry, I can't drive cuz I brought my truck". :P
Crystal with the oldest and the youngest canadian boys. The yougest, Julian is crazy. He's great.
Rino Beetle.
Me, Julian and Diego. He's from Chile here to help with the Manabao group.
Julian found a hat.
At a resort we went to.

Jean-Francios and his wife.
we are about to eat steak... lots of it... like too much.

We played lots of soccer and vollyball
Evan (N. Carolina), Me (Canyon city), Felipe (Santiago, Chile) and Skyler (Atlanta). Skyler, I think that shirt just changes color...
Nicole, me and Skyler
Evan and Amy. BTW, Amy and Nicole were already friends with Evan and Skyler and thet's why they are here.
Zoolander pose FAIL
walking home
Sitting on the GROUND outside a corner market or "Colmado". That's Clarisse, Evan, Rachel, and Skyer
Nose spoon contest. Lots of stories this night. ask me about it someday. Part of it includes me walking my scooter home in broken sandals for about and hour and a half.
We took a almost 5 hour motorcycle trip around the area.
I drove the quad like a crazy person.
Choco Rico. PURE deliciousness
Getting ugly...
ugliest chicken... EVER
made a stop at the dam.
found amotor cross track where I almost got run over BY MY OWN QUAD about three times. Endo's once, crashed another, flipped it another time and rammed ym chest in to the KEY another. I still have teh scar.
Getting back to town
Brian coins the best line of the trip right here. He looks over at Randy, and in all seriousness he says, "Your face... looks UGLY!"
Deaf search
On top of one of the highest peaks in the caribeean. That's Skyler and Alex, or Sacha. He's a motion graphic artist I met here.
The town of Jarabacoa
A hour Sacha's dad is building.
At one of the nicest resturants in the town.
Sugarcane
Dominican food is SOOO good.
at a deaf party... it was .. quiet.
the only person to be able to do this. I think he had to pop out his shoulder.
we were all supposed to jump in teh air... why and I the only one?
I DID drive this for real once! Just not in this picture.
Amy is writing in my infamous trip journal.
How do you transport six pigs? stuf them in a gunyn sack and tie them to the side of your scooter. Awesome.
The assembly hall in Santiago. A big city in the North. The location for one of the district conventions.

These boys are everywhere. tehy will shine your shoes for about... 30 cents. And LITERALLY the best shoe shining I have EVER had.
Amy cooking her cream soup the last night I was there.
Me, Rachel, Nicole, Amy with Diego and Felipe in the background.
A development the holts built and then this guy comes and digs out this HUGE hole next to them.
Went to a waterpark the second to the last day we were there.
the slide to the left kind going into the trees there is teh highest and feels lik eyou are going straight down. it gets you to about 40 mph which seems really fast when its just you.
TGI Fridays! American Food and Free Wifi!!! One of the Highlights of going to the District Convention.

Well, that's all i have for you for now. If you haven't spent some time in another country or in another area at least serving where the need is greater, you have to do it. This side of Armageddon, it will be tough to see a greater sense of our spiritual paradise. Put yourself into the hands of the potter and see how he molds you.