Monday, March 23rd

Well, it is day 2 and it already feels like we've been here for a week! So much has been jampacked into our days and we are having a blast. We started our morning with breakfast on the rooftop (ahh, heavenly!) and then headed to the church for some community time with the church's youth and to begin our work projects. The major project today was painting and our students were eager and ready to help. We are so proud of how they are handling themselves, we couldn't ask for better effort on their part. After lunch we broke into teams to practice for a worship service tonight (we ALL get to perform!). We ended our evening with another great dinner out. The students are soaking it all in and we love watching the "ah-ha" moments they are having as we grow closer to God alongside the Dominicans. It was simply amazing to worship with them and hear the same songs we know and love at Willow, in Spanish. It was powerful beyond words. Wish we had you all here with us! Below are some "highlights" from today, I'm trying to get as many photos up as possible. But don't worry, if you don't see many of your teen, I took over 700 photos today, so trust me... I've got some and I'm ready to share them all when we get home!

Eating our first breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel.

Jordan working on her morning devotional.
Playing games with the Dominican Students at the Nueva Vida church
Visting the Nueva Vida school, in the downstairs of the church.

We were able to tour Nueva Vida's water filtration service in the local community. Clean water is sometimes hard to afford for poor families, so Nueva Vida offers it for a third of cost.
Back to the church for a few more "get to know you" game with the Dominican Students. We taught them how to play "musical chairs", which they loved (we had some fun too)!! As you can see below, Payson was thrilled to stay in quite a few rounds. :)
Time to get to work! Our first job was to paint the exterior walls on the church. Yazmin and Karie worked alongside the Dominicans.
Davey and JT painting the outside of the church together
Davey having fun with one of the Dominican boys at the church.Our painting team AFTER their work was done- can you tell them combined fun with work!?

The drama team took a break from practice for a fun photo shot...

Our students are divided into four teams to perform at various events this week; a worship service on Tuesday night at the church, a public school on Wednesday, and then the street festival on Friday night. We've LOVED watching our students "get out of their comfort zone" and dancing, acting, singing, and performing with flags! You would all be so proud!! Here is our flags team:
Jordan, Katie, and Yazmin practicing with the singing team...
Katie and Chelsea are part of the dance team- they were awesome!!
After some dinner and a stop at a local ice cream shop, we had a "debrief meeting" on the roof of our hotel before bed. It was so fun to hear everyone's "high and low" of their day. They are learning so much and have such admiration for the Dominican people.