Started off today with another very uplifting devotion led by Stacey (the elementary principal). She talked about how the Hebrew people had seen God fulfill His promises to them time and again and yet were so quick to forget His continued faithfulness. How often I fall into the same trap when life becomes too comfortable. I see God bring me through so many things in my life, yet begin to doubt His faithfulness when things get difficult. But when I'm prone to let fear and distrust creep in, there is a team around me that will remind me of God's faithfulness, pray with me, and challenge me to move on. I didn't fully realize the support I'd get here at Santiago Christian School until I arrived. The administration truly cares about their staff and students! She shared a prayer that I'd like to post from Sir Francis Drake:
"Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life, having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes, and to push us into the future in strength, hope, and love. This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ." - Francis Drake, Pirate/Sir
Also today the doctor that works for the school, Elizabeth, talked to us about how to stay healthy here in the Dominican Republic. She informed us of all the different illnesses that are somewhat common to the area, and how to recognize the symptoms of each. I came to the conclusion that I can wash my hands really frequently and wear mosquito repellent all the time, but ultimately I have to know that getting ill may happen and I'll work through it, with good care readily available, when it does. We then spent time working our way through the employee handbook, which wasn't fun but necessary (and Stacey did her best to throw in interesting "brain breaks" for us).
After lunch I finally got my hands on the teacher editions of my text books. Time to start figuring this curriculum out! (Step by step I might add.) Then Yoalba took Lori and me to Claro to sign our cell phone plans. I had the same employee from last time, who spoke English, so we were done in no time. Most of the group worked on figuring out how to call taxis (and getting them to the right locations), but I didn't have a chance today. It will happen soon enough though, and I'll probably give the wrong directions anyway and end up across town walking home. But I'd laugh about it since it's my fault for not knowing Spanish. After we all got home, Lori, Kyla, and I decided to go out on our first adventure- walking to the store. La Sirena is less than a half mile away from us, which makes it easy to get to. I was able to purchase curtains and curtain rods for my room. Hopefully they will keep the sun out during the day and make it cooler at night. We bought some other things we needed and set out for home. One thing about walking to the store, you want to think very carefully about what you buy and how much you buy. I will say that if we continue to do this my arm muscles will be quite strong. We all agreed it was good to get out and start exploring our neighborhood. The rest of the evening we had time to relax and Kyla practiced some worship songs on her guitar. Listening to her play makes me miss my guitar so much more.
Tonight there is a block meeting on the street outside our apartment. They shut down a portion of the street and everyone gets together to talk about things such as neighborhood safety, keeping things clean, noise control, etc. (This is what I learned from our neighbor.) It would be interesting to attend, but I wouldn't be able to understand what they were saying. With the loud speakers right outside my windows, I will see what I can pick up. On a different note, we're figuring out, with help from the other SCS staff, how to better cool down our apartment (especially my room), and tonight is the first night since I've been here that I don't feel like I'm sleeping in a sauna. I think God is being merciful and giving me slight relief from the heat! Another day, another adventure....
