A young adult on the mission field

It inspires me to see the young people of our congregation taking on ministry leadership roles and being God’s hands and feet. One of these servants in our church family is Jocelyn, who attends the University of Central Florida. Below, she shares a report of the mission work she is doing in the Dominican Republic with an Orlando-area organization.

The first time I visited the Dominican Republic was this past March during Spring Break. When I was first preparing myself for the trip, I thought I knew exactly what to expect and I was not anticipating much. God is so funny though, because he completely broke me down and I fell absolutely in love with the country. The culture, the people, the food, the language — everything about it swept my heart away.

We stayed in Santiago in a Catholic Retreat center. All of our meals were provided for us by the pastor of a church in the city who we called Pastora. She opened her home to us for every meal and fed us delicious Dominican food. She was one of the first pastors in Santiago and her church is growing every week. She praises the Lord that they need more space. It's been 10 years and the church is still in the process of being built. Her church sends out two vans to two small villages — Cuesta Arena and Los Cocos, about 25 minutes away — to transport people to the church and back every Sunday. The service is very passionate and I love watching the congregation worship God.

Each day, we went out to the village of Cuesta Arena to help with a water filtration system. The water in the Dominican is very unsafe to drink and the people of Cuesta Arena are surviving off of this water. A lot of the kids down there have discoloration in their faces and some are very sick because of this. Once they brought back some of the water to be tested in the United States. It was so bad that nobody should be even living near this water, let alone drinking it. A couple of students on this trip were engineering majors, so they helped assemble the final details on the filtration system. They were able to complete the system, but the well needs to be dug 100 more feet before it is usable. The community is excited but it is also hard for them to understand why it is so important to have the clean water.

My favorite part about Cuesta Arena is the kids. They are so much fun. They are innovative, loving and curious. They ask a lot of questions about your family and where you live and they just love giving kisses on your cheek. One girl said that she had the best day of her entire life because someone hugged her, loved her and wanted to play with her. What was so neat about this trip is that since we were out there every day, we were really able to start developing relationships with those kids. You learn their stories. I cannot even begin to describe how rewarding it is to see those kids looking up at you, telling you they love you. We had a little Bible lesson for the kids every day and they love hearing about Jesus. They all ask when you're coming back and it truly breaks your heart to leave.

It is a very giving community for both the kids and adults. The men are eager to help with the construction and digging. The women can't wait to offer you some fruit or vegetables. The kids will give you anything they can find — a slice of cheese, a cough drop, a hair tie. It's amazing to see the generous hearts of these people.

I returned in May and all the people remembered me, even the kids. They remembered the dances we taught them and the games we played. When they saw me they started yelling "Yoselin, Yoselin” — that's how they pronounce my name. I couldn’t believe they remembered it!

The purpose of that trip, and all following trips, is the construction of a missionary house in Cuesta Arena. There will be four different mission teams coming in and out during that time and I will help lead devotions in the mornings for those weeks. I am elated to be going back and I cannot wait to see what God has in store. He is so good and He truly is moving throughout the Dominican Republic. Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.

Note: Jocelyn is presently on her third trip to the Dominican Republic and will return home later this month.