John Knox Youth Trips

It had been nearly seven years since I had been down in the Dominican Republic with Mission Emanuel. And for all that had changed (new construction, a medical testing lab to pair with the mission's clinic, an expansion of the Cielo elementary school, and much more ), so much had stayed the same (the warm embrace of the community, fast connections between our group on the ground and the individuals with whom we worked and served, such good food , and most importantly, the gospel of Jesus Christ continuing to sustain, drive, and enliven this ministry). Of all the weeks I've spent down in Nazaret and Cielo, this one goes down one of the most meaningful for me. The DR is a place I deeply love, and I had the opportunity to share it with a group that I deeply love from a church that I deeply love. This week was gospel-love (or Jesus-love, as 1 Corinthians 13 describes), start to finish. At several points throughout the week, I caught myself watching the Holy Spirit at work in our gro...

  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing…Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.                ⁃              1 Corinthians 13:2, 4-7   Carter kicked off our week preaching a sermon on love. Throughout the week, I couldn’t help but notice how present the love described in this passage was in our day-to-day interactions. As you’ve read, the people of Cielo and Nazaret were the picture image of God’s love. They greeted us and welcomed us with open arms. Our translators...

This whole week was about severing the community and the people in it and the connection to the people was there and the people didn’t care about what we looked like. They were so happy we were there and wanted us there so we could help them, and even if we couldn’t talk to them much we still got that connection and all the people were really sweet.       The workers at the job sites were incredibly patient with all us Americanos and showed us how to do all the things also all the translations were the sweetest people and Elonji would joke about things being to American and would joke the whole time and make it so much fun. She didn’t care if you did wrong she would just laugh. Isabel was the sweetest lady and had so much fun with us and taught us a lot. Our driver was the coolest dude and liked the music we played for him and I don’t know how he made it through those tight streets and around all those cars when their traffic laws are non existent. I'm thankful it's ...

Breakfast started at 7:00am for most, but for those of us on Island Time, it’s 7:00-ish - some of us are becoming more accustomed to Island Time than others 😁 .  The bus rides in the morning have become a daily pep rally for all of us as we have DJ Yeisi (JC) blasting the tunes and preparing us to serve!  It’s been especially rewarding for us when the bus drivers favorite Dominican Rep. music is played and we are able to see the joy and appreciation on his face as he drives us each day.    For the first part of the day we went back to Alex P’s house in Nazaret to get some more work completed. It’s basically an open structure at the moment with the 2nd floor completely exposed and some walls (internal and external) built waist high.  We started by making an assembly line spacing from the street all the way up the steps, curving around and to the back of the house to move and swing all the cinder blocks and buckets of sand that were delivered to the street in...

Our last work day in the DR started with an early 7am breakfast. Then, at 8:15, we got on the bus, headed to Mission Emanuel. From there we ventured to Alex P’s house, where we picked up where we left off working on Monday. Using an assembly line, we were able to move hundreds of blocks and buckets of sand up the stairs, to be used in construction of the house. We then worked in small groups, each laying blocks and mortar to construct the walls of Alex P’s house. Then lunch came around, ending our work day. We give our gratitude to Jorgito and his team for guiding us on the worksite and being patient with us throughout the week.   After lunch, we toured Mission Emanuel’s water purification facility. Carlos showed us how water is processed through osmosis, and from there it’s bottled and ready to distribute. Their facility generates 12,000 5-gallon bottles of water per month, totaling 60,000 gallons of purified water.    After the tour, we headed to the Women’s Coo...

  Our day started with a visit to the Emmanuel School in Nazaret. The school started in 1992 with 23 students, today they have 338. The kids there were so happy to see us and we were just as happy to see them. In one of the class rooms I visited, I was impressed with the amount of English the students could speak. From there we went back to the Iglesia Evangelica el Cielo church in Cielo.  We helped the workers put cement down for a handicap accessible ramp. Some of us mixed sand and cement to make buckets of concrete and the others formed a bucket brigade to get it to the masons. Today is Lacie’s birthday, so at lunch we sang happy birthday and had cake for dessert. After lunch we were given a tour of Mission Emmanuel’s medical and dental clinics. These are great outreach opportunities for the community. After that we went back to the church to continue working on the ramp. It was hot, sweaty work, but we had fun and a lot of laughs doing it. The masons were VERY pati...

  Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Psalm 34:8     Today we toured Nazaret School. Rosario and Javier started the school on their roof with around 20 students who were not able to attend school-now it’s grown to over 300 students. We could tell that Rosario is as passionate today as she was 30 years ago as she shared her story. She gives God all the glory. We toured classrooms then played with the kids on their playground. Anny gave me tour of the playground showing me all there was to do. We slid down the slide, tried to play basketball but the boys were too rough, played tic tac toe, walked around, went for drive (on the tunnel) and then sat at the table to have some food. The first thing Anny did was cut her food (rocks) in half and give some to me. Soon others came. She made them pizza, and I made them burritos. Anny did what so many of the children we have met this week have done. Whether it’s a sticker, a bite of their food, or pretend food, they have s...

       One of the things we did today was serve meals to families in the community.  We delivered meals to 4 families.  We were to delivery the meals, provided a blessing for the home, and a prayer. In my group we had two ladies from the co-op, our interpreter Elongi and 4 from JK.  In our group we delivered to two homes.      Nan, who is also the principal at the school, provided the blessing and Elongi interpreted for us.  Each unique blessing for Lisa and Janie wasbeautiful and perfectly suited for each of these lovely ladies and their homes. We could feel God’s love in the home.  Lisa, was so grateful to us and wanted to know all our names.  She blessed us as well.  She was so full of gratitude and joy.  Her face was just radiating with God’s love. Lisa wanted us to pray for her family and her mom who has cancer.  Lilian prayed a beautiful prayer over Lisa, her mom, and the home.     ...

       We started the day with a 7am breakfast like normal then went back to the room to get ready for the day. Then we headed to Mission Emanuel’s worksite where we had VBS with the kids once again, yet this time it was the older group of elementary kids. I had a lot of fun being able to help these kids hear the word of God in a more exciting and welcoming way. After we had our fun with the kids (my favorite activity was the energizers) we shot some basketball in their gym and spent quality time with one another. After this we went to hand out groceries to people in need. We also got to learn about these people’s stories by talking to them and we were able to pray for their problems and wishes they have in life. Then of course I had to take a bus nap on the way back. My favorite part of the day was the tour of Santo Domingo and learning about how the Dominican Republic came to be a nation. Thankful to have this opportunity through God and can’t wait to help this com...

     Today was a very, very fun day! Me and Walker got a lift in and then we all went to breakfast which was very good. After that we got on the bus and went to the site to do our first day of VBS! It was an eye-opening experience and I got to meet many joyful and energetic kids. After that we went to eat lunch which was rice, chicken, some vegetables, and other very delicious things!      After that we took off to our work site where we helped build a house for one of the residents of Nazaret. It was very hot and took a lot of cooperation, but was a very fun time filled with laughter and patience. I got to spend time with some of our translators, one of them was named Izzy who liked most of my Spanish music (except Bad Bunny). After that we went back to the hotel and had some down time until we went to dinner in Santo Domingo. I had a great day today and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us tomorrow! - JC Nelson  

       Today was our second full day in the DR. We started with all going to breakfast and talked about what the day ahead of us looked like. We then got on a bus and drove to the Mission Emanuel campus where we got to host a Vacation Bible School for the kids that go to school at Mission Emanuel. The kids walked in full of energy and were ready to have some fun and learn about the Lord. You were able to see the Lord in them just by looking at their smiles.  We did crafts, led energizers, and played games. The kids all loved it and as they were leaving, we were all embraced in hugs from the kids. We were all a little sad to leave them but excited for the next thing we had.       We then cleaned up all the VBS stuff and headed to the next site. The bus driver drove us to Nazaret and helped construction workers build a house. The team worked to bring cinderblocks from the bottom level to the top. Lacie and I worked to use mortar and built the...

  Our first full day in the Dominican Republic started with church, where we were welcomed into an energetic service. Voices were lifted in worship, hands were praising Jesus, and smiles were exchanged as people greeted one another. Carter gave a brief sermon about love using scripture from 1 Corinthians 13 and verses from Genesis and John. He explained that although we fall short at being an expert of love, it is necessary, relational, and a priority. Love takes time and without it we have nothing. Jesus is a perfect example of this–his life shows us how to extend grace outward, serving those around us and working to make the world a better place. We aim to carry this throughout our trip, remembering that we have nothing without love. After the service, the congregation came up to shake our hands and embrace us. Although everyone spoke Spanish, it was a beautiful reminder of how Christ unites us beyond language and culture. Even without fully understanding each other’s words, we f...

Our group met at our church on Saturday morning at 7:30am to drive to Charlotte. Carter surprised us with chick-fil-a biscuits for breakfast. We packed up the cars and prayed for safe travels. Then, we broke into three groups and each group took a car to the airport. At the airport we got lunch, stopped for bathroom breaks, and then boarded our flight to Miami. When we landed in Miami we had a 3 hour layover and got an early dinner. No luggage was lost but there was a small incident after getting off the plane, but everything worked out. Walker almost left his luggage on the plane and so JT had to go a retrieve it. Some of us even rode the Skytrain! Our gate got changed and our flight got delayed twice. We were an hour behind schedule because of the flight delay and would arrive later than expected. Then it was time to board our flight to the Dominican Republic! We also saw the sunset on our flight out. Lacie had a drink spilled on her, but otherwise the plane ride was great! When we l...

  As we prepare for our trip, please keep the mission team in your prayers: Campbell Ballard Lacie deMaine Jacob deMaine JC Nelson Walker Greene Lillian Pelletier Owen Long Jamie Luccia Barry White JT Greene Grace Rief Carter Rief