72! No, it’s not the year my mom was born, it’s the number of children and adults we were blessed to meet and treat today! Today our team traveled to the Emmanuel House, an orphanage and school for young children in the village of Quisqueya–although we saw plenty of young boys and men as well! It was so beautiful to see the Lord work through our volunteers as well as our patients today, as it was the first time seeing a dentist for many of the children. Although we had many scared children, I think we were able to demonstrate the work of God through sharing the gospel, healing, and offering moments of comfort. 

Although today was a great day, it started off very hectic as we had to do all dental work in one tiny room, which meant bumping into each other, working in a sauna (literally), and hearing all the commotion going around (including the screaming, drill noises, and screams so that the translator could hear you lol). In my opinion this strengthened us as a team and allowed us to work with what we have. God gave us everything we needed, we only needed to trust. It ended up being an even better day than we thought because Caroline informed us that 5 people accepted Christ today! Yay! We’d really like to highlight Christina today (and everyday) as she helps the clinic run smoothly and allows us to serve the people of the DR. Many of us learned new fun Spanish sayings thanks to our amazing interpreters who allow us to communicate with the patients!

On a more fun note, we got to play a new game at lunch called “Signals” (Nathan is not very good at it), sing Rattlin’ bog on the bus, ball out with the translators and children (who shoutout do so much and make this trip possible), and end the night with game night and a gas station trip to get lots of snacks since mission trip calories don’t count 😉

Nathan learned “segume” — follow me, or something like that…

May all of Earth Praise His Name!!

Love,

Annie and Maggie