Good day, tough evening

Being that it's 11:38 and I'm about to fall asleep, bare with me, this could get a bit sporadic:)

Today was amazing. It was such a privilage to be able to hang out with the staff here and feed them an american meal that was gone in like 10 seconds. We went to a beautiful waterfall and did a photo tour of the coast line. Some really cool pictures! Unfortunately it is incredibly difficult to post pictures until after April 16th sometime (long story) However I will post some when I can.

I had some great opportunities to continue talking with people about the I Love Baseball program and gaining some knowledge on the truth to the situation here with young girls. There are so many contribution to this situation with young pregnancies, all of them boiling down to spiritual warfare. Myself and another COTN-SD staff member, Amber, are hoping to be able to come back to Barahona sometime this August to take about 90 kids from the Bateys to a 3 day camp. This is a GREAT beginning to planting seeds in these young hearts. I'm also seriously praying about doing an intership next year either at the beginning of the year or in the summer. The purpose of this would be to engross myself in the culture hear and gain understanding about what is happening here spiritually. It is possible that during this time I would stay with a Dominican family and end up learning some serious spanish.

To be completely and vulnerably honest with you, this is one of the hardest nights since my coming here. Our devotions tonight were amazing, we talked about spiritual warfare and took time to encourage and inspire one another and write 3 words that described that person. While this was awesome, I still feel like I'm in spiritual warfare. I am battleing some left over guilt from last year when a friend of mine took his own life. I continue to reject the lie and accept the truth. And thought I don't feel that guilt right now it still emotionally exhausts me.

God has given me some big dreams and goals this week. I am very excited about them but have had my time of doubt. This is what someone wrote on my sheet tonight to encourage me:

" 1. Dreamer    2. Believer     3. Acheiver

Don't let yourself halt in the work God is calling you to do because of doubt in yourself. Satan uses doubt to breed laziness. He has given you a great list of strengths that can be very valuable for furthering His kingdom. Ask God to give you the discipline and motivation to pursue the things he is calling you to do. Stay steadfast and know he created you for a purpose."

This was a great blessing for me to read among all the other words and notes on my page.

I selfishly ask you to pray for me in all these matters. And I thank you for that so much.
I pray you have been blessed today and that you will find tomorrow full of the joy of Jesus.

PS- Happy birthday Mom and Dad!!