Livin' Life Simplistically

The pictures I have posted were from a missions trip I took to the Dominican Republic. I went with an organization I am involved with on campus, called Chi Alpha. We left on March 4, 2011 and spent 8 days in the beautiful country, returning on March 12. When we arrived at the airport in Santo Domingo, we drove to a Christian conference center in La Vega, where we spent the remaining days of our trip. While there, the group I was with traveled to different churches within the city and performed children's programs. We were able to sing songs with little kids, do face painting, show them a drama, and interact with them (also learning a little more Spanish than what we knew before!). Apart from this main focus of the trip, we had the privilege of going to a poor village within La Vega, called the Railes, where we were able to share the love of God with families there and just show general kindness. In this area there weren't many people who came to visit, so we were welcomed with open arms within the villages. The pictures shown in this gallery are mainly from the Railes, depicting the way of life the Dominican people have in these poor areas of town. I am so privileged and blessed to have the opportunity of seeing how even though these people have very little to live on, they were still so joyful, kind, and optimistic about life.