Friday, June 23.

“Revenge is a dish that is best served cold”, says the Klingon adage. Apparently, it’s at least second best in the heat. And Brandon (allegedly) found a way to exact revenge. He put notes and copies of his picture on many colors of duct tape, and made a veritable web of tape across Vonda’s door (and, consequently, Carol and Ariane’s door, as they were all in the same room). We all shared a good laugh, and then it was off to breakfast and another busy, busy day.

Brandon wasn’t feeling well, so this was his day for Juanita’s ministrations!

We had VBS in the morning, because the annual Dominican/American baseball challenge was scheduled for the afternoon!

Today’s project was on the theme of giving your heart to Jesus, so each of the children had a felt heart to decorate, and then return to us so it could be glued to banners to hang in the church. They also colored and decorated a banner to send to High Point Church. Most were willing to give the felt hearts back, but some wanted to take them home or glue them to their clothing as decoration!

Lunch was spaghetti! I don’t know just how she does it, but Millie’s spaghetti is the best! She had two kinds this year – one traditional, and one made with corn and Gouda cheese that is sort of like macaroni and cheese, only better.

It rained a bit, and we thought the baseball game might be rained out. It cleared up enough that we could play, but about an hour later than originally planned (but exactly on time, as we were in the DR). While the others sorted out who would play what position for which team, Casey handed out jump ropes for the children to use during the game. She and I “turned” so children could jump. It was fun, and the children wanted to count in English, so we counted their jumps.

Later, I sat on the cooler in the truck, visited with some of the children, and watched a little bit of the game. The truck was parked far enough away to keep from being damaged. Since some of the team were “ringers” from the minor league training camp nearby, that was quite a ways away, so I didn’t see much detail. The American team lost this year’s game! But they convinced the DR team to play a second 2 inning game, to have a chance to get even. Our team won by a score of 1-0, and celebrated extensively!

After the game, we drove to the school for the farewell ceremony. Francisco, the president of the neighborhood association, said that this is not goodby, but more of a “so long, we’ll see you again later”. There were many tears, and thank yous. Fred stood up and said thank you to all the people who’d helped him while he was sick. I have to say, I felt we were very much loved and cared for in the Dominican Republic. It was almost as though our own families were there!

We got back to the camp quite late, so we had supper quickly, said a prayer together, and went to packing and to bed.