{"id":6869,"date":"2014-03-07T04:28:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T04:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6869"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","slug":"sosua-by-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6869","title":{"rendered":"SOSUA BY THE SEA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am one of those who would gladly live on\nthe seashore, given half a chance. \u00a0<\/span>Walking\nthe beach. Snorkeling.\u00a0 Hunting for\nshells.\u00a0 Listening to the waves.\u00a0 Enjoying seafood.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

So these past five days were fully\ntherapeutic.\u00a0 <\/span>We joined all the other OMS\nmissionaries for a retreat in the town of Sosua along the northern coast of the\nDominican Republic. \u00a0It took the better\npart of a day to get there and the better part of a day to get back, but the\nthree days in between were so incredibly sweet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

We traveled\u00a0in the large van with the Aberles and their kids.\u00a0 It took Sam just an hour and a half or so to get us to the border, but then it seemed to take forever to work out all the details for our group to actually get from the Haitian side to the Dominican.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

But once across, Sam made a beeline for the nearest ice cream shop. It turns out there are a lot of things you can get in the DR that you just can’t find in Haiti, including reasonably priced ice cream.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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Back on the road, Cammie had the unenviable job of holding Hannah’s laptop in the right position for the kids to watch a movie\u00a0– we still had several hours to go yet.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Once we arrived at the hotel, we quickly determined that the view alone would make the trip worth every minute of travel.<\/p>\n\n\n

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But when we saw the buffet, it was LOVE.\u00a0 And EVERY MEAL was a buffet.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a0ALL of the missionaries enjoyed the buffet.\u00a0 I can’t tell you how many hours\u00a0in an average week\u00a0our family spends in fixing meals (where everything is made from scratch) and then hand-washing every plate, glass, pan\u00a0and fork afterwards.\u00a0 To have food cooked by someone else and then to be cleaned up after – it was a beautiful and refreshing part of the retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n

Not to mention the fact that the buffet often included pans FULL of foods we just can’t get easily (or at all) from week to week back home.\u00a0 Here’s Ethan’s first serving of bacon on Sunday morning.\u00a0 He even wore his special bacon-eating shirt for the occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n

Each morning and afternoon the adults gathered in one room for discussions led by some friends of OMS who came just to minister to us for a few days.\u00a0 We were blessed by Craig and Deb coming to share their insight and counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And while the adults met in one room, the kids enjoyed lessons and crafts and games with new friends Bex and Elisa in another room.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

Or just soaking in the beauty of God’s creation.<\/p>\n\n\n

There are other aspects of our retreat I could go on and on about – air conditioned rooms, “Banana Mama” drinks, and a store “like a Wal-Mart” – but you get the idea.\u00a0 It was a wonderful few days all the way around and we returned home feeling rejuvenated.\u00a0 With the strength God provides, we are eagerly anticipating the next few months.\u00a0 March will bring our first visitors.\u00a0(Yay!) April will bring a small team from our church. (Yahoo!) And May will bring the end of the school year.\u00a0 (!!)Early in June, God\u00a0 willing, we will be back in the States.\u00a0 We are hoping to fill up our summer calendar with visits and preaching and sharing our experiences.\u00a0 Please let us know if you or your church would be willing to put us on YOUR calendar! (Email me at steve_gross@juno.com<\/a>\u00a0or track us down on Facebook.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am one of those who would gladly live on the seashore, given half a chance. \u00a0Walking the beach. Snorkeling.\u00a0 Hunting for shells.\u00a0 Listening to the waves.\u00a0 Enjoying seafood. So these past five days were fully therapeutic.\u00a0 We joined all the other OMS missionaries for a retreat in the town of Sosua along the northern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6891,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6869\/revisions\/6891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}