Back in the states!

So first of all I need to put out a MASSIVE apology for not updating while I was down in the DR. Sorry for those of you who were checking up on me the past 6 weeks! As you can see from the title of this post, I am home now after 6 amazing, exhausting, life-changing weeks in the Dominican. Before I launch into what God has taught me through it all, I'll show you some summer highlights in pictures, and I PROMISE to upload a video or two in a separate post after this one.

The picture all the way at the bottom is my classroom pre-students. So clean and organized! It didn't stay that way with 9 energetic 3rd graders, but it was fun to see the classroom walls fill up with art projects as the summer went on!

The picture above that is my class with one of our art projects, olympic torches as we learned about the ancient olympic games and Greece (one of our themes this summer was Europe).

Above that is a picture of some of my class and I on the last day! Sorry that everything is out of order!

Fun story with the next two pictures above that one...one day I decided to walk home with some of my students, who live in a Barrio (neighborhood, usually of shacks) down by the Yaque River. They were SUPER excited to show me the river and convinced me to jump off some rocks and swim with them (as you can see in the picture, I jumped in fully dressed in my jeans!). I later found out that the location I jumped in the river was, well, lets just say less than clean. But God protected me and I didn't get a parasite or skin rash or anything from that swim. BUT before I found out about the water situation, I made a promise to my students to come back and swim with them again another day. From that day on, they asked me EVERY SINGLE DAY in class when I was coming back to the river, and the other kids in the class who didn't live in that barrio decided that they were going to come too when we took this big "river outing." I couldn't bear to break the kids hearts or go back on my promise, so one Monday near the end of the summer I took about 6 of my students back to the Yaque for popsicles and a swim- we were also joined by lots of neighborhood kids eager to show me how they could flip off the rocks and catch fish with sheets. I mostly stayed on the shore to take pictures and make sure everyone stayed safe- God was faithful and everyone was safely back in their houses that evening, including me! God really calmed my fears about being in charge of a bunch of kids out side of school, going to the sewage river, and being in a barrio without any other adults I knew. I learned a lot about trust this summer, and I would do the whole afternoon again in a heartbeat to get to see the big smiles and excitement on all the kids faces again!

Above those pictures is a photo from Irish dancing class! At first I was only supposed to do one week of dance class as a special "surprise" class for the girls, but they liked it so much that I did 2 more weeks of afternoon dance classes at Anija, the school I taught at. The girls loved it, it was so unlike anything they had ever seen, and they got to keep the shoes at the end! After those 3 weeks, I was asked to go out to the Ark (the orphanage) and teach dance lessons to the girls there for their weekly talent show. I had a couple of hard days there, since at first the older girls thought the dance was "too hard" and wanted to do a ballet instead. So, with all the ballet knowledge I had from seeing the nutcracker every Christmas when I was little, I made up a "ballet" with the older girls and did irish dancing with the younger girls. It was a really cool experience to work with the older girls on a "ballet" because I feel like it was God's way of telling me, "I don't need your Irish dancing talent, I need your heart for these girls and your love of dance and your willingness to be here." And we had a great time! The girls even begged me to come back to make up another dance for the next week's talent show. This time we did a Hannah Montana dance. After the first difficult dance class with this group I never would have guessed that these would be the girls telling me not to leave and making me cry because I was sad to leave on the last day! They may not have learned much Irish dancing, but I made some great connections and had so much fun seeing how proud the girls were to perform their dances at the talent shows. I will try to get my hands on one of the videos and put it up here!

So, a few overall things I learned from the trip. One major theme of the summer was trusting God. There were a couple of days where he brought me to my knees and to a point where I had to tell Him, "I don't know how I'll get through today." These of course turned out to be some of my best and most memorable days, because when we give up control and ask God to come through, He shows us how great his power and faithfulness is! Being in these situations made me realize how rare it is for me, when having a bad day, to go to God and ask him to come through. My natural reaction is to tell myself to snap out of it and move on. I've definitely learned how great it is to trust in my Lord to provide, and I hope that's a lesson I don't forget! I hear the hymn, "Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus" with new ears now!

Well, this post is getting pretty long, props to everyone who made it this far! I've learned so much more the past 6 weeks, please ask me all about it! God bless, and watch for dance videos hopefully very soon!

Saludos de la republica dominicana!

That means Greetings from the Dominican Republic, in case you don't speak Spanish! Wow, what to say about the last week!? The first week feels like a blur looking back on it- we had 3 days of pretty detailed orientation with all 16 college aged interns from the US/Canada as well as the missionaries here and the Dominican teachers at the various schools that Kids Alive runs across the D.R. On Friday I got all of my curriculum for the 5 week summer school program, and that was the first time I felt completely overwhelmed by not being able to speak Spanish as well as I'd like to! I am in charge of a 3rd grade class of about 10 students, and I have a helper (a 19 year old young man whose parents run the orphanage in Jarabacoa) who speaks both Spanish and English pretty well. Sunday night I was VERY nervous about the next day. The missionaries had prepared us that the classes might be a little crazy, and on top of that I was worried about not being able to understand anything the kids were saying and not being able to communicate effectively what they were supposed to do! God truly blessed me with peace and took away all my fears as my class walked in Monday morning- I have 10 adorable kids between the ages of 8 and 11, and they are really well behaved!! (well for the most part, I mean they are still kids) One of the missionaries suggested to me that I write out some of the things I was supposed to say in Spanish and let the kids read them. I was nervous about this but decided to try it. The first time I asked for "un voluntario" I was completely overwhelmed- EVERY single hand went up! The kids all LOVE to read and be the volunteer, so from now on I'm letting them read all the information about the Bible and countries in Europe and math and the solar system (those are our main themes). They are such a blessing! Some of the girls even stayed in from recess to talk to me, look at my pictures from home, and help me organize the classroom. They also drew me a picture at the end of the day. Needless to say, I'm loving it!

I also taught my first Irish Dancing class today! Wow, was it fun. I had a really hard time figuring out everything I wanted to say in Spanish (how do you say "lock your legs" "turn out your feet" "or point your toes" in Spanish!?), so I did a lot of demonstrating and saying "like this!" The girls absolutely loved it! I let them all put on soft shoes at the beginning of class and when I turned on the music they were all giggling and running around and jumping. Later I demonstrated a reel step for them and their favorite move is scissors, for those of you who know what those are- they are constantly trying to do them now, it's pretty funny! After class the girls even hop-1-2-3d out the door! (Or as we say here, "arriba-1-2-3!").

Tonight I am going to a bible study with the other 5 interns and some of the missionaries here. Pray for me that my Spanish will continue to improve and that I'll build strong relationships here! Also pray for myself and the other interns for the students in our classes and that we would be effective teachers and even more importantly just love the kids in our class and show them God's love! Thanks for your prayers, and I hope to update soon!

Packing and Pacing

Those of you who know me well will not be surprised to see my room looking like a tornado touched down with only 3 days to go before my departure! On monday morning I will head down to the Dominican armed with lots of bug spray, school supplies, and LOTS of soft shoes and poodle socks! (Thanks to all who sent me shoes/socks, I'm so excited to hopefully be teaching an after school dance class while I'm down there) While I'll be sad to say goodbye to family, friends, and dance students (only 3 weeks until nationals, practice practice practice!), I'm also feeling pretty anxious to get down there and get to work. Please pray for safe travel on Monday as myself and the other 15 interns fly from around the US to meet in Miami and then continue on to Santiago. There we will have a few days of orientation and then split up into our various locations. I will be teaching at a school in Jarabacoa, which is in the mountains. If you'd like to write me while I'm down there, you can send letters (not packages!) to this address:

Jillian Oury

Unit 3049-KAIDR

3170 Airmans Dr.

Ft. Pierce, FL 34946

I will only be able to get mail every 2-3 weeks, but I'd love letters! Thanks for your prayers everyone, I can't wait to share this experience with you all via blog!

Dear Family and Friends,


I am very excited to tell you all that I will be spending six weeks this summer serving as a short-term missionary with
Kids Alive International in the Dominican Republic. As many of you know, Kids Alive is the organization that my older sister Emily and brother in law Nate have served with in past summers. After seeing
and hearing about how God used the summer service trips in their lives, I knew serving abroad was something I wanted to experience.


God put together so many pieces to make this summer trip
possible. First of all, as many of you know, He has given me a huge passion for teaching! Since I was about 13 years old I have been teaching Irish Dancing lessons, and the joy I’ve found through teaching dance has led me to pursue degrees in secondary education and math at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. My
education classes and practicum experiences as well as continued opportunities to teach dance in Nashville have all shown me that God has gifted me with the passions and abilities to be a teacher. I have also been blessed with a stipend from Vanderbilt that
will fully cover my summer mission trip!


I am very excited to see what God does with this incredible
summer experience. I will be working with a team of amazing
missionaries from across the United States as well as a group of summer interns just like myself. We will teach a summer school program
and devotions, help out at events, and help with sponsorship projects.
This will be an incredible opportunity for me to pray about whether God wants to use my teaching abilities in an international setting in missions and experience what that would look like.


As I prepare to leave very soon (on June 14!), I hope you all will join me in praying for my team as we get ready to serve the children in the Dominican Republic. I will be using this blog to share my experiences and prayer requests while in the DR. I will update as often as I can, but I only expect to have internet access once or twice a week! Thank you all for playing an important part in my life, I can't wait to see what God does with this amazing experience!