Dear Toto,
We are definitely NOT in Kansas anymore…
Exhausted from a night at the San Juan airport, we arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We gathered our belongings, met up with our ministry contacts, loaded onto buses and rode for what seemed like an eternity to get to our debrief location; a hostel in Santiago. As soon as we got off the plane I felt that overwhelming sense of unfamiliarity, I am a stranger in an unknown land, suddenly all the barriers seem impossible to overcome; the language, the culture, the frustrated faces of the people trying to communicate with us.
The area where we are staying for debrief, it’s not exactly the friendliest part of town. There are men everywhere, gathered at the empanada stand, standing outside the gas station, huddled under tarp awnings, driving by and hanging out of vehicles…starring, cat calling, whistling, honking their horns, stopping their cars, and trying to get your attention. Granted we do look like a spectacle, our group of 30 some odd American girls, traveling around the city in groups of 3 to 6 speaking in a different language, not knowing how to respond to their aggressive advances, and feeling the chill of fear creeping in as we are warned to avoid eye contact, to be on guard, to be careful.
It’s easy to let fear come rushing in, to put on your fierce face and make sure you are saying with your body language,”don’t mess with me”. You can be bound up with anxiety in this situation… I certainly was, for the past two days my mind has been racing with thoughts and scenarios of what could happen and what my reaction would be and how angry I am with these disrespectful men that they would have the audacity to treat us in this way… so I iced everyone out and walked in fear.
Then tonight at our session one of my squad mates shared with us that one of the men staying at the hostel asked her why we looked at him like he was bad. So the thing that we thought was protecting us was really keeping the love and light of Christ from shining into the lives of people around us. I was so convicted, my perspective was all wrong, God didn’t send me here to be a slave to fear, to walk around looking angry in an attempt to protect myself. On the contrary he called me here to be light and love, because those are the only real weapons to fight against darkness. I am not at war with these men, I am at war with the spirits that control and rule this area. I didn’t step off the plane with just my backpack and a multi tool to equip me and keep me safe; No ma’am I rolled into this country on a mission from the Creator of the Universe, packing faith that can move mountains, and with the truth and knowledge that my God did not give me the spirit of fear, but of POWER, LOVE and a SOUND MIND!
I carry with me the very presence of God, He lives in me and greater is He that is in me than he that is in the city of Santiago or he that is in the Dominican Republic, or he that is in the world! Inside of me and you is the light that expels darkness, there is not an area too dark, too hopeless, too riddled with sin that His great light can’t come crashing in and change everything! These aren’t just stories in the Bible, they aren’t just scriptures I was asked to memorize at one time or another; these are the truths that I must choose to stand on, to believe, unwavering, because in this foreign land these are my weapons:
Corinthians 10:3-5
We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do.We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
