I'll never forget that first moment I read about our ministry assignment for this month.
I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry…so naturally, I did both.
“your team will be hiking to several remote mountain villages in the Dominican Republic”
“must be physically fit, ready for up to 4 hours of hiking with packs”
“there is a strong presence of idolatry and witchcraft”
and my favorite- “I have assessed Manuel and deemed him adequate to act as your translator this month”
…adequate? …really?
Now I'm sitting here in a small park in Padre Las Casas thinking back on our first week of ministry, it’s the exact same feeling. I’m not sure whether I want to laugh or cry.
My pack now only has about half the stuff it did when I left Dallas last Tuesday. I dropped some of it at the airport, gave some away, left more at launch, and got rid of more after our first travel day to the DR. I’m still mourning the loss of my art bag…and my pillow…and my M&Ms. It’s just stupid how heavy a few clothes and toiletries can feel when you’re carrying them everywhere on your back!
But my team is legit. We speak so much life into each other that it’s nearly impossible to forget who I am and what I’m called to. We share everything…I mean everything. My whole team is so good at that except me. Lets just say…I’m still adjusting to this. Oh how my selfishness has been blown up in my face this week! They’ve embraced my randomness. And laugh at my smart aleck comments. When everyone sees a huge rat runs across our bedroom during feedback except for me, my awesome team doesn’t tell me about it until after we leave that place so that I’ll be able to sleep at night. And when I did unfortunately see a (huge) rat later in the week, they bought me chocolate because they knew it would calm me down some. I just love my team.
Our “translator” is a wonderful, bold, sold out man of God. He has so much love for the Lord and for these people. He has a heart of gold and a cheesy grin that makes me laugh. I totally believe that when he prays satan freaks out. It’s powerful stuff. We love Manuel and Manuel loves us. He tries SO hard to speak english but honestly, 95% of our day is lost in translation. We think we’ve agreed to walk somewhere and then a truck shows up to take us. Going to the market includes lots of pointing and charades and usually takes about 3 hours. House visits are fun because we never really know what is actually being translated over to the people. Its always interesting when the person we’re visiting talks to us in Spanish for a good 5 minutes and then when we ask Manuel what they said, he tells us maybe 6 or 7 words from those 5 minutes. Oh the mystery. I’m constantly challenged to choose joy and just laugh because it’s so easy to get frustrated.
As time went on this week I got a lot more comfortable with my Spanish. As crazy as it sounds, I can truly feel the Spirit interceding and helping me understand more Spanish than I ever learned in school or Colombia. It doesn’t make sense, but I can for the most part get what these people are saying without having to go through Manuel. We praise God as a team every night for helping me and my teammate Michelle communicate well with these people because it’s an encouragement to us that our team is right where we’re supposed to be this month and He’s got this under control despite the crazy language barrier.
This past week we prayed our hearts out and I loved it.
We prayed over a lonely widow and I could feel her body trembling as we prayed. After I looked up I could see joy all over her face. In that moment I realized she wasn’t shaking from sadness but instead it was the Spirit filling her up again with His love.
We laid our hands on a man who had just recently spent time in the hospital and still had very little strength. The next day we came back to check on him and he was up from his chair and out in the yard soaking up the sun. Praise God.
We prayed with the shop owner in Los Naranjos, joined hands and encouraged a pastor and his family in Guayabal, and huddled around dozens of others this week and just went to God on their behalf. By the end of each conversation, it no longer mattered whether we understood all of it or none at all, the presence of God was SO intense and powerful as soon as we opened our mouths to pray every time. I just love it…it’s a reminder to me at the end of each visit that He really was there the whole time.
Overall, these villages in the Dominican Republic are full of contrast. The bluest skies I’ve ever seen create the perfect backdrop for the mountains to go on forever. The sun is so hot but there is always a perfect breeze right around the corner to cool you off. The families that struggle to put food on the table are the same ones throwing boxes of empty beer cans into the street every night. The villages are full of people who’ve made decisions for God but know nothing about relationship with Him. And their eyes! These people have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. The blues and greens pop against their dark skin and it is absolutely captivating. But when you look deeper you can’t miss the emptiness that fills both their eyes and their lives.
These people are crying out for hope
And I’m not discouraged at all by the darkness of this country
Because there’s just SO much opportunity for light
