The friends of God appear everywhere you go with faith. Our 4
days of Launch (our final prep and sendoff) in the Dominican Republic were
filled with encounters of fellowship, happening on street corners all over
Santo Domingo and elsewhere. The hospitality of the people spoke volumes of
their character as a community and culture. Whether children or adults, we were
treated as special guests of honor. Within 5 minutes of setting out to create a
video that we were asked to make about the kingdom of God, we met some families
hanging out on the street and we ended up having a block party with them for
the afternoon. We danced and sang with the kids, played soccer, dodgeball, and
exchanged countless smiles and laughs.
We felt completely at home, accepted as equal members of their community,
and it was obvious how exciting it was for them to have us be a part of their
day.
On another day, Phil and Lucas and I went for a run around
town and joined some kids playing soccer and met a guy that spoke decent
English, named Bradley. Later in the week, we went back to spend more time with
them and Bradley was overjoyed to see us return. While we were there, God blessed
us with a chance to interact with some teenage kids from the US who just
happened to be walking by. God’s timing at work? It would seem so. The one boy,
a 14 year old whose name was something in Spanish that means “mystical,” told
us he got sent to the DR by his parents to live with his grandparents because
he has done some bad stuff back home in Rhode Island. After telling him about
our World Race, he opened the door for us to have a conversation about God and
faith. He was captivated. This 14 year old boy who thought he was a tough thug
also had a spiritual side to him that was crying out to be fed. As he expressed
his struggle, he used the image of a bad wolf and a good wolf inside of him,
explaining that he has been continuously feeding the bad wolf even though he
knows it has led him to trouble. What astonished me was his immediate
vulnerability and openness in admitting his need and desire for help, for a
change. I could see the brokenness in his eyes, he was only hiding behind a
quickly crumbling wall of self-deceit. I asked him if he knew much about Jesus
and he didn’t but wanted to hear about Him. After depicting the Incarnation of
God, the Messiah sent to save the world, he said he had learned so much and
wanted to go home and think about it all, declaring that he was on his way to
do “something bad” but now he knew he didn’t want to do that. He, along with
myself, thought that God wanted to get his attention by bringing him across my
path and we both rejoiced in the wonder of God’s loving work. I pray that he
will take a step in response to God’s act of reaching out to him and believe
that he doesn’t have to walk the treacherous and hard road he’s been traveling,
but that God has a beautiful life of freedom waiting for him just a leap of
faith away.
The strength of our squad is growing. We are growing into
the kingdom squad that God is calling us to be. The challenges have only begun,
but the joy is already deeply ingrained in our way of life. We feel the
presence of God hovering over us like a blanket, and we are ecstatic to take
this vibrant energy God has infused into us to our first World Race sites. The
Kingdom is just around the corner.
