My awesome team (En Fuego) and I, along with 4 other teams in my squad are serving through H.O.P.E. DR (http://www.hope4drnow.org) this month and couldn’t be any luckier! HOPE stands for Helping Others Pursue Eternity and their ministry is doing exactly that through planting churches and educating and feeding children in need all throughout the DR.
***200,000 children of this lovely land are orphaned and over 70,000 children live in the city of Santiago’s dump area.
Roughly an hours bumpy ride from the city of Santiago, into the remote mountains of Lajas, is the gorgeous 11 acre property where we have posted up our tents for the month. Tropical green vegetation goes as far as the eye can see and is filled with wild fruit trees like mangos, bananas, and avocados. Pretty much paradise..minus the billion mosquitos!
Our first week and a half of ministry was spent helping set up and run a summer youth camp for 80+ crazy Dominicans from ages 12-17. This camp was legit! The theme was lost and found and each day was packed with activities and challenges providing spiritual enrichment, worship and dancing (they go hand in hand in the DR and it’s awesome!), team competitions, traditional dominican meals, and I can’t forget to mention lots of showers!
***Cultural lesson learned about Dominicans; they see bathing as a sign of class and prosperity. If one doesn’t shower 2-3 times a day, they are looked down upon and seen as poor. This was really interesting to me because many of our kids came from the dumps, but were still very adamant about taking multiple showers a day.
God has blessed me with a gift and passion for children, but I still faced many challenges during this week. The biggest struggle was the language barrier. The majority of the campers didn’t speak ANY English!!! Getting them to go to bed was a battle in itself…reaching their hearts and telling them about our loving Savior seemed like an impossible task.
But to my amazement, through tons of hugs and affection, my small spanish vocabulary, the help of a few translators, and with what I’m convinced were very entertaining charades conversations, my squad and I were able to build real relationships with the teens and see many of them come to know Christ for the first time!
It wasn’t until it was time to say goodbye and tears uncontrollably streamed down our faces, that I realized how much work God had done through and in all of us in just one week. This camp was more than just a sweet break from a world of poverty, corruption, and brokenness for these kids. It was a week filled with the loving presence and revival of Jesus Christ that they may never get to experience again.
I can only hope and pray that the seeds we planted in their precious hearts will continue to grow so they can shine brightly in the darkness that surrounds them!
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on it’s stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. -Matthew 5:14-16
