Hola from the beautiful Dominican Republic! It is a sunny
75-80 degrees here, and full of life and love! For the month of January, my
team is working in a small community called Las Latas. This neighborhood is
full of drugs and alcohol, fighting, and sexual impurity. But buried in the
heart of it is a church, led by Pastor Raphael. This church is fairly new, and
has about 14 members involved. Our team has been asked to come in and work with
the children of the neighborhood, as well as hold church services every night.
Recently God has been teaching me the meaning of joy and how
to find true joy in Him no matter what the situation. The joy of a child is
like no other. Yesterday during our children’s ministry, the kids broke out
into song that we could not contain. Not that we would want to anyway! But the
girls kept asking, “Can I sing a song?? Can I sing one now??” And thus started
the hour of music! During this, a little girl named Crystal who is three years
old started dancing in the middle of all the chaos. I could not take my eyes
off of her. She was dancing like no one was watching her, just twirling and
stepping to the beat. I got up to dance with her and immediately she became
very quiet and shy, suddenly not knowing how to dance.
How many times in our spiritual walk do we do this? We think
no one is watching and we are free to praise God, dancing in His presence and
shouting from the rooftops about His love. But as soon as we realize people are
watching, we freeze up and act like we suddenly forgot the joy that comes from
God and fills our life, causing us to dance with no inhibitions.
Our teams have been talking about expectations, and how we
want to follow God with our entire lives, but we care too much about what it
might look like that we don’t fully surrender. But why do we care? As a
Christian, we are called to stand out and people should notice our differences. 
So why are we so concerned with making sure we will be accepted with our faith?
I want to live my life where people visibly see the joy that I have, a joy that
comes only from God. A joy that people are envious of, and are forced to
question. A joy that is so contagious that it touches everyone I come in
contact with. And I don’t care what that might look like. Do you?
2 Corinthians 5:7 “We live by faith, not by sight.”
