Life in the D.R. has been a hot mess and a beautiful experience all at the same time.
After a couple days of debrief, we traveled up the mountains to Rancho Los Pilones, a beautiful house in the middle of the jungle surrounded by cascading mountains and luscious greenery. The Dominguez family, our hosts for the month, welcomed our Aladian-Magic Carpet looking busses with big smiles and we started to unload our oversized backpacks and sweaty bodies. We were directed to the area where we would be setting up our tents; which included a hike down slippery steep rock stairs and a path alongside the chicken coop. However, I was excited about the chance to try out my tent and experience this thing called camping. That dream was quickly interrupted by the pelts of rain that came crashing down as I scrambled to get my tent up and my stuff covered from the rain. Crisis one averted.
The allure of tent life quickly wore off after I found ants eating through my tent and my legs consistently feel asleep at night due to the incline my sleeping was on. Regardless, I was excited to start ministry. Our original thought was that we would be teaching English to children living in the dump city for the month. But, when we were given the schedule for the month my team was mostly on grounds duty. This month was all squad month, which meant we have all 47 people together and since my team has a lot of guys, grounds was going to be a common event. I breathed in and then out (ok maybe a couple times) and made the decision to “choose joy.” The first week’s work consisted of digging rocks out of the waterfall lagoon and carrying them in small jugs up 2 steep and slippery hills to make a path. Also, we were to carry large rocks to mark the path’s border. All this was to be done in the hot sun and I was sick with a cold. Although it was difficult, my team and I still chose joy. Crisis two handled.
After a couple more days of doing the same manual labor of carrying rocks to various places on the grounds, I began to question what my purpose was. When I signed up for the race, I definitely didn’t have this in mind. I could overhear the other teams playing games with the kids in English class or seeing them worship together before prayer walks and I had doubts that the Lord wanted me to be carrying rocks all day. I even asked Him if he got my team mixed up with another because I´m pretty good with kids. He told me there wasn´t a mix up 🙂 I confided in my team about my frustrations. I told them that I didn’t feel useful and I couldn’t see why God would bring me all the way to the Dominican Republic to make walking paths. Thank God for a team who hears from the Lord! They began to encourage me about my value on my team and how our job might not be glamorous but it was still kingdom minded.
You see, the Dominquez family has a BIG vision for this property. They want to build a home for orphans, a retreat center for Pastors to come and find respite, and a place where more teams can come and minister. We were the first large team they were hosting and the property needed a lot of features added to be able to host more. Our job was to prepare the beginning stages so these big projects could come to fruition.
While, manual labor for days on end wasn’t what I had in mind for this 11 month adventure, it’s exactly what God had in mind. He called me to the Dominican Republic for this purpose. I had to learn that ministry isn’t always going to look like I expected or even wanted. It might be dirty and tiring and there might not even be a clear purpose. However, if the Lord asks me to sling around in the goose poop and haul large rocks up and down slippery paths then I will say “yes.” If I am called to carry rocks then carry rocks I shall.
