Diamond in the Dominican
When I was 7 years old I was in a car accident. I banged my head on the seat infront of me, my mother and brother were in the car too but everyone was alright. I remember I was scared, crying and cold. One of the firefighters on scene wrapped me in a blanket, gave me a teddy bear (Which I named and still have to this day) and told me everything was going to be alright. Looking back at this moment I could see how God had hugged me and showed me love through this unsuspecting firefighter.
In the Dominican Republic this month we did a lot of physical labour including building roads, stairs, digging a sewage hole and various other construction jobs. Another amount of our time was spent teaching children ages 4-14 how to speak English. I struggled this month with not being able to make many friendships and minister to locals because of safety concerns. Teaching small children English didn’t feel like I was making a difference.
God immediately spoke to me and started reminding me of special memories of love in my childhood. When someone older showed me love when they could just as easily ignored me. I don’t remember many moments as a child but those moments of love were like diamonds, that I will never forget.
Here are a few of the moments in the Dominican that I hope the children we taught this month will remember the love of God by.
Ashley
Ashley is a 5 year old girl that I immediately fell inlove with during English class. She was more interested in touching my hair, holding my hand and sitting on me than learning. Throughout the days I took care of her, I would look at her often and say, “Tu eres intelligente, sympatico y importante”(“You are smart, kind, and important”) and she would crinkle her nose at me, smile and say, “Te quiero”(I love/like you).
Ringworm
We were on our way to the children’s center to teach English, when the Pastors son warned my team, “The kids your teaching English today, have ringworm, try not to touch them”. That warning went out the window in the first 10 seconds. Children came flying out of the classrooms and started jumping on our backs and climbing us like trees. The smiles on their faces were priceless and joy filled the room as my team embraced them. These children were used to being rejected and not being touched because of their dirty clothes and evident ringworm. My team discussed what had happened after and we all agreed that showing these children love was worth every ounce of ringworm that we could’ve gotten.(All of us are ringworm free by the way)
I hope that when these children grow older, despite their living conditions, broken families and oppressions that they remember the way God reached out to them.
