When I was a kid, my mom used to let me and my brothers sit in the back of her Jeep Cherokee, with the back hatch door open, dangling our feet out while we drove about a mile to our neighborhood pool. As a 24 year old adult, I had a similar experience riding in the back of an old rickety truck to our ministry site. Promptly arriving 15 minutes late, (Dominicans keep their own clock) our Pastor contact Manuel picked us up from our casa at 9:15 in a two-seater truck with 2 translators, and his son and his son’s friend. Keep in mind their are 7 people on our team, and we all have to get to this location in one trip on a two-seater truck. Needless to say, about 9 pasty white Americans piled into the bed of his truck to make our trek to this tiny village in the Dominican mountains. I honestly still can’t remember the name of this village, and as soon as I remember it I’ll let you know ;).
Climbing into the truck, a certain memory of when I decided to jump out of my mom’s moving Jeep onto the pavement creeped in my brain. I quickly dismissed the idea, knowing that jumping out of the truck for kicks and giggles probably wouldn’t leave a very good first impression. And let me just tell you, man am I glad I stayed in the back of that truck because God had something in store for all of us that day. As we rode along the highway with the wind smacking my runaway hairs in my face, I saw the most beautiful landscape of green mountains I think I’ve ever seen in my life. God breathed and out poured this lush greenery capped with fluffy white clouds and peppered with neighing goats clopping along the mountain. I’m bringing my camera tomorrow, and as soon as I upload some pictures, I’ll post them for you all to see this magnificent sight.
A little bit after we traveled down the highway, we forked off onto a dirt road which led us to our village. Bumping along the road, we passed fields of corn, immense mango trees, and rode through a tiny river to our little pueblo (Spanish word for town). When we arrived at our ministry site, Manuel parked the truck right in front of his church. A humble site to our eyes, but a palace to his. His church actually used to be a bar/club and thanks to Manuel, the people of this certain village now have a place to come and worship our mighty Father.
For the first couple of days, Pastor Manuel wanted to take us on house visits to meet the people of the church, and to visit the sick of the village. These people live in the slums of the slums. Its a farming community, (you would have LOVED it mom!) and most of the people here live in thatched roofs with dirt floors, sparse wood walls and blankets strewn across the wood to protect them from the rain. Chickens, pigs, goats, and any farm animal you could imagine rome around carefree in and around these people’s living quarters.
Manuel grew up in this village, and still has family living here and knows the people very well. It was so beautiful to see him interact with his church family and how full his heart is for this community.
We traveled throughout the village all day, visiting the homes of these people and telling them about our mission, the activities we have planned for their children, and the services for the adults. We were also able to pray over a lot of the sick and provide basic medical knowledge for their ailments, because most of the sickness’ we saw could easily be cured if the people had a simple education. We were also able to bring food to this one older man, Raphael, who couldn’t walk because of atrophy in his legs. One of my teammates, Colby, was able to work with him and show his some exercises that can help him walk again. It was a proud moment for me, to see my team step up to the plate and love on this man who probably never sees who cares enough to even touch him.
It was quite a humbling couple of days, but I’m excited to return to these homes and share with them my testimony. We are building some awesome relationships here in the DR, and I can’t wait to see what is to come!
