The Slums! (Pictures soon I hope!)
Today (July 13th) was the first day of ministry that we had. We basically
got an orientation about what we would be doing and what is and isn’t
acceptable in the Dominican Culture. Today we found out that we would
be in the worst part of San Juan doing VBS, House to House visits, and
Digging Canals.
This area is the worst part of San Juan, the most violence,
drugs, filth, disease, and sickness etc. The whole area is surrounded
by rivers so about every 5 years the rivers over flow and destroy this
little area. Which this area is not owned by anyone that live here,
it is the government’s land and everyone living there is a squatter!
These people have NO WHERE else to go! Over the past few years our
contact has committed his American Life to the Dominican Republic in
San Juan.
He has help to change this slum little by little. He has brought
a church in and has helped to change some of the cultural norms.
However, it is hard to CHANGE an entire culture, change is hardly ever
accepted! The goal/vision for this area is for it to go from the most
violent area (murderer’s, drugs, fights etc.) to the most peaceful.
Huge steps have already been made, even a police station has been set
up and has decreased violence greatly.
Our goal for these next few weeks are to build relationships and
teach people about Jesus. One of our main purposes in this area is to
dig out the canals so that when there is flooding the water won’t sit
and accumulate bacteria and infectious diseases, but run out of the
living quarters and help keep this place as clean/healthy as possible.
As we entered this place we were greeted by SERIOUSLY about 30-40
children who followed us EVERYWHERE and held our hands, jumped on us,
kissed us, played with our bracelets etc. We were told not to let
them play with our hair because we will get lice, don’t put our hands
on our faces cause we could get worms, cover all open wounds so we
don’t get infected, and we have to take two showers a day to scrub
off!
Mosquitoes swarmed around us, we sweated just walking through the
area, garbage was literally everywhere, along with feces, houses were
made with no real structure (what’s the point when every 5 year you
have to rebuild anyways?)….
We’ve decided to pray that God would give us each 2 children to
really invest in over the next few weeks so that we can really connect
with them. Today I met one who I know that God wants me to love on a
ton, her name is Lisa (I’m sure that is not how it is spelt but how it
is said.) This blog is pretty long, so I am going to write another
about Lisa so check out more!
LOVE!
