I’m in Haiti now, but I realize I didn’t blog too much about our time in the DR. It is a very physically beautiful country. There are gorgeous mountains and white pebble beaches with warm turquoise water. Sadly, we were a 2.5 hour bus ride away from those awesome beaches, so we only went once; but it was glorious none the less.
Our first month didn’t really feel like the world race to me. We lived in a big house with 2 other teams. We cooked all of our meals in a full kitchen, had running water downstairs, 4 bathrooms, 3 showers (only 1 had running water, but still), 4 upstairs bedrooms with balconies, a bigger room downstairs full of bunk beds, electricity most of the time, and plenty of room outside to hang out. We were in a nice part of town in San Juan. A few senators lived nearby and we could safely walk around at night. I guess God was easing us into the race in giving us a more comfortable place to stay. I also got to shower almost everyday…whether cold bucket showers or cold showers out of the trickling faucet, for which I am VERY thankful because I am fond of being as clean as possible.
Ministry wasn’t ideal, but Pastor Manuel was super sweet and really good to us. He called us his adoptive daughters and we called him Papi…which I’m fairly certain is the Dominican term for “Daddy.” Manuel and his family made the month so much better than it would’ve been. He let us be more relational in door to door ministry and he opened up his home to us almost every night so we could use his internet. They made dinner for us one night and smoothies another. If it was raining, he would randomly drive over and pick us up to come over. He even drove across town to take us home one night when we got stuck in an epic downpour. He always wanted us around.
Even though door to door was hard for us, a few people did come to know Jesus and we could see that their lives truly changed because of Him. Stella is a single mother from Haiti with 3 young kids…2 boys and a girl. We met her our first week in Las Charcas when she welcomed us into her yard. She was very sad because every day is a battle for her to find food and income to support her children. The older boy was eating leaves off of a tree for lunch that day. We told her why we were there and what we were doing in the community and through that she wanted Jesus. Me being the skeptic about how much people understand through the translation and if people are just trying to give us what they think we want so we will leave them alone, I wondered if she truly had let Jesus in. But we saw her the next day and she was beaming from ear to ear. Jesus radically transformed her life and gave her joy in the midst of her circumstances. Her kids came to children’s ministry every weekend and they were always at church. They were the most behaved kids in the community and were so sweet. They don’t have a lot; the older boy wears shoes a few sizes too big for him and pants 7 or 8 inches too short with a little girls sweater, and the baby has a shirt that he will still be able to wear in 5 years; I wanted so bad to give them everything they needed financially, but I don’t have the resources to do that. This has been hard for us. We don’t have the budget to give people money for their problems even though we care and want them to be taken care of. I think this is God really stretching us to rely on him. Because no amount of money we could give them would last forever. God is their creator and provider. I need to learn to pray into that and have more faith in God. God does provide for His children; He is a good daddy and He is holding Stella and her family closer than I ever could. The church community seems to have adopted them too, so they now have an active community around them.
No, I wouldn’t choose the ministry we did in the DR, but Stella and her family and the others we met and got to know and love were worth every bit of being uncomfortable and awkward. I will carry them forever. God is good and He can work with what we give him.
Stella's oldest son
Stella's daughter
