If I could sum up this village into one word, it would be: COMMUNITY.
Sure, they’re also dedicated, hard working people. Anyone who lives on these mountains has no choice but to operate in this fashion. Not only are their bodies made of steel from hiking everywhere and manually doing their daily tasks with no complaints…(thank God they are patient with us, who after almost a month are still getting used to the raw lifestyle of the mountains)… but more importantly, they represent a strength we Americans often have trouble balancing- healthy community.
It’s amazing how quickly our own culture stands out when we’re in another country. We Americans live by punctuality. Dominicans, and most of the world, live by relationship, which often removes time as a factor. During our house to house ministry, I’ve sometimes noticed in my team the restless tapping of toes, checking our watches for the 15th time, making sure we won’t be late to the next “scheduled event”. Meanwhile, the Dominicans are leisurely enjoying staring at us, answering questions, and offering us more bread and sweetened coffee (I’ve learned to ask for non sweetened coffee- Dominicans are as sweet as can be, both in flavoring their foods and as people). We’ve quickly realized time is not a factor here, and as much as it’s tempting to allow it to itch our skin, the best way to develop relationships with them in order to share God’s love is to adapt to their culture.
For the past several days, people from our contact church have been asking when we are going to visit their home for a meal, almost offended that we haven’t come over yet! We have been welcomed and warmly invited into more homes than we can manage to fit into our weekly routine… and still, we almost daily receive a pot of rice & beans, yuka or some type of “root”, or a bag of fresh bananas at our doorstep. My teammates and I keep saying how spoiled we are- according to Western standards, we might appear to be in “challenged circumstances” without electricity, hot water, or a bed to sleep on, but we truly are treated like kings and queens here.
Though we have less than a week to gaze at the beautiful mountains and people of Los Montacitos, their hospitality has marked an imprint on our hearts that will carry through the rest of this year. The Lord has used my team to encourage and speak life over this village, but they have in return shown us the value of true community- an attribute that has changed the dynamic of my team, as well as us as individuals. As we depart this country to our next destination, Haiti, I pray that God will continue this growth of understanding other cultures and operating fully in their nature as we spread the love of Christ to the nations!
