Day 5 - Jarabacoa, DR

Day 5 - New Year's Day 2009. We drove 2.5 hours to the interior mountains of the Jarabacoa region in central Dominican Republic to visit another faith community amidst a beautiful pastoral setting.

Joaquin, our trip leader who is a Dominican-born American citizen, warned us that it might be cold in the mountains. Most of us on the trip live at around 6,000 ft. elevation near Denver, Colorado

 and scoffed at the notion. As it turned out, the weather changed abruptly during our ascent 

from a balmy 80 degrees F at sea level to a brisk 79 in the mountains (plus or minus a few degrees).

Upon emptying the bus and joining with some new guides, our group of now 35ish grabbed chairs from the church building and hoofed them down a dirt path to a home that was under construction where our hosts graciously served us an authentically Dominican stew lunch with rice, roots and chicken. The food was delicious...even the kids liked it, with not a single chicken nugget to be found for miles!

After lunch we walked back up the trail, taking in the sights of the rural community along the way. Use of the outhouse turned out to be optional for most people who were in favor of waiting for cleaner alternatives back down the road. 

Our group must have been an odd diversion for the locals this New Year's Day. We were told that this community likely never had American visitors there before. We must have been quite a sight! 

We gathered back in the rustic church building -- a rented chicken coop. No kidding! Complete with dirt floors, the building is constructed with rough-hewn wall slats with ample spacing between them to afford good ventilation through the walls! I'm not sure this was their ideal, but one can imagine that this would be a rather handy feature for any church where 100+ people gather in a small space in a tropical environment. We were there in the middle of winter. I'm told that the DR can get unpleasantly humid during the summers.

Pastor Andre Lara planted this church about 3 years ago, beginning with a small Bible study for a handful of villagers. Andre shared his story about how he ran away from home at the age of 13 when he learned that neither of the two women living with his father were Andre's mother. After a couple of weeks he ended up at a fire station, where the motto is "to save lives and property." The firefighters saved Andre's life -- he was raised by them for four years, as nobody ever claimed him. After finishing school, he worked as a firefigher himself for a few years.

We fell into a stunned silence as Andre shared the details of his life and his heart for serving this community in Jarabacoa. Children in the community have very limited schooling options available to them. Out of his own funds, Andre pays for several children to attend school down the mountain road. He also pays for their bus transportation to get to school and back.

His bride of a few months plans to start a pre-school in the church building. But funds are very tight. They must leave the building -- yes, the rented converted chicken coop -- by May 1 this year if they do not come up with the year's rent of about US$800. 

Throughout this trip I was struck by how far just a little money can go in these impoverished communities. These people live on so little. And yet they are joyful and graciously welcomed us into their midst. It was truly humbling.

There is much in the developing world that evokes echoes of other times and other places. For the modern first world traveler, visiting these places and engaging these people enables us to explore and wrestle with the timeless wisdom of the ancients in a fresh way. 

Take for example, a situation that Paul of Tarsus wrote about in the first century to a reasonably well-off group of people who lived neart Athens, Greece. A famine had struck the land east of the Mediterranean Sea, about 1,000 miles away, and many poor people in the region were struggling to survive. Paul was organizing a collection of money to deliver to these beleaguered people who shared the same faith. Paul extended an opportunity to this Greek community to live out their faith in a tangible, helpful way that he knew would be a blessing to the givers, too. Here's an excerpt from that letter:

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: "The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little."

- 2 Corinthians 8:13-15 (TNIV)

I live with excess -- food, clothing, gadgets, entertainment...stuff. My sense is that Paul's call to the people living in Corinth to share some of their extra with people in need, is a valid call to me, to us, as well. It's easy for many of us North Americans to avoid seeing or hearing about such needs. I suspect it was even easier for the Corinthians as they had lots of excess in their city, without the benefit of global instant communication to graphically inform them of what was going on so far away.

May we be ever thankful and wise stewards of that which has been entrusted to our care as we seek to be rich toward God.

If you would like to help make a difference in the lives of these wonderful people in the Dominican Republic, please consider a gift to Missions Door. 

Servants of Villa Hermosa

Courageous. Loving. Visionary. Responsive. Humble.

These are but some of the words that describe the servant-leaders we met who have sacrificed to minister to the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of people in some out-of-the-way places that we visited in Republica Dominican. 

These people work together. Really together. And sacrificially. Their stories are powerful examples of service, commitment and responding to a call.

Lupita Gonzales (left) visited these communities in 2004 on a "vision trip" from her home in Nogales, Mexico and decided to move to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to join the team as a teacher and children's/youth minister.

Alba Estevez (right) is a medical doctor who joined the ministry team about five years ago and runs a community health program, providing health check-ups and visits, vaccinations and hygiene and birth control training for people in various outlying and rural communities in the DR.

Jose and Carmen Rodriguez (left) have been the heart and soul of the church, school and water purification plant in Villa Hermosa since their inception a few years ago. These modest facilities are like a community center, or the city gate in ancient times, as Agua Bendicion (the water store, literally, "Blessing Water") does a very brisk business, attracting young children, grandfathers, single mothers, twenty-somethings, the local robust retired army general, the 94-year-old woman who lives across the unpaved street and anyone else looking to fill their 5-gallon water bottle with clean drinking water. Pastor Jose knows just about everyone who comes along and he greets them all with a hearty smile and a warm greeting, even at the end of a very long day of wearing multiple hats -- mason, laborer, program director, children herder, VBS emcee and gracious host to our group of American volunteers.

Jose earned a university degree and had a good career as a manager at a ceramics manufacturing company. His story is truly inspiring. To hear him tell it (via Andy, our trusty translator) and to see his emotion and humility was for me, a special moment. His life was transformed by a message of hope -- found in the person of Jesus -- a message that he initially resisted hearing. He actually threw rocks at Joaquin, the pastor who started a church and school (and eventually a water purification plant) in another part of Santo Domingo where Jose used to live. Jose and many others actively, and sometimes violently, worked against Joaquin's efforts to share this message and plant this church.

Once transformed, Jose brought this message of hope -- God making things right -- to the people of Villa Hermosa, taking his daily lunch breaks from his job to walk down the sometimes muddy road into the nearby community of the poor and forgotten. 

Joaquin (right) and Jose (middle) have since reconciled and are now friends and ministry partners working together to help others. Jose has passed the torch to Juniel (left), entrusting the care of these people, their church, school and water plant to this young man. Jose and Carmen's future plans are to push about 20 km further into Villa Hermosa and begin anew because Jose's heart is to be at the frontier of transforming lives, transforming communities with good news and the accompanying abundant life of social, spiritual, emotional and physical healing.

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

- Proverbs 25:25

I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

- Jesus

Blessings! More later at http://dominicanproject.blogspot.com

Kids' Perspective of Villa Hermosa

Straight from our children's lips come their stories about their experience in Villa Hermosa.

C (8 years old):

I liked playing baseball, and I really liked meeting Jeffrey (our bus driver's 18-year-old son), and I especially liked working - it was really fun.

Me and J were really tired, so we took a nap one day. I was sleeping and I heard a blow on me and I was wondering what it was. It was Antonio, so I woke up and he took my hat. I was running after him to try to get it. So we were running around chasing each other playing tag. At the end of our last day there, I gave Antonio my Colorado Rockies hat since he really liked it.

Mommy handed me the camera so I took pictures of him and he kept on wanting me to take more and pointed to things for me to take pictures of.

One day, Antonio said my name and pointed out the rest of the (American) people and knew many of their names, but I had to help him with some of their names. I thought it was cool that he wanted to get to know the people from our church group.

Every day we played baseball. On Tuesday, I played baseball and I was trying to scootch up to hit, and another kid said "after me" in a little bit of English. So after him I tried to go up to bat, but there was a 15-year old girl there and she went up before me.  When she swung really hard it hit my back a little bit and so my back was sore from that day on.

E (10 years old):

I liked making friends. One of the really cool friend experiences for me was this little girl named Dana. She was sitting all by herself and she looked bored and sort of sad. So I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of her and she said "no," but since I said it in English I figured she didn't understand so I took a picture of her anyway and showed it to her. Then she was really excited when she saw it so I let her use my camera and she took pictures -- lots of pictures and she really liked it. On all the days after that, she would find me and give me a hug. So we became really good friends, even though she's just six years old.

The kids came early for VBS on Monday so they started playing in the side yard of the church. I thought it was a good time to take pictures so all these kids came up and wanted me to take their picture and show it to them. A girl named Michelle wanted to take a picture of me with some of her friends and she took a lot of pictures with my camera. When she gave it back to me she said "thank you" in English. She started talking to me and so we talked and became friends and played together the rest of the days and tried to communicate.

On Sunday, we had lunch with a family and I got to know the little boy named Antonio. The next day I was carrying Dana on my back and Antonio remembered me and called me by my name. So I said "hola" and I thought it was really cool that he recognized me.

On Sunday, they gave us little paper presents that say "God Loves You" in Spanish and I thought it was really nice of them to make those for us. Even though they don't have very much, they made something for us and that showed me that they really cared about us and were thankful that we were there.

I liked it when Lorena braided my hair. On the first day she braided K's hair. I really liked that so mommy told her that, so she braided my hair on Wednesday and she braided mommy's hair, too.

On the last day when we got on the bus, we hadn't even left Villa Hermosa yet and I already missed the people.

I really want to go back!

Kids of Villa Hermosa - Part 2

Several people from our team helped host a 3-day Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the kids in Villa Hermosa, as they too were on Christmas break from school. During the mornings, various members of our team prepared crafts and activities for the 2-plus-hour afternoon VBS sessions. 

In the hours leading up to the start time of the program, dozens of kids came early to play and watch what was going on with the construction project. It was very much a thriving community center for many kids and several adults, too, except that there were virtually none of the amenities that North Americans typically associate with such a place, save for some improvised toys and games -- often the best way for kids to have fun from any culture!

Groups of kids rotated, en masse, between various stations for different activites such as organized games, crafts, a Bible story and snacks. We brought craft supplies, prizes, candy and balls from the U.S. for the kids to enjoy.

We had been told to plan for about 100 kids, so we brought goodies for 120. 

The first day about 150 kids showed up, the next day approximately 220 kids, and around 240 on the final day. Our crew bought more supplies and improvised rather creatively so that everyone had craft material to use. Imagine the chaotic scene at the end of the day when winning ticket holders were called to receive prizes! Ay caramba!

Kids of Villa Hermosa

Meet Jose Ramon.

Jose lives in Villa Hermosa, a forgotten community far beyond the city limits of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was one of the kids playing stickball on our Day One visit.

On Day Two, Monday morning, our group arrived onsite ready to put our backs into the building project, our hearts in the children's Vacation Bible School (VBS) and to contribute in any way we could.

Jose came up and pointed at me and made a bat-swinging motion, indicating (without words) that he recognized me as having taken a few swings at stickball Sunday afternoon. Giving him the only reasonable response, I said: "Si. You know Sammy Sosa?" parading my knowledge of one of Dominican's most famous professional baseball players. He nodded affirmatively and enthusiastically. I said, pointing to myself, "That's me!" To which he responded "Albert Pujols, me!" pointing to himself as one of baseball's best players and most feared hitters, also a Dominican. And thus started a friendship that was renewed similarly each day thereafter, each time with slightly more Spanish on my part.

The boy on the left in this picture is the son of the foreman on our construction project, Pablo. Each of the Americans brought gloves to work with the gravel, cement, cement blocks, shovels, etc. None of the Dominicans who we worked with had any, though we brought extras to give to those who wanted to use them.

We offered gloves to the pastors and others from the village who worked with us up on the roof of the building project. One of the Dominican boys received a pair of gloves. Later, the foreman's son, who's no more than 8 years old, asked me for gloves. I was fresh out, and looking around and seeing none available, I said in my finest Spanish, "we don't have any more," or something hopefully close to that. 

An hour later he was back on the roof, undeterred, where some serious heavy lifting and cement-slinging was going on. He showed off his newly acquired pair of gloves to me with a big grin. Every time we met thereafter, that day and following, he would proudly show me the pair of oversized brown gloves engulfing his hands, to which I usually responded, "Que bueno!"

It was delightful to see our American kids enthusiastically helping out with construction and VBS, working and playing together with Dominican kids, adults, with whomever and at whatever.

The children made many new friends in Villa Hermosa. My daughter (10) insists that she will never forget our trip and that it was the best trip ever! My son (8) reports two thumbs (and two feet) way up!

Tune in for more ("manana" -- some time) at http://dominicanproject.blogspot.com

Gracias,

Neighborhood of Villa Hermosa

Three impressions of our mission/service project trip stand out for me: the neighborhood, the kids and the servant-leaders. I'll save the latter two for posts in the near future. First, a sense of the setting for the stories of these people is in order.

Day One, Sunday. Our group of 25 attended a church service in Villa Hermosa in a simple one-room building, no more than 20 feet x 20 feet. We consumed half of the real estate inside the building creating a standing-room-only scenario for the regulars. During typical weekdays, it is home to a school where six teachers share space in the school house and the back covered "patio." It was the most plain church or school building I'd seen, aside from the historical landmarks displayed by preservation societies in old towns in the U.S. But the week was young. A more primitive house of worship was yet to bless us.

Situated on a dirt road thoroughfare (a clearing that formerly served as the railway through a plantation), the property where we were to spend many of our waking hours is a ten-minute drive from the main road. But what a difference those ten (or so) minutes make. Within a few hundred yards of the main road leading from the city of Santo Domingo, the scene changes dramatically as Villa Hermosa overtakes the first-time visitor.

I would later find out that the most "affluent" families in this area live on about US$3.00 per day. Families here, many of them headed by single mothers, often stretch their budgets by eating a single meal per day. Fresh fruits or vegetables are typically limited to what can be found growing on nearby banana, coconut or citrus trees or other plants.

A vendor drives around the neighborhood in a small truck offering oranges and vegetables to those who can periodically afford them. The most substantial houses are constructed of cinder block and metal roofs. Many are built from assorted lumber scraps.

After the church service, each of the American families were invited to join a host family for lunch. Our missions coordinator had sent money ahead of us for these families to buy provisions for this meal. Otherwise, to feed one family for lunch according to our North American standards, could be about 2-3 weeks' wages for a family. 

Our meal was delicious and our hosts were very gracious as we muddled through a conversation using all 18 words of Spanish that we know. They knew even less English -- all part of the fun! Hanging sheets served as walls that divided the sleeping quarters from the cooking/eating area. The floor was partly tiled, partly dirt. Somehow, the home had electricity.

As lunch ended, a stickball game caught our attention from the muddy-dusty street outside. The boys use 1.5-inch diameter sticks or PVC pipe for bats and a cap from a 5-gallon water bottle for the ball. The pitcher had excellent control with lots of "stuff" to make the disc "ball" execute various aerial maneuvers before crossing the strike zone. How hard is that to hit?! 

These kids love baseball. It's not the national passtime; rather, it's the national passion. Some of us joined in the fun. 

(We brought 120 baseballs to hand out to the kids on Day Four...

and yours truly hit the bottle cap!)

Stay tuned at http://dominicanproject.blogspot.com/ for more about our trip.

Greetings from... Colorado

Greetings from... well, we're back in Colorado. My apologies for not posting while in the Dominican Republic. Our schedule was packed and left no time for posting. I will periodically post a few stories and pictures over the next several days to give you a glimpse into our experience and the lives of the people we encountered while serving and coming alongside them.

Grace and Peace,