Jessica: Being a Baby

During my second week here a couple of my friends gave me some very sound advice about starting missionary work that I have held onto these past couple weeks.  People here have seen many missionaries pass through this town doing many different things and making many different decisions.  I had never thought about it before, but it makes sense that the local people could actually have some very wise things to say about how to be a successful missionary in their area, after witnessing so many examples, both good and bad.  Amid the laughter and conversation one of my friends suddenly became very serious and told me that I needed to learn how to walk here before I could start to run.  My other friend corrected him.

 “You need to crawl before you can even walk,” he told me.  I laughed and agreed, telling them that I was a baby here.  They went on to caution me that I should let them help me learn how to crawl and walk and eventually run so that I learn the best way to minister to people here.  They told me they have seen missionaries try to run right into the activities they wanted to do before taking things slow and getting adjusted, and that it usually doesn’t end well. 

While this is solid advice, it’s not the advice I wanted to hear.  I hate beginning things; I just want to jump right in and start doing all the big dreams I have in my head.  But as much as I hate to admit it, they are right.  Even after a month of being here, I am still very much a baby in this city and in this culture.  This is hard to admit to myself because I’m supposed to be the missionary, right?  I’m the one who’s supposed to serve people and show them God’s love, that’s why I came!  But a baby isn’t really good for much, except for maybe a smile and an occasional (or frequent) mess to clean up.  Thank God I have friends here who are willing to clean up my messes and pick me up when I trip over my clumsy baby feet and fall.  Our friends wouldn’t even let us pick up a jar of peanut butter without coming with us to make sure we were ok.  These weeks would have been very hard without their support. 

You know what else a baby does?  A baby learns.  And I have been learning that I still have so much to learn, about everything really, but especially about God’s love and showing it to others.  Here are a few things I have learned about love since being here:

•  Love means going to the supermarket five times in one week and standing patiently while the Americans try to convert pesos to dollars to find the best deal on corn flakes.
• Love means my friend Ariel giving me the bigger piece of cardboard to put over my head to shield myself from the rain storm on the back of our truck. 
•  Love means our friends (and people we had just met) bringing us meals 4 days in a row because they knew our stove wasn’t working yet. 
•  Love means our pastor giving us a brand new hymnal so we could follow along during service, and assuring us every week that he was available for anything we may need.
•  But above all love means sacrifice, whether of time, resources, energy, or anything.  I can’t even begin to add up the hours my friends have sacrificed here to help us get settled.  When I think back and picture them talking and laughing in our kitchen as they taught us how to fry plantains, or with a broom in hand scrubbing everything that would stand still in our new house that we moved into last week, or just coming over to make sure we don’t need anything, I get overwhelmed by the amount of love they have for us, and the love that God is showing us through them.  I feel the same way about our supporters back home.  I feel the love and sacrifice from every person who has donated to our ministry, lifted up a prayer for my family, or sent us an encouraging message. 

 I may just be a baby right now, but every experience and every person I have behind me makes me stronger.  Even as I write this I feel myself beginning to take my first few toddling steps on the path God has laid out before me.  I can go forth confidently because I know I have so many people ready to catch me if I fall down.  I hope the next time God calls you to begin something new that you will embrace your time as a “baby,” and use it to learn and to grow.  And I hope you have as much support as I do.  Thank you, God, for blessing my family and me with such a wonderful support team.  Only through all of us can we turn the Dominican Republic upside down.

Let’s do this.

Lisa--"Let the little children come unto me..."

This is my first blog since we have moved here.  What an amazing 3 weeks it has been.  From starting out at the wrong airport, taking multiple forms of transportation, arriving to a place we thought we were going to stay and then moving again this weekend to a new home--pretty incredible.  Well, to get the housekeeping stuff out of the way let me tell you about our new home.  After being here for a couple of weeks the Lord directed us to a new home and we moved in over the weekend.  It is a very nice place with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with running water.  All that aside, we all feel this is where the Lord wants us to be for our ministry as well as our family.  Side note--pray for Marty and Jess today.  They are riding in the back of the truck giving out rice and beans and it is pouring down rain. I just learned that May is the wettest month here in Barahona, who knew?

God has been doing some pretty amazing things in our family since we left Maryland.  We have so felt all of your love and support throughout this whole process and are so blessed by each of you.  We have met some amazing people here as well as grown closer to the friends we knew here before.  One of the most blessed times I had with the Lord was one day last week when Marty and Jess were working and it was just me at the old house.  I was resting in bed--probably after doing laundry or something, I am sure--and listening to the sounds around me.  The electricity was turned off so I could really hear all the different sounds.  If I closed my eyes I could have been anywhere in the world.  I heard the sounds of cars, trucks and motorcycles coming and going, the birds and the dogs (and a few roosters and goats).  But the main thing I heard was the children and the women outside.  The kids were playing, the women were talking, cooking, doing laundry and everything else we do every day.  It all sounded so normal.  God showed me 2 things that day.  All of us, especially us moms, want the same thing for our children whether we are here in the DR or anywhere else in the world.  We want them to be happy, cared for and loved.  That looks different in different places around the world but the feelings are the same.  We met a woman last week who was living in a very small home with her husband and her 10 children as well as some of grandchildren and in-laws.  She was so gracious and was willing to stop her daily routine (she was doing laundry, I think all by hand too) to offer me a chair and asked me if I wanted to sit and stay.  Community is very important here and nothing that anyone is doing is more important than the person who appears at their door.  I have thought back to the times in my life when I thought I was doing something important and was interrupted and how annoyed I got.  God spoke to my heart that day and showed me that nothing is more important than our relationships with others and we need to cultivate that whenever it is presented.  Even if it is not the best time for us--or so we may think.

The second thing God showed me that day was about the children. We all know that Jesus loved and loves the children of this world.  They came to him with no expectations, no thought of what He could do for them, they just came.  Innocent and accepting--such simple faith.  Many years ago a friend of ours asked me about my faith.  I guess my answer, which I don't remember, must have been too simple for him. He told me that I had the faith of a child and I should know and do more.  Back then I was probably insulted.  Today, I would be blessed by that response and I am hopeful that when the Lord looks at me and my heart,  He sees me, loving Him and coming to him just for who He is and not for what He can do for me.

I want to have the faith of a child, that my Jesus will take care of me and I don't need to worry about anything because He's got this!  What a relief.  And also that I remember the gift of hospitality and that nothing is more important than the person the Lord places before me at that moment. 

Marty: "And surely I am with you always...."

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

—Matthew 28:19-20

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you read Jessica’s entertaining post last week about our major airport mix-up that led to an unnecessarily adventurous travel experience. (If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so… it will be well worth the few minutes invested!). Even now as I reflect on the day, I shake my head in disbelief that I would make such a huge oversight. Oh, the night we spent in the Santo Domingo Airport will not soon be forgotten. Thankfully, that day (well, it was technically 36 hours) is behind us. Wednesday afternoon marked the completion of our first week living in the Dominican Republic. And that’s what I’d like to share in the remainder of today’s post.

Many of you have served on one or more mission trips. Several reading this have probably served on one or more trips with The Least of These Ministries. Those with mission trip experience know that there is a certain structure to the week, and to each day within the week. A typical day's schedule may look something like this: On Monday we meet for devotions and breakfast at 7:00, and then leave for the work site at 8:00, etc. Granted, some teams are more rigidly structured and some more loosely. Not surprisingly, living here is quite different. We arrived in Barahona on Wednesday around 4 PM. We didn't really have our first meal until dinner on Thursday, after visiting the super market. Those who know me know that’s significant!

As we planned for this move, we knew the culture change would not be easy; we knew there would be bumps along the way; and we knew that we would face unexpected challenges (bucket showers & bucket-flushing, a bat in the bedroom, a flat tire…). But until we began unpacking and setting up ‘home’ in our bunk-room, we didn't know what really to expect.

Our first week has been a time of reunion with friends, meeting new friends, learning, making mistakes, driving in a familiar, but not well-known area, making a new home, and enjoying a lot of time with one another. Jessica has been coaching Lisa and me as we go through Spanish lessons – something we are able to do, now that we have much time to devote to it. Lisa is making new friends and reaching out to other ministries in the area. Jessica and I went out on The Least of These Ministries truck to assist Ariel and Miguel with food distribution in four bateys (villages). It’s been a busy week, which seems to have flown by.

Despite the challenges that have faced us throughout our first week, Jesus has repeatedly shown us that He was here before us, and He is here with us, and we need only to obediently join Him in His work here. He continues to reassure us that He will lead us, strengthen us, calm us, and work through us, when we surrender to His will. Here are some ways Jesus has revealed Himself to us this week:

- A friendly Dominican woman who seemed to be looking out for us on the bus trip from Santo Domingo to Barahona.

- Ariel bringing the truck we are using to the place we are staying, on the night of our arrival (The alternative here was for me to be driven – on the back of a motorcycle – to pick the truck up the next morning. Thank you, Jesus, for sparing me that ride!).

- The gift of an ice cold grape soda from Pastor Ramón after a hot day on the back of a truck.

- An impromptu dinner party with seven local friends after an afternoon of delightful conversation.

- A seventeen-year-old boy greeting us every day and asking if there was anything he could do to help us.  There usually was.

We are blessed to be a part of what God is doing here, and look forward to more surprises to come. Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement.

Dios te bendiga!