A Missions Experience!

David A Livermore wrote in his book, Serving with Eyes Wide Open,  "missions is about giving people a living picture of who God is, what God cares about and how God acts." 

From April 24-27, twelve young Dominican leaders and I served together in a Haitian community called Jalonga.  Each day we prayed that as people in that community watched us and listened to us, they would see that God is in control, that God cares about them, and that God is acting on their behalf - He has not forgotten about them!! 

Our work for the four days included children's ministry, construction, relational evangelism and participating in evening church services. 

This was an incredible experience for all of us.  The pastor who received the house was so happy.  The community was encouraged.  We made new friends.  And, we learned more about missions and about working together as a team.  We are all so thankful to God and to everyone in the US and in the DR who participated and made it possible for us to serve like this. 

Enjoy the pictures!!
 

This is the church in Jalonga on the left.  We had Bible School for the kids under the mango tree on the right.

Lots of singing and clapping and smiling!

Teaching stories from the Bible.

Reading children's books about David and Goliath!

Coloring!!!



Pretty pictures and pretty smiles!  :)



Red Light - Green Light



This is a "before" picture of the pastor's house.  The house is mostly made of big leaves that fall from the palm trees, and some scrap pieces of wood, tin and cardboard.

This is the inside of the pastor's house.  There were two rooms - one for he and his wife, another for his daughters.  Everything was very tidy! 

This is Pastor Janot with his new house!  The cement floor was poured the next day.

Framing the house.

Look at that teamwork! 

This is one of Pastor Janot's favorite Bible verses.  One of the girls, Clara, wrote the verse out on a piece of wood and hung it in the entrance of his house.  Psalm 121:1-2, "I lift my eyes up to the hills - where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."

Add caption

 



Osram played his saxaphone at the church service on Tuesday.  It was amazing.  This was a special treat for all of us!



We worshipped God in Spanish, Creole and English during this service.  I really enjoyed the service.  I know the community was encouraged by our presence there, too.  The whole night I just imagined God watching us with a big smile on His face!  It's so good to be one of His kids! 

On the last day, we got some of the kids together to help pick up garbage in the community.



The garbage pick-up team!



Each day we assigned a small team of people to just hang out with people in the community - we call it relational evangelism.  They spent time with them, asked questions, listened, learned about the people and their lives, and sometimes they shared about their lives and what God is teaching them.

Carrying water - not an easy task, but look at that smile!!

These are the pastor's neighbors.  They are shucking peas.

 

It really did take a lot of people working together to make this happen!  This was a very special experience for all of us.  Each of the  participants commented about how thankful they were for the opportunity to be a part of this team and to be able to help other people like this.   I have met so many people like them who are more than willing to help.  They will volunteer their time and do whatever they can to help others, but on their own they lack the financial resources to make things like this happen.  I hope we can do more group projects like this in the future.



Going to School!

Colegio Adventista Ebenezer

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to go to school with Natasha, Pastor Carlos' daughter.  A frined, Brianna, from Louisianna went with me.  This is a private Christian school in Hato Mayor.  In the Dominican Republic the students go to school half of the day.  Natasha happens to be in the morning group.  School starts at 8AM and they are finished by 12:30PM. 

A picture of the school building before the students arrive.

  

This is where the students gather for prayer each day.  You can see the doors to the classrooms along the walls on either side.  On Thursday, they had a special activity.  Schools from other communities attended.  It started raining during the program and it was so loud we couldn't hear anything!

A classroom before the students arrive.



The teacher's desk and chalkboard.

All or at least most of the posters in the school are hand-made by students or teachers.  This one is about photosynthesis.



Each morning, the students gather outside and line up with their class.  They raise the flag, sing the national anthem and pray before entering the school.  (Before the students arrive, the teachers gather together in one of the classrooms as well to pray, read the Bible, worship and prepare themselves for the day.)

The students pray and sing in their individual classrooms before the academic lessons begin.

I can't imagine teaching without a computer or a copy machines!  This is Spanish Class.  They are working on their grammar.  The teacher writes the exercises on the board.  The students copy what the teacher writes in their notebooks They write the exercises in pen and the answers in pencil.  It's time consuming for sure!

 





As the students finish, they raise their hand.  The teacher checks their work one at a time.


 

When they finish with the lesson, they record their homework exercises.





This was the second class of the day - Informatica.  It's like a technology class.  There's not a whole lot of technology in this school.  This teacher had the students get in small groups and do a word search, looking for words that you would find on the internet:  Outlook, Netscape, Chat, Yahoo were some of the words on the list.

Around 10:00 we had "snack time!"  This is a little cafeteria where students can buy juice, crackers, cookies and other snacks.

Briana made a friend!

You can see the volleyball court in the distance.  This is where they have Physical Education.  The girls are allowed to wear pants once a week - the day they have Phy-Ed.

There was a special assembly while we were there.  The "seniors" are those in red uniforms.  They led the study body in skits and songs.  I think there were 5 or 6 schools represented.

Then there was a spelling bee.  These are the contestants.

Cuaderno means notebook in Spanish.

The assembly ended with a skit.  The students were getting restless and anxious to get home for lunch!

That was our day at school.  I would have a hard time teaching in this school.  After teaching with computers, worksheets and SMART boards, I think I would get very frustrated with the limited resources.  The cement walls, tin roof and windows opening to the large room, also allowed for a lot of background noise and distractions.  I imagine it would be challenging to keep students' attention, but maybe they are used to it?! 

They have textbooks/workbooks for some of their classes.  I was able to flip through a science book, but I did not see a library in the school.

I think this is one of the better schools in town.  I wonder what the public schools are like.