Lessons from Selenia

Early in March, I had the opportunity to go on a "mission trip" for a week with two other ladies from church.  Pastor Carlos has a small church in La Vega which is about 5 hours west. 

We went to support the pastoral family of that young church. Pastors Nelson and Selenia are pictured here with two of their children: Mayleni and Johann.

Some of you may remember me talking about La Vega in blogs a few years ago. It's been just over two years since Selenia received a call and moved her family from Hato Mayor to La Vega in order to pastor the church there.  It had been vacant for  a few years, and Selenia and her husband got the church started again.  It hasn't been easy, but God is faithful.  They are committed to love and serve this community as long as God allows them.

While we were there, there was a church service each night.  Sometimes inside the church.  Sometimes outside the church.   

Pastors Nelson and Selenia have made friends with other local pastors.  It was neat to see how they've been supporting one another.  A few different times, a pastor from another church came to support Pastors Nelson and Selenia.  One night they did a service together outside in a different neighborhood.  The last night I was there, we attended one of his children's services.

Pastors Nelson and Selenia clearly love and care about the people in their community.

On the last day, we had a special time with some of the children from the neighborhood. 

The  Bible lesson was about the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to look for the 1 lost sheep.  We talked about how Jesus is like this shepherd.  While we were lost, He came to earth to save us. 
We played a little game where the kids pretended to be sheep and Selenia pretended to be the Shepherd.  You can see in the picture below that there is one sheep that's about to "get lost."

We also talked about how much God loves us, and that like a shepherd he protects and provides for us.  God wants us to trust and follow Him.

   

The three of us stayed in the pastors' home.  It was a blessing to be there with them and learn more about what daily life is like for this family, living in La Vega.  We helped with cooking and cleaning. In the picture below, we are peeling the "Guandules", a type of pea, that we picked of the bushes.  We spent several hours peeling these peas.  Later Selenia made a gravy with them to put over our rice.  Yum!

This is a HUGE batata (sweet potato) that Selenia's husband found.  With this batata, we had fried potato chips, mashed batata, boiled batata, and then Selenia made a special desert with cinimon, sugar, raisons and milk mixed with mashed batata. 

We had plenty of time, too, for laughing, playing and joking.  I'm thankful for this family and looking forward to visiting them again sometime soon.

I learnred a lot on this trip from the example of Selenia and her husband.  They gave up a lot when they answered this call.  It's not easy to leave family and friends and the comforts of home and move to a foreign place.  

There are LOTS of mosquitos.  The electricity goes out every day for about half the day.  They struggle to find work and live mostly off the vegetables that grow in their garden.  The number of people attending the church is still pretty small.  The list could go on...

Yet every morning, Selenia got up and started thanking and praising God, declaring His goodness and faithfulness.  I admire Selenia for her dedication to the call God has given her family, for her perseverance and for the joyful and thankful attitude she chooses every day.