Other November Updates

Punta de Garza

In the church Joselo and I have been attending in Punta de Garza, we've been working regularly with children in the community by leading Sunday School.  This month, we had a special Friday night activity in which the children invited their parents to church.  The children led worship songs, shared Bible verses and one young lady even preached about obedience from the book of Jonah.  Afterwards we watched a movie and enjoyed popcorn and juice.  The small church that usually has about 20 in attendance was packed with kids and their parents.  The kids who normally come to church alone thought it was extra special to have their parents there with them.  It was great to get to know some of the parents, and we pray they will visit the church again soon. 

Interviewing Parents

We wanted to take some time at the end of the year to talk to some of the parents in the communities we've been working in to get their feedback on the classes we've been offering for their children.  We talked to parents and community members in Km 16 and in Prudencio and recieved an overwhelmingly positive response.  Everyone we talked to was grateful and thankful that the youth continue to travel and invest in the children of the community.  Parents remarked over and over again that children are learning and growing and their behavior is improving.  Praise God!! 

Visiting Enderson

This last week, Joselo and I took a day to visit a child I've been sponsoring through Compassion International for several years.  He lives in San Jose de Ocoa which is quite a distance west from Hato Mayor.  I had met Enderson for the first time two years ago, and was eager to visit him again.  Compassion has some regulations about how often sponsors can visit the children they sponsor -- to protect both the child and the sponsor.  Most sponsor's however do not live a few hours away from the child!!  We had a great time with Enderson and his family.  He has grown a lot in the past two years.  I was so happy to see his excitement about school, church and the compassion after-school program.  It was also interesting to learn a little more about the organization Compassion International.  We pray that God continues to bless Enderson and his family, and that Enderson's faith and relationship with God continue to grow stronger every day. 

Climate Change

While it doesn't seem like much compared to the winters I experienced living in Minnesota -- I heard the temperature at home in Avon this week was below zero, and there were several inches of snowfall-- the weather here in the Dominican Republic has been changing a bit, too -- from really hot, to hot during the day and a little cool in the evenings.  Growing up in Minnesota, this little weather change hardly seems noteworthy.  When I first came to the Dominican Republic and heard people talking about the weather being cold, I just had to smile and thought to myself, "Really?" 

My brother was questioning whether I was truly Minnesotan because this year along with many other Dominicans I got a terrible cold "la gripe" during this climate change.  I'm through the worst of it now, just battling a lingering cough.  It was not fun, and I pray that we don't have a repeat of "la gripe" during this cooler season.  

Christmas Activities

We are in our last week of ministry for the year and have some exciting activities planned with the children and youth in the communities.  They are preparing Christmas dramas, special songs and will have a special Dominican snack on our last day together.  We are looking forward to celebrating together the coming of Christ.

 

We'll take several weeks off for Christmas.  The leadership team and I will have to do lots of behind the scenes planning and preparing for 2014 once we know all the new class schedules for the youth, and then we hope to start strong again mid-January.

May God bless each of you as you celebrate with family and friends the birth of our Savior.

(Sorry, I don't have pictures to share this month.  First my camera stopped working and now it's missing altogether.)

Praising God at All Times.

The month of November started out great.  Our ministry team and a few pastors from Shalom churches had the honor and privilege of attending the Global Leadership Summit here in Santo Domingo put on by Bill Hybels and the Willow Creek Association.  We praise God for the opportunity to attend this incredible leadership conference, and we thank Resurrection Lutheran Church for sponsoring us in this event for the second year in a row.

The conference was tremendous.  As we listened to one speaker after another, we were challenged, stretched and inspired to give more of ourselves, individually and as a ministry team, for the glory of God and so others may know Him.  We learned a lot of interesting things about leadership and working as a team. It always seems to come back to the same thing: Love God and Love others.  The message is simple but not always easy.

Since our return from the conference, our team has faced several challenges due to misunderstanding and conflicting opinions on how to do things.  We have opportunities right in front of us to practice what we've learned about loving God and others, about leading with courage and following the example of Christ.

In times of study and reflection this month, I've been reading Gifted to Lead by Nancy Beach.  She wrote some things that I found helpful to our situation.  She said, "We human beings have an unbelievable ability to misunderstand one another, to hurt each other in small and even big ways, often without even realizing it."

I couldn't agree more.  If you are a human being and have relationships with other human beings, at some point in your life you have probably asked yourself this question, "Why can't we get along?"  If you have worked on a team at school, work, church, other community organizations or ministries, you have probably asked yourself this question more than once.  If you work with teenagers or junior high school students, you may ask yourself this question daily!

Nancy has a simple answer to the question.  "Sin." she says.  "We are all sinners and too often get puffed up with pride, selfish about our ideas or pet projects; jealous of someone else's apparent success; bitter about feeling overworked, underappreciated or underpaid; slanderous toward coworkers or our boss in private conversation.

"All of us can get better at working through conflict and none of us will be able to avoid it all together.  It is perhaps the way we most grow in ministry and as followers of Jesus Christ, because our character is tested in the fire of painful emotions like pride, envy, fear and selfishness."
 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, becaue you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

Nancy continues, "Once we have a relational breakdown, we have a choice to make.  Either we take steps to work towards reconciliation or we move on with bitterness, avoidance, envy and perhaps an overwhelming sense of victimization.  The only way to get through a relational breakdown, or even to get over the tiny little dings and hurts that take place along the way, is to be willing to engage in the difficult conversations."

Joselo and I, and the youth we are working with have some great opportunities ahead to be courageous, to engage in difficult conversations, to communicate honestly, listen to one another, love, honor and respect one another and to truly work together to find God-honoring solutions to the different issues that have come to the surface.

We know we can't do it alone.  We must depend completely on God for grace and mercy, for wisdom and understanding, and for God to do what only He can do as He demonstrated with power when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, paying the penalty of our sins and making all things new.  Because Jesus shed his blood for us on the cross, we all have the hope of reconciliation.
 

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

We enter the season of Advent, a season of waiting and preparing for the coming of Christ, Our Savior,  with hope because Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! (Phil 2:6-8)  Praise the Lord! 

Poverty...Still Mind Boggling

I have been visiting and working with people in the Dominican Republic for a few years now, and there are still many days that feel like I have so much to learn first about the people and their culture and then about poverty and the ways our economic differences influence our worldviews.    

When I start to think about it, I realize that our economic backgrounds really affect so much of our lives: where we go to school and church, who our friends and mentors are, the opportunities we have, the dreams we have, the way others see us and treat us, the list goes on....

God makes it clear through his word that we are to care for the poor, but in a country seemingly filled with people living on less than $2 a day, the who and how isn't always so clear.  I wrestle daily with questions of when, who and how to carry out God's command to "remember the poor".

Do I give to every blind, elderly, disabled or unemployed person on the street who asks me for money?  Do I give to some or none at all?  Nearly everyone I see and talk to has a financial need -- for repairing or building a new home, medicine and health care, paying for school, transportation, etc., etc.   

We're taught that if we don't act in wise ways we can actually cause more harm than good.  We're taught to analyze the situation and consider well the unintended consequences before we intervene.  We are also called to love our neighbors as ourselves.  I heard a definition recently of what it means to love your neighbor that stuck with me.  Loving your neighbor as yourself means responding to your neighbor's needs with the same joy, speed and power as you would your own. 

This month I was exposed to a couple of different situations with the children and youth that we work with that were heart-breaking.  I commented to Joselo that the things I worried about as a kid or teenager were nothing compared to the challenges many of these children and youth face on a daily basis. 
  

It constantly amazes me how they can keep going.  They get up, praise and thank God for a new day, for his goodness and love, put a smile on their faces and live life.  Does it hurt?  Do they get frustrated and angry about the situation --yes.  Sometimes visitors comment "They don't have anything, but they seem so happy."  I would say, they're strong but they also suffer.

Sometimes it's hard not to get overwhelmed by these things.  It's almost always hard to know exactly how to respond.  Sometimes it's depressing when you feel like there's nothing you can do but pray, but it's always good to know that God is in control, that our time here on earth is temporary, that God is good, and God is just.  We can trust Him, and those who believe in Him have the hope of eternal life with Him where "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain" (Rev. 21:4)  Hallelujah!