Sunday, September 16

I love Sundays!! For one reason, they are so relaxing . . . I don't plan anything so I can spend the afternoon updating my blog (like now) or reading or drinking coffee or praying or whatever!  Secondly, I love going to church.  I wish that each one of you could come visit Iglesia Bautista Evangelica de Macoris.  It is such a wonderful church.  There is such a sweet spirit of worship every Sunday, both morning and evening.  Many of the songs are the same as what we sing in English, however, because they are in Spanish, I have to trranslate them in my head and it forces me to really think about the words more than I do in English.  Sometimes I don't know the words, but I can get the main idea and then I just dwell on that.  The music is so wonderful too - great singing with very talented musicians playing the guitar, drums, bongos, piano, etc.  I also love to watch the sincere love for and devotion to God on the expressions of the people.  So moving. One particular woman catches my attention.  She is the head of the finances for the school.  She reminds me a little bit of my mom - very serious much of the time, very educated in the area of money and demonstrates a true love for God.  She left a very important position at a very well-paying job to come to work at the school, knowing that finances would be so tight and that she might not get paid the first year of school.  As an American, I am usually amazed by the simple lives and pure love for God of the people who have nothing.  But this woman has just stuck out in my head . . . she had "everything" according to the world and yet she chose simple service for her Lord.  To see her hand raised and hear her sing to Him, challenges me immensely. 

Another thing that has been so neat about church is that I don't know a lot of Spanish but I am able to understand the service by following along in my Spanish/English Bible (thanks, Bro. Lewis)  and listening hard.  For the last 2 weeks, the Sunday morning sermon has been almost exactly what I read or prayed about in my devotions that morning.  Funny how God can work like that no matter where you are.  His Word and His Spirit are not bound by language barriers.  He has really been working on me through the messages and the songs to have a heart that desires Him, to cut out things that are distracting and plans for the future and just focus on Him and what He is doing right now and how great He is.  During the week, I get so busy with school and so distracted even when I do come to Him.  I want to have a heart of worship that listents to Him all the time, even in the busy moments.

Trip to the Beach

Saturday was beach day!  Mary, Suzanne, and I had not been to the beach yet and so we decided to ride the bus to Guayacanes Beach to see the clear blue water.  It was a perfect day, the sun was shining but not too hot (in fact, just before we left we actually go cold for the first time in a month!).  I think I might be coming back here soon for another relaxing afternoon!

 

As much fun as the beach was, the best parts of the day were #1 - going to the baseball field in the morning and interacting with the people and seeing some of my students there and #2 - speaking (IN SPANISH) to the woman sitting next to me on the bus.  Our conversation was very difficult, with much repetition, but I had the courage to try, yay!!  And she was a Christian, so we were able to talk about our churches a little!

Trip to Carlos David's House

A couple of weeks ago, the parents of one of my 5th graders, Carlos David, asked if I wanted to come over to eat with them.  I was very excited when I agreed, but afterwards I got so nervous realizing that I was going to have to actually carry on a conversation with them.  If you know me, you know how difficult that can be in English sometimes, let alone another culture and language.  However, the dad speaks English, and when I went to their house on Thursday night it was very easy to converse.  He was not only very talkative, but he had also taught English for a while and had traveled to Israel and to Boston, where he had to speak English.  We talked about the culture and their family.  He told me of many beautfiul places in the Dominican Republic.  They also invited me to go to another town in the countryside with them this Wednesday.  We will go visit his mother and then go to a Bible study in another place.  I am so excited to go with them, they are a neat family.  He is an engineer and she is a doctor or nurse (not exactly sure because she doesn't speak English . . . I guess I am going to have to pracitce my Spanish with her :).  They have 2 kids - Carlos David and Amber, a third grader.  They grew up in the Catholic church and she was a nun for a while.  Then they left the Catholic church.  I am not sure where they go to church now, but I think that they are believers.  It is always exciting to see how God is working/has worked in other people's lives.

Spanish Lessons

Well, I finally decided that it was worth it to pay for Spanish lessons so that I could learn it faster.  Although, I could probably study on my own, I don't seem to have the motivation by the time I finish my schoolwork each day.  I am taking lessons from Julie, my co-teacher.  She's great!  Our class consists of 2 guys from YWAM (youth with a mission), Mary - 3 month intern with the women's ministry here, and me.  The 2 guys have been taking lessons for a while and Mary and I have both had Spanish previously, so we are all about on the same level.  I actually remembered more than I thought in some ways but I have forgotten a lot of the conjugations and meanings of words.  I guess 10 years out of Spanish class with no practice will do that to you.  That should come back pretty quickly, though.  Julie just said that Mary and I need "hablar, hablar, hablar."  If we practice speaking for an hour a day, it will come pretty quickly she says, which is probably true, but I get so nervous to speak it . . . especially when I only know 2 or 3 words in a sentence.  I tried speaking to our secretary Evelyn and my teaching assistant Ronand in Spanish; and even though they were easy sentences and I knew all of the words, I got so nervous that only half of it came out in a VERY American accent. . . Practice, practice, practice!

Josiah's House

Nearly every Sunday night we have the boys from Josiah's House come to IBEM with their "house grandparents," Bob and Diane Spencer.  There are 8 adorable boys all around the same age . . . I would guess 7-10 years old, some Haitian, some Dominican.  A couple of them attend Las Palmas for school.




 This Sunday night, I sat behind them.  And, of course, kids always attract my attention, so I watched them sing and interact with their house parents.  Diane would raise her hand and sing so sincerely to the Lord.  One little boy next to her looked at her very intently a couple times.  The next song he was raising his hand and singing with all his heart . . . not looking at Diane to see if she was paying him attention.  It brought tears to my eyes to think of where this little boy could have been, but Sunday night he was in church watching a godly woman set a wonderful example for him.  He was learning how to worship this God that had pulled him from some tough circumstances.  How great is our God!

Here are some pictures from the dedication of Josiah's House in July.  It is a ministry of SCORE.

Bob and Diane

 

P.S.  If you are wondering why I called them "house grandparents," it is because Diane told me that they are looking for Dominican house parents.  Until then, they are in charge of the boys and the boys call them "abuela" and "abuelo."