Well I think I have adjusted back to
American life as well as I can. The problem is, America no longer feels like home...it hasn't for 5 years or so now. Yes,
it is great to be back with my family and friends and the easy lifestyle our culture provides. But
I miss my friends who became family in the Dominican Republic along with my family in Tanzania. Sometimes I wonder why I keep going places when I just know I'm going to get attached to people I meet and miss them oh so much and probably will never see many of them again. Then
I think how blind I would be to the reality of the world and God's call to His followers if I were not to go.
 |
| Last night in the country. Dinner in the city :) |
My time in the Dominican Republic
helped me realize that with the grace of God and the strength of the Holy Spirit,
I can live overseas and share the good news with people in other countries. I think I got at least a taste of what it is like to live overseas; the
frustrations, the
rewards, the
balancing of ministry and life, the importance of
relationships, importance of knowing the
languages, etc.
 |
| God knows how to paint a magnificent sunset! |
My semester abroad also gave me many
different ministry experiences. I got to help out in a couple different
schools (each one very different...upper class bilingual schools, a middle class school, an adult education institution, etc.); had the opportunity to go out to a couple
villages and poor areas of the city to hang out, love on and feed children who are not only impoverished physically, but spiritually as well; help in
Sunday schools at a few different churches; we got
help out the missionaries in Punta Cana for two weeks, whether it was helping out with kids in the church and the missionaries' kids, cutting out crafts for Sunday school, reorganizing the church closet, cleaning lights at the church, volunteering at a community fundraiser, helping out with the Christmas show rehearsals, and focusing on building relationships in that unique community. I also had the opportunity to see the beginning stages of
church planting along with seasoned churches and how the
church authority has been handed over to the nationals.
 |
| Last day at Playa Caribe...our favorite beach! |
Another important part of missions I experienced was
how important it is to understand the culture. The quicker the culture is understood, the less stressful living there is and the
more you can relate to the people. It is good to ask questions about the culture to feel more comfortable with why things that may seem weird to an American, makes sense in another culture. I had the opportunity to
interview several people to learn about the culture, which was very intriguing and I can see how beneficial it is to do that when planning on living in another country and ministering to people of another culture.
I have been reading a book called "
Kisses From Katie" written by Katie Davis, who is a girl one year older than me, living in Uganda. She has written this book about her experiences overseas thus far, which have included
starting a non-profit organization and adopting 14 girls in the short three or four years she has been living there. I highly recommend the book, but I want to share just a short excerpt from it, which describes so well why I think
I am so passionate about serving the very physically impoverished.
 |
| Precious children <3 |
"The truth is,
I saw myself in those little faces. I looked at them and felt this love that was unimaginable and knew that
this the way God sees me. The children would run to me with gifts of stones or dirt and
I saw myself, filthy and broken, offering my life to the God of the universe and begging Him to make it into something beautiful. I sit here in a broken world, small and dirty at His feet, and He who sits so high chooses to commune with me, to love me anyway.
He brings Himself to my sin and my filth so that He can forge a relationship with me. And this is what He did for me with these precious children. He blinded me to the filth and disease, and I saw only children hungry for love that I was eager to share with them.
I adored them, not because of who I was, but because of who He is."
Anyways, just wanted to share a little bit of the
conclusion of my internship and study abroad experience in the Dominican Republic. As always when I follow
God's call to share His love overseas and planning on blessing the people there, I always feel much more blessed by them instead. And I am realizing more and more that
those who are given much are required to do much with it; whether that is the knowledge of Jesus Christ or an abundance of physical resources, we should not hoard it to ourselves!
God has taught me lots in these last 4 months and I appreciate all you did to make it happen, because it
could not have happened without your prayers and support!
give.live.love.
