Sunday - Church & Sightseeing

Hey everyone! Hannah here. (: Today we went to church at Iglesia San Marcos in the town of Haina, a little bit west of the capitol, and met some very very very nice people. Then we toured Santo Domingo with a tour guide named Green, visiting several Museums, The Roman Catholic Cathedral and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  After, all of us went to lunch at different places. I happened to go to a pizza buffet, not very Dominican, with my dad, Kelly, and Ashley. We shared two delicious pizzas. For dinner, a number of us met up with the priest from the church we worshiped at in the morning.  His wife and two children joined us.  The thing I most enjoyed today was playing with the priest’s son, Emmanuel, who was nineteen months old. He is probably one of the cutest boys I have ever met and Torie and I took several pictures with him and played with him so his parents could finish up eating.  

So far, this trip has been awesome!  The culture is great and I love experiencing it.  We are meeting such kind people and experiencing things we never have that are helping us become more grateful.  Tomorrow we are starting to do our mission work. The jobs are painting, plumbing and clearing rocks from the playground to make it safer for the children. 

This is Peter writing now.  It was my great privilege to preach at Iglesia San Marcos this morning.  With Julie Boyd’s help, I was able to give the first part of my sermon (greeting and introduction) in Spanish.  Then I gave the rest of it in English, with Julie translating.  (Julie has a real gift and love for speaking Spanish!)  Father Juan Rosario has been a priest for 16 years, and serves three churches.  The other two are smaller and one of them is a house church with about 20 people.  He also is the principal of the school adjacent to San Marcos - preschool through high school with over 800 total children.  His wife, Reina, is one of the fifth grade teachers.  Juan’s English skills are quite good, but I have been working on my Spanish, too.  My three years of high school Spanish are coming back to me, but I do have times when I get confused and don’t understand.

This trip is bringing back a lot of powerful memories and associations from my Peace Corps time in Dominica (east of here in the Windward Islands) from 1982-1985. Although Dominica was not a Spanish-speaking country (English and a French creole spoken there), the climate, some of the food (e.g., fried plantains) and the friendliness of the people seem very familiar.  Also bringing back memories are the music that you often hear playing in the background, and seeing men playing dominoes at a small table right along the street (and how animated they get when they play).  There is always time to “hang out” in the Caribbean culture, and it is very conducive to making friendships and simply having fun.

I want to allow time for others to write.  Please know that we really appreciate your prayers, as well as the financial support that many of you have given us.  Everyone in the group seems to be doing quite well, aside from the normal frustrations with language barriers and humidity, things that are minor when compared to how grateful we are to be learning new things.  May the Lord bless and keep you all.  We look forward to the stories we can share with you when we return. 

Grace and peace,

Peter

I woke up this morning at 6am Dominican time and was surprised at what I saw when I went to sit on the patio.  The streets were deserted, apparently Dominicans don’t wake up before 7am.  It was so different from any other big city I’ve lived in or visited where everyone is up bright and early for work.  The couple people I did see walking around looked more like they hadn’t gone to sleep yet instead of just waking up.  The warm, overcast morning was a nice change from the frosty night Elizabeth and I spent in our room.  It seems our A/C only has two states, off and arctic.  We quickly dressed, had breakfast and drank coffee from a small art gallery, and then headed for church.  

The Dominican people may not be as wealthy as us monetarily but they more than make up for it with faith.  Everyone was so welcoming and I wish we could hear such profound “Amen!”s and “Alleluia!”s at St Aidans.  The hymnal music was sung from the heart, it didn’t matter that the music wasn’t printed, they were literally dancing in their pews to the beat of the drums and beautiful guitar improve.  It really is a blessing to  share time and work with our Dominican brothers and sisters.  

We went to go sightseeing after that.  We started out at the cathedral and a guide decided he was going to take us on a Dominican sightseeing escapade.  We didn’t ask him to but it was a great gift to be lead along the streets of the DR to museums and ruins.  We saw century old artwork and looked out the same windows as Christopher Columbus’ son in his beautiful mansion.  It was beautiful.

We spent the rest of the day eating and exploring and finally ended our day with check in and worship.  It was a great experience and we all look forward to beginning our real work tomorrow.  I pray God gives us the strength to give our whole selves to the Dominicans as we gain so much from them everyday.  Elizabeth and I are sitting on our beds after an unfortunate toilet malfunction sent us into hysterical laughter earlier.   I hope the A/C doesn’t keep us shivering all night.  Please keep us in your prayers, you are in our hearts. 

Your sister in Christ, Courtney