Lessons from Life in the DR

We are approaching the end of our fourth week in the Dominican Republic and, needless to say, we have been learning a lot. These early days have been full of new experiences, new sights, new sounds, new food and new relationships.

Here are a few of the most significant lessons we’ve learned:

SLOW DOWN

We are no longer living in an instant culture like we were in the United States. Supplies, materials, tools, certain foods and resources aren’t as readily available here. It probably sounds worse than it is because the people here are used to it. They don’t get stressed or angry when they can’t have what they want right now. I’m sure there are exceptions, but for the most part it is just accepted that some things are going to take some time to get accomplished.

REDUCE/REUSE/RECYCLE

This is not something most visitors to the DR will probably notice, but establishing a home here makes you realize the importance of reducing your waste, reusing what you can and recycling/repurposing as much as possible. Pastor Quina is a master at using things most people would consider trash to create beautiful crafts. We have been using empty plastic containers (like pop bottles) to store water or juice. During our short-term visits here we thought nothing of using disposable plastic cups whenever we got thirsty, but now we see how much plastic gets tossed in the trash so we try to use real cups when we’re home. Another reason to be conservative is because some things are very expensive here and so it just makes good sense to make those things last as long as possible!

REST

Most of you are probably aware of the term “siesta” and understand that it refers to a time of rest in the afternoon. In the DR the term “mediodia” refers to a two-hour period of time in the early afternoon when most businesses close and most people retreat to a shady spot to eat lunch and rest during the hottest part of the day. With our American culture lenses this can look kind of lazy at first. But when we realized that those businesses make up for the two hours of rest by staying open later, our minds were changed. Also, experiencing the midday heat here makes it easy to understand why this culture appreciates the time of rest, shade and refreshment.

WORSHIP

“Si Dios quiere.” (If God desires it.)

“Gracias a Dios.” (Thanks to God.)

“Gloria a Dios.” (Glory to God.)

“Dios te bendiga.” (God bless you.)

Those are a few of the phrases we hear every day in the course of normal conversations. The commonality of those phrases illustrates how deeply the worship of God is ingrained in every part of Dominican life. Sure, we use some of these phrases too, but they aren’t nearly as common in the US as they are here. Oftentimes we use the word worship only when we’re referring to singing songs of praise, but seeing and hearing people worship in every part of life here has been an eye opener to us!

THE VALUE OF QUIET & THE VALUE OF LOUD

Urban/suburban life in the Dominican Republic is LOUD! Whether it’s noisy motorcycles buzzing past, extremely loud music coming out of cars and homes or loud animals, this place is rarely quiet. Living in a building with an open-air front room and a metal roof doesn’t help insulate us from the noise. We have come to appreciate the quiet times we get – sometimes early in the morning or late at night we get a reprieve from the noise. But we’ve also come to appreciate some loud things here. For example, we go to church services four times a week and there is always LOUD times of singing praise to God. If there’s a band the music is really loud. If there’s no band, then everyone sings really loud. Especially during the services with no band, we enjoy the sound of people lifting their voices to their Heavenly Father.

What does our mission look like?

We have been living in the Dominican Republic for almost two weeks now but it feels like so much longer. That probably sounds really negative, but we mean it in a good way. It feels like we’ve done more and seen more than what is possible in just two weeks.

We have church services four times a week. We visit a school on Tuesday mornings. We help with basketball practice twice a week and we teach an English class Wednesday nights. Add in random ministry opportunities that come up and it makes for a pretty busy schedule!

That busyness, combined with the heat, can be pretty tiring. But God has been faithful to sustain us and give us energy to do it all and be ready to do it again the next day!

Here’s what some of our ministry opportunities look like:

Tuesday Morning Visits to the School:

First of all, this school is called a colegio, which is pretty confusing because the word looks like college, but it’s a school for elementary and junior high students. It’s a private school and the owners are Christians. We had the chance to be part of a special prayer service at the school the night before the first day of school. We’ve since visited twice on Tuesday mornings. The owners asked us to play sports with the students and have also encouraged us to share messages about Jesus with them.

The playground has a volleyball net so we’ve been playing volleyball with the students. On our last visit we tried to teach them how to spike a volleyball. The youth we brought with us also organized a really fun game and then we split the students into age groups for a time of sharing about Jesus.

Hanah’s highlight: Playing volleyball and spending time with the cute little kids.

David’s highlight: Playing ball with the students.

Katie’s highlight: Seeing familiar faces when we return to the school or when we see the students around town.

Dan’s highlight: Listening to the youth from our church share the love of Jesus with the students.

Helping With Basketball Practice:

There are two places in our town where you can regularly find kids playing basketball. One is the cancha, which is an outdoor court at the park. Usually you only find kids there in the late afternoon and evening because it’s so hot during the day. The other place is called the multiuso. It’s a covered gym where you can almost always find kids playing. There is a man in our town named Victor Rojas who has dedicated his life to using basketball as a way to teach kids about respect, hard work, discipline, sharing and teamwork. His mission is to raise men who will become good citizens, good husbands and good fathers.

Victor is so passionate about what he does and has welcomed us with open arms. In the past few years, Bethel College has sent basketball teams to our town and Victor has been deeply touched by their visits. Seeing people invest time and energy in the mission that he’s dedicated his life to has been a huge blessing for Victor.

Our role in Victor’s work is simple: Come to the court, help him in whatever way we can and share messages of God’s love with the boys (and some girls too). We believe Victor is Catholic and he believes in God. We’re also praying that he will surrender his life to Jesus.

Dan has had the chance to help Victor with teaching basketball skills to the boys as well as sharing messages with them. The rest of our family and the youth from our church are also participating and spending time with the boys.

This is one of our greatest opportunities during our time here because:

• Pastor Quina is a believer in what Victor is doing. She wants us to spend time with him and help make the Gospel a bigger part of his work.
• Victor is a very influential figure in our town. All the boys and young men who spend time with him respect him deeply and he needs help! He works with more than 100 boys and young men – sometimes all at one time – by himself.
• This town is crazy about basketball and Victor’s work at the Multiuso is the center of basketball activity here. His openness to our message is amazing.
• The Bethel basketball team is returning next summer to spend time with the boys and so we can help Victor prepare for their visit.

As we’ve taken part in these ministry opportunities, we’ve learned a lot from the people we’ve spent time with. We’ll share some of the lessons we’ve learned in our next post!