DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MISSION
May 13-20, 2006
Written by Nicolette Filson
As a seasoned veteran of participating in mission trips and service projects, it becomes easy to confuse one adventure with another. But after returning from the Dominican Republic, I realized this experience could never be mistaken for any other.
On May 13th, a group of 14 people, ranging from teenagers to adults in their mid-70's, left on a mission trip sponsored by Grace Lutheran Church and flew from Charlotte to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. From the capital we traveled three hours west by bus to the small town of San Juan de la Maguana where we stayed at a clinic founded by a non-denominational Christian organization called Solid Rock Missions. Our host and hostess, Rod and Sandy, welcomed us and prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Over the next week we traveled to three schools and one orphanage around the city to host a Bible School. Some people in our group stayed at the clinic and helped organize the supply room or performed general maintenance vital to its operation. I helped run the bible school every day where we taught the children Bible songs, fed them snacks, played games with them, acted out skits, and supplied materials for them to make necklaces that read "amigos", as in the photo.
"Amigos", Spanish for "friends", related to the Bible story we told the children about the good Samaritan, but the companionship and loyalty these children had for each other and their families showed us that friendship was no stranger to them. During snack time, older brothers and sisters were dragging their younger siblings up to the front of the line making sure they got their granola bar. The kids embraced one young mentally challenged child with love by letting her bat first during our baseball game. One little boy, upon receiving his snack, immediately shoved it into his pocket. We told him he could eat it now, but he refused because he was saving it for his mom. It is these small acts of kindness, compassion, and generosity that can change perspectives on life and turn doubt into hope. In addition, I found such genuine happiness in the faces of the Dominicans.
It would seem, from the outside, near impossible to put a smile on your face every morning or to wake up on the right side of bed when you have no bed to wake up on, yet they do. I expected to find a country of poverty and grief, but what I found were proud people thankful for every day God granted them to live. On trips such as these it is easy, even logical, to assume that you, sacrificing the comfort of your two-story home and three healthy meals a day, are going to help these people who live in shacks and cannot drink their own polluted water. Or that you are going to improve their lives with your words, but never before did I realize that it was my life that would be improved by what I learned and saw in my new amigos.