March 19, 2009

Saludos! (Greetings!)

This is what you say every time you enter a store, an office, or a home in the DR (really any place where people are), and it is one of my favorite things about living here – to start off every encounter in such a friendly and open way is a great lesson to learn for every part of our lives!

For Amaury and I, this last month has been full of lessons taught and learned, as our “Teaching Ministry” began in earnest, and we are excited to see how this ministry will grow! So far, we have had three Drama Team meetings, and the team is bonding and learning and growing together as we prepare for our first Drama Camp, which will be held in Hato del Yaque on April 4-5. Also, Amaury began teaching his Protocol and Etiquette classes in Los Perez, and we set up a teacher training at the school that Amaury led to show the teachers how to use the new projector and laptop that were recently donated by a team member from Michigan who had come down last summer! Pictures of all of this are included at the end of the blog! Also, in addition to continuing to supervise Jose Luis in his English class, I began teaching a class specifically for people who are interested in leading English classes at their home churches – at this point the students involved are from three different churches!

One of the students in my English class is also a member of the Drama Team, and his desire to learn and his perseverance despite many obstacles are an inspiration! Marcos lives in Hato del Yaque – a community about 30 minutes outside of Santiago that has very few paved streets, no running water, and intermittent electricity that is usually only on for a few hours each day. He is a 19 year old young man who works for a company that sells fruits and vegetables, such as plantains, which are a staple in the Dominican diet.

His day usually starts at 2 am when he wakes up and then heads off to report to work, which will involve first going to a local farmer’s market to help select produce and then get his assignment for the day, which could include spending the day selling by driving around various “barrios” or neighborhoods in Santiago, announcing what he has for sale over a speaker system that is attached to the truck, or travelling to Puerto Plata to help sell vegetables there. His day ends when he has sold everything he can and then make the trip back to Hato de Yaque, which could be as late as 10 pm if he has been to Puerto Plata that day. He does this 6 days a week – only taking Sunday off to go to church and rest.

Now, however, he has added to that grueling schedule, English classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings (the picture to the left is of Marcos during a recent English class - he has not missed one!), and Drama Team meetings every other Saturday afternoon as well as Drama Camps, which will be held five times throughout the year and will last all day Saturday and Sunday (which means he will not work on those Saturdays). Additionally, he has started a baseball sports ministry to reach out to the young men of the community, offering them a positive alternative to the drugs and gangs which so easily ensnare too many, and to be a witness for Christ in their lives. Why is he doing this? When asked, he is quick to smile and then explain that he wants to help the church grow by reaching out to his community. This answer and his determination to do whatever he has to do to achieve that goal are what inspire me about Marcos. He is one who will show the love, light, and hope of Christ in a place in desperate need of them.

Hato del Yaque is a community that was created by the Dominican government nearly 30 years ago after a massive hurricane devastated the island. The first residents were relocated there from other areas on the island where the destruction was the most severe. They were promised schools, running water, electricity, paved roads – a model community – but those promises were not fulfilled. The community is now held in the grips of poverty, with limited access to education and social services, and drugs, gangs, and alcohol are rampant. It also has the highest concentration of AIDS cases in the Santiago region. These are grim facts that can lead people to live without hope.

But there is hope – Marcos found it, and he wants to share it with as many people as he can. A little more than three years ago, he found hope through his belief in Jesus and his experiences at the church in Hato del Yaque that GO supports. That church started in a cramped 150 square foot room, and is now located in a beautiful new ministry center that will soon have a feeding center, and each day grows as a brighter light in this very dark community.

This is why we decided to hold our first Drama Camp in Hato del Yaque – to support the work of the church there, and offer a program that will hopefully attract not only the young people involved in the camp, but also their parents to the church to see the results of the camp, which will be presented through a short drama during the service.

Marcos and another young man from Hato del Yaque, Christian, who is also a part of the Drama Team and is also attending the English class, are currently recruiting young people (ages 13 – 18) to be a part of the camp. Please keep them and our team in your prayers during this time. Pictured to the left are Marcos, Wendy, and Lisbeth - three of the ten team members - participating in our most recent team meeting. The Drama Team is made up of young people from five different churches who have expressed a desire to reach out to their communities through drama ministry - please pray for them as they take this step of faith, that they will continue to be committed to the ministry and that they will be encouraged and inspired by being a part of this team.

Our “theme verse” for the Drama Team and the camps is 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” We pray that this will be just one of the many lessons learned for our Drama Team members and the young people that come to the camps throughout the year.
As always, thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support!

With love in Christ,
Catherine and Amaury

Amaury leads an activity at the Drama Team meeting we held in Hato del Yaque on Feb 21.

In the second Protocol and Etiquette class, the students learned how to arrange a formal place setting and for what purpose the different glasses and silverware are used. In this picture, Amaury watches as his brother, Nico (who is also the pastor in Los Perez), attempts to arrange the place setting.





The teachers listened attentively while Amaury explained how to hook up the computer and projector - they have both been an amazing blessing for the school and are being used almost daily by the teachers!