Monday, June 09, 2008

It was a good day...

We were up at 7 am and we began the tumultuous routine of getting Ben and Elena off to school. At 7:50 they took off with Rick on the motorcycle as Geralda, our housekeeper, arrived and delighted the dogs with their breakfast. Geralda and I shared a cup of coffee and I scanned the headlines on CNN. Rick returned from dropping the kids off and started his morning session of emails, planning and study.

I looked through some potential training materials on the web and searched for a book in Spanish on women in the Bible. Other miscellaneous office tasks took up some more time. Then it was time to hit the gym at about 9:30. I got a list of house cleaning supplies from Geralda to pick from the colmado (neighborhood grocery store) on my way home. I bravely put on Rick's motorcycle helmet and took off. I am trying to expand my use of the motorcycle beyond picking up the kids from school and running errands in the neighborhood.

A side note: We joined a gym in early May and are really loving it. It is not like any American gym we have ever seen, but it works. The upstairs is for women and the downstairs for men. This is great because I feel stared at enough on the street without having men watch me work out too. The men's section is mostly nautilus equipment as Dominican men like to stay buff. The women's section has two treadmills, a stairclimber that doesn't work, a bunch of exercise bikes, free weights and some machines, and an aerobics area complete with steps, ballet rail, balance balls, and a big Dominican sound system. It also has a sauna which I will never use because it smells funny and saunas bother my asthma.

So I headed off to the gym with The Chronicles of Narnia and Bible stories in Spanish loaded on my mp3 player. I successfully navigated the back streets to the gym!! And parked without making a fool of myself. After doing some weight lifting, I got on the treadmill, intending to put in a good 3 mile hike with my Narnia friends. Yeah, well, exactly 5 minutes into my walk the power went out, so I switched to an exercise bike and biked until the sweat was pouring off me. The gym is pretty comfortable to work out in as long as the ceiling fans are going full tilt, but they went with the treadmill when the power cut. On the way home I stopped at the colmado and acquired half my list of supplies. No store ever has everything on my list at one time. But I said hi to a neighbor and talked to the colmado owner, who's daughter goes to Doulos with my kids.

Once home it was time for a bucket bath...yes the power was out at home too and although our inverter keeps the lights etc running, it does not run the water pump or the water heater. So we have very low pressure with water draining from the tank on the roof. A shower was not an option. Oh well, the cold water cooled me off! By this time it was 11:30 and I checked to see how Geralda was doing before dismissing her and starting lunch.

Rick brought the kids home at noon since this last week of school is all half days. We had a dominican lunch of rice and chicken. After lunch the kids changed and got busy playing (and eventually at loggerheads, which is not typical). The landlady stopped by to pick up the rent and discuss the need to replace the street extension on our driveway. Hopefully it will get done before we have completely pulverized the chunks of concrete that have been breaking up for, like, six months!

After lunch I took the laundry off the line to get it out of the sun. Geralda folds it the next day, so I just lay it in a stack. (Believe me I would love to fold it, but it is definitely her turf so I don't even try.) It is a hot day and so an iced tea on the cool front porch with my Bible and study materials for my 4:00 group is just the ticket. The topic is "What it means to really be a Christian." The material we are studying was written by Pastor Bill Hanson and is really good for clarifying the truths of Scripture versus the religious traditions here.

Each Monday I meet with a couple of women: Yanet accepted Christ last fall and has been faithful reading her Bible, but finds it hard to go to church with three young, active children. Rafaela has recently joined this study and has a strong Catholic background and lots of question. Josefina, Fina for short, has been a believer for over a year and Ramona, one of the leaders in the church, has been discipling her. Fina and I lead the study together as a way of mentoring her into the role of study leader. Just two weeks ago her husband accepted Christ in the Bible study Rick and Damaso (the lay pastor) lead on Wednesdays. Last week we didn't really study because Yanet's two year old was really sick and we spent sometime deciding if he needed to see a doctor and then praying for him. (When I stopped in on Yanet the next day he was doing much better, praise God).

After finishing preparations for Bible study, I once again took off on the motorcycle, making my first two-wheeled trip to my favorite supermarket, the Cofre. I actually bought everything on my list!! It was only six things, but finding everything on my list in one store is a rarity! I packed my bags on the motorcycle, wishing I had brought my backpack, and began the trip home. One bag shifted and I had to stop in front of a school to fix it. Nice to have about 50 kids staring at me while I do this! Off I went again and drove without a mishap until I started bumping up our steep hill. Off went the TP and the floor cleaner. A chivalrous workman picked it up for me and held the back of my bike while I got going up the steep hill again.

Time to hit the shower again and get ready for my bible study. The power was back on! Even though it is still pretty hot here in Jarabacoa, I always wear pants to Bible study in el Montana. First, the bugs will eat me alive if I don't, and second it is always cooler there than here because it is higher.

Now, for the best part of the day......I arrived a little late for Bible study and the ladies (by the way they prefer to be called ladies/damas, not women/mujeres) were waiting for me. "What has happened, Rebecca?" Fina asked as she kissed me on the cheek. You see, they know that as an American I am always on time. (Sort of funny since in the US I am always late.) If I am late something must have gone wrong. As it was I had some tough parenting to do before I left the house. "Ay, Yay, yay my kids were in my hair," I said and they all understood. After the kissing and greeting was done, we settled down to study, What does it really mean to be Christian? Can you be born a Christian, does being baptized make you a Christian? We looked as Scriptures such as John 3, where Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again, and Romans 10:9-13, where we read that if we believe in our heart and confess with out mouth Jesus as Lord we are saved.

Rafaela, pictured on the far right in black shirt, really identified with the idea of being born again. She said that she really feels new and sees changes in her life since she started praying regularly, reading the Bible, and learning in Bible Study. She shared a few examples of changes and slyly looked at Yanet, her friend and neighbor, saying "You can hear what goes on in my house and what is coming out of my mouth. You must know that the Holy Spirit is changing me!" In this small community you can often spit into your neighbor's house from inside your own. There aren't a lot of secrets kept. I could see the glow and softness on Rafaela's face as she talked. She has accepted Christ as her personal Savior! She wants to give her testimony in church on Sunday.

How has this come about? Not through any special effort on my part outside of prayer, I assure you. For sometime her boys, Rafael and Alejandro, have been attending the church's kid's club on Saturdays. They sometimes come to church where they have a hard time sitting still and not stealing hats off their friends. Who knew they were going home and telling their Mom all about what they were learning? In November a evangelistic group of California came and shared the gospel hand in hand with Dominican believers throughout the neighborhood. I know they visited with this family, but my impression was they were just curious to see what all the commotion was about with Americans tramping through the village. Rafaela asked to join the Bible study in April and now she has gone from nominal Catholic to true believer!

After Bible study I stopped and chatted with Rafaela's 8th grade daughter, Zuleika. She is curious about who I am and wants to practice her English with me, but I am praying she sees the change in her Mom and comes to know Jesus as well.

I headed home about 6 o'clock up and down hills, around curves enjoying the mountains all around, praising God. When I arrived home, Ben dashed out to open our driveway gate and Elena appeared at the door having just finished her nightly bath. I whipped up fajitas, cut up a pineapple (they cost about $1.25) and over dinner told the family all about Bible study, how God had healed littly Bernie (Yanet's son who was sick), Rafaela's new faith and my prayers for Zuleika.

After we cleaned up dinner Ben and I played a few hands of cards while Elena beat Rick at a computer game, we read stories and packed the kids off to bed. Now I sit writing this and sipping decaf coffee, which is a rare treat. (To my knowledge, Jarabacoa supermarkets have only recently begun keeping decaf in stock. It is more than twice the price of regular coffee and not nearly as good.)

Tomorrow is mail day, which means a trip down the mountain to the airport and restocking some items we like to buy in Santiago. Then it is back up the mountain and another women's Bible study in El Montana. This one is larger with 6-8 women each week.

A few prayer requests for Montana:
1. Pray that new believers grow and are strengthened so that God can raise them up as lights in their community and leaders in the church.
2. Pray for greater interest and attendance in the men's Bible study.
3. Pray for the many women who are new believers and whose husbands are not interested spiritually. May these women follow the instructions in 1 Peter and allow God to work in their husband's lives in His time.
4. Pray for Damaso as he ministers there faithfully, but is in need of full time employment to support his family. Pray for Ramona, who has led most of the new believers to Christ. She is so faithful and hard working, but longs to see her own husband follow Christ with her.

Whew, what a long entry! Good night...sleep well. You know, God may be all over the world during the day, but he sleeps in Jarabacoa! [a local saying!]