Challenges in Boma

This morning we headed out for our Wednesday morning Bible study in Boma.  For the past 6 months, we have been leading the people through a course that focuses on Christian Education.  It is an excellent course, and one that we will probably teach in all of the church plants.  Having finish this course, we went looking for some new direction.  How can we best use are time and abilities to serve the church in Boma?  Remember, our role is one of an equipper.  We try not to "take over" and rather, we coach the local people into leadership and teaching roles. And so today, we went with a lot of questions, ones with focused on the needs of the church and the community.  From these questions, the leaders in Boma helped us discover where we could focus in the coming months.  Here's what happened:

Every visit begins with some time "catching up".  This is normal all around the world but here in the Dominican Republic, and especially in the campo (rural areas) it can take a bit of time.  Sometimes, I confess, I try to cut it short and get onto the more "important" things but this is often (possibly always) an error.  This time creates the basis for whatever has been prepared and should not be shortened.

And so today we learned who was sick, who was on a trip, and why the road was so bad.  All of this, gives us insights into life in Boma...it's a world much different then Jarabacoa and Jarabacoa is a world much different then anywhere I lived in the United States.

After prayer we asked the question "What are some of the needs in church and community?".  Different challenges were mentioned but they kept coming back to the youth of the community.  They lacked purpose, lacked hope.  Very few really knew what it was like to grow up in a family.  By the age of 12, many are left to fend for themselves.  They live in the same home with whoever raised them but it is felt that they are old enough to take care of themselves and so attention get's given to the younger ones, until they are about the same age.  Literally, this means, they have a place to sleep but they are on their own for food.  If they want to stay in school, they do, but it is difficult to do so.  The reality for them is that they need work and earn money so they can eat.  And by the age of 15, many of these children will have children which are left with the people who raised them...and the cycle continues.

Obviously it isn't this way for all the teenagers of Boma, but this isn't rare.  It's actually quite common.  What is rare is a family with a mother and dad who are really parenting their children up through the teenage years.  Enrique & Blanca, leaders in the community and church are an example of what should be done.  They pushed their 3 boys to finish high school and continue into college.  It wasn't easy to do this.  The High School is about 20 minutes away on an adventurous road and college is further.  Today, Enrique and Blanca are raising two of their grandchildren.  Even though they are in the 60's, their job is far from done.

We explored the needs of teenagers with more questions.  Finally, we asked - "If the church could address one need in the community, what need would give the greatest impact?  It should be a need that almost everyone recognizes.  Is this need of teenagers such a need?"  After some discussion, it was felt that it was the number one need, something that everyone recognized as a need.

The rest of the time we spent asking questions and discussion how the church could address this need.  Even though Boma currently has about 18 teenagers, the church only has 2 regularly attending.  But just the prior week 4 teenagers showed up at church.  We talked about how we could plan some activities that focused on teenagers.  We talked about a domino tournament, special meals, playing baseball by the river, and other ideas.  None of the ideas were fancy, just things they could do with the resources they had.

We decided that we would spend the next week and pray about this.  The leadership of the church would talk about this idea and let us know if they wanted to continue exploring it.  If they do, our next few months will focus on helping them think through ministry to youth.

We ask you to remember Boma and pray for it on a regular basis.  Life is hard there because many times the rain cuts them off from society.  But also there, is a small church.  It's building has been built in just the past 10 years and while the building is one of the most beautiful little church buildings, the real church (the people) struggles to trust God, to have confidence that God can use them, and to dream that God could work to make a real difference in their community.  Please be in prayer for Boma and for us as we continue to minister there.