Dominican Republic Day 2

DR Blog, Monday, March 2, 2015

Parkview Baptist Church

The day started with Geraldine Snipes leading our devotions before breakfast. She shared Acts 15:36 and a personal story of a church she and Charles worked on and then revisited several years later. The church, once thriving, was now in disarray--a great reminder that our church must remain on mission and outward focused, always ready to do the kingdom work God has called us to do.

It was awesome to see Pastor Cavier leading pre-workday devotionals with more than fifteen of the workers when we arrived on site. He was teaching them about the parable of the wheat and tares. Much like many small groups in our churches, the men seemed reluctant to speak when the pastor asked questions, but a few did and for the most part, the majority of men were engaged in the teaching. Devotions are not mandatory, so we are praying that God is using Pastor Cavier to do a great work here among these men.

Work today was much like yesterday. We painted the interiors of two more houses bringing our total to four (one more than expected.) After lunch we primed the exteriors of three houses to get them ready for paint. We were grateful that God blessed us with cloud coverage and a good breeze. It made painting outside very enjoyable. We met some of the neighborhood children as they stopped by to see what we were doing.

The ladies did a great job in two Bible sessions with the children. The morning session had about twenty children and the afternoon session had more than forty. Our team was prepared with enough snacks and balloon animals for everyone! The Bible lesson for today was the story of the Good Samaritan and the theme of the lesson was "be kind."

We met a pastor from Santiago, DR, whose ministry focuses on impoverished families who use their children to scour garbage dumps for items that may be resold or recycled for pennies. They help get the children away from the garbage dumps and into schools.

Highlights:
Jennifer met a young man, twelve years old, who was caring for four younger siblings and the conversation was a blessing even though it was in really broken Spanglish. Mike learned how to roll a bicycle tire using a cut plastic milk jug tied to a stick (a trick he learned from Luis.) Jim souped it up by painting white walls on it. One young lady, about thirteen, had to leave a little early because she had to go fix lunch for her younger siblings. We realized today just how important family is to this culture and we feel blessed to to be included in their family.