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| My first "Home Stay House" in El Cercado |
May is normally a month of a lot of rain. May 2014 has proven that to be true. As we sit in our dry house I was quickly reminded of my many trips to the south end of the country where I began my journey of living here. At that time I was with a different organization (Solid Rock International) and we did what they call "Home Stays". Now SI also does home stays in some of their country locations but not here in Jarabacoa. Anyway, during my work trips there, I would stay in the house of Nena. It was a typical lower income Dominican home, built into the side of a hill, and several homes shared one out-house (centered in photo). In the out-house was a large plastic dishpan with a 5 gal bucket beside it. We would stand in the washtub and dip water out of the bucket to take our shower. The roof of the house was made out of metal and was basically peppered with small rust holes that, when it rained at night, it would drip on our bed. I shared a room there several trips with my brother-in-law Gerald Lee. We would lay there at night and just laugh and laugh as the we would move from one side of the bed to the other to "dodge" the rain drops as they hit the plastic mattress covers.
As it rains here now, and I am in my dry house listening to it, I think back to those nights in El Cercado where we would laugh and think to ourselves, "it's only for a week". Now I think of Nena and that house and have different thoughts. For her and her family, it is not only for a week. It is a way of life. Dodging the raindrops, walking the slippery goat path up about 3 rows of houses high in the side of the hill. Day after day. For some reason, I no longer laugh when I think about it.
This last week, some of us had the privilege of going to the North side of Santiago and looking at a possible future work location for SI. it was in a community that had housing very similar to my first "home for a week" in the DR. But again, for those living there is is a way of life. There is such a need there and yet the Pastor in that community is full of energy and love for the people there. In the eyes of the North Americans, they have so little. In their eyes, they have so much. Pray for the people in Segundo Progreso. And pray for SI as they discern working in that community.
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| A farmer leading his oxen down one of the main streets in front of Genesis. He does this about once a month of so. |
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| Our new Prayer card photo. Our Daughter-in-Law Lauren (Smith) Unternahrer made the sign for our house. |
