God is good. If you read my last post, you read that in the first 4 days I was a bit out of touch with what God intended for me here. I needed a little bit of direction from our Creator. His word is truth and also a road map for our lives. So often I breeze through a day without stopping and I realize at 9pm that I just missed some great opportunities. My last two days have not been that way. After getting a little bit of cold water dumped on me, I decided to take a step back, buckle in, and look for and recognize all the people and situations that God has placed in my lap. Guess what? You ask Him and He will provide. He is the Great Provider.
I just spent two hours spending time with a 17 year old young man named Ezekial. I met Ezekial yesterday in front of my house as he was watching the National Dominican girls softball team play Puerto Rico's National team. His father Danny is one of the security guards at our facility and he often times comes and hangs out or swims in one of the pools. Ezekial has a huge smile and a great demeanor about him. I knew right away that we would be pals. He did not seem to be bothered by my bad spanish and he even seemed to like helping me learn. I offered to work with him hitting (batear) and catching (receptir) today and he accepted. I prayed on Friday that God would bring some people to me and he provided. After giving Ezekial a few pointers on hitting and throwing, I gave him one of our rubber wrist bands and spent some time telling him about the scripture verse John 3:30. It was so cool! I asked him if he had a Bible and he said no. So of course I gave him a "Testamente nuevo en espanol." I asked him if he would read the Gospel of John the next two nights and he agreed. I will meet again with Ezekial on Wednesday at 2pm. God is good.
The last few days I have had the opportunity to spend time with a few missions teams that are staying here at the Highlands. The first group I spoke to is an FCA baseball group from Fairfax, Virginia. 8 players (yup 9 needed for a team) and two coaches. My first question was "where is the 9th guy?". They laughed, and then told me that they only have 8 and plan on either borrowing one Dominican each game of just mixing the teams every day. The latter is a great idea. They will definitely become familiar with Dominican culture that way and probably even pick up a few words in spanish to boot. On Saturday night, the day after I asked God to provide me with some people to talk to, this team agreed to allow me to give a devotion after dinner. The night before I taught them how to play "footsie four square" and they loved it. I played that game with a Wesleyan group in the DR for 7 days straight in 2008 and loved every moment of it. Of course, the Virginians loved it too and I got to know each of the young men. They also seemed to like playing around with Wyman. Wyman stayed up way too late that night. Sooo, Saturday night I gave a devotion on Romans 10 and then told them the story of Holt Rowland. I had a feeling that Holt's story would strike a nerve in these young men because they are on the same type of trip Holt took last year and belong to the same organization (FCA). I was correct. Holt's influence is now all the way up to Virginia. All of the young men are wearing the armband with Holt's initials on it and will see the verse from John 3:30, "He must become greater; I must become less, every time they look down at their wrist. Amazing! He provided once again I say, "God is good.
Jodi and I have been blessed with two great spanish teachers since we have been down here. Mercy and Julio have taught us so much in just two days about the culture and the spanish language. Its our hope that we will both be able to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to Dominican coaches and players and anyone else that we meet. I am sure that God will provide us with that ability to speak in spanish. He has already given us the energy and excitement for the language. There is nothing like reciting some spanish sayings each night before prayers with the kids. Wyman and Gracie already are saying Buenos Dias, Hola, Como esta, bien, Gracias, hasta Luego and Adios. God willing, praying in spanish as a family will be a special moment someday in the future.
Every group that has come here on a mission trip has wanted to hear our story and pray over us. I cannot tell you how amazing that feels. One group in particular that we have spent time with is from Hart County, Georgia. They were not here more than an hour before they were asking us to tell our story and pray with them. The last two nights it has been a huge blessing to spend a few hours talking about the great GA, sweet tea, and good ole phrases like y'all and fixin. Hearing their individual stories has been great too. We all have a faith walk and it is special and unique. A group from the Woodstock area spent time at our place Saturday and Sunday too. The group is called Gloves for God and their coach is Wes Lecroy from First Baptist of Woodstock. They repair old gloves and give them to kids in the villages. They also use a crazy looking glove with 5 colors on it to share the Gospel. They let me thow BP to them yesterday and give my story and a mini devotion on "opportunity." After the devotion, I had 15 sweaty guys praying over me. That was awesome. Praise God, the Provider!
Favorite Dominican phrase of the day is: Pin poon! It means right away. I love it. Just saying it makes me belly laugh. Just say it to someone later tonight. I want some food...pin poon!
The Shaheen family currently has Adrienne Christian (spanish teacher at Wesleyan) staying with us this week. She is a summer missionary with SCORE International (the group we partner with) and they assigned her to our facility this week. So awesome. Adrienne is awesome and it is pretty cool to have her here with us. Jodi took advantage of Adrienne spanisg skills last night and had her help with the homework.
Friends and family, again, thank you for all your support. Your prayers are felt all the way over here in the Dominican Republic. Please know that we love you and miss you very much. We have email, facebook and skype that works great. We also purchased a $7 per month skype phone service that allows us to call out to people. Please send us your thoughts whenver you want. We love them.
Please remember:
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving JOY to the heart.
Psalms 19:9
In His grip,
Mike, Jodi, Wyman and Gracie
PS. Jodi will start throwing some pictures up with this blog asap.
No comments:
Post a Comment