Internet issues

Hi everyone! This is Di, stateside. I got a message from Randy (your usual blogger) that the DR crew is having internet issues. Here is Randy's message:

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Internet access has been lost. Everyone on the team is doing well, and we are working, worshiping, and playing hard. We don't expect to be able to post to the blog during our trip, but I will post on our return.

Lose yourself to find yourself, on an "unvacation"

Day 2 Started with an absolute rarity her in the DR, breakfast was served a half-hour ahead of schedule!  With a group this big, we’ve had to begin doing some of our travel (as well as eating, in addition to the normal showering) in shifts.  So after two round-trips to El Brisal, we were all on-site to start digging…literally.  Pick-axes and shovels…and a lot of sweat and soreness were the order of the day.  By the end of the day, backs, arms, and hands were sore, hundreds of feet of trench were dug, picks were dulled and bent on the indigenous coral, and a couple hundred feet of water supply pipe was laid and covered over.

A smaller group of us also went to “the blue church” to help them with a project as well.  Crowbars and hammers in hand, our simple instructions were “Tear down the church!”  The church is expanding, with corrugated walls and roof being replaced by block and cement—the walls of which were already constructed outside the existing building.  Deconstructing a church is a weird thing…and not very easy as it turns out.  Even stranger was, well, destroying the elevated alter area.  With the new, larger footprint, it was in the wrong place, right in the center of the building.  So we took sledge hammer, pick, and shovel to destroying the spot from which we’ve seen many a stirring message.  Just unsettling really.

At lunch, we had another great meal delivered at the school.  After that there was “bible story” under the big tree with the biggest attendance we’ve ever seen.  The local missionaries told us that the kids have been asking about us for weeks (we’re a couple weeks later than in past years), afraid we weren’t coming and confessing that our visits are the highlight of their summers.  When we moved into playtime, it was like all the kids in the neighboring towns arrived too, out of nowhere.  Suddenly hundreds of kids and most of our group played in the field for a couple hours before heading back to lay the pipe.

So…and scouts honor this story is true…a couple of our big swinging axe ringers were enjoying a well-deserved nap in the school, it happens when big guys work hard in the heat then carb load for lunch.  The problem this day was that a local dog decided to chase the local alpha rooster, and we’d left the doors open to get a good breeze flowing through.  Let’s just say John Smith was understandably shaken and confused when he awoke to a chicken running across his chest being chased by a dog on the hunt.  Just plain old funny, and one of those stories you can’t make up.  We also had a wonderful opportunity present itself, when we were able to provide treatment to two very ill children and a couple members of our group shined through with loving grace.

Mark 10: 42-45 was our text passage this evening as we discussed our “unvacation” in small groups.  The normal idea of a vacation, especially to the type of resorts that dot the Dominican coast, is be served.  To not lift a finger, drop all our cares, and reap the rewards of the hard work we’ve left at home by basking in the opulence of indulgence.  So then, the unvacation is the opposite.  We leave all the comforts, surround ourselves in squalor, and we focus our entire visit on serving others.  So it’s not about me…it’s about others.  The passage instructs us from the mouth of Jesus that this is the way we should live!  Christ, the king of all things, gave up everything to come and serve.  Even to the point of giving his life in exchange for ours.  We are to model that, not to deny who we are and what we’ve been given, but to realize that we should be willing to lay it all down, give it up if necessary, in the service of others in Christ’s name.

Pictures from Day 2

Pastor with a pick-axe, watch out!

Mary destroys an altar with a sledge hammer...no really, look at the picture!

Antibiotics and lollipop, what the Dr. ordered, literally!

Coloring after bible story, this is maybe a quarter of the crowd

Sorry guys, but this is why you're now called Dora and (Dr.) Boots

John peacefully enjoying his deserved nap, totally unsuspecting...

that this rooster was about to end that nap...badly.

Finishing touches on the trench-work, and the pipe-laying begins.

Day one in Pics

Collecting the luggage in Santo Domingo 

Pizza in the Airport, yup...corn 

Th front facade of the Water Center

 The side, with the message

Worshiping at the Water Center 

Official Ribbon-Cutting

Lose Ourselves, that we may truly Find Ouselves

So, how do you think your day’s going to go when it starts with a whiney dog waking you at 3:15am, getting the family loaded in the van by 4:15am only to find the battery’s dead, and in the attempt to jump start it in the pre-dawn darkness you start you start a fire under the hood of the truck you’re using to provide power?  Well…as it turns out, pretty darn good!  As usual, despite my best efforts (O.K. just my efforts), I am reminded that it’s not in my hands…just let go.

We all gathered at the airport on-time, only to find that one member of our team had a medical emergency, and while hoping to join us later, is currently out of commission.  We are praying that Dean will recover and heal in a manner that will allow him to join us.  We arrived uneventfully in Santo Domingo and had pizza Dominican style at the airport for lunch (so yes, there was corn on the pizza).  Packed up the busses, and headed to the orphanage.  We packed up the hygiene kits and readied VBS supplies and had a lazy afternoon setting everything up.  Reconnecting with the staff here is always great treat.

After dinner we donned our church clothes and got the opportunity to worship at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the water purification center we built over the last two years!  It is always a different and unique experience worshiping outdoors with rigged equipment, and joint participation from a number of churches and the community at large.  Lots of smiling faces on the kids, games, singing, hugs…just amazing.

Tonight we studied our theme verse.  In our small group we discussed the things we are excited about and looking forward to, the things we’re worried about, and expectations.  It was a good opportunity to get to know each other.  Then we discussed what losing yourself, losing your life because you’re trying to safe it mean from both a temporal state, and in light of the gospel and eternity.  So, here’s my boil-down:  If we focus on ourselves on what we think we can control and save ourselves in and by…we’ve lost.  Not only have we lost our life and opportunity here, but we will have lost our souls in eternity.  To truly save yourself, you must be willing to give up control, give up yourself, and give of yourself sacrificially.

Lose Yourself?

Jesus said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it." (Mark 8:35)
Well, that's our theme verse for this trip. How do we lose our life for Christ's sake? What does that mean? What does that look like?  I'm looking forward to trying to figure that out, and I'll let you know what we uncover.

On another note, I've had a passage running through my head that was part of a bible study I participated in a couple Sundays ago (and completely unrelated to this trip, or even Hope church).  Pardon my paraphrase, but it's how I take Job 29 to heart personally.  First, as background, we were studying the biblical principle of justice, and how very different God's view of justice is from earthly, manly, and especially the modern social view and definition.  Second, as a reminder, the very reason we know who Job is--he was the one example in humankind that God put forth as an example of a righteous man.

So what does Job 29 say, and how does it apply to a mission trip?  Job is describing, in the midst of his trials, what he was like, how he acted, and how people treated him when he was this righteous pillar.  In so doing, he describes and provides examples of how to live a Godly life.  Among his familiar words and callings are to:  rescue the poor, make the widow's heart sing, be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, be a father to those in need.

But also in this mix, and this is really been weighing on me, is a call to seek out and find those who you are not aware of, yet are in great need of your help!  Huh...think about that one for awhile...  Whether we enterpret that as spiritually, metaphorically, or physically searching...where does that lead?

Maybe to lose yourself, for the sake of those in need, for the sake of those you don't know, for the sake of those you had to go searching for...

Before We Leave...

Administrative stuff...and a few preliminary ramblings:

This blog will chronicle the mission trip of Hope Church (Randolph, NJ www.realhope.org ) to the Dominican Republic.  There are 42 of us going, split between men and women, adults and teens, members and friends of the Hope community.  We partner on these trips with the NJ-based mission organization, the Foundation for Peace, www.foundationforpeace.org

Every year I change up how I write the blog...this year I will try and tie it to our trip theme and the teachings we explore and try to live out daily.  That said, I'm sure it will incude my normal random thoughts, attempts at humor, and curious descriptions of heat, bugs, and sweat too.  I will try to balance what I think those reading from afar will find of note, with what I feel like I need to get out and document for my own well-being.  Oh yeah...and lots of pictures, I promise.

FYI, if you haven't before, or want to refresh your memory, the last two years' blogs are still live and can be viewed:
www.hopechurchmission2010.blogspot.com
www.hopechurchmission2009.blogspot.com