My Experience in the Dominican Republic

The relationships that I established in the Dominican Republic have changed my life. Within hours I began to speak to those around me about the importance of drinking lots of water and eating balanced, healthy meals. However, as I educated others about this, I felt that I was failing since I did not notice a change in what they were consuming. Soon I learned that my healthy eating lifestyle was something that I wanted to teach all those around me but I had to lead by example.  This is a picture of the room in which we ate lunch every day at the Christian Community Center in Santo Domingo. 

I noticed that the more that I drank water and ate fruits and vegetables, the more others began to follow my example. As the author of the Hole in the Gospel put it, "God utilizes our mistakes and our victories to shine a light on the path, so that others might follow" (Hole in our Gospel, 75). I learned to walk away from my mistakes not feeling as a failure, but rather with a sense of gratitude. Gratitude because little by little others were making healthier food choices.

Lack of resources is what leaves a nation "landlocked". At least this is what the author of the Bottom Billion believes and it is what I saw with my own eyes in the country of the Dominican Republic recently.  The author states that, " All the people living in the countries of the bottom billion have been in one or another of the traps described... 30 percent landlocked, resource-scarce, and in a bad neighborhood and 76 percent have been though a prolonged period of bad governance of poor economic policies" (Bottom Billion, 79). This is a picture of the hospital that I visited with my Dominican friend. 

The Dominican Republic is now considered a third- world country by a few sources. Its lack of resources is displayed vividly in its healthcare and government facilities.  I had the opportunity to work alongside a medical intern and witness these conditions. The hospitals lacked running water, trained blood-work personnel and little if any privacy for women going into labor. I was asked to request a wheelchair from another doctor in order to wheel out a woman ready to deliver, however that doctor's response struck me. He did not want to give the wheelchair over, and it was then that I saw the level of resource scarcity. Not only did I walk away with a heavy heart, but I also looked forward to returning to the healthcare available to me in the United States.

 As I was in the Dominican Republic, God began to challenge me to give back to others in new ways. I remember crying to my fiancé Joel over a poor phone connection and all I spoke about was how hard it was to surrender to God. The author of the Hole in Our Gospel speaks about this very well. He says that, “Jesus understood that not everyone who called Him “Lord” would truly surrender their lives in sacrificial service, and He reserved some of His strongest words for those who professed to be His followers but whose lives showed no evidence of their faith” (Hole in Our Gospel, P.85).   

This is a picture right outside the University of Santo Domingo where we reached out to university students. 

With time I began to feel more confident to speak my Mexican Spanish with Dominicans. I was losing my fear and embarrassment. Often students who met me for the first time knew that I was Mexican due to my Spanish "accent" as they so called it. I believed that that was a sign of my weakness and I did not think that I would be able to ever communicate with them on a personal level. However, the Lord told me to trust Him with faith and within days things began to change. I taught Dominican Students about the Gospel, how to sing Christian songs in english, and they also taught me about their culture.

 Christ's love for others can be shown to them in how we communicate with them. It can be shown in the patient and loving manner that we speak to someone, or even shown through our interest and desire in learning to speak their language. Although I understand Spanish and English, somehow at first I was not effectively communicating with Dominicans in Spanish.  I was not speaking at a rate fast enough that they were accustomed to, or had the slur to my speech that told them I was speaking about something important. The author of the Hole in our Gospel also agrees that we can love others with our actions. This is a picture of my lawyer,  Dominican friend translating for Ronnie with our American Chi Alpha team. 

The author of the Hole in Our Gospel says that, "When we demonstrate love to others the author says that, “we make credible the message of a Savior who transforms men and women for eternity (The Hole in our Gospel, P. 69)".  So not only must we tell others that we love them, but it must be backed up with actions too. I never thought that speaking Spanish could be so difficult until I first translated from English to Spanish for more than 3 hours at our first training of Chi Alpha.  As I made an effort to learn from Dominicans, they began to feel that I loved them enough to care to hear their suggestions.

The Gospel should always challenge us. It should challenge us mentally, but most importantly; challenge us to leave our selfishness to put others before ourselves.  The author of the Hole in our Gospel expands on this topic in a great way. He says that he has wrestled and continues to wrestle with all of the issues of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (P. 73).  The gospel is not a book packed with complicated issues, rathe, we start to see how much we really care about ourselves perhaps sometimes more than others.

While on a hospital visit, I noticed a room that was undergoing construction. It was being remodeled, but in my opinion it did not look that different from other rooms throughout the entire building. The walls were made out of cement and floors were so cracked that all that seemed to be left was dirt. I was shocked to see the young boys doing the tearing down of the walls. They had no masks or protective gear to cover their eyes from dust getting into their eyes, or gloves to avoid cuts or scrapes.  I closed my eyes and prayed for their safety, but what I was really thinking was, "God, does anyone even care for these guys?" Jesus desires that His followers put others first, and instead of others putting those guys first, it seemed to be that they were putting the needs of the hospital first.

My cross-cultural experience taught me to be thankful for the blessings that I often took for granted. These blessings include having clinic/ hospital that has indoor waiting areas with air conditioning in the summer, and also running water that is clean right from my own sink. I woke up around 6 am one morning to prepare for a long day at a nearby hospital. Little did I know that I would be going to the state's highest ranked hospital. As I was there I happened to notice a group of young kids playing happily in a park. Their parents were sitting in an outdoor waiting room in order to see a pediatric doctor. 

Instantly I thought back to the amount of money and aid that perhaps had been given to the hospital. I wondered if those resources had been misused or perhaps only led to more problems. I agree with the author of Toxic Charity who said that, “the outpouring of more aid, though necessary to preserve life in a time of disaster, is ultimately worsening the underlying problem” (Toxic Charity, P.36).   Much like the hospital that I had been to previously, this one lacked running water, but the main thing I noticed was the lack of walls and air conditioning for a waiting area that seated at least 200 people at one time in scorching hot weather.

While on this cross -cultural trip I learned that when training leaders from a different country and culture, it is very important to remain humble. I began to change my tone of voice and approach to how I taught others so that I could succeed in this. Very often, the youth pastors from the Dominican Republic spoke to us about their strategies with attracting young students as well as discipling them. However, our Chi Alpha team made an effort to listen to them before they simply disregarded the input and stories from the Dominican leaders. The picture in this entry portrays a very nice and wealthy looking mall in Santo Domingo. The capital of the Dominican Republic. 

I like the quote by the author of the Bottom Billion. He says, "With a bit of imagination you can think of education as a form of wealth: in one of the ugliest phrases in economics, educated people are 'human capital', so labeled because their skills are valuable (Bottom Billion, 93)." In other words, our Chi Alpha team was educating Dominican church leaders on the importance of discipling other young Christians. The leaders then taking that knowledge and passing it down to others can be viewed as "wealth".  This form of wealth will benefit the Dominican Republic even after we are back in the United States. We will have taught them what they need in order to make disciples on their own and be able to succeed on their own.

This cross-cultural experience taught me that during times of service in other parts of the world, its important to acknowledge the people already making a good change there. I learned that in the Dominican Republic because myself and other leaders with the missionaries from the U.S. faced a lack of support. Instantly I was taken to the quote in the Bottom Billion that says what need to do during times of no support is to " get serious about supporting the heroes in the struggle that is already being waged within the societies of the bottom billion" (Bottom Billion, 86). This is a picture of my new friends who helped me and my group to evangelize to other Dominican's. 

There was little support for our Chi Alpha mission at the first university that we stopped by. The security officers of the campus asked us to take down our "wall" presentation and so we had to obey and did as told.  The activity we were doing called the "wall" was in order to promote conversation about salvation with nonbelieving university students. As soon as our opportunity to teach others was shut down, we instantly reflected on how we could do our outreach activities better.

 Fasting prior to my cross-cultural experience was one of the best decisions that I made in preparation for the Dominican Republic. I learned to listen more to the voice of God in the midst of cultural barriers such as having to learn to eat new foods and learning to speak to them about the Gospel in a different way. As I was in the Dominican I was not able to fast or abstain from food because I needed the energy to walk around the city. However, I kept thinking back to the main idea that the author of Celebration of Discipline used in regards to fasting. This picture is a new friend that I made from Higuey. She took our group to mango, banana and tangerine trees!

Foster in Celebration of Discipline said that fasting is treated "as if there is an almost unconscious assumption that giving, praying, and fasting are all part of Christian devotion. We have no more reason to exclude fasting from the teaching than we do giving or praying"(Celebration of Discipline, 52). Those who have abstained from food in order to read the Bible and pray know that God rewards their obedience in the end. I witnessed God give me more boldness and authority as I spoke to nonbelievers on the streets and led many to Christ as a reward to my obedience.

Maintaining a healthy relationship with the Lord is necessary in order to relate to other human beings. I learned this in the Dominican Republic because many of the new Christians wanted me to teach them to pray to God although they already knew how. The author of the Celebration of Discipline spends a long time talking about the importance of praying with fervor and consistency.  He says that, "Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them" (Celebration of Discipline, 24).

I often felt that the new Christian Dominican students we were training felt embarrassed to pray in public. One evening our Chi Alpha group along with several Dominican students was invited to sing at a nearby park. We sang a song of God's great power and love through His Son Jesus Christ to people who both believed in God and did not believe. After we sang, I took note of one very important thing. I had to pray in boldness and confidence in front of people, especially if I was encouraging them to do the same. I had to learn to lead by example.