tranquility
this past week was a week of tranquility. we had no group, which meant we had no tight schedule to meet. it also meant we had less bodies in the house, which means less noise, less to do, less of just about everything. don't get me wrong, i like groups. but i also like it when we don't have groups.
so we spent the week hanging out with the people. we went into the villages, we chatted, we played, we visited the sick and the lonely. brian & bethany were also in the country, so we got a chance to watch how they interact with the people in the villages and just spent some time learning from them.
johanna (a new intern) and i also spent some time preparing for a literacy project we're going to tackle the last several weeks of july. johanna has a lot of great ideas, and since i've been teaching literacy in chichigua, we're going to take my experiences and compile it with other conversations and research and trial classes so that we can provide a comprehensive "manual" for others who will be coming to the country to continue the literacy program in chichigua and other surrounding villages. i'm very excited about getting to work with johanna on this project.
as i type this, a youth group from westlake bible church in austin is getting settled in santiago after flying into the country today. they'll meet us on the north coast on sunday evening and spend 4 days with us in the villages. we're especially excited about this week as we plan to teach the kids how to build character with the fruits of the spirits, as well as exchanging language as they learn english and we learn (more) spanish and kreyol.
sabbath
sabbath is taking a day a week to remind myself that i did not make the world and that it will continue to exist without my efforts.
sabbath is a day when my work is done, even if it isn't.
sabbath is a day when my job is to enjoy. period.
sabbath is a day when i am fully available to myself and those i love most.
sabbath is a day when i remember that when God made the world, he saw that it was good.
sabbath is a day when i produce nothing.
sabbath is a day when i remind myself that i am not a machine.
sabbath is a day when at the end i say, "i didn't do anything today," and i don't add, "and i fell so guilty."
sabbath is a day when my phone is turned off, i don't check my email, and you can't get a hold of me.
Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell p. 117-118
i lived through an earthquake
early wednesday morning there was an earthquake on the north coast of the dominican republic. i was sleeping quietly in my bed, when all of a sudden i shaken awake. i had been sleeping so hard i wasn't quite sure what was going on. i thought i was dreaming. i looked around, squinting (without glasses or contacts) to see if someone was there trying to wake me up. nope, there was no one around - except robin and holly who were still sleeping. i decided i must have just been dreaming.
the next evening as we were all sitting around and chatting, chris asked if anyone of us had felt the shaking in the night. all but about 2 of us sighed with relief, saying that yes, we felt it, but all had thought we were just dreaming. we concluded that there MUST have been a minor earthquake in the area.
though we are and all of our belongings are all obviously just fine, it was rather disappointing that this earthquake wasn't a bit more exciting.
in other news, we are all leaving the house today to head to cabarete for a weekend staff retreat. please be praying that the Lord would bring us all together to build great community and to lead us in our times of planning our activities for the remainder of our time in this country.
proof
when we were at the top of mt. isabela, jesus was kind enough to pose for a picture.
i found jesus at the top of a mountain
yesterday we climbed a mountain. mt. isabela is behind the MAK house, and yesterday we decided to climb her.
we set out around 9am, just walking into the woods behind the house. we came to some swanky neighborhood we never knew existed and then slowly but surely came to the foot of mt. isabela. we met a haitian guy named Pidro who was kind enough to lead us the whole way.
so we hiked and we hiked and we hiked. we saw a lot of amazing things which you will be able to see on shutterfly in the near future. when we were nearing the top, pidro took us off the beaten path. in fact, i don't think many people ever go this way. we did some free climbing (we were practically rock climbing without ropes) up one stretch and after fearing for my life we came to the most beautiful view of the city and the atlantic ocean. we reached the top at around 12:30. we could have made it in 20 minutes on the cable car, but this was so much more worth it. at the top is a restaurant, gift shop and park. there's also a big statue of Jesus. yes, we climbed a mountain and found jesus.
after eating lunch and resting in the cool breeze and taking in the magnificent view, we began our decent. pidro took us a different way down, saying the way we came up isn't the safest route. so after once again tackling the free climb on our decent, we took our different route. thinking we should get
down more quickly than we went
up, i began wondering why weren't home at around 3:00 or so. "casi llegamos" is what pidro kept telling me. yeah, we're almost there - on dominican time. so after we descended for a while, we began walking a pretty level path. apparently we were walking
around the mountain. about another hour later we come to a fence which pidro proceeds to jump over. at this point i'm a little worried he doesn't know where we are. but we following him over the fence and into the VALLEY of this mountain. on the other side of the mountain we discover our drunken mountain man, from whom we have to ask permission to go through his gate. at this point i was convinced we were lost. but we proceeded through the valley, and thankfully ended up back in a populated area. yet we continued walking through this populated area for probably an hour.
we were pretty sure that we were NOT going to end up back in the neighborhood where we started. at this point we were very tired and did not want to walk across town back to the neighborhood. so we walked and we walked and grew more and more tired with every step. suddenly holly yells, "oh my gosh!" we all thought something was wrong, but she proceeded to say, "this is the back way to the neighborhood!" i've walked this back way many times, so i definitely know what it looks like. no, this is not the backway, i would recognize it. she was convinced. i walked a few
more steps, took a second look and discovered that, sure enough, i was on the opposite side of the entrance to the back way to our neighborhood (that entrance you get to from the Alexia sign that leads you through the ranch behind the MAK house). the Lord certainly was watching over us, for at the end of our all day hike, we practically end up at our doorstep.
all in all, our hike lasted from about 9am to 6pm. before we left, drew estimated our hike as no less than 4 hours. can't say he was wrong!
there are many other stories of incredible things that happened on this day long hike up mt. isabela. but i cannot do them justice on a blog. we can all tell you about it when we get back to austin in 2 months. don't forget to ask barrett about his little tumble.
i'm making a list and checking it twice
let me start off by saying that i love our summer staff. they are awesome. it has been a ton of fun getting to hang out with these fun people (constance, barrett, drew, holly, brad, even carley, though she has left, and camille, of course).
it seems like every time we get conversation going around meal time, we end up talking about food. tex-mex specifically. and since we're all from austin, we start craving all those local tex mex places we miss so badly.
so i'm starting a list of all of the best places to get tex-mex and chips and salsa and queso in austin, tx. and when i return, i'm going to at least one of them every week until i've hit them all. so please submit your entry in the comments section.
thank you.
coming full circle...almost
so we were sitting on the roof having some worship time (which is much better now that barrett is back) tonight, initiating our first group of the summer. and it wasn't that i wasn't focused on the worship, because i was, but i was also thinking about this time last year, as well as my first time to have worship on the roof, and the many other times i've had worship on the roof over the past 10.5 months.
this time last year i was helping out with Camp NIKOS. i spent a whole week with inner city kids, no a/c, intense heat, and lots of bugs and dirt. and i loved it. i learned some good lessons that week, both related and not at all related to camp. and i am thankful for them.
and i've spent the last year with batey kids (the DR's version of the inner city, you could say) and adults, no a/c, heat so intense it beats austin heat any day, and lots of bugs and dirt and mud and germs. and i am loving it. i learned (and am learning) some good lessons this year, both related and not at all related to living as a missionary in the DR. and i am thankful for them.
it's interesting to me how life works sometimes, how the biggest lessons and the best times in life are always the unexpected ones, the ones that happen when you're most uncomfortable, the ones that happen
despite your resistance.
and sometimes i start to worry that once i get back to the comforts of the US i'll once again become numb to these lessons and experiences. but i realized tonight that that is not where i'll be. yes, i'll be in austin. yes, i'll be living in my very well air conditioned apartment, devoid of all bugs and dirt. but i have realized that i enjoyed the uncomfortable and difficult experiences for a reason. it's not just random. it's what i was made for. it is why i'm returning to austin to make my thesis a reality. so while my residence may be in one place, my life will be in another. and if you see it is not, you may call me out on it.
flood pictures
check out the MAKARiOS blog to see a picture of a house full of mud from the flood last week.
the simple life
as i was helping sweep water out of a home on thursday afternoon, i heard the father of the house say the following:
La vida is sencilla, pero no es facil.Life is simple, but it's not easy.
