Day Twenty-Seven in the Dominican Republic

Today was very similar to yesterday. We had a relaxed morning with VBS in the afternoon.

It was fun seeing all of the children gathered for the VBS program today. We guestimated about 150 children crammed in the street outside Arelise's home. They had a portable sound system set up and were singing songs when we arrived. They sang a lot of songs. They played a few short games. Then they did the Bible lesson on God's creation of everything. They wrapped up the session by bringing individual children up front and asking, "Who made this child?" and had the group respond, "God!" I thought it was a beautiful reminder to a group of children from a struggling neighborhood that they were created in God's image---and so was their neighbor.

They also had us play a small role in the VBS program today. They asked us to lead an activity. They told us to just come up with one and lead it. However, after we had planned something, they did it with the group. So, we had to go to plan B. We ended up leading the group in singing, "Alelu, Alelu, Alelu, Aleluyah, Gloria Dios!" It went pretty well and the kids seemed to enjoy singing it with us.

Once the VBS program was finished, our girls jumped right into action, playing with many of the kids from the program. They have gotten pretty good at teaching people how to play the various "clapping games" and playing rock, paper, scissors. The local kids love it as well. There were some kids from the VBS program yesterday, that joined us again today, which helped because our kids already knew them and had taught them some of the games.

One of the cool parts of today's VBS was that it was in a new area of the barrio Guaricano. The church has members in this area, but had never held a children's program there before today. They also partnered up with an active program from a neighboring area of the barrio, whose group walked a little over five or six blocks to be a part of the activities today. It was neat to be part of something new in a new area. It was also very cool to see how successful it was. They had as many campers crammed in the street outside this home as we do for our established BAC2ONE art camp each year. Since it's a new program in a new area, there are some kinks that need to be worked out. However, I would definitely call it a success.

We finished up the evening with supper and family devotions. We're now on the third chapter of Philippians--one of my favorites. We had a very good conversation as a family. We spent quite a bit of time talking about if Jesus' sacrifice was enough, or if we needed something else. Paul was dealing with people who were claiming it was Jesus' sacrifice PLUS circumcision. Yet, Paul also reminds us that "we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3). He also said that he counted all of the "fleshly" accomplishments as rubbish compared to knowing Christ. He strives to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to join Him in His suffering.

That's a powerful reminder for all of us. It's also something you begin to grasp a little better after spending a lot of time around Christians who don't have many "fleshly" accomplishments, but are striving after Christ. I've been thinking about the Christians I met in the Bateys who, from a worldly perspective, have nothing. Yet, they have everything they need in Christ. What more do they need? We can see the joy and passion on their faces when they worship and preach. They have counted "everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake [they] have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that [they] may gain Christ..." (Phil. 3:8).

Continue to pray that we would embrace these truths as well. Pray the our family would embrace them and that the comfortable church of North America would embrace them. Pray that the Spirit would bring conviction upon us, repentance, forgiveness, and renewal. Also, pray that God would continue to work powerfully in and through his people in the Dominican Republic.

Buenos Noches!