Day 5 - Thursday
Naomi & Ruth / Netters & Lis
Our Thursday began in a mirrored like reflection as the days before. The local girls came over to the casa. We continued our weeklong session on Women of Godly Character. Our time together was a riot. We played a game where each girl has to write an interesting fact about them on a piece of paper. Then, they crumbled the paper and threw them around the room. After about a minute, we asked them to pick up the paper clump closest to them. One by one they read their fact on the piece of paper and matched the fact with the person. It was cute to see what they shared about themselves. We then moved into our study time. This morning was Netters and Lis’ turn to teach. A dynamic duo they are! Netter and Lis assembles some handmade journals for each other girls. Inside was the story of Ruth with some disccussion questions. In the rest of the space we encouraged to draw, or write out some thoughts and feelings. The intention was to give them a creative space to do with what they wanted. During the study many of the filled in the blank space with doodles and writings. Netters and Lis chose to focus on the key qualities of Naomi and Ruth. After a read through of the story of Ruth, we then lead a discussion about how important inner beauty is rather than physical appearances. We also talked about the importance it is to have trust in God and that he can redeem any situation.
Who saw that coming?
When COTN first asked us to teach a conference, for girls about Godly character, we can remember how nervous we were about “teaching”. The word “teach” hindered us. The majority of our team is not really teachers, and we remember thinking about how it had the opportunity to go south. We feared that the girls would listen to us and dismiss the material because we are from a different culture. What do we know about these girls? How can we relate to them? What could we possibly teach them? Some of us just didn’t feel peace about what we were asked to do. But, we agreed because we understood the need was strong. It makes you think about all the times in the Bible God asks an individual to do something seemingly scary. With our girls, we’ve shared the stories of Mary, Esther, Naomi and Ruth (so far). We might argue that none of them felt peace about what they had been asked to do. If having peace about something was the distinct criteria for entering a situation, we can bet that no one in the Bible would have done anything God asked. But always do we have an ever so stronger, deeper faith in Christ because we obey. Here we are as leaders terrified as terror comes doing what God asked. Not only did we overcome our fear through Christ, but we also go and live out the proof in the lesson of our teachings. Did anyone else see that coming? After our study we did a craft. Phyllis and Jim had brought a canvas, drawstring bag for each girl. They even brough fabric pens to decorate them with. We encourage you to go look at the pictures. It was really sweet watching them get creative.
I should have worn my seatbelt
In the second half of our day we had a presentation by our friend Edwin. Edwin is a one of a kind man with a memory like you can’t even fathom. He knows every child in every batey in the country of the Dominican Republic. COTN is so blessed to have a gem like him. Edwin gave us a presentation about sponsorships. Fortunately we are pro’s at sponsorships. Many of us sponsor kids and have even taken on a few more since landing 5 days ago. However, with Edwin’s knowledge, we want to be able to inspire others, we come in proximity to, to talk about the work of COTN and allow us to be link in the chain to get children sponsored. Another thing we did yesterday afternoon was toured another batey called Don Bosco. After a hilariously jarring ride through the village dirt roads and potholes, the van stopped and we landed in each other’s lap from the vigorous bumps we pounced through. Maybe that seatbelt was a good idea? The children there were extremely friendly. They ran up to our van and could hardly wait for us to pour out the side. Each “Americano” had a small child in each hand, and each child was usually holding the hands of another child. Unlike our tour of Pueblo Nuevo, Don Bosco is a gigantic community. Because it is much larger, it also offers more for their children. For example, in their kitchen they use to prepare meals at school, they have a water filtration system that a previous church installed for them. However, they do not have access to water there forcing the locals to purchase water as their only option. Additionally Don Bosco has a library. It was such a sweet site to see rows and rows of shelves stuffed with books. Deron found a large printed book in Spanish and read to them like a teacher would in front of the class. While we were in the library a few of the children grabbed books and started reading to us in Spanish. Jim got a real treat when a little boy presented him a Curious George book. Jim read the English version on one side of the page, and the little boy read the Spanish translation on the other side of the page. After story time, the same kids broke out some bored games. Angela got her butt kicked at Checkers, while Jim also got scored in a Dominican version of Trouble.
Cutthroat Uno
You can see in pictures that we ended our evening in a rousing game of Uno. Some of us take winning a little bit more seriously than others. But, our group dynamics just make it that much more fun. As the moon rises and the flowing breeze cools our humid bodies, I wish you all could hear the witty banter going on in the veranda. We’ve adored spending time together with our team. Relationships are definitely being strengthened.
Immediate Prayer Needs:
Noma will teach on Hannah tomorrow morning for the same group of girls as the previous days. Pray that nerves will subside and that God would speak wisdom through us and communicate exactly what God wants our girls to hear.
Pray for our hearts. Tomorrow is our last day of activities! Can you even believe it!? We plan to spend the second part of our day at the falls with all our own sponsor children in addition to the ones sponsored by Gathering family members. Pray for a rich time with our beloved.
Pray for our friend Edwin Feliz. His position with COTN is to coordinate child sponsorships. He was so perfectly made for this job. He now has an assistant, Maria Carolina, to help him. With her help they will be able to open up the capacity at what they do. Pray their relationship is strong and they will become a great team.
