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June  2010

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2010 Planned Tours

LINKS:

LA Romana Dreamin

Wallingford DR Team

Circle of 12

HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY

Michael Robinson

My decision to go to La Romana began two years ago after I heard Jonathan Mayo and Alfred Toussaint describe their experiences during a worship service. I thought to myself, "I'd really like to go", at that point I made a promise to myself that the next time they went down I would go with them. Two years had passed since I made that promise. The opportunity to fulfill that promise came in February of 1996 when Jonathan approached me about being a missionary in La Romana. I had a million excuses as to why I couldn't and shouldn't go. Many of those excuses seemed legitimate at the time, however I remembered the promise I made to myself before God- I could do nothing but say "yes, I will go." 

I went to La Romana with a belief that nothing I could see or hear or experience could shake me. After all, I was born in Jamaica, another so called "third world" country that was very similar to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I said to myself, "I've seen hungry children, entire families living in cardboard houses with zinc roof tops. As a matter of fact some of my own family members still live in those conditions." What I witnessed in the Bateyes blew away all my preconceived notions and barriers. Men working in the sugar cane fields amidst snakes, rats, and other disease infested vermin. Teenage girls who's only recourse to find shelter was to become pregnant by some man so she may be taken in as his common law wife. Looking at wide eyed children who seemed to be the only ones at times that laughed and seemed "happy", yet all I could see was skin and bone because of the malnutrition. The children however did something more for me, than the adults. It was as if God held a mirror as big as everything I could see and said "LOOK AT YOURSELF!" In those moments with the children I did see myself, and I became utterly speechless before God. I could find nothing really differences between the children and myself. They looked like me, played like me, and was just as curious about things as I was at that age. I asked the Lord throughout the entire trip why me Lord? Why did my parents come to America? Why am I not amongst these children? Why didn't you take this boy or this girl? Why? The Lord answered me throughout the entire trip, "I've got work for you to do." This is something the Lord has told me before back in the States, however it was confirmed and made real in the Dominican Republic. I began to see my life as not just a series of coincidences and random acts of fate, but as a life that has been sustained by the grace of God. There was a time as small child I was deathly sick, ( I don't remember it because I was so young, I relied on my mother for this information) , as a teenager I put myself in life threatening situations, but "somehow" I was pulled through them- that somehow WAS God. My life was spared on many occasions not for my sake but for service God. I understood that better as we served the people in La Romana in the name of Jesus Christ. 

It really hit me that serving the Lord is a non joking matter. I've been spared death long enough to be redeemed. God owns my life, and there is so much joy in knowing that in owning me, he's got me. There was so much joy in being a part of and witnessing the gospel in action. Many of the Bateyes had church buildings, a place were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ could come together an worship. It was very clear to me that no matter how fancy the building we call "church", or how many people it can hold, the church is the mystical body of believers in Jesus Christ that is not bound by the physical world or limited by time. It was interesting to watch Deacon Kevin Pearson, identify with the Deacon at one of the Bateyes. We both watched as the local Deacon took a leadership in getting the people organized so that the cloth could be distributed decently and in order. It w as additional confirmation that our service, our very lives are required by God.