The Angels Rejoiced

In my last newsletter, I mentioned an art student I have been working with named Sandi. Sandi is a 33 year old mother of two (Albert, 11, and Sindi, 9). She started coming to our art school at the admonition of her therapist: she needed to get out of the house and so something creative. The beginning weeks were difficut as she tried and tried again to draw the basic glass bottles and teapots we have all beginning students start with. She couldn't do it. I have never seen anyone in my life draw almost the complete opposite of what they're looking at. She was frustrated, I was frustrated, but I talked with her, our semester students Tyler and Michelled talked to her, Fran encouraged her and over time she began pouring out her heart. She has suffered from severe depression and anxiety for the last 9 years. For part of that time she was hospitalized and put on heavy medication. She has tried to commit suicide multiple times. She sleeps everyday between 12 and 6 pm. She lives in despondancy, despair and darkness. As she began tearfully revealing these things to us, we just loved on her. After about a month of her coming to our school, I asked her one day if we could pray for her. She said she was embarrassed, but I knew that we could not let her go. We gathered around her and she just grabbed our hands and Francisco began this beautiful, yet fervent prayer in Spanish. We all wept with her. Then she asked if she could come to church with me on Sunday!

Sandi had studied with Jehovah's Witnesses for many years and even tells people that she was one. But, she shared with us that she was never able to completely believe in it and she didn't know why.

I took her to church. She cried during worship. She listened intently to the sermon. And, at the end, she asked me to stand up with her at the altar call. She confessed her sins and accepted Jesus into her heart. Our church is really good at following up with those who stand up and she was hugged by one of our ushers and taken downstairs to give her name and address and to recieve some written material about Christianity. One of our other art students, Andrea, went down with her so that she wouldn't feel alone. It was an amazing night.

The next weekend our church was having a retreat/conference and Sandi wanted to go, so I picked her up Friday night and we went. This time, she put out her hands during worship and sang at the top of her lungs as she cried and cried. She listened intently again and afterward wanted to meet the speaker who is a Puerto Rican pastor. She told him her story and he lead her through another sinner's prayer. In the car on the way home, she asked me why tears uncontrollable flowed out of her during the singing. She said that at the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, that had never happened; neither at the Catholic church she had attended as a young person. I began to tell her about the Holy Spirit. She was overwhelmed by all that had happened, so we didn't talk too much that night.

The next week she came to the art site and told me she had something to share. Here in the Dominican Republic exists 'Brujeria', or, witchcraft. Though most Dominicans never confess to believing in them, many of them will secretly consult with witches to perform spiritual things for them. Sandi had done just that. And recently. Though she has made a decision for Christ, she is still bound by so many other things. After sharing what this witch woman had her do, I prayed and prayed. Because my Spanish isn't good enough to explain a whole lot, I asked her to please share with Francisco. She did and he talked to her about the difference between Satan's power and the power of God, but she didn't really understand. In her desperation to relieve this constant pain in her life, she is grabbing at whatever she can. But she was able to acknowledge that ever since she had been meeting with this woman, she has been constantly sick with headaches and vomiting. Please pray for her. She has said that she will not see this woman again (the main reason being that she charges too much money), but Sandi is still having a hard time. Our church has an integration ministry set up and so I went with my friend Elizabeth, who is now head over that ministry, to go visit Sandi in her home. Elizabeth is a fluent Spanish speaker and Sandi really trusts her. I am praying that as the church gets more involved, Sandi will begin to realize that she has a family around her who will walk by her as she gets set free.

There are so many more like her in the DR. Depression, hopelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution and belief in superstition and witchcraft are major strongholds here. Please pray for us as we continue sharing Christ's redeeming love with her.

Dia de Accion de Gracias, a.k.a. Thanksgiving

Well, I've had a lot of quesitons asking how we celebrate Thanksgiving in the Dominican Republic. I regret to inform all Americans that America is the ONLY country that celebrates this holiday since, you know, it originated with Pilgrims and Indians. Theoretically. Giving thanks actually originated a long time before that, but that's beside the point.

Having said that, I will gladly share that Students International put on a Thanksgiving for all of our staff and their families and for our semester students the night before Thanksgiving. We worked Thanksgiving day since it is not actually a national holiday here.

A traditional, yet somewhat Dominican, meal was prepared (pineapple jam instead of cranberry sauce) and enjoyed by everyone (though the Dominicans found the food to be kind of bland). We had a live worship band playing and we spent meaningful time giving thanks to God for specific things. We danced our puritan patooties off as we worshipped the Lord with Thanksgiving for all that He has done. It was the best T-day I've ever had.

On a funny note, we at the art site decided to dress up as Pilgrims and Indians (though we didn't catch a shot of Francisco wearing his construction paper headdress). All the Dominicans thought I was a nurse and were very confused.

Meet Tyler and Michelle

Francisco and I have had the incredible privilege of hosting these two students from Bethel College, Indiana at the art site for the last two months. Tyler and Michelle came on a semester program with 19 other students to study Spanish and work in occupational ministries with Students International. Originally, each were assigned to a different work site-- Michelle at education, as she is an English major and wants to teach, Tyler at medical, as he came to find out if nursing was something he'd like to pursue. Due to overbooking, these two were placed at my site. It was the hand of God. Tyler and Michelle are both very talented artists and each have the spiritual sensitivity to go along with it. They immediately jumped right in to what we were doing at the art site: hanging out with our students and building relationships with them, making art of their own, cleaning up when it needed to be done, running errands with me, and teaching two mornings a week at a local school.

Along with teaching art at our art school, Ty, Michelle and I spent 5 weeks at Jarabacoa Christian School teaching art and how God feels about art. Our lessons were as follows: Week 1-God as Creator: we read the first few verses in Genesis and the beginning of Psalm 19, talked about creation, shared about Vincent Van Gogh and his life, and we did drawings in crayon based on his Starry Night painting. Week 2- Bezalel and Oholiab: God's Skilled Artists: Exodus 31, talked about our gifts and callings from God and how we are to practice them, become skillful and do them excellently. We shared about artist Cezanne and how he saw everything as though it were encased in shapes. We drew glass bottles, starting with rectangles. Week 3- True Worship vs. Idolatry: the Golden Calf story (how art was used to worship false Gods), talked about how we can use the gifts God has given us in ways that don't please Him; God's perspective vs. man's perspective; featured artist M.C.Escher who was an expert in perspective drawing and then we taught them how to draw some basic perspective. Week 4: Being Made in the Image of God. We talked about what it means to reflect God's image. We showed the self-portraits of Van Gogh, Cezanne and M.C. Escher and then showed the classes Michelle and Tyler's self-portraits that they had worked on. The art project was to draw a self-portrait based not on appearance, but on who they are as image bearers of God. Week 5- God's Love for Cultural Diversity: Tower of Babel (God confuses languages, causing humanity to become different and spread out) and how the 'glory of the nations' will be brought into the New Jerusalem (art being some of that glory). We showed students different art from around the world and then we taught them how to make Origami cranes.

What an amazing time it was. We really bonded with the kids (ranging from 2nd grade to High Schoolers). Here are some photos:

Ashli showing off her self-portrait

Me showing off some African art to the 5th graders

Tyler, Michelle, the 2nd graders and I showing off their origami cranes

A fun time was had by all.

Tyler and Michelle are finishing up next week and I am really sad to see them go. They have each brought with them some amazing reflections of Christ in His splendiforous array and I will miss them terribly.