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.