Yo Soy Dominicana

This week is 'Missions Week' at church. We hold this event twice a year. I think about a hundred missionaries from all over the world come to our church and spend time throughout the week at luncheons, in the various classes and small group homes to share with our church family what it is that they do on the mission field and what their needs are. These times are so inspiring. Not only do they remind us to look beyond our Starbux and salons...to a world in need beyond our borders...it also opens our eyes to see the powerful, very REAL ways that God is at work beyond our 'godless' culture.

Last night, Ryan and I helped in the Kids' Connection room (as usual), which serves 2nd thru 5th graders. The missionaries that were assigned to our service was the de Freitas family. They are from the Dominican Republic. It was amazing to see them captivate their very young audience, and impress on them the burden for missions. They also shared with the kids ways that we can make a difference here in our hometown. Praying. Giving. Going. It was neat. I looked over at my Mark throughout the service to see what his reactions were to all this info. And he looked at me with eyes big as saucers. As if he were fighting back tears. I think it was an awesome eye-opener to him, to see slides and video of kids in that country who live in poverty and desperately need the Lord. He gladly received their card and tucked it into his pocket to bring home, and it is now on our fridge so we can remember to pray for that family and that ministry each week. We plan to spend time at dinner tonight talking about what he learned from the missionary and how it makes him feel about our call as Christians to GO and SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS TO ALL NATIONS. I'm excited for our conversation.

This missionary was especially intriguing to me, because I am half Dominican. My grandmother (abuela) was born and raised under a dictatorship in Santo Domingo, and she worked her way up to a government position in her twenties. She was placed in charge of all Social Services for the entire country. She owned land and multiple homes and had maids and personal landscapers...everything. When she married, she left her position to marry a poor hispanic minister who brought her to the states and started a church in California. But today, even in her old age, she carries those same ties to the Dominican Republic. She visits several times a year and stays in the governor's mansions and is known among the Christian community as an evangelist. She speaks at churches and prayer conferences and has had an impact in many communities that I'm only now realizing in my own adulthood.

As a child, she was just my grandma that my sisters and I found humor in, because she would speak in broken English. She would say cabbage instead of garbage. And she would say kitchen instead of chicken. And she would cook us the strangest food. Rice and beans (arroz y frijoles), chicken stew (sopa de pollo), fried bananas (platanos fritos). And while our friends would receive the popular toys from their grandmas, like Cabbage Patch Kids and Barbie Dolls...we would receive ethnic dolls from Dominican markets, handmade dresses from local seamstresses, and of course, we each were given a copy of the bible in Spanish. With a long note hand-written inside by my abuela, which my mom would have to translate to us. It always spoke of faith and conquering the Enemy with the Word of God. As a child, I always thought she was so strange.

But now, as an adult, I have come to learn these amazing traits about my grandmother. I realize that her notes to us were laced with words about conquering the Enemy, because she comes from a country that shares an island with Haiti, where VooDoo is prevalent, and unlike the US, the spiritual realm is very evident. And spiritual attacks are a reality in those parts. So, she wanted to teach us to guard our hearts and minds with the Word of God, even in this culture where spiritual warfare is less evident, but still very much at work. I am amazed at the legacy she is leaving for her kids and her grandkids and now her great-grandkids. My children call her Bisa (short for bisabuela, which means great-grandmother). And my daughter is named after her first name (Marina). My hope is that my kids will carry on the same legacy she has dedicated her life to...spreading the good news of Jesus to a needing world, and living by incredible faith. Faith that I have been honored to experience as she has prayed with authority (in spanish, of course) over myself and my family. En el nombre de Jesus...AMEN.