Questions Posed

As of Saturday there is a new team in DR! The team I'm working with this week is from Colorado Springs and they have been coming here for about 5 years. They work in an area of Santo Domingo called Las Brisas. I was warned several times about not only the craziness of this team but also the extraordinary heat in Brisas. So I tried to mentally and physical prepare myself for the collision of both of those things. VBS, teenage bible studies, adult bible studies, construction, dental cleaning and baseball are all on the agenda this week so it's a little hectic around here but hey, that's pretty normal. 

Today I was speaking to one of the women on the team and I was explaining that I'm working in DR for 5 weeks this summer then in January I am planning on studying abroad in Ghana, Africa until May. This shocked her because earlier I told her my ideal dream is to live and work in Dominican Republic. To her she heard Africa and 5 months and thought I was insane for desiring to go on a trip for that long especially in a place like Africa. She said to me "Why are you doing all of this?" That caught me off guard. I guess I had never heard it put that way. I have been pondering my answer to that question all day long. It's a simple answer. Why am I doing all of this? - Why not?

I think in American culture it has become so normal to choose the easiest and most comfortable life possible. A house in the suburbs where you and your high school sweetheart raise your two children, Sally and Joey and dog named Fido. You pick your major or career based on the annual salary not how it suits your strengths or passions. I was going to do that very thing. Speech pathologists make an average of $70,000 a year and I figured that was perfect, I could comfortably provide for my family. I could work part-time while raising my children in the suburbs and hopefully provide them with an easy and comfortable life. But where is the need for God in that life? A life like to me doesn't need God. You are making enough money and have a nice roof over your head. You aren't worrying about how you're going to make ends mean or for your safety. If you aren't uncomfortable or out of that comfort zone most often you aren't living day to day relying on God. I have decided to go against the flow and "make my passion my paycheck." Who knows what kind of money I will make or what my job will actually look like but I know that God will be the only reason it all works out. I am choosing to fully rely on His provisions and faith. God has given me a passion to explore other countries and the strength and confidence to do that. It dawned on me these past couple weeks how well I can hold my own even in a different country and with people who speak a different language. I have the patience necessary to connect with and handle children which is a gift not all people have. Overall, this place has so radically tranformed my life that I have in turn given my life to helping to transform the lives of people who live here. I have a love of the people of Dominican Republic and I have a love of helping people so why not mix the two together? 

Isaiah 61:1 

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives"