Family Dynamics--May 2009 Newsletter

It seems like the whole family gathers at the church on Saturday afternoons. Earlier in the afternoon, Margarita, petite and elderly, shared her artistic skill with a group of children who are learning how to draw and paint. At the same time, Jonathan was keeping an eye on his roaming little ones while editing and printing tomorrow’s bulletins. Upstairs, Dyan just led a group of 30 youth in an animated discussion on seeing difficulties as opportunities for blessing—who knew Jacob and Bartimaeus had so much in common? In the office, 12 new believers gather around Marino, learning what it means to be born into the family of Christ. In a nearby classroom, I hear Bob’s laugh rise above the chorus of men’s voices who are studying about sanctification—all six are sanctifi-edly talking at once.

As the youth filter out, the members of the praise team stay for practice as Alejandro gives a pep talk on perfecting tomorrow’s worship songs. Bob will soon join them to share keyboard duties with Jose. I’m sitting here waiting for Bob, and reveling in the mystery of Christ’s body. I love seeing the body of Christ functioning as a healthy family—individuals giving of their time and using what God has uniquely given them to build up the whole.

Ironically, Bob and I are in the midst of co-teaching a series in the monthly couples’ gathering (now attracting almost 100) on how to parent. What do we know about family?! We’ve never had children. Bob has never changed a diaper. I’ve never sat up all night with a feverish child. Yet God has placed us within His family in Christ, and more specifically in the Central Church family of believers in Santiago. The church’s vision is to be a loving family, living God-honoring lives. We are by no means a picture-perfect family, but we are learning…

…to drop what we are doing and come alongside a family member when illness
or death or disaster strikes.
…to patiently pray for a struggling, newly-married couple, even when they choose
not to follow advice.
…to accept and try to understand those family members who are different—who
just don’t relate well socially and seem to have excessive needs.
…to call and encourage a brother who isn’t participating like he used to.
…to let go, but keep on praying, when a family member decides they don’t want
to be a part of this family anymore.
…to continually seek and welcome newcomers into the family, realizing that
the family dynamics will change (18 new believers joined the family in March).
…to meet regularly—even at the end of a long, tiring day—to sing and laugh
and pray and figure out how to put God’s Word into practice.
…to be transparent with each other, admitting our struggles.
…to rejoice in what each generation offers—the exuberance of youth, wisdom of
age, and steadiness of those in-between.
…to neither ignore nor exaggerate problems, realizing there is a purpose
in the struggle.

As we learn to love each other, the learning curve sometimes looks like the nearby 4000-foot peak that we just hiked with the youth, but we persevere. It’s worth it. It’s eternal. And we are eternally grateful to you who offer your prayers and gifts to make our presence here possible. Lord willing, we will be on home ministry in the states June – September this year to thank you in person, and tell you more about what God is doing in the Dominican Republic.

First Anniversary Celebration

As I look over the blogs, I realize we haven't said much lately about our ministry with Haitian university students. A year ago, the core group of students who attended our weekly Bible study in Villa Olimpico established their own church, with the help of a Haitian pastor from New York. Robinson, a young man who studies at the university, is pastoring the church. In the course of a year, this church has grown to almost 200--in spite of having to change locations! They now rent space in a local school, ideally located close to the university. This month they celebrated their first anniversary as a church.

Bob is occasionally invited to preach--he just did a study on eternal security for two Sunday evenings--but his major role is mentoring and encouraging the leadership. Pray for Robinson and for Vilardeau.

When we first started ministering to the Haitian university students, they adopted us as their parents away from home, and we spent a lot of time together as they were adjusting to life in the Dominican Republic. Now, we're like parents with grown children who have established a life for themselves. We're here, and we connect at crucial moments, but they don't need us quite as much. It's a joy to see what God has accomplished in and through them!

Bob and All Those Women?!?!? (Part 2!)

Ok, ok, like I said, the ladies don't play attention to me. They're cooking. A couple weeks ago, we had the biggie--cheesecake. (You can see why I stick around). Cheesecake is served only at very formal and/or fancy meals here. It's not something that Dominicans eat on a regular basis because cheese here is very expensive. It shouldn't be, they produce it here in-country, but it is. And so Judy makes it only for special occasions.

The ladies enjoyed making it--and even though it's expensive to make, in the battle of the budget, we did fine :-) And even though it's fattening, so far in the battle of the bulge the waistlines remain the same! We gave away most of the cheesecake we made, to the ladies who came (20 each for both Thursday and Friday nights), to a deacon in the hospital, and to two elder ladies--one named Margarita, who does this cutest painting class with about 10 kids on Saturday afternoons. And their paintings are really good--they did one with a sailboat in the water with an island behind it (reminded me of La Tortue!)

By the way, the deacon is now out of the hospital. He had hemorrodes. The operation was successful, and he's been back to church a couple Sundays. We were sure glad he came back too. We laughed because every question after, "Is Santiago well?" was followed with, "Was he able to go to the bathroom successfully?" (I'm translating the general sense. The questions were FAR more explicit than that!!)

Back to the cheesecake, three other really neat things happened. One, one of the younger ladies who come on Thursday night has just started coming to church. I overheard one of the older ladies in the group talk about God’s love with this younger lady during the cooking class, a wonderful application of the 1 Timothy 5 passage where the older women are commanded to mentor the younger women. Two, Judy invited an unchurched lady to church who came for the Friday night class. Three, our unchurched neighbor came again to the Friday cooking class. She had attended the first one.

Pray that the fruit of these classes will be more than excess calorie intake. We're hoping that the ladies will develop closer relationships, and that some will be able to help their families financially. Plus pray for the ladies mentioned above.

Bob and All Those Women?!?!?

What in the world am I (Bob) doing with all these women in my house?!?!? Actually, they aren't paying much attention to me. They are all crowded around our dining room table which is covered with utensils, bowls, and an ample supply of flour, sugar, and other ingredients.

My job is to simply greet them at the door--and try to help Judy anyway I can while she teaches a cooking class with the Central church ladies. Judy is teaching them how to make desserts that they can sell to bring in extra income for their families; plus, it's an opportunity for us get to know them better.

We praise the LORD for Central's growth. The last time I counted, we had 235 seats in our sanctuary, and since I play the piano for the praise band, I can see that almost every seat is filled--and that does not include the workers and children who are downstairs in children's church, which accounts for the 300-plus people.

So when Judy announced the cooking class to the ladies, over 50 ladies signed up! Yikes! Our apartment isn't THAT big! So we split up the group, offering the class on two separate evenings, Thursday and Friday--and picked up seven more ladies. We also had several guys inquire, but Judy told them "ladies only" (except for her luvy dubby hubby :-) Sorry guys!

Twenty-six people attended the first class (including one older man who drove his wife); each subsequent class has had a very manageable 15-17. The class gives us an outreach to neighbors as well; one came last Friday. The March 12 and 13 classes made over 100 brownies and lemon squares that Judy took to the Women's Ministry meeting March 14. Even though we had only 40 ladies, the youth group who meets downstairs got wind of the goodies and helped the ladies finish them all up! (And yes, Judy is VERY popular with the youth group now!) The week before, the classes made carrot muffins. Next week will be cheesecake. (You can see why I stick around).

Pray that the fruit of these classes will be more than excess calorie intake. We're hoping that the ladies will develop closer relationships, and that some will be able to help their families financially.

February '09 Newsletter

Being married to a long-suffering Arizona Cardinal fan, I have become aware of the phrase uttered by the Cardinal coach in 2006, after losing to the Chicago Bears, “They are who we thought they were.” Cardinal foes and fans have since created many variations on this theme, culminating in “We are who nobody thought we were!” after the Cardinals won the NFC championship this year.

I have my own variation on this theme which has absolutely nothing to do with football, but everything to do with ministry here in Santiago. Here it is: “We are where God thought we should be.” You see, we have a joyful sense of being in the right place at the right time, ministering alongside the Dominican believers of the First Christian Bible Church of Santiago (a.k.a. Central, due to its location). We have always enjoyed the fellowship and the worship times at Central. Yet, over the past 4½ years we would sometimes ask ourselves if we were where we should be.

When we arrived in the Dominican Republic, the Central church was the least “needy” of the churches that our CrossWorld team was working with in Santiago. There are two godly Dominican co-pastors leading the church. But we needed this loving community as we learned the language and culture. Integrating into the life of the body in many small ways, we became part of the family. As the church grew, Bob became a small group leader, and I participated in a weekly prayer group and the women’s ministry. This was the “Dominican” side of ministry, while we were also discipling Haitian university students across town.

Currently, God is blessing Central with growth that has the leaders scrambling to buy more chairs and seeking God’s wisdom for what to do next. In these uncertain times, people are responding to their neighbor’s invitation to come and hear what God says in His Word. As a result, there are many new believers needing coaching in this new life in Christ, and older believers with a renewed hunger to study the Bible. The “small” groups don’t fit in anybody’s living room anymore. They are ready to divide as soon as more leaders step up to the task.

Benefiting from the relationships of trust that we built during the years of wondering if we were where we should be; we are now being asked to teach, mentor, and train others to do so. We work with two small groups each week, one with mostly new believers, whose questions are both a delight and a challenge as we sit around snacking on cornbread and cheese. More than half of the group members are young men, struggling to find employment and living in strife-filled neighborhoods. Please pray for Antony, Sandy, Miguel, Juan, and Michel.

Pray as well for the next line of small group leaders, a group of 8-12 men who are studying the Bible with Bob on Saturday evenings. We love it when people ask us to study the Word with them! Alberto, a university student, enthusiastically leads the youth group at Central, and is studying 1 Peter with Bob two to three mornings a week, after they play basketball for an hour. They don’t seem to mind studying while dripping with sweat—must be a guy thing!

There’s other good stuff going on as well, but I think you get the picture that God is at work in and through this church; and we’re glad to be here at this time in their history. Thank you for making it possible. Pray that we, together with the church body, will be the salt and light that God intends for us to be.
Looking forward to being what God knows we are,
Bob and Judy