What I Saw

This cross-cultural journalism trip stretched me and pushed me out of my comfort zone in so many ways. Learning to use a camera in an already uncomfortable situation taught me so much that I know I will be using in the future.
But this trip changed my life in so many more ways than just my photojournalism skills.
These entries are taken from my journal that I wrote in daily over the trip:


Day One
I see...
Another country. Another culture. Another world. Another people. Another way of living. Yet the same God.

Day Two
I see...
People who are content. No one believes in or demands certain right for themselves. There is no right for personal space, in a good way. Instead when you bump into someone its no big deal. IT just happens. Hugs, high fives, touching happens the second you meet someone. There is no right for what house or possessions a person should have. Everyone we talked to said they were so blessed. They did not see themselves as lacking anything. I asked Cheryl (the boy I was paired with) if he would ever leave the DR for any reason. His response? "I want to go to other countries to help the poor."
In America we beleive we have certain rights. Yet we don't. Everything we've been given. Nothing we have earned.
I see a people who are missionaries in their own town. They live more passionately than most of my friends combined. Christ is their all in all, He is their life, their everything. The lives of these kids are testimonies. They glow with Christs love. You can see the happiness and true joy in them.
I see, played out, what I have been dreaming to see in Christianity.
I want to be like these kids.

Day Three
I see...
The holy spirit moving. IN people, talking to people , guiding people, pulling people out of their brokenness. Calling them to be free.
Today we went to the girls prison and I was given a group of girls to interview (to find out their stories). When I asked the girls what their view of God was, it was that "of course He's real" from all of them. None of them were Christians, but two girls began telling me how God had been speaking to them. One girl told me she closed her eyes once and saw a bright light, event though her eyes were closed. She felt a hand on her shoulder and knew it was God. She even said out loud,
"I know it's You."
Another girl told me God gave her a vision of two roads, one which lead to burning and destruction, another which leads to light, life, and God. She said God told her to chose.
Both girls told me they know God is calling them because so many Christians had come to the jail.
The translator who helped me with these girls today ended up telling me of her story. She recently has come back to God after rebelling for several years. God is calling her, she says.

Day Four
I see...
God speaking. God making clear his path. God is leading some people to come back to the DR. He is placing these people specifically on peoples hearts. I think He is doing something else with my heart.

Day Six
I saw...
The church functioning how it should be, how it was designed to be. El Refugio is positioned in the middle of the most dangerous city in Santo Domingo, two blocks down from the most dangerous part of that dangerous city. They are placed in the darkness, to be light. THe youth are the ones who run the meetings, they are the ones who lead. They are truly living as light in the darkness that surrounds them. They do not live in a christian bubble, but they still have a strong Christian community that meets at el refugio so they have fellowship. They meet unsaved in the community where they are at, instead of forcing the community to meet them on their level. As the boy i hung out with said:
"When a pastor gets up in a nice collared shirt and nice pants, no one listens But someone gets up and starts rapping-people come from all around." (In why he wants to become a Christian rapper)
I saw a friendliness and a feeling of welcome I have never experienced before. That is how the church should be. All were included, there were no clicks, there was no judgment. The last night both the Capatio and the Las Tres Brazos communities met at El Refugio to view the photos and posters that were taken and created through the week. The Las Tres Brazos community is more well off, all the children dream of becoming things like engineers, major league baseball players, and computer store owners. Versus the kids in Capatio live in houses that are literally falling apart, and skip school to go to El Refugio events. These two completely different communities met last night, and the acceptance of each other I saw was astounding. One of the kids from Capotio got up to speak about the experience of the past week, and at one point said:
"...and to all the Los Tres Brazos kids, you are welcome here at any time."
To see the communities mesh so easily was incredible. In so many ways these churches are what I believe God intended it to be.


God showed me something over this trip. This whole time of seeing how right on the church is here, instead of wanting to ditch America and come to the DR (as many students did)I instead had an overwhelming feeling of desiring to help change America into the church it is called to be. As of now I do not feel a calling to a specific different country (although I want to go to many different countries before I settle down) However I do feel a heart for the screwed up church in America beginning to grow. I don't know exactly what that is going to look like, but God is revealing it more tome every week.

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo is the capital city in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican is a tropical nation in the Caribbean region, and shares an island with Haiti. However, the Dominican is a very different culture from Haiti. There is a level of respect that is given to religious organizations that can not be found in the nation of Haiti.

Recent History
The Dominicans consider themselves more Latin American than Caribbean. They also have close ties with the United States, which occupied the island in the early twentieth century. Columbus found the Dominican in 1492 and it was the first place he landed. Because of this there are numerous landmarks that the Dominicans know well and are very proud of. At present, the community of Santo Domingo is trying to build a democracy against the government. It is fairly stable, yet there is some corruption in the government. The population of the Dominican Republic is about 8.4 million. Spanish is the official language, but Dominican Spanish has a distinctive accent and has many African and Taino (native) expressions in it. Santo Domingo is a very laid back, often people don't get to work until 9 or 10.
Food and meals consist mainly of chicken, rice and beans. The city is currently undergoing a tourism boom, and many colonial era churches and buildings have recently been renovated.


Pressures on youth and families
While families uphold a healthy idea of what a family should be, most families in the Dominican do not actually match up to that. A family could have 5 kids, each from different fathers. Even though they believe in one husband and one wife, many people don’t get married. There are two ways to get married in the Dominican, legally and in a church. In general, the families are not very stable. The fathers are often very detached, leaving the youth with not much of a father figure. There is also a focus on image in the Dominican. For example a woman will go get her hair done from a nice salon, while her children walk shoeless on the streets. There are many children on the streets, and though prostitution is legal and the age of consent is 18, child prostitution is a growing phenomenon in impoverished areas. It is estimated that in 1994 that at least 25,000 children were involved in the Dominican sex trade.

The spiritual
The spiritual aspect of Santo Domingo is very Christian, however there are also many spin offs of Christianity. The Dominican is currently a 95.2% Christian nation. During the 1820s, Protestants migrated to the Dominican Republic from the United States and now the different protestant denominations include: Assembly of God, Church of God, Baptist, Pentecostal, and Seventh-day Adventist. Other religions include the Catholic Church and voodoism. A lot of Haitian immigrants and their descendants adhered to and practiced voodoo. There has always been religious freedom in the Dominican, and religion is very much a part of their culture. There are great pastors in the Dominican, and the church is continually growing.

three hours at the salvation army

taken by Gabby

I had no idea that kids would be so friendly. I love the simple friendliness of kids. When we went to Salvation Army, the kids literally ran up to us and introduced themselves, falling over themselves to be the first to use the cameras. Hearing one girl state
"I love taking pictures!"
made my day.
This entire experience made me so excited to spend time with kids in the Dominican Republic. I now understand why people have a hard time leaving the kids behind. However I know the experience will far outweigh the sadness I feel when I have to leave them.


All the following pictures were taken by Gabby and her friend.

my eyes have seen

My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You.
-job 42:5

As we get to know God we see Him in our lives in places and at times we never expected. While meditating on this passage in Job, I realized (funny how we always say "realized" when I'm pretty positive every time it's God reveal

ing something to us) that as I see God in such a different way than I have before. Because I grew up in a Christian home I heard about God all the time. I heard that He was loving, faithful, forgiving. But it wasn't until I grew up spiritually that I saw God. In this passage Job says that because he sees God he despises himself. We do not know who we are until we see God. We can hear of God, but until we see God we have not experienced Him.

Personally I have found that I have seen God in and around people. Everyone has been made in the image of God, and therefore I find that we can see different aspects of God in people. People on the street, people I've come into contact with. I've seen God in His creation.

sinner,
saved by grace

I found this picture that I had taken sometime last year. Through this image I believe can be potrayed the reality that we are sinners. We have sins stuck to us, part of our lives. We are filthy, torn people. Yet we can be saved and cleaned by the love of Jesus Christ.


Dear God,
Stretch me.
I give you permission to break my heart.
Prepare me for what You would have me do in the Dominican Republic.

if you say

If You say go, we will go
If You say wait, we will wait
If You say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come
-vineyard