Hello again from the DR...we have had a more than full day together here on our first full day on our ministry site...we spent most of the day working hard in the sun and heat! The guys were involved in mixing cement, laying block for a kitchen facility, filling columns on the third floor of an addition that will make 5 new classrooms and make a Christian school education available for 150 more children in the community, and shoveling and wheelbarrowing and getting dirty...there is a joy and energy that I love seeing in young men serving with passion and joy in being part of all that God is doing here...
We spent the early evening playing some pick up soccer on the small field here by the school with some local Haitian guys who love the game of soccer...Matt Roberts had a chance to share with them why we are here and how his soccer playing is an expression of love and passion from the gifts God has given Him to honor Him...and we heard from them about how their families have been affected by the Haiti earthquake and the challenges of being a refugee of sorts here in the DR...and mayn of them were still wearing some CU jerseys we had distributed last year...always a joy to play the game we love in another part of the world...
And we just finished a pretty intense conversation about the challenge of living a life of compassion and service, both in other cultures and among the poor, and yet even more so in the soccer community at CU where God has placed each of us at this time...there was a real sense in the room tonight that there must be a greater commitment to caring for, building each other up, and reaching out and holding one another accountable so as to experience the richness of the community Christ longs for us to experience as brothers in Christ who have been invited to play and do life together in this season...we'd ask you to pray for courage and wisdom as to how they can live out a heart of compassion and service in the days to come...
We are always reminded down here of God's presence in all of our world...and the reality that He has made each Dominican and each American, each Canadian, in His very image...we looked at several passages this morning before breakfast focusing on the Imago Dei, the reality that we are made in the image of a Creator and bear the Likeness of His Son as His Creation...it's a powerful idea that gives us love and passion to see change come to the lives of people in need here in the DR, and invites us to love our neighbors that God has brought into our daily lives...
We will sleep well tonight...and tomorrow we will be doing more work and playing more soccer...we are headed to another community later tomorrow afternoon and I may not be able to blog until Sunday...we miss you all and pray for a wonderful weekend back at our homes...we promise not to complain too much about the heat down here!
With our LOVE from all the soccer crew,
CHIP
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