A Picture Worth a Thousand

Dominican Republic Post #3

The picture today is of Debbie from Bean's Corner giving out pictures.  Inspired by what she saw someone else doing, she took pictures last year when we visited this batey, not knowing for sure she would be back.  Before returning to the DR this year she printed out the pictures just in case.  Sure enough, we returned to the same batey for church and were again surrounded by kids, many of the same ones from one year ago.  Debbie brought out her pictures and began to give them out to the kids who were in them.  This caused great excitement.  Many of these kids had not ever had a picture of themselves before.

That is probably a pretty foreign idea to most of us here in America.  We are photographed from the moment of birth.  Our lives are documented and recorded.  Our parents probably have baby books and framed school pictures on the wall.  These days we have facebook profiles full of pictures of us and our kids.  It is not that this doesn't happen in the DR.  Many of my friends who work with us at the hospital have FB profiles and pictures.  Out in the batey is a different story.  Electricity is not a given.  Technology is not the norm.  Many of the people, adults and kids, have very little documentation that they even exist.  Through the Good Samaritan Hospitals efforts to provide health care, many of these people are for the first time receiving documentation that they live.  For these kids, those pictures mean so much!  It is something for us to think about in this era of cheap digital photographs and easy pictures.  The joy of actually seeing yourself in a picture.

During my trip this time, I was able to sit and talk for quite sometime with my friend Emilio.  Emilio is a wonderful Christian brother who is in charge of the arrangments of the teams

that come to work. He lines up translators, transportation, and whatever else we need to be able to do our jobs.He is a father with young adult children, some of whom are now translators for us. He has a strong heart for Christ and for his fellow countrymen.  He grew up in a batey himself and that gives him a wonderful perspective on what our ministry means.  He told me that while we might not think much of giving a sticker or a pencil to a kid in the batey, that in that kids life it is a big deal that will be remembered.  He told me that they will remember that a person from America cared enough to come and to show them love.  He recounted how much it means to him to see us come and try to show even a little love to these kids to whom such small expressions mean so much.  This deeply humbled me.  When he told me this I had just been to a batey that day.  I had given out frisbees and animal stickers.  They were inexpensive gifts that I myself had not purchased.  The stickers were small.  It had seemed like a nice thing to do, but no big deal.  Here is this man telling me how much that means to them.

King David, when he went to sacrifice to God on land that would eventually house the temple, was offered the land  and sacrificial items for free.  He refused.

Araunah looked down and saw the king and his officials coming up to him. He threw himself on the ground in front of David and asked, "Your Majesty, why are you here?" David answered, "To buy your threshing place and build an altar for the LORD, in order to stop the epidemic." "Take it, Your Majesty," Araunah said, "and offer to the LORD whatever you wish. Here are these oxen to burn as an offering on the altar; here are their yokes and the threshing boards to use as fuel." Araunah gave it all to the king and said to him, "May the LORD your God accept your offering." But the king answered, "No, I will pay you for it. I will not offer to the LORD my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing." And he bought the threshing place and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver. (2 Samuel 24:20-24)

My trip did not cost nothing, in fact, it was pretty expensive between the trip fee and the medicines I purchased to take.  What I gave the kids at the batey cost me nothing and cost someone else little.  Yet it had such great value to them.  It showed a love.  How often do we miss this?  How often do we either offer up that which is really no sacrifice or even inconvience to us and then miss how much we can love someone else even with the smallest thing.  I pray that God will continue to keep my heart sensitive to value of His sacrifice to me and the heart with which I offer sacrifice to Him.  I am so thankful for the chance to experience the real life opportunity to live this.