Doña Antonia

While conducting a survey in the community, we learned that the majority of the population of persons living in the 190+ houses in El Cielo are males under the age of 40, mostly adolescents.

Which makes the case of Doña Antonia so special. No one is sure how old she is really. Some people say she is in her 80's, some in her 90's and some family members have even said she's a 100 years old. No matter the age, she is easily one of the oldest people living in El Cielo and certainly one of the oldest people I've come into contact with in the DR period.

She is incontinent, so we have been providing her with Depends when we have them donated to the clinic. We were also able to get her a walker through our contacts with the Dominican Rehabilitation Association. Before receiving the walker she fell often, injuring her lower limbs frequently. Since receiving the walker, she hasn't fallen once!

Doña Antonia's husband died a few years ago and she has expressed her wish to be at peace and join him. Its sad for me to hear an older person say something like that, although in some sense I can understand her. Its my belief that the Lord leaves us here on earth for a reason. She has several adult children, of which the two or three I've met are very troubled persons. Doña Antonia has great faith and I believe that her purpose in still being with us is to minister to her children and others.

I'm thankful if we can even just make her a little more comfortable while she is living. Life is hard here. The heat, all of the work, the lack of transportation, and the broken, concrete streets and houses where she walks. I have so much respect for a woman like Doña Antonia who has overcome so much and still remains positive.

I hope that I can learn from her example!

Blessings,

Anna

Iglesia Evangelica del Cielo

Every Wednesday, my church, La Iglesia Evangelica del Cielo, has a church service with amazing worship. This Wednesday while sitting in the service I had two realizations.

The first is that the church has really grown. And it isn't just people that come once and then leave. The church is growing by leaps and bounds with new believers -- children, adolescents, young college students and adults are all part of the new influx of church attendees in El Cielo. The church has grown so much that regular Sunday and Wednesday night services all the seats are taken and many more are left standing on the sides, in the back and in the stairwell.

The church has plans to build across the street from its current location. It will be a wider, longer church with 2 or 3 floors to hold classrooms, meeting rooms, a library and offices. I am so excited for the new developments! When the church community started working in El Cielo 5 years ago, I'm not sure they even imagined that the church would grow so fast, so soon!

My second realization was that we really have only two choices in life -- to live for God or to live for ourselves. I realized that we can be doing work for God, but still be living for ourselves. Because living for God has to do with whole hearted complete submission to Him in everything that we do. Absolutely every area of our lives must be turned over to Him and allow Him to do what He wants to do with us. Not just the convenient parts, the more visible parts or the easy parts of our lives - the parts of our lives that we are ambivalent about. No, the parts of our lives that are so important and deep rooted in all that we are, those are the areas of our lives that God wants for Himself. And if we give these areas over to God, then He can bless them and use us in new and amazing ways.

Have a wonderful weekend filled with blessings and new revelations of God's goodness and provision!