04.24.08 Dominican Republic with Compassion International Day 2: Church

Wooden Pews.  A Peavey amp.  “Welcome Holy Spirit” in Spanish cut out of orange construction paper and taped on the plaster wall above the pulpit.  We started our day in a church known during the week as Compassion project #521 in Santo Domingo, capitol of the Dominican Republic.

I went inside while our camera man and director talked out front on the sidewalk about the day’s plan - which children we would visit, what stories we would try to capture on film.

I sat against the cool wooden pew and listened to a small gathering of elderly women, face down against the floor, praying in a language I don’t know to the God we all believe in.  I get to have moments like this often.  I travel all across America, and sometimes to places on the other side of the world, meeting Christians of every kind, hearing their songs, laughing at their stories, and listening to them pray.  And I’m reminded often that we are all connected.  Jesus did not establish the Baptist church, Church of God, Presbyterian or Catholic church or the American church.  He birthed the Church - every “tribe and tongue.” One Church.

As a family our crew and these ladies stood in a circle holding hands and prayed for safety and creativity and thanked God for the day and for the opportunity - the gift - to love children and tell their stories to the world with a camera.

Then I felt it: Rough skin against my cheeks, ears and neck.  One of the women had left our little circle, dipped her fingers in oil, walked up to me, wrapped her hands around my head and anointed me.  She prayed loudly and quickly.  Her breath brushed my eyelashes.  Another woman knelt at my feet, held onto my shoes and prayed.  One by one, each member of our team was anointed and prayed for like this.

And then we said thank you to one another in different languages and we hugged each other.  And for a few minutes a small number of Christians behaved like the family all of us are.

-----------
Every Compassion International “project” is run in and by a local church.  This is a good idea for a few reasons: Compassion’s overhead is kept low by not having to construct buildings.  Churches and communities are contributing to the care of children in their own neighborhoods - the feeling of being given a hand-out by an outsider is, therefore, less likely to happen.  Children and their families are cared for by people who can be a spiritual community to them and give them spiritual assistance when needed.  Essentially then, Compassion is Christians helping Christians release children from poverty in the name of Christ.

CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR A CHILD.