Another funeral was for someone I had never even met.
I was blessed this year to go to the women's conference. Nikki and Samira along with a fabulous team of women put together the beautiful theme of "submerged in Living water". The decorations were something out of my fantasies as a child and the foot washing at the end of teh prayer walk was heart melting. My favorite though was the communion. There were women I respect from various parts of the Dominican serving the others.
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| Left to right. Griselda (los guandules), Reina (la mosca) Yudi and friend (the hole) 'praying' Modesta (Hato del Yaque), Alexandra (Batey 9), Fior (Via Cafetelera), Tata (Hoya del Caimito and retired DR first lady of GO), Kendy (Hoya del Caimito and present DR first lady of GO) |
The women in the church wait all year for this. They make things to sell in order to pay their way. It very well may be the biggest event in their lives all year save the birth or marriage of a family member.
I roomed with all of the people from Hato del Yaque. One of the ladies was named Lucia. She really hadn't come to church in a long time. Her son, Christian, has been coming on and off since he was a child, but she has never been very consistant.
It was a great opportunity for Lucia to reconnect with the church body and get to know our new Pastor's wife, Modesta.
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| The ladies from the church in Hato del Yaque, La Mina, minus Lucia |
Unfortunatly Lucia received a phonecall during the conference with the news that her mother had died. Once Modesta was able to get me to understand what had happened, we instantly looked for a vehicle to take her to her mother's house where they would be holding the funeral.
As quickly as I could I grabbed my purse and the van keys. Someone asked if they could go with us so that I wouldn't be driving alone. I said "of course" and opened the door. I jumped in the drivers seat and looked in the rearview mirror. What I saw made tears spring to my eyes. Not one person came with us, but the whole entire group of women from two churches in Hato del Yaque came. They prayed and comforted and loved on Lucia all the way to Moca where the house was. They all missed a quarter of their precious conference.
We arrived before any other family. We stayed during the preliminary wailing of Lucia until stronger friends and family arrived.
The thing is... Lucia was not a faithful member of the church. It would have sufficed if the Pastor's wife and maybe one other had went. But thats not how these women do things. The whole group went.
True, I am here to teach and support and help people. But I have so much to learn from these ladies about being a woman of God.
2 Corinthians 6:10
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.
2 comments:
That is a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing.
Good morning how are you?
My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Dominican Republic? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Dominican Republic in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
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