Mark/I joined one of our partner churches (ICHADI) for their final day of Vacation Bible School... and it just so happened it was at a ranch an hour away from Santo Domingo... with all kinds of exotic animals. I have never, never in my life stood so close to a crocodile, boa or hog... or pushed so many little hands away from cages and bars. It was wild.
Out of the 160 kids who participated in the day at Rancho Michelle, the majority came from two barrios close to the church: Barrio Duarte and Barrio Henriquo. Traditionally, the two barrios do not mingle or get along, and have have lots of gang problems and street violence. The church, ICHADI, is located on the street that divides the two neighborhoods and is making quite a difference in its neighborhood as it bridges these two rivaling communities. ICHADI's pastor, Daniel King, was telling me about this as we looked over at the pool, full of kids from the two barrios playing and laughing together. One of his dreams is for his church to be a place that grows up a new generation of youth from Barrio Duarte and Barrio Henriquo with peacemaking attitudes. It was cool to see the first steps of that progress... only God...
Mark gave the final talk of the VBS (and did an excellent job, might the proud wife add...) and it was clear that the day at Rancho Michelle was an out-of-the-ordinary experience for almost all of the kids... and actually, for us as well.
2 comments:
I love reading your blog and looking at the pictures; we miss you so much! You have quite an interesting look on your face in the picture with the lion, Stephanie!
You left this message at 12:21am! What were you doing up so late? Can't wait to hug you guys soon.... Steph
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