Injustice (& life update)

Hello Friends!

Here is a quick little life update of my life down in the Dominican Republic:

I have been here for seven weeks, including a two-week quarantine upon arrival. I live with seven amazing people who around my age too. My online classes at Crown College are going well despite the learning curve. For the past month, I have worked Monday-Thursday at a non-profit clinic. It is in an impoverished community in the subsection of the large city of Santiago. I work with the intelligent and compassionate Dr. Brendaliz and a Creole to Spanish translator named Miranda. They are both full of joy and care deeply for the community (and neither speak English, so my Spanish is getting better every day). This clinic helps many Dominicans and Haitians (they shared an island) through many different stages, including malnutrition, pregnancy (many teenagers), diabetes. It is a great ministry opportunity, and we lead a devotional every morning for the patients. Although I get so excited to go to sites every day, it does not change what I see. There is a lot of injustice. I wrote about it in my journal about my experiences in my ministry thus far. I felt compelled to share it here. It is a heavy read, yet so essential to understand. God is still sovereign. God is always loving. God is just as much in this city as He is in the United States. I am sending prayer back for the US and all that is happening.

Injustice.

It is heartbreaking seeing skinny children as they do not eat. It is heartbreaking to see these kids come into the clinic severely underweight for their age. It is heartbreaking to hear that they drink such dirty canal water. It is heartbreaking to drive past parts of the entirely black canal and know that families drink, cook, and bathe with this water. It is heartbreaking to see wood houses with one or two beds and 5-8 people living there. It is heartbreaking to see their kitchen. It is heartbreaking seeing so many pregnant teenagers because they are taught that having a child will give them love or help them survive. It is heartbreaking knowing their mentality of love is from a conditional basis, based on their actions. It is heartbreaking seeing a child with his triceps out of place from his father’s hand. It is even more heartbreaking knowing that this child will receive little care for his arm, nor care for his fearful heart to know that his father’s actions are not just. It is heartbreaking to see such physical needs not met. The most heartbreaking part is that these are only physical needs. My heart breaks for those who do not know that their Heavenly Father mourns for the injustice they live through. He desires more for them. He wants to care for their physical and spiritual needs. He sent His son to die as a sacrifice so that He may know them. They are unfathomably loved.

This is not just a problem in Santiago, Dominican Republic, but all over the world. It’s easier to see how dire their physical needs are. It can often feel like those physical needs are the most important. And yet I remember that the pain they face on this Earth is nothing compared to Hell. The pain they face now should be enough; my heart mourns for their physical and spiritual needs. I know that Jesus did not just tend to spiritual needs or physical needs. He fed 5,000, and yet they would still need to eat the next day. Lazarus would eventually die again. The physical needs seem so big, but I would be naive to believe that I should focus solely on their physical needs. So, I yearn for their bodies and their souls. For the wounds they face on this Earth and for where they could go in the next. Why have I been so blessed to know the Lord? To know His voice and His presence. Why have I been so blessed to have a father and mother who I did not have to fear their hands? Why did I not have to turn to a boy to survive as these women do? Why have I never worried that I would not have clean food or clean water? It hurts my heart to know that this is happening. Why have these people have been hurt in such a manner? I pray for justice and love from God. His endless love cares far more profound than I can even fathom, and His heart yearns for righteous justice for his children.