My Girls

Sometimes I feel like I neglect to share the parts of my ministry that I am lo mas passionate about.  

The street/shoeshine boys.  

My patients with HIV.

My girls.

I believe it's understandable with the sensitive and personal nature they encompass.  But, I still would like to try.

I rarely find myself more passionate about anything than my Dominican girls.  Each who have impacted so many SI participants.  Each with a dream and desire to live a successful, educated life.  Each who have had their own life/socioeconomic challenges and each who have overcome their share of obstacles.

They initially became connected to Students International through the women's sports site and were under the coaching/discipleship of Jess Paéz on the women's volleyball team.  It was her desire that even after they graduate high school they continue to be a part of our ministry.  And so our partnership was formed.  And I became blessed with three phenomenal medical assistants who are studying dentistry/medicine and one mentee who's conquering the world as a flight attendant.

In my heart, I believe they are the future of the Dominican Republic.  Educating females; helping them break out of the teenage pregnancy cycle and bringing more medical care to a developing country.

As each of them are representing my medical clinics and our ministry as a whole they are held to very high expectations.  They have to attend 5 church services a month, cannot drink in public (they are of age), have to dress appropriately, keep a B or higher in school and have a mentor; among other "reglas."

The girls have been a part of my life for over 2 years.  During which time I have poured my heart into them; walked them through life situations as their mentor, taught them about medicine, helped them with college home work and looking for a real life job (who knew LinkedIn existed in the DR?).

Many of you know I'm not a crier; but somehow these four girls have so etched themselves into my heart that I can summon tears with only a fleeting thought of their accomplishments.

So when your ministry becomes family; what do you do when one of the girls whom you have loved and supported so dearly chooses a different path?  Deciding to deny her faith, who she is, neglecting her dream and traveling down a road of destruction?  A path that can only lead to a dead end future?

It's been a hard lesson to learn that sometimes, regardless of how much we pour into people, how hard we teach them the love of Christ and their value that sin exists in the world and with that a different option.  A more frequently chosen option that can't possibly lead to the life promised to us through the blood of Jesus.

And so, I pray.  I pray everyday for my girls.  That if they are ever lost, those seeds that have been planted will take root.  That it is never too late to become the person Christ has called us to be.  That we are covered in His grace and He will always be waiting for us.

Each day I continue to walk with my three other girls, but mourn the loss of the fourth and her brightly promised future. 

My prayer and dream at this juncture is of the day I will see my "prodigal daughter" return to her faith and who she is.  And that I will understand what it means to see someone who was once lost found again.  That she will straighten her path and because the intelligent, driven woman she is capable of becoming.  Please join me in this prayer.

SuMmEr sUmMeR

It's been a while since I've written.  Time has just slipped between my fingers.  March was filled with one week teams; dedicated students who chose to spend their precious spring breaks serving alongside us instead of "partying it up" in Cancun.  I wish I could say when I was their age I made that same decision. They were such an encouragement to us; to see that Christianity is alive among youth in America.  We all know how easy it is to get caught up in our culture that so values self-sufficiency, materialism and independence.  But, these students came seeking the Lord and desiring to further their faith.

Tomorrow we start our busy season.  Three weeks ago our medical site took a morning to worship and pray about our summer.  We will once again welcome an intern to work alongside us for three months and have 7 consecutive two week teams, with around four students on each outreach joining the community health site.

And so, this morning I began my more intensive preparations.  When I first opened my site having teams felt a bit like juggling.  I myself was in the process of language learning, cultural transition, building relationships and

 trying to start clinics.  At times, integrating students felt incredibly overwhelming.

Three years in, I'm a bit more comfortable.  Our clinics are going great as we opened a new one in La Joya and next week will start in Los Coralles (we now have a presence in 8).  New communities and patients don't intimidate me like they used to.  The Dominican side of my job now feels more familiar than the American!  Go figure!

But, it is an exciting time.  As a ministry, we are walking our students through the Beatitudes.  Every morning after a teaching by a missionary and quiet time you will find my medical team delving deeper into the word before trekking into the communities.  We will walk through what it means to be meek and have mercy on others.  Terms spoken so fluidly yet not commonly understood.  We will try to incorporate this most famous sermon of Christ into our clinics, after all we are missionaries first.

I will also challenge my students to share a bible verse and explanation at each clinic with patients, myself translating.  Prayers will be done and houses will be visited.  It will be a full summer of ministry.

If I may also ask for your prayers as I've been chosen to be part of a prayer night with the students.  A fellow missionary and I will be leading an anointing opportunity to students who are ready to commit further in their faith or respond to a calling.  I feel far from adequate, but know the Holy Spirit is in me and as long as I stay in tune to that still voice it will be God's work and not my own.

Thank you for all of you that hold us close in prayer!  Many of you have received my letter that shares my desire to stay in Jarabacoa for at least two more years.  I believe there is still work God needs to do through me with students, my assistants, nurses and patients before returning stateside.  I appreciate your consideration in continuing to support me!  I feel incredibly blessed and will carry those prayers through the summer's intense ministry!

Pascua

It's my third Easter away from home.  

Away from Easter egg hunts, cadbury cream eggs, jelly beans, colored easter eggs and the easter bunny.

Away from sunrise services, last suppers and prayer vigils for Good Friday.

"Wait, WHAT?  I get being away from the secular easter traditions.....but church events?  Rachel, aren't you a missionary?"

This too was difficult for me to swallow when I moved to the Dominican Republic.

You see, in some ways I am incredibly traditional.  I grew up dyeing easter eggs with my mom.  We made cut out cookies in the shapes of bunnies, crosses and flowers.  The Easter bunny always visited our house.  AND on Easter Sunday we always went to sunrise service and came together as a family at my Aunt Patty's house in Connecticut.  In fact, my family will continue this tradition tomorrow.

And, for us in the DR this weekend will continue as any other.

Why the stark contrast?  

In the Dominican, there is a drastic separation between Catholics and Evangelicals.  In this country, many catholics have been absorbed in idolatry and the virgin Mary to an extreme that places them ahead of Christ.  Evangelicals have broken away from this and shunned any tradition that may give the appearance of being ritualistic.

This means, we do not regularly have communion at my church.  We do not have infant baptisms.  We do not sing hymns.  We do not recite prayers.  And our church services are not regimented.

I come from a Reformed church in the states that very much incorporates all of the above into our worship services.  So where does that find me this Easter?

I love Easter.  I love the tradition and customs.  I love praising our risen Lord with the sunrise.  I love munching on peanut butter eggs and helping with easter egg hunts for kids.

And to be missing out on that, leaves me un chin vacia.

But, this year, instead of reflecting on what I'm not DOING with my family in the states.  And how different things are here,  I'm going to reflect on what these days REPRESENT.

My community here, Dominicans and Americans, love the Lord.  And yes we know it's easter.  And yes we wish each other Feliz Pascua.  But the truth is we should be reflecting on the Risen Lord everyday.  In all things.

He came and rose FOR US.  Not just tomorrow. But everyday.

And that is the point the Evangelical churches are making here.  Not that it's sinful to celebrate the Risen Lord.  But, that everyday Christ has died for us!

So yes.  Easter looks different in the Dominican.  Catholics take Semana Santa and turn it into a ritualistic party.  Atheists/Agnostics drink and party.  And Evangelicals spend time with loved ones but reflect on each day as Easter.

So, my American community will find middle ground.  We will begin tomorrow with a small Easter service at the river followed by breakfast.  But then, our day will continue as normal.  

Living in His Glory.  And praising Him for all He has done.  Todo el Tiempo!

I pray we all can enjoy this weekend with our family and friends, but remember as we try to do here, that Easter is not just one day a year.  Through Him, everyday we are cleansed and renewed!

"Don't leave Momma"

We had to stop the car.  She had to say goodbye one more time.

Tears streamed down her brown, dirty face with outstretched arms grasping for one final embrace to the woman who fed, clothed and raised her.  Behind stood her 2 story wooden house, barely able to support itself with dirt floors and bed sheets for walls.

"Don't leave Momma!" We could hear her cry in Creole.

As we pulled away, her mother collapsed into the arms of my friend Rosne, exhausted from being taken out of her bed; red-hot with a fever of 106, respiration rate of 40, blood pressure of 80/50 and a heart rate of 150.  Even to the non-medical provider our patient's situation seemed emergent.

Rosne calmly explained to us that this 4 year old girl had just lossed her 2 year old brother in December to an unknown illness and the last time she saw him, he was being taken to the hospital just as we were doing with her mother.

Dr. Fernando and I sat solemnly in the front seat of my car, knowing how grave the situation was but that we had to try our very best.

Our 32 year old patient didn't just leave this four year old girl, but another small daughter and a one month old son born prematurely in January.  And her husband.  A hard working, yet abusive man who didn't provide much support for our patient or her children.

Our patient's eyes were sunken in and her hip bones stuck out, the closest to a person suffering from starvation that I've ever seen.  She could barely speak as her mouth was so dry from dehydration.

We knew it would be difficult to get her the help she needed, Haitian's are not usually given preferential treatment in the DR.  Let alone this woman.  Who only a week earlier had left the public hospital against medical advice convinced her ailments were caused by demons and an exorcism was the only remedy.

I prayed our entire drive to the hospital which seemed to take forever as our patient's moans got louder and I tried my best to avoid every pot hole in the dirt streets that act as our primary mode of transportation.  I glanced into my rear view mirror and saw my visiting students wide eyed as they experienced medicine in a new and frightening way.

When we got to the hospital I was immediately thankful that I work with a Dominican Physician who loves the Lord and our patients as much as I do.  He managed to get her in quickly and conference with the ER doctors immediately.

The following 10 days were filled with challenges and unknowns.  She was transferred to the closest big city twice, given multiple blood transfusions as her profound anemia continued to worsen and treated with multiple antibiotics.

But, on Thursday February 5th her body gave up and she left this Earth.  Just like that.

This past week we visited the family of our patient and prayed with them.  There is talk of sending the kids to La Vega to live with their aunt.  Hopefully she can provide for three more mouths, especially a nursing infant.

My heart is so heavy.

I know we serve a God that gives and takes away.  But the taking away for those left behind is so hard.  Three children are now left without a mother.  How much hardship can one family bare in such a short period of time?

So please, keep this family in your prayers.

That through all this pain Christ may be known and glorified.  Our patient accepted Jesus into her life several months ago at Pastor NoJean's Haitian church so we rejoice that now she is in a place surrounded by only joy and eternal nourishment.

We will continue to make regular visits to this family and walk beside them.  Please join us in embracing them.

We're Back!!

I am so pumped.

If I had known 2 years ago all the avenues God would open within our Community Health Site, I just would not have believed it.

Fernando and I have spent this week preparing for this year.  And as I have previously shared, it will be an eventful one.  Especially this next month!

Next week, we welcome Helena Duran (our previous intern and volunteer) and April Ether (a previous student) to our site.  That means our medical site literally doubles.  Fernando keeps insisting we are going to be more like a medical gang than anything else.  Watch out communities.  Ha.

Helena and I, during her
volunteer year

Helena just graduated from Boston University with a degree in Public Health!  She will spend 9 months as a long term volunteer with us.  Finally we will have someone who can focus on identifying and preventing community health problems!  We can't wait to see how God uses her fluency in Spanish, strong faith, love of Dominicans and education to impact our communities.

April when she came on an outreach
as a student in March 2012

April is a nurse from Michigan who will spend two months with us as a volunteer and then move to Jarabacoa as staff full time in January 2016!  We cannot wait to have a nurse with us that can increase patient relationships, do house visits, teaching sessions and preventative care.  We know God will use her passion for the Lord and His people to further His kingdom.

As we increase in size, it only seems natural that we should also increase our clinics.  And so, shortly I will leave for a meeting with a pastor in a new community, La Hoya.  And, next week we will have another meeting with a pastor in Majaguita (yes, the 276 steps down the side of a mountain community).

TWO NEW COMMUNITIES!!!

So please, join with me in prayer.  Prayers for Helena and April as Jarabacoa becomes their temporary home and they are trying to use the skills God has given them to help others.  Prayers for La Hoya and Majaguita.  That we may serve them well and develop deep relationships as we have been so blessed to do in other communities.

2015....here we come!!

Praying with patients in Mata Gorda

Dar Gracias

On Friday December 19th I once again found myself in Union station, DC watching commuters pass by.  I was waiting for my 12:00 train to Philly where my Dad would pick me up and we would head on to NY.

I had just spent that past week on "vacation."  I left Jarabacoa Friday December 12th and since then had been traveling all over the greater DC area....spending the weekend with PA school friends, then heading up to Delaware for a couple days with my old roommate and finally staying with a dear high school friend in Silver Springs.

And gosh what a sweet time that was.  I haven't spent endless hours with these friends since I moved two and a half years ago.  It was incredibly therapeutic to just sit with them, laugh until tears rolled down our cheeks and share in their jobs, engagements, relationships and lives.  I am so proud of their medical and professional accomplishments.

And as I sat and shared life with them, a huge part of me longed to work beside them as a colleague.  To practice American medicine.  To have weekend barbecues. To see my family often.  To own a house.  Plan a wedding.  Be expecting a baby.  To travel.

Almost three years ago, in missionary training school, they said from now on we would always have a divided heart.  We would have two homes.  A foot here and a foot there.

And for a long time I couldn't relate to that, I didn't feel like I fit in either place.  A year after I left NY it didn't feel familiar.....yet neither did the Dominican.

Now, I can go back and forth fairly easily without major culture shock but complete love and appreciation of both places...the good and the bad.

So in my divided, dichotomous state with love for community health internationally but also American medicine; living cross-culturally but also comfortably in the states; living an adventurous life but wanting to settle; following Christ over seas but also wanting to spread the gospel in the states...where am I left?

During my time at home I have found a new love for our country.  For the professional opportunities, a future family,  the seasons (ok so I've always loved autumn), the American people; but mostly sharing the love of Christ stateside.

Lets be clear...No, it is not time to leave the DR.  

I know I still have much to do.  But how cool to know that God is growing love in my heart for my own culture.  Which can only mean someday he will call me home....

But until then... he has given me awesome opportunities to combine the DR and NY as my Dominican family came to Queens for Christmas this year!  And so on Monday I found myself a tour guide of the subway, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Marriot Marquis and Bryant Park.  How surreal not 5 years later after living there to be sharing "my city," in Spanish with people who mean so much to me.  I was so grateful for that gift.

And as I look to 2015, I am still excited to be living in the Dominican...there is SO much more to come in Jarabacoa!!

~Fernando and I have been asked to help a Dominican Physician open a new community health site in Santiago (the city!) with SI.  

~We are looking to open a new clinic in a rural community called Mahaguita...only 276 steps down a mountain side.  

~We will also welcome a new Dominican Assistant to help us (that will make 3!) who like Caroly and Shaki is in medical/dental school.  

~And we have 2 American nurses (Katie and April) and a public health worker (Helena, my previous intern!) coming on staff with us full time.  

Plus...we will continue to welcome students, interns and volunteers to walk beside us as we venture out into our communities and serve both Haitians and Dominicans.

So thank you.  For being interested in my work.  For supporting me.  For praying for me.  But mostly, for caring about the future of my patients and friends in the DR.

I wish you only the absolute merriest and happiest of Christmas and new years.

Love,

Rachel

We've been shut down!

.........ok I'm being just a tad bit dramatic....BUT

This awesome new rural clinic in Limonal has

Replaced our clinic site in Mata Gorda.

AND!!!!  I couldn't be happier!!!

As I head out to my communities I often find myself thinking about what my long term hope would be for my six clinics that are so near and dear to my heart.

Well, in Mata Gorda that hope has turned into a reality.  

Allow me to explain.  Throughout the DR you can find sporadic government funded rural clinics called Poli Clinicas.  They are staffed by residents and attending physicians.  Kind of the governments way of taking care of the poor.  They serve as primary care centers, vaccination hubs and urgent care sites.  They are free to all (even my Haitians!) and also offer medicine.  Many times they are short on medicine due to inadequate funding but for the most part they function quite well.  

Patients in Angosto, Corocito, Mata de Platano, Sabaneta, Buenos Aire or Mata Gorda have never been blessed by one of these medical centers....until now!!

So join me with excitement!  Mata Gorda now has a clinic open to them 24/7 to help provide regular and emergent medical care....run by Dominicans!!!

When Fernando and I decided that this was the solution to this community's health needs we also had to think of the ministry aspect.  I can confidently say that many of the spiritual needs of Mata Gorda are being met by a new social work site started by an SI missionary Yohana and a new church plant by her husband Andres.

I don't think there is anything more beautiful from a community development/missionary stand point than seeing a government trying to meet the needs of the poorest of its people and churches being planted and grown....times they are a changin.  And man would I like to see that happen in all my communities.

But, until then....Fernando, Caroly, Shaki, our students and I will keep seeing patients, sharing the gospel and now looking for a new community to fill in our schedule.

Stay tuned...