I will never forget the first time I entered a sugar cane village of a foreign country. At the sound of bus wheels on the rocky path, children came running. With bare feet and ragged clothing, they greeted us with the biggest smiles across their faces. We were not even there to give them food or toys or anything. We were just bringing ourselves.
The smiles of Dominican children will forever be etched into my memory. These precious souls have seen tremendous hardships, live in extreme poverty, and have few possessions. Yet they wiped the mud off my arms when they themselves were covered in dirt. They treated me like one of their own, even though I had just met them.
I have never seen the joy of Christ as clearly as I did when I was in the Dominican Republic. Pure, contagious joy was evident in the eyes of these people who experienced scarcity every day. I went to this beautiful country to share the love of Jesus with the children who lived there, but they ended up teaching me. This kind of happiness cannot be gained as a result of any situation. We can only experience true joy in Jesus. I knew this before, but I did not truly understand until I witnessed the poverty many are forced to live in. Seeing how these people choose joy in the midst of challenges changed me forever.
When I went to the Dominican Republic for a ten-day trip when I was 18, I did not want to come back. The temptation to stay was real. I would have skipped college to go. However, this was not the most responsible decision. I had no money and no plan. Instead, I went to college and got my TESOL certification first. These were temporary goals, but I wanted to return as soon as possible. My ultimate plan was always to move to this third-world country to teach.
I have been waiting for eight years to return to this place. When I came back from my last trip, I felt like a piece of my heart had been left behind. I could not forget what I saw and go about life as normal. With every day that passes, it gets harder to resist the pull toward the people who rely solely on God and trust completely in Jesus. I cannot ignore it or put it off any longer.
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