The first day of our time in San Juan de la Maguana (everybody seems to drop the de la Maguana here, so I will too) is spent recapturing the lost (to most of us Americans, anyway) art of Visitation. Have you ever done any Visitation?
Every Tuesday night used to be Visitation night for some of us at Second Baptist Church. We’d take some of the Visitor’s Cards, pile in to a station wagon (pre-miniature van days) and head out to the front door of those kind folks who had visited church on Sunday. We’d introduce ourselves, hope to get invited in for some sweet tea, and get to know who was who in the pew.
This isn’t like that.
We started the morning at Bartolo’s house, where he and Angelina are raising their two adorable little girls. Bartolo is a teacher at the school, and pretty much the mayor of his barrio. He loves Jesus, children, and is absolutely a God-send for the orphanage.
*I’d love to insert some pics, but they seem to be taking forever to upload. So we’ll try later…
From Bartolo’s house we headed up the mountain to visit with his parents. When we arrived, his sister was styling his mother’s hair! After our greetings and the customary cup of Dominican coffee (very strong, very black, very sweet) a few of us sat down to play dominos with his Dad. Bartolo told us that his dad never loses. Although we’re still not sure of the rules of Dominican dominos, Mandy and I totally destroyed Dad and his partner, Ronnie. I apologized, and chalked it up to beginner’s luck.
After a quick lunch at Pollo Rey (an by quick I mean the opposite!) we rolled back to the hotel to spruce up a bit before heading over to Danilo and Celeste’s house. Danilo is the principal and number 1 guy at the orphanage. His family followed us out to the orphanage for church. The music was super sweet, and they even sang a song we could sing along with: Si, Senor, Si Si Senor (Trading My Sorrows.) I wanted to take pics, but thought it would be disrespectful in the worship service. Danilo preached, and we had a good time hanging out with the boys and girls tonight.
I used to think that Visitation day was a waste of time. Boy, was I wrong. I didn’t see the value in hanging out with people we don’t know, all 21 of us crammed into someone’s small house, drinking their coffee, stumbling through conversations in broken Spanish. But now I see that the value comes in honoring our hosts. They love to have us in their homes, to share their lives, to tell their stories…We honor them by starting our visit with them. That’s the difference between storming in to do a bunch of work and partnering with people to minister. The value is in the people, the relationships that we build. They look forward to us coming, to seeing how we’ve grown, to hearing about our families. They want to share their lives with us, and that’s a beautiful thing. Visitation is an important part of the journey!
I’ll try to get some pics up later. But now I’m headed to bed!
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