It has been a good few days, relatively low-key and uneventful until today. We have mostly been doing preparation work for a ground-breaking ceremony tomorrow for a new expansion of our medical clinic. A lot of cleaning, moving things from one room to another, setting up for the events, etc. Necessary, but certainly not exciting. A great part of that time has been working alongside friends and getting to catch up on what has changed in their lives in the last several months. Several of my closest Dominican friends have changed jobs, moved, or had major changes in their families since I last saw them, so it was a blessing to talk with them while doing some mundane tasks. As things get busier over the next few days, it gets harder to find those moments for extended conversation, so I am thankful for the time to be with them. They enrich my life so much, and I am always most challenged and enlivened by my time with these friends while I am here. 

Sundays are always special here, and today was no exception. We started the morning at a Haitian church, which is backed by and connected with Mission Emanuel. This church is where our Haitian Care Team is doing much of its work in response to the recent earthquake. The church community has grown a great deal since I was last here, because of the number of refugees coming to Santo Domingo. We got to sit in worship with them for about an hour (probably only 1/3 of  their worship service!) and enjoy their prayers and memorization of Scripture. I love sitting in the room with them when they do this...one person stands up and walks them through several verses, phrase by phrase, asking them to repeat after the leader, until the whole group has succeeded in memorizing the verses without ever seeing it written down. Then, a few brave souls will stand up and prove their skills of memorization. It is really helpful for me in learning new words in Creole or Spanish, and something about the repetition is entertaining for me. Grandparents, teenagers, little kids, all participating in this memorization together. I love it! 

After their worship service, we left and went to Cielo to the Dominican church. This feels like an extension of my own church family as I am greeted with hugs, kisses on the cheeks, questions about school and home, and am able to chat with families I only see on Sunday mornings. We got to work after this 2nd service of the day, and dished out 200 meals of what they call here the Dominican flag: a traditional DR meal of rice, beans, chicken, and salad. We took the packaged meals over to the Haitian church, serving each person 1 box of food of their own, and one to take with them to deliver to a friend. People ate together, laughed, mingled, and had a great time. This actually didn't feel drastically different from all of the meals we serve, eat, and share at Broad Street Ministry, where I work in Philly.  

The highlight of the day came for me as we stayed for some extra time at the Haitian church, about 6 Americans from the Mission, the Haitian pastor, and 2 other members of the congregation. As we stood and chatted, about 10 of the Haitian men began practicing music they will sing in a few weeks. They stood close together, and started singing this beautiful song in Creole. We all stopped talking, struck by the incredible beauty of the song, partly because of its simple harmonies and lyrics, and partly because they sang with such passion that you couldn't help but stop and stand in awe. Pastor John leaned over to me and said, "They are singing 'Father, Father, how long must we suffer? Father, Father, how often to we complain for nothing?'" These simple moments strike me...cause me to tear up...make tragedy real rather than abstract...teach me what psalms of lament really sound and feel like. 

Pray for this Haitian church, as they work to care for these new refugees in their midst; as they try to care for their own members who are grieving losses; as they try to blend these two groups together into one community brought together by God. Father, Father, how long must they suffer?