a piece of heaven

Sunday I was able to see a piece of what Heaven will be. We had a group from the Austin Stone with us at our Dominican Church, Templo Biblico. This was a special moment for me to begin with, because both the Austin Stone and Templo Biblico are my church families. I was excited to have the Austin Stone group with us, regardless of whether I only knew a few of them; it is like having your church body coming to see you when you have been physically separated from them for so long. It offers relief of community, even if it is only for a short time.

Robin and I had been talking a lot about we love our Dominican Church so much, and they have become family to us; however, it is difficult to study the Word of God, worship Him, and be in biblical community in a language by which your heart has not be conditioned. I was beginning to think that it wouldn’t matter how much Spanish I could understand, I would never be able to reach a place where I could truly worship and learn more about our Lord in another language. I was able to share this struggle I was having with some of the people from the Austin Stone group. On Saturday Robin and I went to visit the Pastor of Templo Biblico, and our friend, Amaury. He asked us we were able to go to our churches while we were home. Robin explained to him how difficult it is for us to worship in another language. He understood completely and said, “You must have been so hungry and thirsty for the word of God.” Which is exactly how I felt going home.

I woke up Sunday morning excited to have both of my church bodies together. I could tell the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me something, and preparing my heart for something. Traditionally when we bring groups to Templo Biblico the church has them stand up and sing a song for everyone. The Stone group sang the song, “Mighty to Save,” which a song that I know in both English and Spanish, as do many of the “jovenes” (youth) at church. It was neat to be able to sing that song in both languages.

At Templo Bibilco we share in the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. For the first time this past Sunday the Holy Spirit lead me to say, “I take part in Your flesh Jesus, and I am cleansed by Your blood, WITH THESE PEOPLE. I am part of the body of Christ here, here with these people, in the Dominican Republic.” That is the most the Lord’s Supper has ever meant to me in my life. The Lord is beginning to teach me that I am a part of the Body of Christ here in this country.

After communion, there is typically one last song that everyone sings standing up. Last Sunday, everyone stood to sing, “Open the Eyes of my Heart,” a song everyone knows. The group we had with us probably equaled the number of Dominicans that we in church that day. Everyone recognized the song and sang in their native language. You could not hear one language over the other. Everyone sang “holy, holy, holy, santo, santo, santo.” And suddenly it hit me; this is what the Lord desires. Even though it was only a small piece of what it will be like, one day every tongue will be praising our Lord, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY!” I was brought to tears of joy, an experience that I am afraid these words here cannot express. Why am I privileged enough to see a piece of what eternity will be like with our God?

Afterwards, Amaury, our friend and pastor, stood behind the pulpit to preach. We soon realized that he had translated the entire sermon into English. As a side note, the sermons at Templo Biblico are generally anywhere between forty-five minutes to an hour long. Amaury knows some English, but translating an entire sermon would be a lot of work for him. Ryan King, the Austin Stone group leader was asked to come up on stage and read the translated version of the sermon. Amaury preached on Luke 8:22-25. It’s the story where Jesus and his disciples are crossing a lake in a boat and a storm comes. Jesus is sleeping in the boat and the disciples have to wake him, and then he calms the storm. I’m sure I have read this passage many times, and even heard it preached on, but this time the scripture spoke to me in a very new way. Amaury had put his heart into that sermon, and scripture became alive to me for the first time since I have been here. As Ryan read the English translation, he began to take on Amaury’s words and preach them. Both Amaury and Ryan became more and more animated and more and more excited as the message went on. However, in truth I know that those words were not even Amaury’s, they had come from the Lord. Amaury and Ryan were able to present the word of God to two groups of people in two languages. Everyone was literally blown away by the message that the Lord had for us that day.

After the sermon and the service had ended Robin, after greeting our brothers and sisters, found Amaury and began to thank him for the beautiful message he had given and to tell him how much she had appreciated the translation into English. Amaury then began to explain to her his heart behind the translation. “Yo estaba pensando en lo que me dijiste el día anterior. Que cúando tu te fuiste a tu iglesia en Los Estado Unidos despúes de tanto tiempo aquí, tu estabas moriendo de hambre. Y pensé, yo estoy matándote de hambre. Tengo que hablar en inglés porque estoy matando a Robin.” (I was thinking about what you said yesterday. That when you went to your church in the United States that you were dying of hunger. I thought, I’m killing you from hunger. I have to speak in English because I’m killing Robin.) And so it was that Amaury told Robin that he stayed up until midnight translating his sermon so that he could feed her with the precious Word of our God. It wasn’t until later that we found out that he was really awake until 3:30 AM working on the sermon. He is just too humble to admit how hard he had worked on it. I just wish that I could express to him my gratitude for his willingness to love like Christ has loved.

When I came down here, I thought I’d just be working in a school and helping Makarios, but there is so much more to it. We have a life here. I love being here, and loving and teaching the kids doesn’t seem like work. The only sacrifice I could say I have made is not being with my church. I have asked to the Lord to provide that for me here, and He has, in a way different than I had imagined. He did not send me a friend from home, or any other American people; He allowed me to be a part of the body of Christ here. I have experienced love, the love of Christ through my friends here, Amaury, Bernabe, Benjamin, Luz, Perla. Forever they will be in my heart. Forever, Amen.

As an ending, and for those of you who read the blog frequently, I apologize that I have not ever introduced myself. I am Cara, I have been here for four months and I love it. The end.