“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch
like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see. When we’ve
been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to
sing God’s praise, than when we first begun.” – from the hymn Amazing Grace
Today began like a lot of American mornings begin—with
pancakes and bacon. The friendly kitchen staff made us feel right at home with
some of our favorite breakfast foods. After dressing in our Sunday best, we
loaded the yellow school bus for a 20-minute ride down a bumpy gravel road to
the bateys, which are small working villages in the sugar plantations outside
the city limits of La Romana.
We split into two groups, with the first group getting off
at Batey Al Anon. I was with this first group, so many of today’s photos were
taken in this batey. The village was small, with very few first world comforts.
There was no indoor plumbing, electricity was scarce, raw sewage trickled
through the dirt streets in ditches and canals, housing was substandard, and
garbage was everywhere. Stray dogs and chickens roamed the streets.
The people who live in the bateys work in the sugar cane
fields from the time they are strong enough to work, usually around the age of
fifteen, until their bodies give out. Their world is simple, and there is
little chance for children brought up in the bateys to escape a life of poverty
and hard work. The shacks in the bateys are owned by the sugar companies and are
provided to the workers as part of their payment. There is no such thing as
homeownership in the bateys. By American standards, everyone in the bateys lives below the poverty line.
But when we got off the bus in Batey Al Anon, you wouldn’t
know that the residents lived a hard life. The kids ran up to hug us and
immediately reached for our hands. They took us around their community
and showed us how they lived. The church was the most prominent building in the
village. We walked through rows of ramshackle tenements, past their commissary,
to the edge of the batey where the sugar cane disappeared into the
horizon.
The kids played with us all the while, taking photos with
our iPhones, sporting our sunglasses, joining hands for simple games like Ring
Around the Rosie and the Hokey Pokey, and playing a pick-up game of stickball
using a plastic bottle for a ball. One kid showed off the toy car he had made
out of an empty oil bottle, four bottle caps, and some string. He dragged the
car behind him everywhere he went the entire time we were there. It was his
pride and joy.
After about an hour spent visiting with the locals, we
entered the church for worship. The service was short—about thirty minutes—but
there was plenty of time for prayer, the reading of Psalm 121 by our own Todd
Fincher and Lauren MacLean, a few songs, and a sermon. Our group was invited to
sing a song and we chose two verses from Amazing Grace.
It was indeed amazing to see the people of Batey Al Anon
join us in celebrating the grace granted to us by our common denominator—our
amazing God.
After worship, the other half of our group who had continued
on to Batey Cacata, another fifteen minutes from Al Anon, returned in the
yellow school bus to take us back to Casa Pastoral in La Romana. After an
outdoor lunch of chili and crackers, a small group walked to the local Jumbo
(think Walmart, but cleaner) to make a few purchases. Being a potato chip
connoisseur, I bought a bag of Lay’s limon and queso blanco chips in an effort
to taste the local flavor. At least that was my excuse.
At two o’clock, the yellow school bus took us to the beach
for a fun afternoon in the sun. We enjoyed the beautiful day and the crystal
clear water among the locals and tourists who shared the beach with us. Back at
Casa Pastoral, we dined on pork chops, steamed broccoli and carrots, and
potatoes, with pear and strawberry tarts for dessert.
After dinner, we walked down the street to Iglesia Bautista
Misionera Haitiana, where we participated in a two-hour worship service unlike
anything we had ever experienced before. First of all, the service was entirely
in Spanish, except for the one song that four ladies sang in French. Travis
spoke to the congregation on our behalf, assisted by our new friend Jonathan,
who translated his words into English.
After thanking the members of the church for their hospitality
and sharing a few words with them, our entire group joined Travis at the front
of the church, where we once again sang the words of Amazing Grace as a reminder that God’s gift of grace is given to
all. It doesn’t matter if you speak English or Spanish, are rich or poor, hail
from America or the Dominican Republic, we are all brothers and sisters in
Christ. Amazing, isn’t it?
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