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As I reflect on the Mission Team
from the Episcopal Diocese of East
Carolina’s week at San Pablo Apos-
tol in Jimani, Dominican Republic,
Frederick Buechner’s definition of
vocation comes to mind: “The
place God calls you to is the place
where your deep gladness and the
world’s deep hunger meet.”
When sixteen members from seven
different Episcopal churches (Holy
Trinity Episcopal, Hampstead;
Church of the Servant, Episcopal,
Wilmington; St. Peter’s Episcopal,
Washington; St. Francis Episcopal,
Goldsboro; Church of the Good
Shepherd, Wilmington; St. James
the Fisherman, Shallotte; and All
Saints Episcopal, Southern Shores)
met in Raleigh on April 12 to begin
our travels to
Jimani, we
were strangers
on the road
together. But
over the course
of the week, we
slowed down
to “island
time” and be-
came compan-
ions in Christ, finding joy in each
other and in the people of Jimani.
A seven-hour bus trip out of Santo
Domingo took us to Jimani, border-
ing Haiti, which is in the poorest
area of the Dominican Republic
next door to the poorest country in
the Western Hemisphere. Many
Haitian immigrants fill the city.
Work is scarce. Hiding from immi-
gration officials is common. When
we visited the marketplace at the
border, some saw commerce and
the opportunity for people to make
a living, while others saw despair
and trash pollution.
Trash and the border provided fod-
der for introspection about the eyes
with which I view that which is
different.
Do I look
with the
“soft eyes”
of Christ’s
compassion
and connec-
tion, or do I
look with
the “hard
eyes” of
privilege, judgment, and separa-
tion? Nikos Kazantzakis, the
author of Zorba the Greek, wrote:
“Since we cannot change reality, let
us change the eyes which see real-
ity.” Mission helps me to find my
“soft eyes.”
The priest at
San Pablo
Apostol,
Padre Jean
Nephtaly
Desire, is
wise. He
did not im-
mediately
put us to work. Instead, since this
was our first visit to San Pablo
Apostol, he turned our “work mis-
sion” into “an exploration and
Reflections on Diocesan Mission
to San Pablo Apostol,
Jimani, Dominican Republic
April 12-20, 2013 Our first sunrise
Commerce at the border
Picking up trash
Padre Nephtaly
work mission”—meaning he took
time to show us his town, the peo-
ple, and Jimani’s “deep hunger.”
But Padre Nephtaly and the people
of San Pablo Apostol showed us
something more -- a deep, loving
hospitality of total
acceptance. Rarely
have I felt such un-
conditional love—
such agape. In the
presence of their joy
and spirit, I know I
found, and I suspect
that others did as
well, my “deep
gladness” in being
in Jimani. Laughing
with Padre, with
the church women, with the young
Haitian men, with the children and
our new friends on the mission
team was a blessing.
If I could find the
words to describe this
experience, people in
our diocese would be
clamoring to join a
mission team. The
word “love,” often
trivialized in our cul-
ture, is no longer strong enough to
express the depth and breadth of
the joy I felt on this mission. Per-
haps a quotation from Kazantzakis’
Saint Francis can describe it:
When an almond tree became covered
with blossoms in the heart of winter,
all the trees around it began to jeer.
“What vanity,” they screamed, “what
insolence! Just think, it believes it can
bring spring in this way!” The flowers
of the almond tree blushed for shame.
“Forgive me, my sisters,” said the tree.
“I swear I did not want to blossom, but
suddenly I felt a warm springtime
breeze in my heart.”
Finally, on Tuesday Padre gave us
work to do—scraping and painting
the sanctuary and working
on some homes in the com-
munity. When we Type A
Americans were let loose,
it was as if we shot out of
the starting gate at the
Kentucky Derby. People
began grabbing for scrap-
ers, rollers, and brushes
and were all ready to go
without a strategy for tack-
ling the room. We had a
great team, and leadership
flowed through the group
as needed. Someone organized the
tools, someone started suggesting
we needed water for paint brushes
and rags, and another noticed that
the floor was covered in dropped
paint and needed scraping. A few
others determined the worst walls
to do first in case we couldn’t get
all the painting finished. In hind-
sight, I chuckle at that. We should
have known to trust
in God, if not our-
selves. We finished
in a day and a half!
Of course language
problems arose. At
first we understood
that Padre wanted us
to fix a broken sink in a parish-
ioner’s kitchen. After two more
discussions, we realized that the
steeple shape Padre kept making
with his hands was a roof. And
instead of “sink”, he was saying
“zinc” for the metal sheets that go
on the roof. So we moved from
prospective plumbers to roofers!
Flexibility is always a good trait for
a mission team. And
God always provides:
several of our team
members knew how to
build a new roof! This
was miraculous: when
we left home, we
thought we were going
to put ceiling fans in the
school.
Here is my last Nikos
Kazantzakis quotation,
again from Zorba the
Greek: “God changes his appear-
ance every second. Blessed is the
man who can recognize him in all
his disguises.” Below are a few of
God’s disguises I saw.
Seeing God in the faces of the peo-
ple I met gladdened my heart and
instilled a deep longing to return to
Jimani on the next diocesan-wide
mission trip. The celebration of
life, the hospitality to the stranger
(our team), and the glorious cele-
bration and praise of God that I
witnessed in the Dominican people
remind me of a prayer in the New
Zealand Book of Common Prayer:
Holy One, Holy and Eternal,
Awesome, exciting and delightful in
your holiness;
Make us pure in heart to see you;
Make us merciful to receive your
kindness,
And to share our love with all your
human family;
Then will your name be hallowed on
earth as in heaven.
And if you visit the DR, bang the
drums and tambourines loudly
and make a great noise unto God!
Amen.
Carol Milam
Altagracia laughing
Scraping, painting and cleaning the sanctuary
Connections across cultures
Additional photographs from the mission trip appear on following pages.
Back row: Rev. David Feyrer, Ed Strapp, George Moye, Susan Dickerson, Rev. Dave Davis. Middle Row: Mike Bliss, Mary Gaylord, Beckwith Gaylord, Sandy Johnson, Carol Milam
Front Row: Rev. Kevin Johnson, Rev. Pam Stringer, Gary Kimmel, Tom Archie, Jeanne Rick
Kneeling: Padre Nephtaly, Frank Ogden
On Sunday we attended the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic’s Celebration Mass for Missions, a part of their conference on missions with churches from North America. A magnificent school drum corps dressed in colorful uniforms waving flags while marching smartly to a drum beat preceded the Dominican and American priests and the Bishop.
The congregation of 2,000 sang Spanish “Gospel songs” along with small choirs. The joy and praise to God for all his blessings was powerful in that wonderful service. One of our team members asked afterwards, “Don’t you feel cheated by every other church service you have ever attended?” We Episcopalians are sometimes called “the frozen chosen,” but there is nothing frozen about the chosen in the Dominican Republic. We were all grateful that our plans had been altered to include this ser-vice. This was the beginning of finding our “deep gladness.”
Jimani’s “deep hunger” –Padre would like them to have a new home.
Padre envisions a future playground with basketball court where school children can play and stay healthy.
Sharing our bounty: church dona-tions of children’s clothing, medical supplies, and school supplies
Scraping, painting and cleaning the sanctuary
Gary finding KiKi at the orphanage
School children at Colegio Episcopal Prof. Laura Morrow Brotherly love
Celebrating Mary Gaylord’s birthday