Last weekend over 3000 Dominican women gathered at the brand new International Baptist Church auditorium in Santo Domingo to hear Nancy Leigh DeMoss speak.
I am very pleased to tell you that 13 of those 3000+ were from Cercadillo!
Yesterday the women who went reported to our Wednesday morning women’s group. I wish you all could of heard their reports! I was amazed at how much they retained from the conference and the enthusiasm with which they shared it. One of the main “take aways” for my women was the idea that when we refused to forgive others we are the ones imprisoned, not the one who has harmed us.
(Notice Marcelina on the far left. She is ready to give birth any day. I asked many times in the days before the conference if she was sure it was a good idea to go with us. She kept saying that she thought the baby wouldn’t come for about another week. The other women told me that I shouldn’t worry. If Marcelina went into labor while we were away from the village they all knew what to do! Thankfully, the baby waited!)
Thanks to the generosity of women from Valley Church in Des Moines, IA and families from Renew Community Church in York, PA, we were able to not only attend the two day conference, but also provide t-shirts, overnight lodging and meals for the women. Transportation to and from the event was provided by TIME Ministries.
The t-shirts helped with the anxieties of not having the right type of clothes to wear. And although the conference was only about an hour and 15 minutes from the village, it’s just not very safe to be on the village roads at night.
Let me just share a few of the comments from the women to help you understand the impact it had on their lives.
“I’ll never, never, never forget this trip!” [We had only been away from the village about 15 minutes at this point.]
“I’ve never ridden in an air-conditioned bus before.”
“Pizza? Really, we’re going to eat pizza? I’ve never had it before.” [I was just thinking of a fast meal before the conference and it didn’t occur to me that this would be a new experience for them.]
“Look at the beds! I don’t know whether I want to sleep on the top or the bottom. Oh, did you feel these mattresses? Come quick! Lay on this bed! I may never get up.”
“My OWN pillow and my OWN towel and washcloth? I don’t need to share?”
“Look at this!!! The toilet flushes without a bucket!”
“Ina, can you show me how to work the shower? I was too excited to listen well earlier.”
“Do you think it’s OK if I look at that magazine on the table? I’ll be really careful.”
At the conference : “Look! Look! The words to the song are on the wall!” [They’re used to handwritten poster board.]
Today some of the women were telling the others, “We were treated like queens the whole time.” I asked what made them feel like queens. The answers came rapidly.
“We all sat together at a table to eat. ”
“All those women needing to use just two bathrooms [The building is not complete yet] and no one pushed, no one pulled my hair, no one stepped on my toes.”
“All those white people and I didn’t feel the least bit out of place.” “That’s right! 14 of us blacks from Cercadillo and all those whites, but they treated us with respect! They really did.” “Two elegant white women hugged me!” “A white woman told me she was glad I was there. And I don’t think she was lying!”
After all this time in the DR it still takes me by surprise how very conscious many Dominicans are of their skin color. GENERALLY speaking, and please hear me say that this is NOT always true, but GENERALLY speaking the wealthier, more educated Dominicans are lighter skinned. Those with very dark skin, like most of my people, have at times been treated very poorly by those of lighter skin. So when my women referred to the “elegant white women” at the conference they were referring to upper class Dominican women. That these women from their own country welcomed them may have had more impact on the women than anything else that happened.
How thankful I am for those “elegant white women” for seeing beyond the skin color of my women!
I did question when they said there were “14 blacks” from Cercadillo, since we only took 13. The lady who had made that statement said, “I was counting you, Ina! You’ve loved us so long that you look black to me.” WOW! What a complement.
On the way home Saturday the women starting questioning me about when the next conference with be!
