a bit late as usual

Dear Friends,

We are so excited to write to you in celebration of our first full year in the Dominican Republic!  At times the days seemed to be creeping by, begging for careful observation from us, clamoring for attention.  And at other times, we’d wake up in the morning and realize that it was already time to turn the calendar over to the next month, wondering where the time went and trusting in faith that we hadn’t been distracted by the speed of it all.  Time has come to feel like that mixture of cornstarch and water that we used to make in 1st grade science. The one that, when held loosely, was a slime that slipped quickly from our hands, oozing between our fingers.  But, when gripped by a fist, became a dry hunk, only moving when we chose to release our grasp on it.  And while we desire the Creator of time to show us the measure of our days, it is ours only to live and love and worship the One that calls our attention beyond the march of days.

We have been so deeply blessed this past year.  To be sure it was a year of great challenge and dark nights, but it is the journey that is often the true meaning of the gift.  We recently posted about the different feelings of purpose that we feel for being down here, each one competing for the spotlight.  And we came to the conclusion (which was also the premise upon which we started out) that God’s purpose for us is that we would know Him more intimately.  While that is in fact his lifelong call upon each of us, it is through your encouragement, and with your support, that we have been able to move towards that purpose in such a unique setting and moment in life.

We have grown and changed much in this last year.  We have grown in our faith and in our understanding of God’s constant presence in our lives.  We have become more self-aware (sometimes in painful ways but always in growth spurring ways).  We have grown accustomed to having plenty of time to read books, play board games, go on walks, hit the beach, and get our work done.  We know how to use the unusual public transportation down here.  We have learned some of the non-verbal gestures that Dominicans use to speak.  Our Spanish has moved from survival to conversational.  We are no longer distressed if our faucets and shower don’t have running water coming out of them for any length of time.  We’ve grown in our appreciation for candlelight instead of overhead lights.  We have grown in our concern for others and have had long conversations over questions of our innate American cultural values.  We’ve learned about local politics, sports teams, fashion, faith, and the power of money.  We are less and less shocked to see 300-pound pigs or 5 member families all on 1 motorcycle.  We’ve learned to drive slower and much more defensively.  We’ve grown in our appreciation for patience and order.  We’ve learned to appreciate the amazing art of being a good neighbor.  And we’ve learned to dream big dreams for it is in the dreaming, that reality can begin to take root.

Throughout this year, we have seen firsthand the effects of God’s community rallying around each other as one body, with one Spirit and one mind.  We have facilitated short-term teams of doctors and teachers and construction workers and prayer warriors and servants, who have come down and poured themselves out as an offering to the Lord.  We have engaged with them as they’ve sought to process all that they were seeing and prayed with them as they’ve questioned what the implications were for their lives as they moved closer to Christ and back to their old lives with new perspectives.  We’ve participated with national staff as they’ve met their communities with tangible needs; food, school supplies, floors and roofs, clothing and home supplies and healthcare.  We’ve prayed with them and joined in as they sought to meet people’s intangible needs as well; giving advice, spiritual direction, counseling and education and motivation in life.  And, more recently, we’ve kneeled with them in prayer over the global crisis of falling economies and soaring costs of staple foods, and placed our hope and trust alongside theirs at the throne of God.

More specifically, this year has seen a slight evolution of our job descriptions.  Scott has spent the year partnering with the short-term teams department, looking for ways to speak into and help improve the process from the Dominican side.  While it can at times feel overwhelming and a bit lonely to be the primary person trying to constantly move between cultures as a liaison, ultimately God is in control and he is learning bit by bit how to handle the role and the pressures that he faces.  You can pray that Scott constantly goes to God before reacting and that he finds a way to shift the focus from the stresses to the joys of the job.

Kelly has been hard at work developing a special education program to offer learning opportunities that meet the unique needs of these specific kids.  They launched the program at the beginning of this school year to much fanfare – while new and fledgling, it has already been embraced by prominent local leaders and advocates and is proving to be a possible model for the larger school district of the area.  It is exciting and extremely challenging.  You can pray that she and her team are always looking to God for His guidance for this program and that she would be able to consistently articulate herself in both languages.

We’ve also had the opportunity to lend a hand in the sponsorship department on their many projects, accompany the spiritual ministries department on various community wide outreach events, construct shelving in the warehouse and organize the donations stored there, find a church home and develop a few relationships that will forever be dear to our hearts.

An exciting aspect of our ministry is having the opportunity to direct a portion of our monthly support into various ministries and needs down here.  What amounts to nearly a quarter of our budget has been used to purchase: a portable generator, globes and maps for our classrooms, a large (4’Dx15’Wx7’H) shelving unit for the warehouse, supplies to keep the ministry organized, a large (wedding style) cake for a Quinciñera celebration for all of the new 15 year olds in our villages, games and materials for our schools, textbooks for Math, Science and Spanish, and transportation to and from the capitol for supplies.  These have come directly from your support and have had a huge impact on the ministry down here.  Thank you!

You know, I was flipping through one of my all time favorite books the other day and came across a paragraph that made me think about the time that we have left here in the Dominican…

“So soon you will be in that part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right.  You will know by the page count, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up.  You begin to mourn its ending, and want to pace yourself slowly toward its closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification.” – Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts, pg. xii.

While we look forward to days ahead, back in Seattle, evenings spent with you, Saturday walks through the fall leaves on the UW campus and the spring wildflowers on the slopes of Mt. Rainer, we first look forward to being present in the time that we have left down here.  Please pray for us in the year to come that:

•    We would stay sensitive to the shaping and changing and movements that God is bringing to our lives.
•    That we would continue to treasure and invest in the lives of our community down here.
•    That God would pour out a special blessing upon COTN and the Dominican Republic, sustaining them in this time of financial crisis.
•    That we would find time to continue to care for our marriage.

We are so thankful for each one of you and pray often for you by name, even as you continue to lift us up to the God of all love and grace.  May this holiday season be one of great blessing and joy in your homes!

Love,
Scott and Kelly Hampton