Ron’s Rambles #19, Saturday March 19, 2011

Ron’s Rambles #19, Saturday March 19, 2011
Part two

Evening worship included communion and wind up inspirational message/challenge “may the touch of Jesus go through ……………………..(named each of the 65 participants) by Alvin Lau,CBOQYouth, Manager of youth Ministries, Rev. Alvin Lau.

Blogger’s notes on these “tourist pictures”.
1. There are more of them because Alvin taught me how to do it faster….thanks Alvin.
2. I intentionally put these is to show the contrast of 5 days hard work in the midst of poverty in the name of Christ, in order to show the contrast within this country as well as the contrast between the DR & Canada. The teams are given this one half “tourist day” as part of their debrief, culture shock……to prepare them for re-entry to Canada and our wealth. Comments were made in our small group time after worship re how “different and difficult” it was for some to see the other side of the DR experience. WE explained that stepping of the plane in 27 hours at Pierson International Airport Toronto was going to be even more of a culture shock………..so a little bit at a time.
In Haiti I mentioned the starfish story and here again I am reminded of that story (here for those just reading the CBOQYouth blog):
“Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “I made a difference to that one!””

At our beautiful Caribbean lunch stop (an aquarium park) I was able to take several shots of “starfish” and again as we will see on our final walk about tomorrow morning, we will be able to say “I made a difference to that ne” many times over for the kids here in the Dominican Republic.

Again the pictures will tell the rest of today’s story.

Ron,

Old camera guy in the DR