Changed Forever

On Sunday evening I returned from an 8 day mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Over the years I have heard about poverty from different places; blurbs on the news, pictures on the internet, and stories of people who have visited poor regions of the world etc. It was all very matter-of-fact and what I would term 'arms length' information, yeah you know about it but you don't really KNOW. Well, now I do and I will never be the same.

I truly am a big fat ugly American. As the title of my blog says, I am an average guy. My income is average, my house is average, the number of cars and children I have is average (2 each). I truly am content and happy for many reasons that I don't really need to list here. This doesn't mean I don't have needs and wants, desires and ambitions. I do, but many times I just choose not to put my rat into the race.

At least I have a rat and know when post time is. I can flip a switch and be reasonably sure a light will turn on. If I were to wear every piece of clothing I own, I could go well over 2 weeks without ever having to wash anything (the truth is I don't really know how many clothes I have). I can drink the water out of any faucet I choose without fear of disease and I can flush my toilet paper. If I have a yearning for a certain food I can go down to my local grocery store and easily afford it with my average income. And if I don't like my job I can go find another one.

I had the privilege of learning that none of this is true for the poor people of the Dominican Republic. It was the type of learning that only comes from experience. They have so little. All the things I listed above that I take for granted they don't have, and maybe never will. A day laborer working in the fields picking crops will be paid about 35 pesos a day (the equivalent of 1 US dollar). A bottle of Coke in the store across the street from where our team was staying was 15 pesos. My way of thinking is 15 pesos is about 40 cents...wow that's cheap! However, for the crop picker it is almost a half a days wages for 1 bottle of pop.

The bible states the poor will always be with us, and history has proven that to be true. Before this trip I only had a cursory understanding of this issue, now I have first hand experience. I will never forget the opportunity of working for a week down there hopefully making a small difference in the lives of a few children.