Thanksgiving in the DR

The campus of Santiago Christian School has been quiet for the last few days. Although the Dominican Republic does not recognize Thanksgiving as a national holiday, our school does celebrate it, and we released early on Wednesday for a Thanksgiving break similar to the States.

For some reason I found it tragically amusing as I read about the school in Claremont, California who would not allow their kindergarten students to dress up like Indians and pilgrims to re-enact the history of this special holiday … because it is being racist!? It is evidently not a problem here. On Wednesday as I waited with the rest of the faculty for a special lunch served by our school cafeteria, I observed the bustling activity of the school yard around me as the grade school children were being picked up by their chauffeurs and parents.

Dozens of “pilgrims” and “Indians” paraded past as they hustled to find their ride home. The elementary school teachers used this holiday to talk about the faith of the pilgrims, their journey in the Mayflower, their history of hardships, and their attitude toward God for His providential care and protection … and ended with a re-enactment of that first Thanksgiving feast. Food was bought in, the kids dressed up in costumes, they ate, played games … it made me wish for one wild, reckless moment that I taught elementary school children instead of high school math. They were so cute!

But the amusing tragedy is that it seems a person has to come to another country now days to find Thanksgiving celebrated in the schools in an historical way because America is turning its back on its spiritual roots.

Carol needed some ingredients for a dish that she was preparing for a Thanksgiving meal that we were invited to the next day, so that same afternoon we grabbed a taxi and went to a store that is a Dominican-style Super Wal-Mart. It had the food selection that we needed as well as a hardware section to keep me busy while she shopped.

Before we could enter the store we had to check in our plastic sack of materials we carried downtown with us … an umbrella in case it rained and a sweater for Carol. The temperature has been creeping down into the high 60’s and lower 70’s recently, and, believe it or not, we are feeling chilly. One of my students came to my desk peering at me from beneath a hooded sweatshirt like some Jedi Knight saying, “I don’t know what it’s called Mister, but when I got up this morning my teeth were bouncing against each other.” This is as cold as these people here ever experience in this country. Carol and I aren’t quite that acclimatized yet, but we do remember to bring a light sweater on a downtown excursion.

With our bag checked, we went our separate ways to accomplish individual objectives and reconvened an hour later to merge our two baskets of goods and to check out of the store. Remember, I am talking about two gringos in a crowded checkout line who speak virtually no Spanish. As I laid the items from the shopping basket onto the counter, the checkout lady began jabbering in Spanish. At the end of her sentence she looked at my blank stare and shrugged with a frown saying, “No entiende” which probably means something like, “He doesn’t get it, does he?”

The man bagging our goods was motioning me to do something, my debit card was not acceptable, I didn’t have the right amount of change …. and, at that very moment, Cherish (bless her heart) calls on Carol’s cell phone to sing to her happy birthday. To a man who can’t even walk and chew gum at the same time, this was a severe case of sensory overload.

Somehow we finished the phone conversation, made the payment, and were herded out of the store by a tip-hungry cart-pusher into a taxi. Half way home I realized that I had forgotten our bag that we had checked in. At this point I considered myself fortunate to be almost home in one piece and I had not the ability nor desire to correct the situation. A sense of anger and frustration formed around me like a poorly camouflaged black cloud which I found out later was not hidden from Carol.

This day before Thanksgiving was not a great one for Carol either. It was a day she turned a year older and here she was in another country trying to find ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving dish she had never made for a group of people of whom many she had never met. It was the third day of trying to put one recipe together and at least that many trips to different stores, and it was still questionable whether it was even possible.

Upon retrospect neither Carol nor I had reason to feel overwhelmed or frustrated or worried. By God’s grace her green bean casserole with almond topping (couldn’t find the traditional fried onions) was a success (based on how much was leftover), and the fellowship with a group of Christians from various parts of the world was sweet. We heard an encouraging exhortation from a veteran missionary to have a grateful heart for all things in our life including trials because God has called us unto holiness through suffering.

It seemed amazingly clear later. Even though we could hardly call the source of our frustrations “suffering” it was clear that we had simply taken our eyes off Christ when things didn’t go our way. Today we spent some time talking about our attitudes and failings of the past week and renewed ourselves again to walking by faith instead of by sight. Why is it so easy to walk in the flesh? My recent reading in Romans had a perfect description of this scenario:

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Romans 8:13, 14 KJV

The message I understood from this brief moment of illumination in the Scriptures is as simple as the gospel itself … I need Jesus to daily put to death the deeds of the flesh and live in the power of His resurrected life. This is a simple description of what Christians do.

So even though I am in a strange land, the battle is the same where ever I live … if I want to be led by the Spirit of God. Praise God for the life of Christ in us. Ultimately this is all we have … and it is what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving in the DR.

“ … the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.” Romans 10:12 KJV