HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-02-24, Page 5Putting faith to work
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1988. PAGE 5.
Local church people help build churches in Dominican Republic
in a practical demonstration of faith
Posing beside two of their Haitian friends and in front of one of the two churches they built in less than two
weeks, the Blyth Christian Reformed Church volunteers are [from left] Reverend Ray Brinks of Santo
Domingo, John Blok, Murray Siertsema [partly hidden], Jack de Jong, Henry Exel, Elaine Snell, Larry
Johnston, Mike Siertsema, Roely Verburg, Gerry Bos, Hank Pardys and John Bos. The final Canadian,
Tony Verburg, is behind Miss Snell. Using funds raised by their church, the volunteers built both
churches for $5,500 Canadian.
BY TOBY RAINEY
Twelve local people who have
just returned from spending two
weeks on a sunny tropical isle say
they have neverfelt better in their
lives.
However, unlike most snow
birds who fly south for a winter
vacation, this group of nine men
and three women spent close to
$1,000 each for the privilege of
working as construction labourers
under the hot sun of the Dominican
Republic for no material gain
whatsoever. Devout Christians all,
they literally “put their faith to
work’’ inaverypracticalway by
building two churches, one per
week, in one of the poorest nations
in the Western Hemisphere.
“I never enjoyed a holiday
more,’’ said Murray Siertsema of
RR 2, Blyth, one of the group’s
leaders. “A couple of years agowe
wenttoFloridafor a vacation, andl
was bored to death. I’m just not
happy unless I’m working.”
All but one of the group are
members of the Blyth Christian
Reformed Church, joyfully taking
part in their church’s world-wide
Women
needed
for project
mission work of spreading the
gospel while helping the poor and
the oppressed. Theoddmanout
was Elaine Snell of Westfield, a
member of the Westfield Fellow
ship Hour, who went along just
because she was needed on the
project, and because she wanted to
“do something to help people.”
“I think Murray asked me to go
because he knew I was mission-
minded,” said Miss Snell who had
previously visited Haiti. “It soun
ded interesting, they were short of
ladies for the project, and I wanted
a chance to help others.”
She went on to explain that when
the project was first conceived by
the Blyth Christian Reformed
Church last May, following a vist
from a Canadian missionary work
ing in the Dominican Republic, it
was planned that nine men, some
of the skilled tradesmen, would be
needed to do the actual building of
thechurches, whilefourwomen
would be needed “to look after the
men and cook for them.”
Asitturnedout, however, the
group was billeted in a reasonably
modern and fairly comfortable
“pension, ’ ’ a sort of self-contained
guesthouse, inSantoDomingo,
the capital of the small nation
which shares the West Indian
Island of Hispaniola with its poorer
neighbours, Haiti, rather than in
the primitive conditions of the
small villages, or “pates” where
they were to work.
As a result, the Canadians were
able to eat most major meals at
restaurants in the teeming capital
city, and the planned-for domestic
arrangements more or less fell by
the wayside. So the three women in
the party (one, Femmy VanAmers-
foort of RR 1, Blyth, had to drop out
at the last moment because of
family illness) found that they were
more in demand as apprentices to
the building crew than as domes
tics, and as a result worked in the
pates alongside the men, helping
to tear down a decrepit structure
being used as a church in order that
a new one could be built on the site,
and later completely painting a
church which had been construct
ed by a volunteer crew the previous
year.
Between the time the group left
Blyth on January 18 and the time
they returned home on February 1,
they completely built two tiny new
churches in two separate villages,
one where no place of worship had
ever before existed.
The frame buildings erected
over acement-block foundation
were simple in design and not
much larger than a Canadian
two-car garage, but they were
much grander than anything the
poor Haitian labourers who were to
use them had ever had before,
much grander than the meagre
living quarters the families of poor
cane cutters often shared in the
pates, which another of the
Canadians, Roely Verburg of RR 1,
Auburn, described as “looking like
stalls in a horse stable.”
On the first Tuesday of the
two-week tour of duty, the group
dropped two of their men and the
three womenoffatthefirst site,
where they setto work to tear down
the collection of steel roofing and
branches that had served as a place
of worship, while the rest of the
Of cupid and
other lovers
BY RAYMOND CANON
In North America we have very
little mythology outside of what
has been given to us by the Indians;
in the rest of the world there is a
wealth of it. Some of it has been
brought over into our language
which means that either we are
well acquainted with it or else we
have heard of it at one time or
another.
Undoubtedly one of the best
known of mythological characters
is Cupid. We all know that he has
something to do with love; he
carries around a bow and a few
arrows; the latter he uses when
ever the occasion presents itself
and, if you happen to get shot with
one of his arrows, according to the
script, you fall in love.
Well, who is cupid? He is,
according to mythology, the Ro
man god of love and even he
couldn’tescape the love that he
inflicted on so many other people.
He became enamored with Psyche,
a beautiful girl in due course
party went on to the second site to
make a deal to purchase a
cement-block foundation that had
been laid but never used.
Back together later the same
day, the men, sometimes assisted
by the collection of Haitian women,
children and old men who gathered
round to watch, laid the foundation
and began the frame structure of
the first church, which they
finished by Friday of the same
week, in time to hold the first of two
dedication services that drew both
Haitian cane-cutters and their
families and the local Dominicans
from miles around.
On Monday of the second week,
the crew moved to the second site,
and by the second Friday, had it
finished and ready for the dedica
tion, followed on Sunday by a two
and one half hour service that again
drew a large crowd to join in the
singing of hymns in Spanish,
Creole and English.
“Itwas a remarkable experi
ence,” Mrs. Verburg later said,
awestill in her voice. “We actually
'We actually
witnessed
the birth
of a church'
witnessed the birth of a new
church, something few people are
ever fortunate enough to see. ’ ’ On
Sunday, the tiny new building was
packed from wall to wall and many
stood outside while the first
regular service was held, with
Christian Reformed missionary
Ray Brinks, (the Canadian volun
teers’ mentor while they were on
the island), officiating.
During that first service, seven
people came forward to be commit-
ted to Christ and to pledge their
allegiance to their new church, a
figure that will no doubt be
multiplied many times over in the
months to come. In 1980, the first
five Christian Reformed mission
aries went to the Dominican
The International
Scene
became her lover. That was not
according to the script; Psyche was
actually so beautiful that Venus,
the mother of Cupid, became
jealous. She sent Cupid out to have
Psyche fall in love with somebody
unattractive but Cupid became
smitten with her and the rest,
as they say, is history.
You may also be interested in the
origin of the arrows. Cupid had a
counterpart in Greek mythology;
his name was Eros. Eros was the
one who originated the use of the
bow and arrow with which to smite
people and the practice got carried
over to Rome when that city
developed its own mythology. This
is not an uncommon practice.
Mythology of one country tends to
borrow from that of another locality
whenever it suits the purpose.
Speaking of beauty, we can’t
continue without talking a bit about
Helen, whose beautiful face caus
ed more than a spot of trouble in the
Greek world. Helen was the
daughter of Zeus, the king of the
gods. In due course she became
married to Menelaus, the king of
Sparta.
In a plot that would make an
excellent soap opera if it were to
take place to-day, Helen was given
Republic and founded the first two
churches of the faith the island had
ever had; now, less than eight
years later, there are close to 200
such churches, with more being
pledged all the time.
It shows a remarkable act of faith
on the part of those who bring such
places intobeing, a remarkable
dedication to their beliefs, and to
the futures of the people they go
out into the world to help.
The impact of the Canadians
from Blyth, Brussels and Auburn
will be felt for years to come, not
only in the flourishing churches
they built, but in other projects as
well. The power tools and hand
tools the group took with them,
donated in every case bv local
businesses and individuals in the
Blyth-Brussels area, were left
behind, donated in turn to Pastor
Brinks who will use them to equip a
carpentry shop where villagers,
who previously could look forward
to a life of little more than slavery in
the cane fields, can learn a trade,
and in turn be able to teach their
brothers the same skills.
And thechurches, so lovingly
raised by dedicated volunteers
from a far-away land may in time be
used as schools on weekdays,
doing what they can to break the
circle of poverty and ignorance that
traps so many of the world’s
people.
Inspired, the Canadians return
ed to their home church with this
message: if the congregation
wants to dedicate itself to another
project, only $1,000 per year will
completely equip a school class
room or a Sunday school for 25 to
30 children who will otherwise
have no chance at any sort of an
education, oranychanceata better
life.
“We Canadians have been
greatly blessed in this land of
ours,” says Roely Verburg. “It’s
only fitting that we should share
some of our good fortune with the
less fortunate.”
For most of us, faith may not be
able to move mountains. Butitsure
can make a difference in the world
we all share.
to Paris, who carted her oft to Troy,
which is in modern Turkey.
Needless to say, this caused a war
between the Trojans and the
Greeks. Paris was killed or died
which led to Helen being married
to Deiphobus, a Trojan who is
remembered mainly for the fact
that he had 49 brothers. He was
also a good warrier, by the way but
that did not save him from being
killed. His death led to Helen being
reunited with her first husband
Menalaus when the war with Troy
came to an end and presumably
they lived happilyeverafter. At
least mythology has nothing more
to say about any further husbands
or lovers that she may have had.
If Diophobus died, he had to get
to heaven on his own. Now, if he
had been a German, he would have
been escorted there by the Valk
yries, the lovely warrier maidens
who were sent by Odin, the god of
war, to conduct the fallen warriers
into Valhalla and to make them
welcome once they got there. For
my money that is the most
attractive way to die in all of the
world of mythology. Most of the
time it seems that the gods liked to
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