When justice rolls down like waters, I want to be drowning.

"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight and closed in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom."


Wise words, Alicia Keys.  And so very felt right now. As I sit on the cusp of what may be one of the defining experiences of my life thus far, I can't help but wonder what this next stage of life is going to bring. In a few short days (eight to be exact), I will board a plane for Santiago de los Caballeros. According to Frommer's, Santiago is the cultural center of the Dominican Republic, "the most Dominican of cities", and home to the best tobacco and rum makers of the West Indies. But more importantly, it will be my home for the next four months as I study abroad at Pontifical Catholic University.


Now honestly, I am just not much of a travel-the-world kind of girl. My idea of adventure is more like going to the next town over and checking out that new karaoke place. For me, going to college in the Midwest is practically studying abroad. They don't serve sweet tea there, for crying out loud! So while I never planned or expected to jet away for a semester during my senior year of college, I did have a sneaking suspicion that the Spanish language was supposed to have a part in my future. In the summer of 2009 I got my first taste of what is sometimes called "incarnational living", or purposefully dwelling in an under-resourced, impoverished community as a way to respond to the Gospel. I fell in love with my community there, and I fell hard. The tricky thing was that the majority of them, like so many others in the United States today, only felt comfortable communicating in Spanish. Needless to say, that was a something of a barrier to relationship formation. I wanted so badly to hear their stories in all their fullness, but I had to settle for a few shy smiles and passing gestures. 


A year later, I'm still committed to community development, and these days I'm particularly interested in immigrant issues.* There are so many people out there with stories to tell. In those stories there is often a call for justice -- a call that demands a response. I want to be a listener, one who hears the call and delivers that response. Not because I'll be able to "fix" things immediately, but because of the way his Word tells us to interact with aliens in our land: with love, acceptance and compassion. So it's my hope that my time in the DR will equip me with a better mastery of the Spanish language, which will in turn enable me to join in as the body of Christ seeks justice for millions of Latino immigrants in the United States. When justice rolls down like waters, I want to be drowning in it.


But I'm not there yet. I'm in process. And the painful part of that process is when the bud hasn't yet blossomed and there's a part of it that questions if it ever will. While I'm thrilled about my upcoming experience in the DR, I'm also terrified, and this self-professing homebody is about to get ripped out of comfort and thrust into a land far, far away. Which creates "an excellent opportunity to trust in the Lord," as my friend Rachel McAlvey would say. In the words of Andy Stanley, I will slowly (slooooooowly) learn to respond to all of life's circumstances as one who is absolutely confident that God is with her. That's big faith, and this is another chance to grow it. I don't speak Spanish; it's a foreign country; it's a developing country; I'm naturally a fraidy cat; the list goes on. So it's okay for me to feel scared sometimes. It's okay for me to feel apprehensive not knowing what this place will hold for me, as long as I know that my God is so much bigger than anything that can ever frighten or hurt me. And in this knowledge I will march bravely through that terminal, with his love in my heart and a Spanish pocket dictionary in my hand...


Coming up next: I love writing lists, and I love making goals. So I'm going to combine the two and make a list of my goals for the DR so that YOU as my online community can hold me accountable! Stay tuned, Mom! (And you too, if by some chance you are reading this not out of maternal obligation but love me enough to read my blog anyway.)


*For a helpful and informative book on this topic, I highly recommend Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate by Matthew Soerens and Jenny Hwang. Plus it's available at www.betterworldbooks.com, where your purchase helps raise funds for global literacy.