February Newsletter

SHANNON’S CORNER

February 2018

Equipping teachers.  Equipping coaches.  Equipping house parents.  Equipping leaders.  Why, you may ask is this so important?  Being able to give our staff and leaders the tools of knowledge and understanding along with practicum is vital in caring for the various needs of our kids in our ministries.  This knowledge and understanding empowers our staff with confidence to teach, to coach, to parent, and to lead well.

Karla, psychologist with KAI Guatemala

I am excited for a new direction that we are going in here with KAI in the DR.  Seeing the emotional needs of our kids and how important it is to restore our kids emotionally with the transforming love and power of our Lord Jesus.  Heading this new direction for us is one of our missionaries, Kaela.  Recently, Vic and Kaela invited our fellow KAI co-workers from Guatemala to come and teach us some core elements regarding emotionally traumatized kids.  Along with sharing their own testimonies of applying these core

Alejandra, psychologist with KAI Guatemala

elements in their work with the girls they serve in Guatemala.  Below are some of the comments from the two-day training I heard.  The brain’s purpose is to prepare us for the future.  The front brain (cortex) verses the back brain (fight, flee, or freeze response).  A traumatized child lives every day without using their front brain (cortex), which means there is no development in the area of relationships and empathy, resulting in no future development.  An emotionally traumatized child is always looking for the bear…is the bear at a safe distance or not.  So, how we interact with emotionally traumatized kids is very, very important.

During the whole month of February, the Dominicans celebrate “carnaval” (carnival).  The most famous, largest and oldest Dominican Republic carnaval is called “Carnaval Vegano,” located in La Vega, which is about 30 minutes from where I live in Jarabacoa.  It is dated back to 1510 A.D.  Carnaval is a celebration of a mixture of rituals, cultures, and traditions from the native

Taino Indian Dress

Taíno Indians, African Slaves, and Europeans.  They use masks to symbolize spiritual, supernatural and unknown spirit world entities.  It started with the Taíno Indians as the celebrated planting, harvest, weddings, and deaths.  Later, when the African slaves were brought to the island they contributed with vibrant colors, musical instruments, dance and songs.  The African slaves also brought humor into this celebration by making fun of themselves and life.  When Columbus arrived to the island they saw these celebrations as “pagan” so they added some religious inflections into it.  Some believe that this was the first place in the Americas to celebrate pre-Lenten to escape the pressures and rigidity of religious tradition.  When the Dominican Republic won their Independence from Haiti on February 27, 1844, this day became the climax of carnival.  Each weekend in various towns and cities throughout the 

DR they have parades with various characters telling folklore stories of the DR’s culture along with dance and music.  There are six main characters in Dominican Folklore.  The main character is called, “Diablo Cojuelo” or limping devil.  The devil was banished to earth because of his childish pranks.  When he hit earth he hurt his leg.  Another character is called, “Roba la Gallina” or steal the chicken.  A satire of the way people use to steal chickens from farms.  Another character is called, “Califé.”  He shouts out poetry to the crowd portraying the people’s voice to government officials.  Another

Costumes of Carnaval

character is called, “Se me muere Rebeca” or Rebeca is dying.  This portrays a woman of low social class that has an ill daughter, Rebeca, who cannot pay for the medicine.  Another character is called, “La Ciguapa.”   A female character comes out at night, naked, with long black hair and backward feet to entice men.  The last main character is called, “Los Indios” or the Indians.  People dressed in the typical Taíno Indian dress.

As I continue to learn more about the culture and history of this beautiful country, it also becomes clear of various cultural and spiritual issues that affect the lives of the kids whom we serve, our Dominican staff, as well as our missionaries. 

 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:14

PRAYER REQUESTS

Praise the Lord for the teachers training going very well!

Praise the Lord for the sports evangelism training!

Praise the Lord for the training regarding emotionally traumatized kids!

Praise the Lord our intern, Frankie arrived safely to the DR, serving in Santo Domingo!

Pray for my spiritual walk…growth.

Pray for Cory as he is raising his support to come and serve in Caraballo.

Pray for preparing and organizing a debrief retreat for 10 of our first-term missionaries at the end of February.

Pray for the planning of our summer program and our summer intern program.

Pray for Gabby who will be an intern with us from March 6^th-May 17^th.