Sometimes on the World Race, things or events occur that you cannot just make up even if I wanted to. One such event happened the other day during our lunch time on our first day of ministry.
So we’re having lunch and right outside of the compound here a group of probably 20-30 Haitians has gathered. We weren’t sure at first if they were just talking loud or arguing. Some seem a little upset including one guy swinging a machete. Eventually some of the locals in our compound get involved too and start yelling. One guy in particular is chewing out a man standing in a canoe just off shore.
Finally the man in the canoe takes off into deeper water and we come to figure out that there is another local out in the ocean hanging onto a buoy. We’re told most people here don’t swim, so the arguing it seems was a debate on whether or not anyone would go out after this guy. So as Canoe Man is heading to the Buoy Man, the rest of the crowd on the beach is just eating this up. It was like being at the movies. If I had popcorn, it would have been a hit. Plus they keep referring to the man as a “mun fu” which translates into “crazy person.” The sort of “insane asylum” crazy apparently.
By this time, all of us who’s ministry is at the compound have gathered on the beach too to watch. Canoe Man reaches Buoy Man and nothing happens for awhile. They’re both floating out there. Slowly Canoe Man floats further away while the other guy is still in the water. We can’t decide if he’s crazy enough that he won’t get in the boat or what. Canoe Man then paddles close again and suddenly he either jumped or fell out of the boat. The crowd goes wild. Two other guys grab a second canoe and start running toward the water and get it in. Suddenly Canoe Man pops back up in the boat and shortly after we can see him pull in Buoy Man.
They stay out there probably another 10 minutes before coming back to shore. Again everyone is going crazy back on the beach as they get close. Two of my squad mates run out into the crowd to get a firsthand look at everything and figure out what’s going on. Canoe Man and Buoy Man get to the beach. Buoy Man looks to be in either his 50s or 60s. Suddenly one of the two people who ran down to the beach calls out to the rest of us that Buoy Man has luggage with him. Sure enough, he’s got a decent sized bag in hand. Then we hear/see that he brought the buoy back with him too along with a mess of chicken wire and magazines. Just like that then he smiles at everyone and walks away down the beach like nothing happened.
Eventually the crowd disperses and we finish lunch. We honestly have no idea how this guy got at least a quarter mile offshore, how he dragged luggage out there with him, why he came back with the buoy, or anything else about him. Some days strange things just happen on the World Race. This was definitely one of them.
Our arrival into Haiti went pretty flawlessly. Three buses, one flat tire, and about 13ish hours after we started, we arrived into the main base of operations for Hope for Missions International. I really didn’t expect there to be a big change between the DR and Haiti. Granted the DR is considered to be a developing nation while Haiti is third world. But this has been like going from a 5 star hotel to a Motel 6 or something with regards to feel and look of everything. We drove through the middle of Port-Au-Prince and it was shocking. I thought I’ve seen some poverty, but this was on an entirely new level with just huge amounts of people everywhere. It’s shocking what passes for a home, plus there are all the tent cities for those people who have been displaced following the earthquake. I cannot even begin to put an accurate portrayal in writing here of how things look.
This month the entire C Squad (42 of us) is staying in the city/town of Grand-Goave outside of Port-Au-Prince. This area was affected pretty well too by the earthquake. We are staying this month at Hope for Missions International’s main base of operations area, for lack of a better term to call it. It feels like a little resort here. My tent is probably only 20 or so feet from the ocean. So cool falling asleep to the crashing of the waves at night. We also are blessed with the modern miracle of electricity and running water this month. We cook over the fire with the help of local Haitians working here too. Pretty much every day I’ve had fresh mango and coconut which the locals climb 40 feet up in the palm trees to get with a machete in hand. Spiderman eat your heart out. Five days a week we will be in ministry while on a sixth day each team will have one day that they stay back to help prepare all of the meals, clean up the facilities, take care of laundry, and so on. Mondays then will be our off day to rest and relax a bit.
Ministry will look a little different from last month for sure. We’ll be spending most of the month here at the main Compound of Missions for Hope International. Our team has been given the task of building two houses here on the compound to house incoming missionaries. The majority of the frame for the building is up, but they literally told, and I quote, “This is what we have so far and this is what we want it to look like (pointing to the homes across from our structures). So what this will entail us doing is plumbing for two bathrooms, pouring concrete, electricity, walls, ceilings, windows, doors, painting if we get that far and whatever else we can get done in this time. There may be days we help out elsewhere as well. There is an orphanage being built here called Be Like Brit. PLEASE look it up online for a moving story of its history.
Overall, things are good. Please keep us in your prayers for the month. Safety is a bit more of a concern here outside of our housing area and quite a few people have come down with flu like symptoms since we’ve arrived. So far I’ve been fine, but prayer for the health of my entire squad would be great. Thanks!
P.S. I only get internet access once a week, so the next time you hear from me will be a week and one day from today.
This will be my last blog regarding the Dominican Republic. Enjoy these short little stories that weren’t big enough for their own blog.
This one time in the DR, we saw one motor bike carrying 6 people. We saw another carrying a washing machine and a third carrying a field plow.
This one time in the DR, we traded the use of our bathroom at the apartment for seven chocolate brownies.
This one time in the DR, we were on a rooftop at night when a group of people ran by on giant stilts while a man in a bath towel stood out on the street corner watching and chatting with his neighbor.
This one time in the DR, we helped lead a church service that took place entirely by the light of our headlamps. That same service saw a drunken man stumble in and sit down at the front and declare in front of everyone that he was drunk. We thought for a moment too that he was going to pull his pants down in front of everyone too, but was escorted out before he could do that.
This one time in the DR, we gave a couple of kids a drink of water and they showed up later at our apartment with a bag of fresh limes and a seven foot tall pole of sugar cane.
This one time in the DR, we shelled peas with a wonderful family and shared stories about faith and life.
This one time in the DR, instead of being woken up by roosters, a flock of peacocks decided to take the lead.
This one time in the DR, we ran entirely out of water so a couple of us walked down to the “stream” that “runs” through town and carried back buckets of water so we could flush our toilet. Another time, we were without water, so a group went and filled all of our containers going out by truck. By the time they returned half an hour later, our water was back on.
This one time in the DR, at the church in Cigual the guys went on a giant spider hunt on behalf of the girls and we managed to get three of the creepers and slept that much more soundly that night.
This one time in the DR, we tented on top of a mountain, where most of use spent half the night praying that the wind wouldn’t rip our tents apart and throw us down the mountain.
This one time in the DR, we had an off day where we traveled to a beautiful beach in Borahona where we were the only people for as far as we could see.
This one time in the DR, the “Empanada Boy” we would go to for food made Michelle a heart shaped empanada the day we were leaving.
This one time in the DR, one of the owners of the store next to our apartment that we would go to told two of our girls, in their mid to early 20s that their youth was behind them when he found out they weren’t married.
This one time in the DR, we rode in a van with 21 people. On top of that, the woman behind me began breast feeding in front of everyone. Not that that is really strange or crazy I think, but coming from the US, it’s just not all that common to breast feed in a vehicle full of strangers.
This one time in the DR, we spent four hours in the back of a truck to reach the remote village of El Gramazo. Some of our inclines and declines were so steep, that if you let go, you would have rolled straight back of the truck.
This one time in the DR, I had a lady who was pretty far along in a pregnancy give up her chair for me and would not sit down in it when I tried to offer it back to her. Instead she stood.
This one time in the DR, we tried to get our stove hooked up to see if we could cook, only to quickly discover that our stove had a decent gas leak.
This one time in the DR, we successfully crossed into Haiti!!!!
*Please be warned. We are an open and honest bunch with just a little hint of sarcasm thrown in for good measure. All of these brought a good amount of laughter with them. Enjoy!*
"Lunch Lady Leah" - Michelle
"If I weren't a Christian, I would..."(insert what you would do) - Everyone
"Estoy bien." - Justin ------- "I think you mean 'Esta bien'." - Michelle
"See if I help you vomit again." - Michelle
*Justin drops our bag of chicken.* - "Its no problem. Already dead." - Manuel
"I think its cold in the shade and hot in the sun." - Meagan ------ "That's a good observation." - Candice
Never have I ever been in a traffic jam involving cows." - Sam
"Please God make the rooster hoarse." - Sam
"Uno. Dos. Tres. Cinco. Go!" - Jesse
"I think we should make a list." - Manuel
"Its okay! Journalist." - Jesse
"Relatively speaking, compared to rice and spaghetti, we haven't had beans in awhile." - Sam
"Is he really going to look for Pepitto (the dog)?" - Candice ----------- "He'll probably come back with a package of hotdogs." - Justin
"Its all over the floor!" - Candice ---------- "Mmmm, its possible." - Michelle
"What happens in the back of the truck stays in the back of the truck." - Justin
"Do any of you know anything about papaya?" - Sam ---------- "3.14" - Michelle
"Oh no! Oh no! I just spit toothpaste in that lady's house!" - Candice
*After our water comes back on after five days without it.* - "Gonna go have a celebration poop." - Justin
"Could be. Cool beans." - Meagan
"We're building a house right now." - Leah
"New record!" - Manuel
"Where do you think it came from? - Sam referring to a lime. --------- "Probably a tree." - Meagan
"I think someone just broke something outside." - Candice --------- "You mean like a bone?" - Michelle
"Time to water our dirt." - Justin (In reference to everyone here always watering the dirt in front of their homes.)
"I'm not ready. My shoes are on the wrong feet." - Meagan
*During discussion of the smell of weed smoke coming through our window.* - "I could really go for smores right now." - Michelle
"Its a 'pequania' word." - Manuel
"Hey Michigan." - Sam (Meant to say Michelle)
"Does anyone else's boogers stink?" - Michelle
"Hola Padre!" - Jesse to random old man.
"Did you just take a poop while eating bread?" - Meagan -------- "I wasn't actually eating it while I was in there." - Sam
"I'm gonna jack a pig and ride it up the mountain." - Candice
"I declare brain fruit ice cream to be the future. I approve this message." - Manuel during his president impersonation since he slightly resembles Barack Obama.
"I will be the apple. You can bite me." - Michelle when figuring out roles for Adam/Eve skit.
"Today's weather is hot/cold." - Manuel in radio weatherman voice.
"Really digging the shirt Manuel." - Justin --------- "Glory to God." - Manuel
"I'm so glad that your response was to not share." - Leah
"Oh. You are black in your heart." - Manuel
"You will be able to eat empanadas every day now." - Manuel after it was decided that Michelle would marry "Empanada Boy."
"There's a flock of teradactyls." - Candice
We are leaving for Haiti at the end of this week. Roughly 12 hours on a bus! It looks like we'll be camped out on a beach for the month with the rest of our squad working with Missions for Hope International!
My teammate Jesse put this video together of the Crusade.
For four nights last week, Team Monarch was involved with the Hope For The City Crusade here in Padre Las Casas. The Crusade itself has sparked some interesting discussion amongst our team just regarding the approach of the overall Crusade and the approach the main speaker takes biblically. Personally, knowledge in this sort of area is not a particular strength of mine, so I’ve found the discussions to be good for my own knowledge. As for whether or not things were too this or that at times, or if the right points were being made and driven home regarding the Gospel and salvation, I don’t really know. Even after nearly a week to process it all, I can’t say I’ve come to any conclusions. I know some of this leads to big ol’ theological debates or whatnot. I’m not really interested in advocating or not advocating for any of it. But here’s what I saw with me own eyes over those 4 nights. Things I directly witnessed. Things that could have happened only through the presence of the Holy Spirit being at work. The presence of God was real.
Over the four nights, I’d put a ballpark estimate of roughly 800 or so people giving their life to Christ. I remember looking into the eyes of some of those people after they’d prayed. Tears streaming down their faces. The look of pure joy on their faces. Hugging anyone they could find. Lives changed. That was real.
Along with people being given the opportunity to pray, the first three evenings ended with people being invited down to be prayed over for healing. Our team was asked to assist and be a part of all of this too. So while I can’t say I ever found myself in this situation, I absolutely believe in the healing power of prayer and that the Holy Spirit will work through people to do that. Without a doubt people were healed. There was deafness, blindness, pain, and other things. That was real.
I watched the speaker pray over a man with blindness in one eye where he could not see more than a few feet. He would pray for him and then test his sight by holding up fingers. The first few times the man would indicate that it was not better, so the speaker went and prayed again. Eventually they brought him to the front and talked with him before testing him. The man who a few minutes earlier could not see more than a few feet in front of him was able to correctly identify fingers being held up from roughly 10 meters away. They said they initially had to help him up the stairs because of his sight. Afterward, they had to help him back down because he was crying too hard to see straight. That was real.
We prayed for a boy with severe arthritis in one of his legs. Bad enough that he used a walker and didn’t put pressure on it. At the end of the night, he was taking tentative steps without the walker and without pain. That was real.
We prayed for a woman with three golf ball sized cysts either on or around her spine. She took our hands and placed them directly on the cysts. After praying, the cysts that she’d had for at least 18 months were gone. She said she was pain free and could not feel them. Tears streaming down her face. That was real.
I watched a woman go from not being able to flex her knee to jumping up and down on it. A woman with severe back pain that left her unable to twist or turn at all, showed everyone that she could now twist with the best of them. That was real.
None of this was our doing. It was a Holy Spirit thing. It was real.
Here comes that nasty little word that they told us at training camp to try to remove from our vocabulary for this upcoming year. Expectations! You know my current struggle? I expected to love on people this year. Through words, actions, and just being present. I expected it to be easy to love on the kids with no parents, those who have lost loved ones, those in poverty scraping to get by, those enslaved in human trafficking, those in the prisons really trying to turn their lives around, or those just feeling completely lost.
Here’s the problem with that list. It doesn’t include EVERYONE. Which is what we’re called to do. 1 John 4:11-12 - Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
No mention there of loving only certain groups of downtrodden people. It’s all about Loving Each Other.
Yesterday I struggled with that. Personally, it was easily the most frustrating day I’ve had thus far on the World Race. Mainly because a lot of people were brought across my path whom I had no interest in loving.
The older kids (age 10ish) at the basketball court beating up the younger kids (age 6ish), therefore ensuring that this circle of violence they live within continues on, because the only way they know how to solve problems, is beating the snot out of each other. I’ve seen fights before. Heh. I’ve worked with military youth so that’s nothing new. But yesterday I felt completely helpless to do anything other than physically separate children literally every few minutes.
The parents of said youth who aren’t present in their lives. Who aren’t letting them know that what they are doing is not acceptable.
The men who are the product of the hyper sexualization of society here in the DR. The cat calls and “psssttts” directed at the girls. At the end of last night I directed a comment towards a group of them, that while not inappropriate, still wasn’t reflective of who I am in Christ or reflective of the love that needs to be given to everyone.
The man (who apparently is one of the bigger drug dealers in the area) and his buddies who decided to park themselves right next to our group at the Crusade last night and proceeded to take video on their phones of the people around them, particularly females. Which meant constantly stepping in front of the video. Which took away my chance to enjoy the event. On top of that, we heard from one of the locals that they go to these events looking to take people home with them. All I really wanted to do then was just slug someone.
God, why wasn’t I warned ahead of time how hard this would be? I thought this would be one of the easiest things to do. To just love those around us. Turns out its one of the hardest right now.
God, grant me the patience to love ALL right now. To realize that no matter where they are at in life right now, You created them. That You love them. That I’m no better than them. That they are just as deserving as love as any of the people I expected to love on over this next year.
(Today’s our day off. I do hope to get a more joyful post up later today still, before leaving for another round of remote villages, regarding the Crusade taking place over the last 4 days. Don’t get me wrong, so many wonderful things are happening here. Loving others is just the bigger issue on my heart right now.)
The background is a medium sized mountain standing tall over the town of Cigual. The same song is blared on repeat over a loudspeaker somewhere in the distance. A few kids are running around barefoot on what constitutes the town’s baseball field. The ball field itself? It probably makes the ball field from The Sandlot look like Wrigley Field in comparison.
Balls gloves are literally held together by neon pink baling twine and strips of some unknown fabric. Behind where home plate should be located, there’s a tree with a flock of chickens up in it hollering and crowing. First base was a crushed pop bottle while second base consists of a deflated basketball. Far as I could tell, third base was stolen a long time ago. Goats and sheep have left the outfield a minefield of animal feces.
For the outfield fencing, a mixture of ridiculously large cactus plants and barbed wiring ensures that there will be very little crashing into the wall in order to make that Sports Center highlight reel catch. At one point a ball lands at the base of the cacti easily within arms reach. Yet one of the youth gets a 6 foot long stick to dig out the ball. I nearly found out firsthand why. I ran over just to grab it with the “glove” I had on, and was met with an angry swarm of wasps that populates all of the cactus plants. At that point, I couldn’t decide if I was on an actual ball field or prison yard meant to keep its occupants from escaping.
And foul territory? It isn’t quite as bad, but if you hit a ball in there, you’ll likely pay in scratches, skin, and blood for that one too. Briars and brush with thorns that are at a minimum of an inch long await those who have to wade in after the balls. Leaving them there isn’t exactly an option baseballs are not exactly of an unlimited supply.
It’s funny the things that hit you. That sort of rocks you a little bit with a solid dose of reality. For two weeks I’ve been in and out of houses. Houses with maybe 3 rooms and you cook out in back on a fire. Or I’ve seen little naked kids running around with machetes. There are the trash piles throughout the streets or sidewalks. Despite those things never being the norm of any of the places I’ve ever lived or traveled to, nothing was exactly shocking to me either. Of all the reality checks I could have had, it was a baseball field that gave it to me. Maybe it is because in the US I’d be hard pressed to find a field with even one of these issues, much less all of them.
Despite the conditions, the youth will play on. This is their pastime. They live, breath, and sweat baseball here in the Dominican Republic. Poor conditions or not, this baseball field is one of constant joy for all who play there.
I want you to meet Manuel. (Not to be confused with our translator.) To be truthful, I know very little about him, except his name and that he lives in the small village of Cigual which was to be our home for two days of ministry. He doesn’t speak English. In fact, he doesn’t speak at all. The most he can get out is more of an incoherent groaning sound, but is usually followed up by a mostly toothless smile.
Shortly after arriving to Cigual, we were getting ourselves unpacked out of the truck and all of our gear stored up in the church before figuring out our next move for the day. Three of my teammates and our translator left to go figure out food preparations for the day, while the other four of us were left to look after things. Before too long, we noticed this older man slowly making his way to the church. When I say slow, we’re talking that even the tortoise wouldn’t need a head start to win a head to head race with him.
Two of the girls went to him to assist him the rest of the way into the church and into a seat. Having no idea where he came from, it’s possible he could have been walking more than ½ hour to get to the church. After getting him seated, we felt the urge to just pray over him, despite not knowing anything about him. We did and he responded by raising a clenched fist in the air as if to proclaim, “Yes! Yes!” and one of his toothless grins. Candice read him a little bit from Psalms in Spanish, and myself feeling moved in his faith to walk as far as he did to the church considering his current physical state shared Romans 5 in Spanish. This whole time he keeps raising up that fist and smiling.
Candice, Manuel, and Myself sitting outside.
I was captured by his heart. I just sat with him with my hand on his or on his shoulder. I could have sat with him all day and not said another word. Eventually though, we had to move outside with all of the young kids that we’d managed to attract with our presence as the church was cleaned. Manuel seemed to take a little joy in lightly hitting a few of them on the top of their heads and raising his fist if they got to close or were bothering me by going after my hair.
After a little more sitting Candice busted out her notebook and drew a lovely stick figure picture of herself, myself, and Manuel. The expression on his face was golden. With shaky hands he attempted to carefully fold up the picture and put it in his pocket, but needed a little help in doing so. Finally, he must have decided that he’d had enough of the loud/busy children, got himself up, and slowly made his way back to which ever home was his in Cigual.
Like I said, I know next to nothing about him, but in those few special hours that we managed to spend together, he was absolutely an added joy to my day.
As you all read this, I want everyone to know that in order for me to get this to you, I had to set the computer on top of my head in order to get a good enough internet connection to get this blog sent out. Just so you’re aware of the things we do sometimes to keep everyone posted. (I wish I could post up some pictures, but the internet is just too slow right now. I promise some though soon!) Please enjoy the video at the bottom though my team made during our Launch in Florida!
Hola mi familia y mi amigos! See what I did there? Spanish. 8 years after my last Spanish class, that’s about all I remember. I’m wondering what will happen when we end up in countries for the last 10 months with languages that I haven’t studied. Language is an adventure. This first week has been an adventure.
Our translator for the month? His name is Manual and I absolutely love him! He’s a man of God who is passionate about the Lord and truly cares about bringing people into a personal relationship with Him. He sings in the praise band of one local church, is the new Pastor of another, helps lead a local basketball program, and so much else. On top of that he’s got a quirky sense of humor and pretty much every single conversation with him is an adventure whether its making a list of food for lunch or Candice trying to describe "hill billies" because we have no idea what he’s likely to say next. Language is a challenge, but I know that he's really trying.
This week has been pretty stretching thus far to say the least. Most of what we do in these villages we are traveling to is go door to door and just talk with people. Get to know them a bit and share with them why we are here in the DR. Pretty much everyone has welcomed us with open arms and coffee, which is shocking. Because this is the sort of thing that causes people in homes back in the US to turn off the lights and hide under the table when someone shows up. The hospitality is incredible though, and no matter where we go, they always have enough plastic chairs for everyone hidden somewhere in their house. The chairs thing is almost magical.
We've had the chance to speak with many families, pray for lots and lots of folks, and have spent all of it up in the mountains which I think rank second only to Switzerland. Earlier in the week we had a 3 hour hike into the mountains to some hot springs where we had lunch with 6 Dominican men roughly my age. We waded across one river a total of 34 times to get there and back, but it was worth it. Adventure. They prepared lunch for us and are just a group of great guys. The next day we had a chance to sit down with them for a few hours and speak with them about being men of God, using their talents (which they have many of) for Him, and lifting each other up and keeping each other accountable. We've had many other conversations like this with others too throughout the week!
We don't know what many of the conversations we have lead to, but we do trust that God knows their hearts and we realize that as a Team, we are here more to cultivate the soil for even something more special down the road for these villages. So results may not be immediate or even visible, but we trust that God knows what he's doing.
Some last minute tidbits.
I've had more coffee in one week here than in my entire life. I seriously mean that too.
I've also spent more time riding in the back of trucks in one week than my entire life too.
We've got a black little dog that follows us around in Padre Las Casas everyone on my team calls Pepto or Plattypus or something like that. The dog and I are not really on good terms after he tried to take off with my retainer.
I was clotheslined by barbed wire the other day. Why people would put that stuff at head height I will never know.
Only one mouse killed so far by Jesse.
To wrap everything up, I have some wonderful news! I’ve hit third base and am rumbling full steam ahead to home plate. After my first week of ministry here in the Dominican Republic, I checked my support account to discover that I’ve now got over $12,000 raised out of a needed $15,500! This means I’ve surpassed the April 1st deadline! I’m continually blown away by God’s grace and the answering of my prayers. That final number seemed like a ridiculous reach when I first started out, but I’m almost there. As always, many thanks to everyone who has been supporting this endeavor!
This week I ask that you all please pray for
The Health of Team Monarch
Continued Safety and Protection
Language Barriers Overcome
Boldness
Open Doors and Hearts
My new season has kicked off. I arrived to the Dominican Republic Friday evening. It was a busy travel day but all pretty manageable. I think the highlight though was that after a three hour bus ride from the airport, Team Monarch and Team Agape were dropped off along the side of the road to split off in a direction different from the rest of the teams. Our main contact arrived in his truck with 13 World Racers gear strapped down on top. We proceeded to then load a total of 16 people onto this same truck, which meant that I got to literally hang off the side of it for the next 30 or so minutes as we traveled up the mountains at about 30-40 mph. I know family is going to love hearing that! J
We have more details for ministry this month! It’s going to be crazy! Challenging! Stretching! So much else. I feel blessed to have this chance to experience what we are going to experience. We’re staying in Padre Las Casas on the weekends, but during the week, Team Monarch will be hiking to remote villages to stay there 2.5 days at a time to build connections and relationships with the local people in each village. Now when I say remote, we’re talking that this is probably the first time that a white person has ever likely set foot in some of these places. Places that have absolutely zero church presence. Places where idolatry is the norm. That means we really have to be on the ball and ready to go, because we’ll be making a huge impression one way or another, and hopefully its one that is incredibly positive.
Also, in less than 24 hours, God has already opened a huge door too here in Padre Las Casas. On the way to pick up this Wifi, we met another missionary couple in our neighborhood who have been here about 3 months. They are working on a sort of Christian festival for two weekends from now. The last one they helped put on brought in about 8,000 people and they would love for us to be a part of this next one! How cool is that?
Please continue to keep us all in your prayers. Prayers for safety, for open hearts and minds, for open doors and big opportunities, for strength and unity, perseverance.
