....he wasn't preaching a sermon.
Arismendy
is from a coastal town in Dominican Republic. Before he enrolled in our
missions training school (Comisión de Maestro Quisqueya - CMQ), he had never flown on an airplane, never even
experience an extended road trip, and never walked very far to get places.
There was always a mototaxi to get around town. Yet as a third year student in
our missionary training program, his mission would take him by airplane to the
far away jungles of Ecuador to live among the Shuar Indians. He would walk up
to 6 hours on foot just to reach their villages and preach in their tiny
churches. And though electricity is scarce in the DR, Arismeny spent six weeks
in places so remote that only solar panel provided the meager moments of
electricity.
Arismendy
is six feet tall, a dark skinned Afro-Caribbean young man. For the Shuar, he
was a foreigner in every sense of the word. When he first arrived to serve the
Shuar tribe, the Indigenous people had difficulty pronouncing his name, so they
would call him "Negro." Arismendy felt so out of place, and the
kids would often make fun of him as he tried to learn to play soccer. Soccer
was new to Arismendy since he grew up playing only baseball and basketball in
the DR.
He
knew that he needed to connect with these kids somehow and win their respect.
So he became determined to love the things that they loved. This meant that he
needed to learn to play soccer and he needed to eat with them. Arismendy would
learn to eat grub worms and play soccer for hours. The day he made his first
goal was significant. After that day, he began to hear the kids calling him
"Pastor" instead of "Negro." The more time he spent with
them listening to their stories, eating the grub worms and drinking chicha* the
less he heard them calling him “Negro.” Though he had walked for hours to
preach in the pulpits of the jungle churches, it was not eloquent preaching
that won him the title of “Pastor.” It was eloquent loving.
*Traditional
Chicha-makers grind the maize and then chew it to moisturize it. After the
human saliva breaks down the starch, the balls of chewed maze are put in large
clay vats and warm water is added. After several days of fermentation, Chicha
is ready to be consumed.
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