The Joy of Partnership
By Guest Blogger, Bruce Hopler
As Terri and Elen were practically falling out of their chairs in a belly laugh, I could not help but to think how much I value the RDC/DCC.
Without the RDC/DCC, there is not a chance in this world that this Dominican pastor’s wife, who knows little English, would be sitting on my porch swapping stories with my wife, who knows little Spanish, to what is now a long series of inside jokes between the two of them.
Without the RDC/DCC, Esdras and I would not be swapping tearful pastor stories and learning from each other about how to become more Kingdom minded. If it had not been for the RDC/DCC my church and I would not have been able to go to Esdras community, to listen and learn and find ways to help him serve his piece of the Kingdom.
If it had not been for the RDC/DCC, Esdras and Elen would not have been able to help me “fund raise” for my family to come to the DR, by cooking a Dominican meal for my neighbors. Or at least that is what it was fronted as.
Esdras and Elen were well aware that they were doing for us what we get to do for them in their neighborhood, helping my wife and I serve our community, who are scared to death of the idea of darkening the doors of any church, but are fascinated/curious about the Kingdom work we are doing and are hungry to check it out. Esdras and Elen were helping us to reach our unchurched friends, in the same way we get to help them.
After all, isn’t that what partnership is all about?
One last story. I took Esdras to a block in the streets of Baltimore that is filled with drug use, prostitution and crime. I showed him where we do block parties to help a local mission to practice holism, finding ways to help them to serve their local community. Yet that is not the best part of this story.
After pointing out all that we get to do downtown, I was able to point out that the only reason our church is able to do what we do, is because of what we learned from him and the RDC/DCC!
Our partnership so transformed and revolutionized our church, that we came back to our piece of the Kingdom work in Maryland and began doing church in a new kind of way.
Tom and Dee, I am so thankful for the RDC/DCC – thank you for doing what you do.