THE NATIONS AS OUR
NEIGHBORS
Lessons for Mission Minded Kids
Lesson 2
Rolando Diaz in Philadelphia
The Nations As Our Neighbors
Lesson 2: Rolando Diaz in Philadelphia
Goals for Lesson 2:
· Students will be introduced to Rolando Diaz and his family and the ministry
they have to the Hispanic community in Philadelphia.
· Students will be introduced to Dominican Republic and its culture.
· Students will begin to memorize Psalm 86:9-10.
Verse for The Nations As Our Neighbors :
All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they
will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you
alone are God. Psalm 86: 9-10
Before Class:
· Read through lesson and decide what you will use according to your age
group and time allotted.
· Make a copy of the review puzzle for each child, or plan to divide your
children into teams or pairs to work on the puzzle together.
· Make a copy of the coloring page for each child. Have crayons and pencils
on hand.
· Write the Nations verse on a blackboard or large paper.
· If you plan to use the maps with an overhead projector, copy them onto
transparencies. (Or you may want to back them with card stock or
construction paper for stability and visibility.)
· Prepare one or both of the recipes ahead of time. Make enough for each
child to sample a little bit, and gather any disposable silverware or paper
products you will need.
Lesson Plan:
· Begin with prayer.
· Review verse out loud together several times.
· Read or tell the story part of the lesson, discussing or explaining
as needed, and using the maps where indicated to illustrate the
locations to students.
· Give each student (or pair or team of students) a copy of the
crossword puzzle and review the story together. You may wish to
turn this into a game to see which team can complete their puzzle
the quickest or you may wish to do this out loud together as a
group.
· Pass out paper products and serve the Dominican food you have
prepared. As the children eat, discuss together how a culture and
a climate affect the different foods a group of people eats.
Discuss how this food is different from what they ate at home this
week and in the Arabic lesson.
· Use the coloring page to further discuss the Dominican culture, or
send it home with the students.
· Ask several volunteers to pray for Rolando and Doris as they
pastor their congregation, for their children as they go to school,
for all of the Hispanic people living in Philadelphia, and for the
people of Dominican Republic.
Lesson 2 Story: Rolando Diaz in Philadelphia
We have been learning about our E.C. Churches that minister to people who came
from another country and speak another language. This week we are going to go
to Philadelphia, PA and learn about the church that Pastor Rolando Diaz has
started there for the Spanish speaking people in that community. The church is
called Communidad Biblica Cristiana . In English, that means Christian Biblical
Community . The congregation likes to call it A community of faith, hope and
love .
When Rolando was a child, he grew up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Santo Domingo is the capital of the Dominican Republic, and it is the largest city in
the little island nation. (Show the picture of the Island of Hispaniola and point
out Santo Domingo.) The Dominican Republic shares a little island in the
Caribbean Sea with the country of Haiti. Both countries on the island are very
poor and are often caught in the hurricanes that come through that area every
year. The hurricanes cause a lot of damage to the homes and buildings, which
makes life difficult for the people who live there. The people who live on the
Haitian side of the island speak the language of Creole, but the people who live on
the Dominican Republic side of the island speak Spanish. This is because long ago,
two different countries (France and Spain) wanted to claim the island and say that
they found it first. They ended up splitting the island in half, which meant that
half of the people would speak Spanish and half would speak French (which has
since been modified to become Creole). (Show the picture of the Caribbean Sea
and point out the tip of Florida to give a reference point. Use a globe or world
map to discuss further if necessary.)
When Rolando was a child, Baptist missionaries brought his family from the
countryside into the city of Santo Domingo. They helped his parents find work
and they helped Rolando and his sister and two brothers to attend school at their
Baptist missionary school. The family attended the Iglesia Biblica Christiana in
Santo Domingo. When Rolando was 12 years old, he finally understood that Jesus
had died to make a way for him to go to Heaven. He asked the Spirit of Christ to
live inside of him, and from that time on, he has had a passion for God and his
Word. After high school, Rolando went on to study the Bible at Seminary, and
when he was 20, after one of his good friends became a pastor, he felt that God
was asking him to become a pastor as well. He became the associate pastor of a
church in San Pedro. (Show map of Dominican Republic and point out San Pedro.
Some of the children may know that this is the home town of Sammy Sosa.)
Rolando met his wife, Doris, in San Pedro. They soon married and they now have
two children who are named after their parents. Their son, Rolando, is 16 years
old and their daughter, Doris, is 9 years old. Through a medical emergency with
Rolando s mother, God brought the family to the Philadelphia area, and since
then has been using them to bring many people to Christ. In March of 2005,
Rolando and Doris started inviting Spanish speaking people into their home for
Bible Study. As the Bible Study grew, they got so big that they couldn t fit in their
home any more. They started meeting in a nearby church building at 1:00 on
Sunday afternoons. They called their new little church Communidad Biblica
Christiana: A community of faith, hope and love . They started to offer
discipleship and small cell groups to meet through the week, and their ministry to
the Spanish speaking people in Philadelphia continued to grow. Soon they had to
look for a new building to meet in, and they started to think about reaching out to
the Spanish speaking people in Allentown, PA. Doris, who was a licensed
psychiatrist in the Dominican Republic is now working in the office of a Christian
Therapist. She is working at getting a family therapy license in the United States
so that she can work through their church to help the many struggling Hispanic
families in their area.
Please pray for Rolando and Doris and their children as they minister to the
Hispanic people of Philadelphia. They are very concerned that their neighbors
would look to Christ as the answer to their problems and that they would learn to
lean on Him as their Rock. Their outreach work often involves VBS and other
programs for neighborhood children. Please pray for these outreaches as well.
Lesson 4 Review Crossword Puzzle
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
ACROSS
DOWN
2. language the Diaz family speaks
3. Their church is called a community of
faith, hope and.......
4. Pastor Diaz' first name
5. city where the Diaz family planted a
church
6. Pastor Diaz' wife's first name
9. country Dominican Republic shares an
island with
10. "The Nations As Our __________"
1. number of children in the Diaz family
2. city where Pastor Diaz grew up
5. _________ 86: 9-10
7. "All the nations you have made will
come and _______ before you."
8. sea surrounding Dominican Republic
Caribbean Baked Bananas
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4 ripe bananas
2 tablespoons cinnamon
3 tablespoons vanilla extract (yes, tablespoons!)
1 cup sugar
4 cups water
Directions:
1. Peel the bananas and boil them together with the cinnamon,
vanilla extract, sugar and water for about 20 minutes.
2. Bake the bananas in the oven at 275 F for 10 minutes.
3. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Caribbean Rice and Beans
EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy
1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large pimiento or roasted red bell pepper, cut in short, thin strips
1/2 green bell pepper, cut in short, thin strips
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 16-ounce cans black beans, rinsed
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
5-10 dashes hot sauce
3 cups cooked white rice, preferably cooked in chicken broth (1 cup raw rice)
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until hot but not smoking.
Add pimientos or red peppers, green peppers and garlic and sauté for 2
minutes. Add black beans, vinegar and hot sauce to taste. Bring the
mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir in rice and cilantro. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve accompanied
by additional hot sauce if desired.
Calabash trees are native to the Caribbean and are typically seen throughout the islands. Fibers from the
calabash tree can be twisted into twine and ropes. The hard wood makes tools and tool handles. The split
wood can be woven for sturdy baskets. But it is the calabash's gourd-like fruit that makes the plant truly
useful. Large calabashes are used as bowls and smaller calabashes make storage containers, dippers,
and drinking cups.