After many years of on-off attempts to learn the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish, I have finally accomplished it! My 13 year old daughter Grace learned it in about 20 minutes, confirming for me the plasticity of the young brain as opposed to … (no, I won’t go there, having just celebrated another birthday!) The reason for this self-set task is rooted in fond memories of the Dominican Republic and a particular church called San Matias just outside the town of Bani. Whilst living in Florida and attending Church of the Ascension in Clearwater, a team of us would visit San Matias each summer and help with construction projects and the vacation Bible school. Every morning we would gather together with folk from San Matias and listen as Rev Ercilia led morning prayer – in Spanish of course – concluding with the Lord’s Prayer. I kept a copy of the Spanish version and reading it back home helped me feel connected to our Dominican friends. Now being able to recite it aloud in Spanish strengthens that connection and takes me back to those mornings when we would shelter from the humidity and heat under a corrugated iron roof and say the final ‘Amen’ with conviction – a moment quite literally sweetened by the thought of the café con leche (two sugars) that would follow…
My daughter was very proud of me when I recited it to her, “well done mum” she said with real meaning. And today I couldn’t resist sharing my achievement with the Spanish teacher at school who seemed genuinely pleased for me too! I had always assumed that she was from Spain but no, she’s from Peru – how cool is that! I would never have found this out if I had not shared my moment of glory, so I’m very glad I did.