CPC-ROW Dominican Republic Mission

We're Home

2009-06-12T15:18:00.001-04:00

We're home now, and I can't stop thinking about this scripture passage
from John:

And Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you truly love me?
He answered, "Yes Lord, you know that I love you."
And Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."

Here are a few closing thoughts about the trip which come quickly to
my mind:

A good night's sleep, and a hot shower have a new meaning for all of
us I'm sure
Pastor Pedro - A man called by God to serve all his children - I'm so
thankful he has entered our lives
We have a new family that we just discovered - what a joy!
Everyday is a gift from God
A smile is so contagious
You can't hide God's peace, even in the face of extreme poverty
I appreciate material things, but they will never, ever control me
I have a responsibility to tell the story of what we've just seen
I'll never use the expression "those people" again - they are my
brothers and sisters in Christ
Christians must always speak out about the injustice in the world and
work for change
Pray for Missionaries EVERY DAY
Everyone should participate in a Mission project yearly - regardless
of the size, scope, location or duration
Our faith must rise above politics
I am thankful to be an American
We are the mouth, hands and feet of Jesus Christ. It is up to you and
I to make a difference in the world
Never stop caring, never stop believing that you can make a difference
Realize that God has a plan for you, and through prayer that will be
revealed to all of us
Follow Jesus - wherever he might lead you

Peace to you all!

Frank Wood

Enforced Sabbath

2009-06-10T18:32:00.003-04:00

You really know who your friends are when you get sick miles and miles from home. Eight of our crew came down with a little bug forcing us to take a break today. This is Zach's first mission trip and I invited him here to blog about our experience.

Beth "so Zach hows it going"
Zach "its going better now that ive got most of the sickness out of me but i still feel a little under the weather im looking forward to sleeping in my own bed"
Beth "im glad your through the worst of it tell me what has been your favorite thing on this trip"
Zach "interacting with the locals even tho i didnt always understand what they were saying what was yours"
Beth "the feeling that your realy helping and how generous the people are and this country is beutiful, is there one memory that will stand out from the rest"
Zach "i think i will always remember getting my hair braided, and i dont think i will ever forget how to mix concrete"
Beth "hahaha im so glad your here Zach"

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers

Beth and Zach

Tuesday - Day 4

2009-06-10T10:45:00.001-04:00

After a hearty breakfast, we were off to another day of work. I can't wait to show the new picture of the women of Christ Church at work, this will not be cleaning the kitchen I can assure you¡¡¡¡¡ This mornings prayer was very touching. It began with a pretty traditional prayer for any US Christian group, and then a young DR boy, no more than 14 gave an incredible heartfelt prayer in Spanish, followed by a Creole prayer by one of the Haitian workers. I thought for a second that we were at Pentecost, not only from the varied languages, but the real presence of the Holy Spirit that came upon us as we worked our tails off and enjoyed every minute of it. I know what they were saying in Spanish and Creole it was praising God and thankfulness to work with brothers and sisters from the US who cared enough to come and help. That may not qualify for interpreting tongues in a pentecostal congregation, but we all knew....

The manual labor continues. I can´t begin to imagine how many wheelbarrow loads of heavy rock and gravel we moved to fill in the foundation. We took a vote and decided not to count¡ George and his boys had a wonderful opportunity to help a man who performs all the maintenance at the local health clinic, as they replaced a thatch roof with tin sheets to keep the rain from pouring in, and keep the sun out. Sam told me that 12 people lived in the house, and we guessed it was no more than 600 sq ft. This was certainly an eye opener for what 3rd world conditions are like, and how we are truly blessed as Americans.

Tomorrow, is only a half day of labor as we will do some site seeing and visit a Batay, which is where the Haitians live, and they are what you expect, incredible poverty. For those Haitians that worked the sugar cane fields, they have nothing now, since most of the work is mechanized, but these living conditions are better than Haiti... Haitians have no rights in the DR, even if born here.

A few of us are down with a bug, and some physical exhaustion, and a couple will be on mandatory bed rest tomorrow, but we are really finding this to be a rewarding experience. I passed out the baseball gear this morning which was greatly appreciated, and got to teach several youngsters a new cheer, that they must perform every time they get a big hit, and it went like this. Two chest pumps, say SOLI. Raise right arm to shoulder height and say DEO, and extend right arm to the sky, as you round second place and say GLORIA¡¡¡ now that was a thrill for me...

Soli Deo Gloria,

Your brother in Christ.

Frank

Monday - Day 3

2009-06-08T22:47:00.001-04:00

Wow, what a day! After an incredible nights sleep from our crazy journey we treked out to the tiny village of LaHoya not far from the Mission facility. We slept on the third floor to gain the ocean breeze, and I´m certain it was really ´´lights out´´ quite naturally by 10pm. We split the groups, with Liz and I, the Simmons & Prescott families, along with Andrew, Nathan & Alec to build a church from cinder block. The footers were completed by another mission team some time ago, and we made excellent progress with getting up several walls, and manually spreading rocks as filler for the floor. We made the cement to join the blocks by hand and generally worked as manual laborers. At lunch, we went to the local school for the village children which is 100% Mission sponsored, The Director is an American from Tampa, and Connie has been here for seven consecutive years now and we were really impressed with the work she has done. We were joined by groups from Mississippi and Georgia, and it was a joy to work with so many others for this important project.

We´ve seen everything here, wealth and poverty. Families living in shacks, but everyone had a smile on their face, and the children are very playful and sincere. It was a very long day, but extremly rewarding, and we finished off the late afternoon with a nice dip in the Caribbean. It was a big community dinner, which we all enjoyed and the food was excellent. Pastor Pedro is a marvelous person, and we are supporting a wonderful cause. It is back to the mission house for another nice sleep in the open air. As tired as we are - we don't even hear the constant honking of horns any more.

We will lift you all up in prayer every night.

Much Love, Frank and Liz

We're here

2009-06-07T21:22:00.001-04:00

We are here! Tomorrow promises to be a fun day building a church.
Looking forward to sleeping.

Please continue to pray for us

Grace and Peace
Beth

Leg Five

2009-06-07T14:52:00.000-04:00

We are now in San Juan. Two hours here and then hopefully on our way to Santo Domingo. Then a mere 3 hour bus ride to Barhona (sp). Thankfully we are not missing any work days.

On a personal note, George was 46 when this trip began and now he's 47. The group sang happy birthday to him as he got off the plane at 2am. Hopefully we'll have a chance to blog when we get in.

Day 1?

2009-06-07T03:28:00.001-04:00

So it's 3:25 am and we are in NY. Yes, we all understand that geography says that this is moving in the wrong direction. Sometimes that's just how things work out. There are wonderful theological implications here, but I'm really a little sleepy to ponder them right now. Rain delays and a faulty door kept us from making our connection in Miami. Thankfully the agent booked us to Kennedy airport. Otherwise the next flight that we could all get on would be Tuesday. The flight from JFK to Santo Domingo was to leave at 11:15, but two of our party would not make it. So, the agent booked is all to San Juan and then Santo Domingo. Everyone is doing fine, a little tired, but facing the delays as an adventure.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Peace be with you
Beth <><

Mission Team is on the way

2009-06-06T22:30:00.001-04:00

Our Christ Church Mission Team has begun their trip to the Dominican Republic. Please pray for the team’s safety and success. Beth will hopefully be updating the blog each day.

Excuse a Misrepresentation Please

2008-07-22T10:58:00.002-04:00

I misrepresented our showering situation a bit. Let me state for the record that I love water. I love good, clean smelling soap. I love to take showers. I love the removable hand held shower head. My home shower is my own little spa.

In the mission house where we stayed, we did have access to a shower each day – sort of. The water did not come out of the shower head, but the knob where you would turn on the shower head. So the water came out of pipe about 3 ½ feet off the ground. A pastor who was there said it best. “The Lord’s done a lot of things to get me on my knees, but this is a new one”. We contoured ourselves to bend, kneel and step wide, but we did have soap and water!

One time with the fans were running and the lights were on there was not enough power to run the pump to get the water going. That day we turned off all the lights and fans and finally got the water going (much to the delight of the three people who were waiting).

Home

2008-07-21T13:28:00.002-04:00

The GREAT news is nothing eventful happened on the way home. Two cars braved the early morning hours and one stayed in a hotel.

Now I am tired both physically and emotionally. I miss my traveling family and the friendly faces from Barhona. I’m glad to be back with the most wonderful husband ever. (He had my favorite soap, sea-scrub, scrunchi, shampoo, conditioner all laid out in a basket on a TV tray so I would see it when I walked in the door.) My clothes are unpacked and being washed, but “unpacking” my mind of all that I learned, that’s going to take a while.

Thanks for praying for us.

There's a pig on the beach (Saturday)

2008-07-21T13:14:00.001-04:00

Today was our fun day so I’ll just start at the beginning. We had a lazy get up morning. Breakfast was at 8 instead of 7! Then we met our friend from yesterday who was going to be our guide for shopping. He and two of his friends helped us. They were with us at the bank as we exchanged money, making sure that everything was alright. One led the group, one was in the middle and one acted as a rear guard. They did our haggling and handled our money to make sure we got correct change. I felt like a child, cared for and looked after, given freedom to do what I wanted, but my big brothers were there just in case. Highlights from the shopping included seeing someone get their tennis shoes shined, hand made hammocks for $5 and the fresh fruit stand. Pineapples (fresh and then sliced before your eyes) for only 70 pesos! Yummy.

The afternoon was the beach. I can’t even begin to truly do justice to how beautiful the water is. How gorgeous the mountain cliffs are. The surf was huge and very, very strong. Everyone showed incredibly good judgment and did not venture too far into the waves. (Again our guardian angles were there.) The beach itself was rocks, rocks worn smooth from the waves. Small pebbles the size of dimes and nickels and quarters in a myriad of colors. Breathtaking. Also at this beach was a waterfall that made it’s way down the mountain. The water was collected in stone pools that we could swim or rest in. The best of both worlds: refreshing, brisk water from the mountain and fabulous salty surf.

Yes, there was a pig on the beach. The pig looked to be about 120lbs and we saw it on the way home outside one of the homes. There were also goats on the road, dogs wandering too and fro. There are so many sights to see!

The service tonight was incredible. It was to start at 7 so Pastor Pedro and our group arrived at 7:20. The doors to the church were opened wide and Pastor Pedro began to sing and teach us a song in Spanish. WE had a beautiful prayer, spoken in Spanish and translated for our benefit. At about 7:30 the rest of the band arrived and some office holders in the church. The signing began in earnest. WOW! What a powerful joyful service. You REALLY felt the joy of the Lord radiating from the leaders. We all got swept up in the feeling and the spirit of worship and although I didn’t understand the words (except maybe two, Dios and Jesus) I knew this was praise. Real praise. Praise that couldn’t be contained. Praise that followed me home.

I love it here and tomorrow we leave. I am sad. I will miss seeing pigs on the beach, goats in the street and praising the Lord with all that I am.

Thank you for praying for us.

Concrete is hard (Friday)

2008-07-21T12:53:00.001-04:00

On the ride home I asked: “What should I blog about today?”. One of the youth said “talk about the little boy” another said “how about this ride home” and then someone else said “why don’t you just tell them what we did today”. I said “Yeah, and the title could be ‘Concrete is hard’” We all laughed. Concrete IS hard.

Today was a good day, an exhausting day to be sure. One of the wonderful things that were expressed today was that all of our youth would like to get a job in management. I think this trip has really shown us the value of physical labor. We laid a floor in a church today. They have been waiting for three years for a church. Several groups have been through and in three weeks they now have the walls, the roof and a beautiful concrete floor. Our team helped.

The good news is that for most of the day we actually had a mixer! The groups only had to shovel the sand and gravel together and then into the mixer. Still hard work, but easier that doing the WHOLE thing by hand. Our group also moved rocks, lots and lots of rocks. One of our people moved a wheelbarrow three times their body weight. Impressive.

I remain impressed by our group. Their heard work, their cheerful spirit, all of it is just impressive. I remain in awe of the wonderful people here and their dedication. I reflect that I am here from such a short time. Soon I will go home to an abundance of choices. I will go back to my home with air conditioner, clean water and any food I can imagine I can get. Here, they often skip lunch; they’re not used to eating. They work with what ever is at hand. They are happy and they are generous with all that they have welcoming us. I want to copy their life, their joyful abandon. Now that would be hard. Even harder than concrete.

Thank you for praying for us!

Things I Miss

2008-07-18T08:32:00.001-04:00

Thursday...I am not sure when the last time I smelt so bad. And no shower. Power is off again. The power did not come back on and so Pastor Pedro got a generator from his home so the fans in our rooms would move the stagnate air. After about two hours he some how jump started the house and we had power. The power went off at about 5 a.m.Yes, I was awake. I miss having lights come on when you flip a switch. I really, really miss showering.

I miss traffic rules and paved roads. The rules here appear to be optional, but everyone is sensible. They honk their horn when they want to turn, pass you, or just say hello. The roads are bumpy and rattle your teeth a bit. However no one seems to get in an accident. There are four people to a scooter and no one wears a helmet. CRAZY!

The poverty here is pretty astounding. I have an hour to type two blogs and it cost 30 pesos, or one dollar. A friend just treated us to ice cream, all four of us got a bar for under a dollar twenty five. She gave the people two dollars and they helped us improve Spanish. The young children at the batay wear no clothes and the older children´s clothing is nearly shredded. The people here are so friendly. They yell Americanos and wave at us. The children at the batay jumped up and down when they saw us. Being welcomed like that was wonderful and eased my tiredness.

We did get the roof finished and one latrine framed, and organized the medicine cabinet in the clinic. The work is hard, it´s very hot, and did I mention there´s no power?

Funny, since I am surrounded by friends that speak English and are trying to help me with Spanish...Beth you just told him to sit, not I´m sorry....I don´t miss seeing all the signs in English either. We are all a long way from home. The group remains in good spirits, healthy and safe and a joy to be around.

Thank you for your prayers, please continue to pray for us.

Physical Labor Is Hard!

2008-07-18T08:27:00.002-04:00

Ok, so today, Wednesday was a little rough. The country here is so beautiful. There are lovely mountain ranges and you can see the ocean from where we are staying. Pastor Pedro is doing all he can to make our experience positive. Breakfast was delicious, boiled eggs, ham, cheese, bread and fresh pineapple. Then off to Batay 7 for a day of fun. We poured a concrete roof. This of course would not take 20 people if you had all the mixers and things from home. No, this was digging sand and putting it in a bucket and then getting a bucket brigade going to get the sand up to the roof, then another for the water and then lots of lifting bags of cement...94 lbs! After 5 hours, Pastor Pedro said that the hard day would be tomorrow and we stopped for the day. We returned back to our home to discover the power was out. This happens a lot here, I was told. Folks don´t pay their electric bill and the government can´t turn off individual homes so they turn off the power between 10ish and 8ish. We can wash our hands, but a shower isn´t really happening.

Even though I´m blogging on Thursday ' I´ll stop the story there and pick up the next day....

By the way several people remarked on what a fabulous group we have and how hard everyone is working. Our group is amazing and I feel truly blessed to be a part of them. Please continue to pray for us.

We Arrived!

2008-07-16T08:49:00.003-04:00

If you ever travel I can highly recommend the people I am traveling with. They are WONDERFUL! We made it to Tampa and the Tampa airport just fine. The only hiccup was the five hour delay in Miami. Instead of arriving in Santo Domingo at 2:55 we arrived at 7:30. Thankfully the people meeting us still were waiting. Then we had the four hour bus ride in air conditioned comfort. We stopped about half way for dinner at 11:30! Fried chicken never tasted so good. At 1:30 we arrived at our new home and well, pretty much fell fast asleep in our bunks with a warm summer breeze blowing. Now I am at our fabulous host´s home, posting this blog before breakfast. I´ll let you know how the work goes later. Please continue to pray for us!

Packed and Ready

2008-07-14T10:02:00.002-04:00

So, one suitcase to leave behind and one suitcase for all my stuff. I keep looking at all the stuff thinking can I leave this behind? How about this? How important is this too me? I remember the people who gave me the items; a bear from Alan (not to leave), a towel purchased for a trip to the beach (that will stay), T-shirts from the blood bank (those will stay). I’ve attached way too much sentimentality to my things. They are just items and in truth everything could be left behind. Sure I’d miss the clothes, the teapot, the special pillow, but they can be replaced. The things that truly matter, my husband, my family, my friends, can’t ever be left behind – not when they live in my heart. I do hope I learn to leave behind my preconceived notions. I do hope that I take with me a sense of God’s peace and love. Pray for us.