Buenos Diaz, and thank you for your continued prayer. Monday, day 4, the adventure continues and we are blessed to see God’s mighty hand working here with us.
Today the team visited Alta Gracia, an elderly woman who had just suffered a stroke two months ago. She is confined to a wheelchair and was in some discomfort and pain. Alta, we believe, felt much better and her spirit was lifted, when the women in our team began reading scriptures and singing songs and just loving her. Alta Gracia loves the Lord and has such a kind spirit. Melissa massaged her left arm and hand to help soothe her and gave Alta Gracia’s daughters advice on how she could sleep more comfortably and position her arm in a better way. The men were going to repair Alta’s roof. After assessing the damage, the men developed the game plan, knocked down some of the loose pieces and determined what supplies were required to repair the roof. We ordered the material and supplies needed to complete the job. However, we were disappointed when the materials could not be delivered til later that afternoon. It would have to be completed another day.
In the afternoon the team headed to a private Christian school. The school is run by Ebony, an American Christian, from Detroit, MI serving in the Dominican Republic. There, we set up four different stations: balloons, face painting, freeze dance, and jump rope. The kids were so excited and actually performed and sang a song in English. They were magnificent, their voices were beautiful and touched our hearts. We organized the children by grade 1st-4th and rotated them through the four stations. It was fast and furious painting faces and making balloon animals for seventy five kids. Even though we had 75 kids we made over 150 balloon animals and swords. The children had a great time running around having sword fights and barking dogs could be seen flying around the play ground, laughter and joy could be heard all around. Jill was dressed as a clown and brought joy and laughter to the children as she moved between the different classes. When we departed Jill drove which was just hysterical, she kept her clown suit and wig on while we were blowing the clown horn driving through Monte Christi. The looks we received were just as funny. It is not every day they see a clown driving a van filled with laughing Americans.
In the evening the women arranged to have a baby shower for Damian’s wife Suyapa. She is expecting to deliver later this week. It is certainly exciting for the team members that have known Suyapa and Damian for years, and are anxiously awaiting God’s great gift. During the baby shower laughter could be heard for blocks as the woman played games to include over 20 games of “baby shower” Bingo. It was definitely a special time for Suyapa and the women who support the church.
The men spent their time in fellowship. Scott and Irv went with Damian, Fernando, and Mendy down to the water front enjoying the cool night air and fellowship. Damian‘s English is significantly better then Scott and Irv’s Spanish, thank goodness. It was a challenge, but the evening was a great time and Irv and Scott even learned a few new words of Spanish and about Monte Christi. Tom and Bill spent the evening with Ignacio talking about Monte Christi, the church, the mission, it was a great time of encouragement and lifting each other up.
For team time we went to “Many Breezes”, the top of Alberto’s house under the stars and soaking up God magnificent creation. Scott gave his testimony and led a devotion on prayer. The team continues to draw closer together and work well together serving the Lord. We want you all to know we are eating well, the food here is absolutely awesome. We can honestly say we will not be losing any weight on this trip. We thank you again for your love and prayers and look forward to sharing our God stories with you.
Brothers in Christ
Irv & Scott
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