Saturday - Fun at the Beach!

Saturday morning we packed up our bags, hopped on a bus and headed 2 1/2 hours away to the city of Sosua to enjoy a day in a beach resort. While I must say that a lot of our team had a hard time reconciling all the poverty we had been living among with staying a resort, we all enjoyed some time to unwind and relax after a busy, emotional week. The beach had clean sand, amazingly blue water and a stunning view of the mountains. It was one of the most beautiful sites we have ever seen!

This photo doesn't even do justice to the beauty of this beach!

We shopped (and got irritated by the very pushy vendors), ate, swam in the Atlantic Ocean, fell asleep on the beach and then ate again. After dinner we took beach towels and candles down to the beach and sat in a circle sharing stories about what we learned about ourselves and what we learned about God on this trip. Jan, the director of Palo Blanco was able to be with us at the resort and we were able to pray for her and her ministry and then sang a praise chorus together by candlelight with the sound of waves crashing in the ocean. We learned this week that God feels very close to you when surrounded by poverty and nature!



Sharing stories by candlelight on the beach.

 After our sharing time we spent a little more time relaxing and then went to bed to prepare for an early morning and a long day of traveling. It was a nice way to unwind from the week!

Friday

The five members of our team that were in the Dominican Republic last February requested to the Kid's Alive staff that we get to visit a small little community called Hipolito that we worked in a lot last year. So our first stop on Friday morning was a quick visit to Hipolito where we were quickly surrounded by the children that we spent time with last year. It was great to see the basketball hoops that some of our team constructed last year being put to good use! We also visited with the gentleman whose house we helped build last year. The house looks good but we were sad to see that the gentleman had broken his hip and is now in a wheelchair. 



Chris Bennett and our little buddy, Roberto and we spent a lot of time with last year. He has gotten so big!



Chris Wert and Onlady, the little girl who followed us around everywhere last year!



Two boys playing on with the basketball hoops constructed by our team last year!

Rachel and Yomairy, one of our little friends from last year.

After leaving Hipolito our crew headed over to ANIJA school to play with our sponsored kids and pass our gifts. We got to hear three testimonies of people who had either been sponsored to go to school at ANIJA just like the kids we now sponsor, or who had a kid that was currently being sponsored. All of them were now either working at the school, had given their lives to Christ and one young man was even studying at a university to become a doctor. What a blessing to hear some of the success stories!

The Neil Boston fan club at ANIJA!

The kids didn't know that they were going to be getting gifts and their eyes got huge when they realized that is what was happening! It was so much fun to see them sharing and playing with each other and not once did we hear any complaints that they didn't like what they had received or hadn't gotten enough!

Yerry, sponsored by Jerry and Donna Riley showing off his drawing.

After ANIJA we got to have one last visit playing with the kids at the Ark Orphanage. We played in the sand, played soccer, basketball, played on the swings and monkey bars and just had fun being silly together. It was very hard to say goodbye at the end of the visit and many tears were shed. There is no doubt that those kids each carry around a piece of our hearts that we left behind! We are so thankful to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that those kids are loved and taken care of every day by amazing house parents and staff!

Karen found herself a baby! He really belongs to one of the Ark house parents.

Chris Bennett and Chris Wert with their sponsored kiddos Indiana, Teresa, and Willy.

Thursday

Today we were able to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the children of Palo Blanco. We held ten parties throughout the day with over 200 kids attending. All of the kids had a blast making Valentine’s crafts, decorating cookies and rolling marshmallows in different colors of jello. Chris R did a Bible study lesson with the kids about how God looks at the heart and not your physical appearance. Let’s just say that Chris looks very good in a long blonde curly wig!

(Rose with one of the older classes showing off their art project. Neil, our resident art teacher gave them an art lesson.)

Needless to say after partying with over 200 kids our team was pretty wiped out! 

When we left Palo Blanco yesterday it was sad to realize we weren’t returning. We didn’t know that the teachers and children of Palo Blanco had been working on a surprise for our team and all of the people in our church that sponser Palo kiddos.

(The kids of Palo Blanco and the sign they made for their sponsors. The handprints are each of the kids that our church sponsors and in the middle of the heart, in Spanish, the sign says “thank you for being a part of my life”. ) Yes, we brought the banner home so if you sponsor a kiddo from Palo Blanco you can find your kiddos handprint!

After leaving Palo Blanco we went back to the team house to get ready for a party with the Ark Orphanage kids. We got to go over to Jeff Vandermolen’s house (the director over Haiti, DR, Guatemala and Peru) and jump on the trampoline, play volleyball, eat pizza, decorate cookies, and give gifts. The kids from the Ark have stolen our hearts. I think it is safe to say that the majority of our team feels like we are more blessed to be a part of these kid’s lives than we could possibly be blessing them. We joke that it is a good thing there is a weight limit on our luggage or we may be packing a few stowaways to bring home!

(Coralma, sponsored by Chris and Rachel Russell, eating her Valentine’s cookie that she decorated.)

Friday morning we are going to have another busy day. We will spend our morning at Hipolito, the little community that last year’s team helped build in a home in. This community is one of the areas of extreme poverty and really opens your eyes to the daily life of many of the Dominican people. We will leave from there and spend time giving gifts to the kids at ANIJA and then hope to spend more time with the Ark kiddos. Please continue to pray for these beautiful children and the people that work with and love them everyday!

Home, Bittersweet, Home.....

Our team in front of the team house, where we stayed for the week,  on our last day in Jarabacoa.

We all made it home safe and sound late last night. While it was great to hug our families and pets, take a nice hot shower and sleep in our own beds, there is still something bittersweet about being home again. Every single one of us were changed in some way by this trip and we all fell in love with so many people that we left behind in the Dominican Republic. As I sit looking through pictures today I find my heart feeling overwhelmed at how quickly you can deeply love a person that doesn't even speak the same language. All of you following this blog, I challenge you to take some time to listen to the personal stories of someone on the team. Learn the stories behind the faces in the pictures and try to open your eyes and heart to the vastness of the world that is past our own communities. In turn, our team will try to share carefully and lovingly, as many of us have realized that our priorties need to be completely rearranged. We realize that it is hard to grasp the understanding of what we have felt, seen, heard, smelled, hugged and kissed without actually being a part of the trip. Each of us is praying about what our "next step" will be now that we are home so that this trip doesn't become just 9 days out of our lives that we look back on and say "remember when...". We want this trip to change how we love and serve and pray and as we ease back into our comfortable lives we will have to be intentional to not let our broken hearts mend completely. We ask for continued prayers as we process everything and get back to our regular routines.

Since the internet connection didn't allow for as many blog posts as I would have liked I am going to go back and create a blog for the rest of the days so that all of you can still see some pictures and stories of our trip. Thank you all for all of your prayers and support. It means so much!

Behind on the Blog

Well, as usual internet here isn't the greatest. I am trying to get up the post of our Thursday's activities but I am having trouble loading the pictures. I only have about 35 minutes left of free internet access at the hotel we are spending our last night at. We ask that you pray for safe travels for our team as we return tomorrow. We also ask that you pray specifically that each member of our team will be able to discern what to do with all we've seen and learned during our time here. I will get more blog posts up about how our week went as I am able. I will continue to try with the time I have left tonight to get some pictures loaded!

no internet

we have very limited internet today so I dont know if I will get a post up. I will try. we are all doing well! Getting ready to go visit some kiddos homes!

Wednesday at Palo Blanco and The Ark Orphanage

This morning (Wednesday) our team got to have a sweet time of worship and devotions with the staff at Palo Blanco. We sat around a big table with the staff in the lunchroom early in the morning before the students arrived and sang worship songs to the Lord. We knew the songs they were singing and were able to sing the English words at the same time as they the lyrics in Spanish. Talk about goose bumps! After worship Chris got to opportunity to share the story of how Community Church of Waterford got involved with Kid’s Alive. The staff and director at Palo Blanco had never heard the story of how God connected us and the morning ended with lots of praise, tears and hugs and we all felt that much more connected to each other. It was definitely one of those God moments that none of us are soon to forget!

After devotions we were able to do a Bible study lesson and pass out gifts to the rest of our Palo Blanco sponsored kiddos.  Rose also had a fun time leading the kids in some Bible songs and teaching them dance moves to “Pharoah Pharoah” and “Big House”.  It was fun seeing the kids smile and laugh and just be silly kids.

(Karen doing her Bible study lesson with the kiddos. The little boy participating in her demonstration is sponsored by Dave and Katy Gaskill.)

(Bobbie giving her gift to her sponsored boy, Ricar.)

Most of the week while the rest of the team has been doing construction or playing with the kids, Neil has been hard at work decorating the school! Neil painted two murals in the school and is getting started soon on painting on at ANIJA.

(Neil’s mural of Roberto Clemente.)

We went back to the team house for lunch and had a little bit of time to do some shopping for souvenirs. Brian, the missionary down here that has been our host for the week just kept shaking his head and laughing because he said he has never seen a team buy so much coffee and vanilla before. We made the shelves in the colmado (grocery store) bare and the employees were already restocking before we even walked out!

After shopping we headed over to El Arca (the Ark) orphanage to play with the kids during their free time. The Ark campus and staff are so impressive and provide a safe, loving environment for these kids to grow up in. We got to hear stories of some of the kids and why they were at the orphanage. Many of them still have parents but were living in abusive situations. Some of the little kids were given alcohol in their bottles to get them drunk so that when they were begging on the streets they would appear retarded and get more sympathy. Others were roaming around the streets being forced to take care a lots of younger siblings when they were still just a child themselves. One sweet little boy who appeared to be only about two old had more places on his legs with scars then he did without.  He had only been at The Ark for about 3-4 weeks and proudly announced to Joan “Tengo camisa!” which means “I have a shirt!”. This little boy finally had something to call his own and now lived in a safe and secure place. Watching these kids run around a play it is easy to forget all the brokenness and hurt that they have in their lives. They look just like happy, “normal” children but they all have loss beyond anything we can comprehend.

(Sweet little Esmerlin – the two year old boy that was just happy to have his own shirt!)

Our time at The Ark passed way too quickly and soon it was time to go back to the team house. After dinner we cut out paper hearts and baked cookies in preparation for the Valentine’s Day party that we are having with the children of Palo Blanco and The Ark.

(Cookie baking and heart cutting in preparation for Valentine’s Day!)

Thursday is going to be a busy, but fun day. We are all looking forward to celebrating Dia de Amor (Valentine’s Day) with all of the kids ….and who doesn’t like to decorate their own cookie!?! Thank you all again for your prayers and we ask you pray specifically for these kiddos to have hearts that are mended and feel loved and cherished as we spend Valentine’s Day with them!

Tuesday at Palo Blanco - work, play and home visits.

This morning started extra early so that we could make it to ANIJA school in time to be a part of the student’s opening ceremony.  We were quickly greeted by many of the Ark orphanage kids that attend school at Anija. Many of the Ark kids recognized us from last year or from church service on Sunday and were excited to see their sponsors again! We also got to greet a lot of our sponsored kiddos that we hadn’t seen yet this trip. We will have time to have a little party with them and hand out gifts on Friday. The opening ceremony consisted of some announcements, raising the Christian flag and singing the Christian anthem and also raising the Dominican flag and the singing of the Dominican national anthem. Gabriel Peralta, sponsored by Reed and Sue Juday was proud to be the one to raise the Dominican flag up the pole!

(Gabriel, sponsored by Reed and Sue Juday, before the opening school ceremony.)

After the opening ceremony at ANIJA we exchanged out dollars to pesos so we could do some shopping a little later in the week and then headed back to Palo Blanco care center to do more construction and play with the kids. Today was hot and sunny and the construction crew got their workout hoisting over 100 cement bricks up a pulley system one at a time to the second floor of the building we were working on.  Chris B, Chris W, and Rose went out to the barrios of Palo Blanco to get to see the living conditions of some of the homes of our sponsored children. They went to the home of Patricia and Yordaliza, twins sponsored by Jamie and Jackie Mullet. The girl’s home had five people living in it and only had two rooms. All five people shared one bedroom and up until the family was recently given a second mattress the girls shared a mattress at nighttime that was smaller than a twin mattress. The home had no bathroom and no refrigerator. The family bathed with buckets of water filled from a neighbor’s water spicket. If any of you want help putting things in your life into perspective I strongly suggest you take this trip at least one time. It breaks your heart and makes you even more grateful for what you have all at once!

(Yordaliza and Patricia’s home.)

(Yordaliza)

In the afternoon some of us returned to the construction project while the rest made bead bracelets, colored and played games with some of the classes from Palo Blanco. It doesn’t take long to fall in love with these precious kids and realize that even though they live in extreme poverty, broken homes and abusive situations, they each have their own hopes and dreams for the future.  While in many cases it is easy to look at a child and hear their dreams and think that it will be impossible for them to achieve anything due to the situation they live in, it also gives us great hope that these kids are able to hope and dream. Thanks to Kids Alive and the amazing staff that works with and loves these kids everyday each of them has the chance to plan a great future for themselves and break the cycle of poverty and abuse in their family. It was such a blessing to be able to meet a few adults that were products of the Kids Alive program that are now teachers, working in administration at the school, and one woman that is training to be a dentist. Our church family is a part of something that is changing lives and changing communities all over the world! Stop for a minute and look at the pictures of these beautiful children and really take a minute to think about the impact that Kids Alive is having – and we are a part of it!!

(Leona helping a boy tie his bracelet.)

(Braldy, sponsored by Denny and Sandy Fisher, wearing the bracelet he made.)

We thank you again for all of your prayers and ask that if you are reading this blog that you take a moment to leave a comment for the team, or even a particular member. We have lots of people missing their friends and family and children and the comments are a bright spot in our day!

Monday at Palo Blanco

Our day today was spent at Palo Blanco. Eight members of our team spent the morning helping with a construction projects while the other three members of our team helped out with various projects in the school. Those of us on the construction crew were working to help build a two story, concrete block building on a piece of newly acquired land that allowed Palo Blanco to expand their property. The building will hold a woodshop on the first floor and some classrooms on the second floor that will allow people to learn and practice a trade

(The new building in progress at Palo Blanco.)

We had a little bit of downtime between our morning and afternoon activities and some of our team went outside to play with the kids, while others got ready for the afternoon Bible lesson.  Bianca found a little friend in the hallway the sat on her lap until it was time to go to class.

(Bianca with little Fan Fana Fanfan – yes, that is really her name!)

We spent the afternoon giving a Bible lesson to some of our sponsored kids and passing out gifts to about half of our sponsored kids at Palo Blanco. The kids seemed really engaged in the Bible lesson and of course loved getting their gifts from their Madrinas and Padrinos (sponsors).

(Alondra, the little five year old girl sponsored by Chris and Rachel Russell.)

After passing out the gifts we were able to enjoy some time playing and coloring with the sponsored kids. It was so much fun getting to interact with them and getting to know some of them individually.

We did have to cut short some of our construction time due to some heavy rains in the afternoon. We are scheduled to spend the day on Tuesday doing more construction so we are praying for some nice weather. Even in the rain it was still nice enough for part of our team to take a walk around town in flip flops and capris. We could get used to this weather!

We are winding down our night early tonight as many of our team members were tired early! I think Rose was in bed by 7pm and was followed within an hour and a half by Chris B, Chris W, Karen and Joan.  Chris R, Bianca, Bobbie and and Bianca are playing cards while the rest of us just relax. We start our day extra early tomorrow (Tuesday) at ANIJA where we will get to see them participate in their daily opening ceremony to start the school day. After that we will be back to work at Palo Blanco. Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. We are having a great trip and praying that we are being a blessing to those we come in contact with.  We ask you to pray specifically for the young girls at Palo Blanco as we learned that recently many twelve year old girls have been dropping out of school to get married. These girls often feel trapped because of the need for someone to take care of them due to the poverty level and many boys and young men prey on them. The hope that being sponsored gives these girls is a big start to opening their eyes to possibility of a different future. We ask that you pray for these kids daily that this cycle can be broken!  

(P.S. -Sorry but the internet connection was terrible so I couldn't get any more pictures up. I had several more for this blog! I will try again later if I get a chance!)

Sunday in the DR......

We made it safe and sound to the team house in Jarabacoa on Saturday evening.  Sorry for the delay in information but the team house does not have internet so we can only post when we are at one of the missionaries houses or one of the schools. So each day’s post won’t get posted until we get to the site the next day.

Sunday was a day for worship, orientation, relaxation and of course eating.  We were all blessed to be able to attend church with the kids from the Ark orphanage. It was so much fun pulling up to the church (which was outside under a pavilion in the 75 degree weather) and being recognized by our kiddos. Chris R, Rachel, Chris B, Chris W, and Karen all had happy reunions with their sponsored kids and got to sit with them and sing worship songs in Spanish.  The enthusiasm that the Dominican people showed in their worship and participation in church was something our whole team took note of.

(The pavilion where church service was held.)

(Chris W and Chris B with sponsored children Indiana and Teresa.)

(Rachel and Chris with sponsored children Maria and Janna.)

After church we went back to the team house for lunch and then headed out for a waterfall hike. Neil  Boston decided to climb out on to the edge of the very high waterfall cliff and Bianca and Lara (who are high school students of Mrs. Boston) said they now understood why Mrs. Boston told them to keep an eye on Neil for her!

(Rose says hi!)

After the waterfall hike we spent some time unwinding at the team house and then headed out to dinner at a Columbian restaurant. We enjoyed several different kinds of empanadas along with some other cultural food that I don’t know the name of. We all agreed that it was delicious!

(Dinner at Delicias Columbianas.)

And of course, being true CCWers we weren’t done eating after dinner. We walked through the busy streets of Jarabacoa (Carnaval was going on so it was loud and the streets were flooded with people) and found an ice cream stand!

(Chris R and Chris B standing in line at “Bon” for icecream. )

We are wrapping up our evening by sorting the gifts for the kiddos. We are going to be taking part of the gifts to give out at Palo Blanco on Monday as well as doing some crafts with the kids and some construction projects.  Neil will also be beginning to paint some murals at the school. We are all heading to bed and ready for a very full day!

New York! New York!

We all made it safely to New York, grabbed a bite to eat and will be boarding our flight to the DR in about half an hour. We learned right before we left Chicago that JFK airport had just reopened and we were very blessed to be able to take off at all....let alone on time! God is good! The next time you hear from us it will be from Dominican soil!!! We can't wait!!

So far, so good!

Well our whole team made it safely to Chicago, got checked in and through security without a hitch! Despite some anxiety over the record making blizzard our flight from Chicago to New York is still scheduled to take off on time. We are praising God for travel mercies and believe He has His hand in this.....3500 flights in the east were cancelled and ours isn't one of them! Please continue to pray as we are about 45 minutes from boarding our first flight! We thank you in advance and will keep you all updated as often as we can!

Heading back to the Dominican Republic. Meet our February 2013 team!



The beautiful Dominican Republic

It is hard to believe that we are only one week away from traveling to the Dominican Republic. Five members of our team of twelve are making returning to the D.R. for the second time while the other seven members are getting ready to experience the beauty of the landscape and the Dominican people for the first time. We are all so excited for what God has in store for us and covet your prayers as we prepare our hearts for this journey.  Take a few moments to get to know each of the team members a little bit.

Chris Russell – Chris is the senior pastor of our church and is making his second trip to the D.R. He would like for everyone to believe that he is a rock, but he shed more than a few tears on the trip last year. Some little known facts about Chris include that he doesn’t know how to spell his middle name, he doesn’t chew his peas so he doesn’t have to taste them, and he is in love with the Dominican princesses that he and his wife Rachel, sponsor.

Rachel Russell – Rachel is a psychiatric nurse by profession and has had a heart for missions and people for as long as she can remember. Rachel is also returning to the Dominican Republic for the second time and can’t wait to hug her sponsored girls again. Rachel makes the world’s best cheesecake, gets violent when tickled and could win any belching contest you put her in.

Chris Wert – Chris is the organizational mastermind behind this trip and has spent many hours making sure all of the many details are taken care of. Chris is also a second time traveler to the DR and will be one of the team members that we have to force to come home at the end of the week. Those beautiful kiddos have her wrapped around their finger! Chris is slightly afraid of some of the mystery meat we may encounter so she will be mainly vegetarian on this trip. And you will never catch her eating a hot dog… no matter what country she is in!

Chris Bennett – Chris has been anticipating his return to the Dominican Republic since before he left the first time he was there. Chris was the local bicycle repairman on our last trip so we look forward to seeing what he can fix for the kiddos this time!

Joan Troyer – While Joan wasn’t with us on our trip last year this isn’t her first trip to the Dominican Republic. Several years ago (we won’t say how many) Joan was a part of the first service team out of Goshen College to serve in the DR. Joan is looking forward to meeting the kids enjoying some of the local cuisine.  In her free time Joan enjoys bike riding and participated in something called the Donut ride last year!

Lara van de Wal – Lara is the Dutch high school exchange student living with Chris and Rachel Russell this year. Lara has never been to the Dominican Republic but has been all over Europe. We plan to make Lara put her Spanish class skills to use to help us talk to the kiddos. Lara secretly loves the group One Direction (oops, did I let that one slip?) and has turned into a runner this year in hopes of being the first exchange student to ever come to America and not gain weight!

Bianca Golm – Bianca is the German high school exchange student living with Chris and Rachel Russell this year. Bianca (nicknamed “Angry German” even though she is anything but angry) is a first time DR traveler but obviously isn’t a stranger to being in a foreign country!  Bianca loves to have a good time and will sometimes have something we call “Bianca’s five minutes” where she can’t stop laughing.

Leona Martin – Leona has been looking forward to meeting her sponsored child on her first trip to the DR. We were afraid a knee injury would keep her from traveling but with God’s help and clearance from her doctor she is able to come!  In her free time Leona enjoys hanging out with the Wild Women of Waterford and being a grandma.

Rose Yoder – Rose has never been to the Dominican Republic before and is unsure she will survive the flight over the Bermuda Triangle. Rose has a big heart for mission work and also hopes to serve on a team to Ethiopia next year. Rose is also part of the Wild Women of Waterford. She spends her free time with her husband Merv, daughter Riley, and dogs (aka furry children) Sadie, PJ, and Laker.

Karen Green – Last year when Karen traveled to the DR she left little pieces of her heart there with every child she encountered. I think it is safe to say that she fell in love with the people and the country and can’t wait to return. Karen is the proud mother to ten children and has more grandchildren than we can count these days!

Neil Boston – Neil is a first time DR traveler, musician, and artist. Neil will be put to good work in the DR painting murals for the school and doing art projects with the kids. We are also looking forward to having him lead us and the kids in some singing and guitar playing. Neil is ecstatic that he will becoming a first time grandpa in just a few short months and can't wait to spoil his new granddaughter. Neil has been known to wear his wife’s jeans on occasion so ladies keep an eye on your pants.

Bobbie Miller – Bobbie contemplated going to the DR last year but wasn’t able to so we are looking forward to having her on our team this year. Bobbie is a little apprehensive about the flight so we will have to be careful letting her sit next to Rose on the plane! Bobbie is always good for fun and laughter and there is never a dull moment with her around.