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.