Saturday, October 31, 2009
Final post from Dominican soil
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
What an Incredible Day!
We completed our first latrine today. The family is so excited. The mother came out and looked in it as it was completed she said, “Que linda!” - how beautiful. This is really an incredible thing for them.
Bob had an opportunity to minister using his medical training. He checked out a boy who had a fever @ 2 years old and now can’t hear out of one ear and seems to have a lazy eye. Now he is 15 years old. He has seen a specialist but it was a long time ago. Bob suggested that returning to the specialis would be the best thing to do. But it was his presence to encourage the family and motivate them to help their son that made a real difference.
Louis the country director came by to honor our presence. I had the opportunity to hear his perspective on the people here. He was telling me how the people have no real hope. They don’t see positive things in their future. The parents don’t even have hope for their kids. But the presence of people here from far away in an important place like the US brings them up to a great level of confidence. No important people come here unless they are looking for something – like a vote. Many relief agencies bring only money. But the significance of our presence is the relationships we are building. Relationships are what it takes to give people hope, especially people who are perceived as valuable. The truth is that the value comes from Christ – but the only way some may accept this is through being valued by others.
This evening was easily the highlight of the day. We planned to show a movie about the life of Jesus, “The Story of Jesus for Children” Despite problems with the equipment the evening was an incredible success. We could not get the video projector to work, and so showed the movie on the laptop we brought to transmit the blog info. Fortunately there was a sound system we could use for the sound but the 15” screen served to show the movie to over 100 people mostly children and adults. The front yard of the church was overflowing with people before the movie began. While we were having technical difficulties getting things moving the ladies began some singing. It was incredible to hear 100 Dominican voices singing with such great enthusiasm the songs that we had never heard only months ago. It was overwhelming and emotional to hear those kids chanting “Otra, otra!” They were calling for more songs over and over.
Once the movie began more and more people came and watched. The close attention that was paid throughout the movie was amazing. After the movie Martires gave a clear and concise Gospel invitation. 23 young people and children came forward and accepted Jesus as their savior. Their names are below please hold them up to pray.
Antonio
Jason
Pedro Louis
Edifrain
Louisdavi
Louis Manuell
Juan
Eliseo
Vladimil
Emily
Alberto
Endri
Luigi
Samuel
Milady
Emily
Rafiel
Mariella
Desidenny
Amourice
Quarelli
Ronel-Benjamin
Leon-Ramirez
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Happy Birthday Emily!!
Monday
We began the day with breakfast promptly at 8am. After which we divided up into groups one for home visits and VBS & the other for the work project. The group doing home visits met some very welcoming families and some with great needs. One woman Lativa, whose husband had just left her, had 2 boys 6 years and 10 mos. She had no job because she had to take care of her baby, who had a health condition.c
In the morning the work crew laid cement for the first latrine. The community members have dug the holes and then work along side the team. FFH team members Franco and Darrio, construction foreman and apprentice, taught the work crew to do the cement work for the bases of the latrines. We completed two latrines on Monday. On Tuesday the other group will work as Monday’s work crew does home visits and teaches the VBS.
The first day of the VBS brought about 40 kids from the community. The lesson was about when Jesus called the disciples to be fishers of men. They sang children’s songs in Spanish and made a craft of a fishing pole with a fish attached by yarn. The first day revealed many things we hope to improve on throughout the week, including better use of interpreters and better explanation of the crafts. But the children had a great time and learned about spreading the gospel.
In the evening we went with a local evangelist to another part of the community to take part in a service. Bob Chandler preached about Peter and his denial of Christ and subsequent restoration. It was well spoken and well received, despite the rain.
The community has been saying we have brought with us the blessing of rain. They depend on rain almost daily for household water needs and for crops and animals. There is a well in town for drinking water but all other water must be carried a distance or collected from the rain.
We are adjusting to the weather conditions. It has been very hot and always humid. For many of the guys the only time we don’t sweat is when we are taking a bucket shower. The work crew had to keep putting on sunscreen and so far we haven’t had any bad burns to report.
The team has been very supportive of each other. We are also bonding with our Dominican team members very well. Kelvin is the local contact for FFH and though he does not speak English we have enjoyed getting to know him as well. He lives in another community where he has been helping with development. He and his wife just had a baby boy. He drives here everyday to help with our ministry. Also today a new interpreter, Cheila, joined our team. She has never interpreted formally before. She has done informal work in bilingual classes. She just turned 18 last weekend and is a member of the church that Martirtes and Arismendy attend.
Arriving and Meeting the People
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sierra Prieta Quarterly Update
As you pray for the team from Cornerstone and our partners, the people of Sierra Prieta and FFH, I thought you would like to hear more of what God is already doing and see a few pictures from the community. What follows is FFH's actual report from the front lines.
C2C QUARTERLY REPORT
Monday, October 5, 2009
Read This First
If you have made it to this page then you either:
A) have a vested interest in the people of Sierra Prieta (you sponsor a child)
or
2) you have a vested interest in the team from Cornerstone Community Fellowship who is going there.
In either case there are some things that I really want you to be aware of as you try to follow our trip and the ministry that God does in Sierra Prieta.
The first thing is the very nature of poverty. Our preparation has been pretty extensive consisting of reading, Bible memorization, listening to sermons, team building exercises and training sessions. One of the most significant things to come out of our training is a better and more Biblical understanding of poverty than any of us had before. It would be really worth your time to listen to the podcast “Poverty Started Somewhere” found at http://povertyunlocked.com/2007/07/30/pu-002-poverty-started-somewhere-jul-30-2007/. It is a very general but incredibly Biblical perspective on where poverty comes from, what causes it and helps us see how we can be a part of combating it. The bottom line is that Poverty is a matter of sin destroying the way we were meant to relate to everything. They can be broken down into four different failed relationships 1) Failure of Spiritual relationship – our relationship with God 2) Failure of Social relationship – our relationships with other people 3) Failure of Physical or Environmental relationship – The way we relate to the physical world 4) failure of relationship with Self – A failed mental and emotional state that won’t let us see ourselves for what we are.
Poverty isn’t just a lack of money, or resources or opportunity. It’s the result of a failed and sinful system of relationships. Our desire in this is to help restore relationships so that people can begin to heal their perspective and overcome the obstacles they face.
The second thing I want you to grasp is what our C2C (community to community) relationship is about. The people of Sierra Prieta are not a project for us to complete or lost souls to save. They are a community of people we are PARTNERING with. In a real sense they are actually the lead partner. The sanitation project we will be working on has been chosen by them. If we don’t get it completed they will finish it. Each time we work on a project it will be at their direction. Food for the Hungry does have a community representative who works in the community to help educate and give advice to the community leaders but the locals themselves make the final decisions. Our primary role is to enter into healthy and encouraging relationships with the people of Sierra Prieta. For more on the value of relationships in overcoming poverty see http://povertyunlocked.com/2009/09/11/pu-040-walking-with-the-poor-sep-11-2009/.
For information about C2C relationships see http://povertyunlocked.com/2009/06/05/pu-036-church-partnerships-jun-5-2009/ and http://www.fh.org/help/churches/c2c.
The third and final thing that is so important to me and the team is that you, the people of Cornerstone, see this as a whole church undertaking. Already many of you are sponsoring children in Sierra Prieta. Already you are sending money and praying for a particular child or children and their family. This trip is the next of many steps we will take to be a part of God’s transforming work in the lives of this community. Pray, for us and the community, learn about what we are doing and why we are doing it the way we are, and prepare, you may be the next to go. Ask God if he would make a way for you to go on the next trip we take to the Dominican Republic.
My name is Greg Wilson. It’s my privilege to lead our team of 11 workers. We are the first missions team from Cornerstone Community Fellowship. I believe that we will find great blessing and great challenge. Our primary goal is to Glorify Christ in all that we do. I can already see him at work, can you? Are you looking with expectation?
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. (New Living Translation)