Summary Information 2013

Thank you so much to everyone taking interest in our trip.  If this is your first exposure to our ministry in Sierra Prieta I want to share with you what brings our church, Corrnerstone Community Fellowship, to participate in this way.

History - In the winter of 2007-2008 the leadership of Cornerstone began growing a vision for more direct involvement in international missions.  We became connected with Food for the Hungry, attracted by one of their slogans "We go to the hard places."  That summer we sent a vision team to the Dominican Republic to look at potential communities to partner with in a Community 2 Community relationship.

That fall we began sponsoring children in Sierra Prieta, a small, poor, isolated community in the hills about an hour outside of Santo Domingo.  Our first trip to minister in Sierra Prieta was in the Fall of 2009.  Since then we have brought teams from our church each fall.  In this Community 2 Community relationship we want to build relationships and support the Food for the Hungry staff who work in the community on a daily basis.

The goal is to help change their worldview, assisting them to overcome poverty in all of its forms.  For a great exploration of poverty and its devastating impact on the whole person read this portion of the training material about Understanding Poverty.  In short, poverty is the result of broken relationships.  These are in different realms physical(with the environment), social(with other people), spiritual(with God), and relationship with ourselves.  The repair of these relationships is not overnight and doesn't come because we tell someone to do things differently. Just as we need time and help to work through our broken relationships, so also do other people.  Our desire is that we help the FH workers in Sierra Prieta work themselves out of a job in a 8 to 12 year time frame.

We very much want to see this community become a place where healthy families thrive, where jobs are available, and where Christ's glory is known.  If you read our past year's blogs you'll find that we have seen God work in Sierra Prieta to begin this process of healing relationships.  The FH staff there are so important to the process and we are so glad that we can support their work through child sponsorship and our short visits.  If you'd like to sponsor a child in the Sierra Prieta area you can do so through by following the link in the upper right.

We are going because lives are changed through relationship.  Each of us can look at our lives and see pivotal moments were influenced more by relationships than by other things like money, location, and even education.  Change comes through relationship so we go to build relationships, so show people they are valuable, and to support the staff who work in the community daily to build relationships and help people in ways tangible and intangible.

In this maybe you'll look at your relationship opportunities a little differently too.  Consider the value of your relationships be they deep or not and look at how you can influence others for life change through your relationships.  Just as Christ offers us the ultimate change through relationship with him.

 Though one of the team members couldn't be there last Sunday we had an encouraging time of send-off as the church gathered around the team and prayed for the trip, our families staying home and Sierra Prieta.

Thanks for reading and following along.  I'm looking forward to a great trip.