Sunday of Blessings

We were so tired when we arrived Saturday we didn't notice the weather too much.  Now that we have spent a little time here we are very blessed to know we can still sweat as well as ever.

This was our view in church this morning - quite the packed house.

This morning we attended church in Santo Domingo.  It was enlightening and encouraging to see the packed house that had a similar feel to Cornerstone.  The worship band led in songs that we knew the tune for with the Spanish words on screens. The encouraging and Biblical message was even translated into English via wireless headsets.  Seeing a church with Biblical passion for the lost was a real blessing.

Reunions with Sponsored Kids!

Guadalupe and our interpreter Daniel at the Welcome.

Rafelina and her grandmother.

Old friends - called to us as soon as we arrived.

For lunch we headed to the community.  It was a great time to reunite with old friends and to make a few new ones.  After eating the typically incredible spread of food, we toured the community and found some more old friends.  The warm welcome from everyone, while familiar, is no less encouraging and motivating.  We send greetings back from Wilson, Gregorio, Guadalupe, Vassilla, Pastor, Juan Armando, Yairan, Enerfries, Juan Rafiel, Christia, Paquita, Edwin, Escarling, Wilmon, Leoni, Rachel, and so many more. At the welcome meeting we were encouraged to treat Sierra Prieta as our home and told that we would always be welcome and be a part of the community.  We were welcomed by representatives from many parts of the community, including the community leadership group, young people's group, catholic church, local church, mother's group and more.

Plush living arangements

Our living arrangements often bring a surprise and this year is no exception.  The community center where we have stayed the last 2 years is being used for the Amo Program, a weekly children's Bible program so we are staying at the regional office for FH in Yamasa.  It is a big step up from before with tile floors, consistent electricity and an actual bathroom.  But this puts us about a 1/2 hour drive from the community.




This week we have some new opportunities due to the smaller size of our team.  Each of us will be teaching and giving input to the community based on our background and training.  Dan will be observing at the school and giving input to the teachers on discipline, morale and any teaching issues he can address.  Bob will be speaking to different groups, including mothers, parents and young people about issues from pregnancy health, to general hygene to healthy sexual relationships.  Greg will be preaching and meeting with church leaders from 3 different churches to do training in church leadership and then will be meeting with community leaders to share about Biblical leadership issues.  We will have some overlap in the leadership training, parenting workshop, one day VBS and will make home visits together. Another new opportunity will be to have a basketball clinic.  Basketball is 2nd to baseball here but still very popular and a group of kids has begun playing here regularly.  Other events planned for this week include a number of evangelistic home visits, sponsored children home visits, a movie night, baseball game and an outreach service.  We pray that God shines his light into many lives during our time here.

More old friends!

Please pray specifically for these events that God will work in the lives of lost people to draw them to himself and make them kingdom laborers.  Thank you for being our partners.

Arrival

After more than 20 hours in airport and on airplanes. We arrived in the balmy Dominican Republic.  It was great to be greeted by our good friend Carlos. After getting a little bit settled we had some lunch, and made plans for the ministries of the coming week. Is going to be a full week with lots of opportunities to share in depth with a number of different groups in the community. We are just looking forward to God blessing our time here and are enjoying being with old friends already. Thank you for your prayers. We look forward to sharing more with you.

Trip Overview Video

Final Day in the community!

2011 Day 6

This morning we had some really great opportunities with the people of the community.

But, the day started at midnight, when we were all just beginning to settle in.  The FH staff knew it was Bob’s birthday and through the miracle of the internet, found some Kenny Rogers to play for him just before we all signed off for the night.   By the time lunch came around they produced cake and a great round of Happy Birthday and a cake.  It’s good to be with our family here if we can’t be with our families back at home.

After breakfast we were able to visit a couple more houses and plant some fruit bearing trees.  It will be fun to return and see what these trees are doing in the future.  Though small, the trees should begin to bear fruit in about a year.  Just as the message planted here has already begun to bera fruit and we look forward to a great harvest.

After tree planting we had a really great time playing baseball with the young men of the community.  We actually played well enough to be edged out 6-7, but it was a really great time.  The man who helps train the kids was very encouraging of the work going on here both through the leadership and through FH’s work.

The afternoon brought us to some farewell visits to friends homes and we had a special dedication ceremony at the house we had begun.  There was a great prayer time as we stood in the rooms-to-be.  The family promised we would pray in those same rooms together when we return next time. This young family of Carlos and Annalisa, has such hope now that they no longer have to depend on relatives for a place to live.  Carlos at 23, though he looks 17 to us, is father to 3 kids the oldest is 5.  We are so blessed to have been part of this project.

Carlos and Annalisa in their new house witth extednded family.

We were also able to tour a house that FH is just completing so that we could see what the home will look like when completed.  The whole community is so excited for each other as needs are met.  We have not come across any jealousy in these areas yet.

In the evening we gathered with the community for a farewell ceremony at the church.  It was so humbling as person after person thanked us and FH and praised God for the changes going on here.  It is so incredible to see the progress already.   There were musical numbers and everyone kept saying we won’t tell you adios, only see you again.  The pastor said that if it wasn’t here then it would be in heaven.  As each of our team shared our blessings from the week with the community and thanked them for allowing us to come, there were not many dry eyes in the place.  After we finished a few different of the ladies came back up and said we should not be thanking them because we had brought them so much and left so much. 

Greg was able to pray for the whole community, families, leaders, the school, the church, the full-time FH staff and the pastor.  God is working in a mighty way here!  It took over a half hour for us to get apart from the people after the ceremony because of all the hugs and farewell wishes and more hugs and a few tears.  One gal came up to us and said thanks for her brother who had accepted Christ just last night. 

We will miss this place when we leave in the morning and will be looking forward with great anticipation to seeing our families again.  We are hours from the airport so will return to that area to stay at a hotel so that we can catch our early morning flight on Sunday.

What a wonderful day!

 2011 day 5

 What a wonderful day! We can hardly imagine all the amazing things that God has allowed us to see and be a part of this week.  Our evening was closed out in amazing fashion by two teenagers Felix Antonio & Luis Fernando who came tour door late tonight asking for prayer.  They had just accepted Christ and we were able to pray with them.  What an exciting thing to witness, God drawing people to himself.

This morning after breakfast, the guys went to work building doors and windows out of planks and 1x4’s.  It was a challenge to make straight cuts with old saws but also a privilege to serve.  It’s great to be a part of the positive impact that this house will have on this young family. 

Greg was able to make a short trip to visit Anna Rosa, one of his family’s sponsored children.  The visit had been put off because she had spent 4 days in the hospital due to an amoeba that had caused her breathing problems.  Praise God she was able to get the health care she needed.

The ladies headed off to visit family members in their homes.  They were also able to present needy students at the school with school clothes.  The clothes were possible due to the sponsorship program.  It was a blessing to see this community benefiting in so many different ways.

After lunch Dale, Zach and Bob headed out to visit the last of the sponsored children.  They initiated a new activity on the visits.  Along with a few small trinkets, they brought fruit trees and planted them with the kids.  We look forward to seeing the trees grow into another resource in the community.

Lori and Corianne shared the last 2 days of the creation story with the kids in VBS.  It has been so exciting to share with them the love God showed us all in that process.  The children have learned so much and were ahead of the game in reviewing all the lessons of the week.

Greg and Misti finished the last of the window security shutters.  And then were able to lay the last of the cinderblocks for the foundation of the new house.  Enemencio, the job foreman will return to complete the framing of the house next week.  We look forward to returning and seeing the house completed.

Today began the food-byes, Wilmon our excellent interpreter and a young pastor with lots of energy left to return home.  We will miss him.  We thank God for the excellent people God has privided to support us!

This evening we showed a movie that many members of the community watched.  The crowds seem to be more and more filled with new faces and more grown-ups.  Praise God for the work he is doing here.

middle of the week

Blog 2011 Day 4

We have reached the middle of the week.  It was a very full and fruitful day.  We ended this evening with a group time of sharing.  It was good to gather together as a team, including our Food for the hungry hosts.  We had just completed an evening service where, following Dale’s testimony and Bob’s sermon, three young ladies came forward to accept Christ.  We were able to pray for them with the pastor and church leaders.

As a team we have become a good unit, bearing each other’s burdens and drawing encouragement from each other’s strengths.  Greg, Misti and Corianne spent the day at the work project.  It is so exciting to see the anticipation in the family as the father, Carlos, and his cousins and neighbors work alongside us.  Today we laid 2 courses of cinderblocks on the foundation that Dale, Zach and Bob laid yesterday.  Tomorrow we expect to be erecting walls and possible some of the roof.  The FH crew thanked Greg for keeping things straight and level. 

Home visits today brought the rest of the team to the same houses that they visited 2 years ago on our first trip.  It was a blessing to hear how people described the positive changes that have happened in the 2 years FH has been working here and we have been visiting.  In the afternoon Dale and Zach visited some of their sponsored children, while Lori and Bob led the VBS.  The VBS continues to be a special time of teaching and celebrating God in fun songs from the Bible.  We are very thankful for the FH staff who makes it all run so smoothly.

We stopped all of our activities early this afternoon in order to meet with the community leaders.  They shared with us the projects that have been completed in just a few short years with the support of FH.  There has been a new grade added to the school this year, 6^th and they hope to soon have 7^th and 8^th.  The shared with us that the government has set aside money to build a high school nearby, but they are trying to raise money to buy land in the approved area.  Pray for this, it costs families $100 per month to send a child to the available high schools which are over 25 km away.  Many kids are not able to go.  They also shared of their hope to add a 2^nd well and water supply system so that half of the community won’t have to travel so far and that the existing system can have relief.  They also hope for a baseball field to keep the young men out of the bars and occupied so they don’t do drugs.  They have great vision for this community and believe that God has brought FH and us to them so they may develop and become independent.  One of the other concerns is that they can develop cottage industries to create jobs in the community.  Recently FH provided a training course for people to learn how to make cheese and yogurt from locally available milk.  25 people were certified and hopefully these industries will be supporting whole households here soon. 

Already some of the team are feeling the sadness of departure looming.  We have grown greatly in our relationships with the people here.  God has blessed us greatly to be connected with these people!  God is using Cornerstone in great ways. 

Pray for the local church, it’s leaders, and especially Pastor Segundo.  He a gentle and loving man of God

Cornerstone's very busy day

Blog 2011 Day 3

Today was a very busy day.  God’s blessings were to be seen all over.

Today the foundation for the house was poured and the first of the 2 levels of blocks were laid.  The family to inhabit the house is always around and the father is working very hard right alongside us. 

In the morning we made some general visits to families in the community.  It was so humbling, as Misti put it.  “I can’t believe that our presence here can be so encouraging and makes such a difference to these wonderful people.   I am a nobody from nowhere.  It’s amazing that God uses us for such an impact on these people.”    We visited 5 or 6 houses and everywhere we stopped we were told that our coming here was a blessing and for us to go to their house was such a privilege and a blessing.  Each place we went we were able to share of God’s grace and the eternal hope he offers to all of us.

VBS in the afternoon was a great blessing once again.  Despite a whole new group of teachers the kids recited the lesson from the previous day and listened intently and enjoyed all the time together.  It is exciting to see them hungry to learn. 

Always there are kids around, holding our hands as we walk and playing and even just sitting by us when we rest.  Their smiles are constant and we are observing more parental involvement than we had before.  It is a privilege to be Gods hand to them.

This is the house we built last year.  The family is still so happy to have a place to safe clean place live. 

Greg is doing much better, thank you for your prayers. 

This evening we shared one of the Narnia movies with the community, it was well attended and a great opportunity to share a positive influence.