DR Team - Wednesday Evening update

Ole Amigos and Amigas!!! Let's see the last post advised we arrived safely here in the evening on Monday. There are 24 Mission Team Members - 13 from Christ the Savior, 10 from Hendersonville, TN and one tiny 85 year old women from Illinois.

Tuesday started with breakfast and then devotion and prayer time led by Melissa Hanley. We also prayed over pictures of children in New Mission Schools that still need sponsors. We will be bringing some of these pictures back with us for Mission Sunday in May.

Then all 24 of us loaded into a large truck with padded bench seats and a metal roof over the truck bed. We drove a short distance to the New Mission site that also contained a small clinic area. At the clinic we unloaded some of the medical and hygiene supplies we brought into the DR with us. After this, over $2000 of food items - rice, beans, sugar and cooking oil were delivered to the building. Then 24 Lutherans and Baptists showed great teamwork, took the large 100 pound bags of rice, sugar and beans and made smaller bags of each product. We then formed an assembly line and produced larger bags that contained - Food, Hygiene Items and invitations to the Spanish Church services held at New Missions on Wed. and Fri. nights. Over the course of the morning and early afternoon we had put together about 250 of theses special "care" packages.

While this was going on there were also a few of the more handy Amigos doing fix it projects around the mission site also. In the afternoon the majority of the team went to a part of Sousa named Playa Laguna.

Here team members handed out the "care" packages and Bibles to residents at their small homes and other residents came directly to the New Mission truck. Team members prayed with residents via the help of interpreters.

Barb Huge and Susan Buhr, with the help of an interpreter, met with seven Sosua neighborhood health/first aid volunteers. Each volunteer was given a small backpack with latex gloves, bandages, gauze, Pepto-Bismol, Tylenol, etc. Barb and Susan then explained appropriate wound care, how to distribute the Tylenol, etc. and answered questions from the volunteers. These volunteers left better equipped to handle health/first aid issues in their neighborhoods.

Tuesday morning and afternoon the team went to an area named Bombita. Part of the team went to a small school with over 100 students that met in a large tent area. Here team members were able to meet with their sponsored children and share gifts with them. The TN team put on a puppet show about Zacheus and Jesus. We helped all the children make cross necklaces and other crafts. We then watched the students play the DR version of duck, duck goose. After this the older students performed songs and danced for the Mission Team. The afternoon students sang the Contemporary Christian Song - Jesus Lover of My Soul. First in Spanish and then in English, we were all impressed.

Other team members went in the Bombita neighborhoods and were able to go into homes and again share care packages, bibles and pray with and for the families.

In addition to these activities, on Tuesday afternoon some team members were able to visit the new Sewing Ministry and deliver all the fabric that was donated by Christ the Savior members and others. They were also able to see the new sewing machine that was purchased by New Missions using Adult Mission Trip funds. The Sewing Group had prepared a "Thank You" reception for team members complete with home made DR dishes. Sewing Group members were able to show off some of their recently made outfits and products. In addition to donated fabric, the team members also brought new sewing patterns and supplies.

Tonight team members attended the New Mission Spanish church service and were able to see the fruits of the care packages as residents from Playa Laguna and Bombita came to church tonight carrying their new Bibles. God is Awesome. What a marvelous two days it has been.

Yours In Christ, Dan