Thank you so much for supporting me on this mission trip!  I am grateful that I could "go in your place".  I have attached a little synopsis of the trip and a picture of me with the team I worked with. I love these trips. They mean so much to me!  Thank you again for being a part of it, either prayfully and/or financially!!

Sincerely and with love,

 Mission Trip to

Dominican Republic

July 23-July 31, 2010

“Many of us cannot reach the mission field on our feet,

but we can reach them on our knees.”  ~T.J. Bach

Friday, July 23--We arrived in Santo Domingo around 11 p.m. and stayed overnight.

Saturday, July 24—We traveled two (2) hours on a bus to the CIMA del Rey (summit of the king; “Christian International For Missionary Advancement) camp located on 23 acres in the mountains. The camp used to belong to a general.  There is a main house and four or more other buildings on the property.  We were dispersed throughout the property in different sleeping quarters.  We had devotions, ate our meals, and congregated in the main house every day/night.  Once we got settled in, we had lunch, spent the afternoon organizing the medicine, took a tour (with commentary) of the grounds, had dinner and relaxed while getting to know the missionaries.

Sunday, July 25—Each morning breakfast at 7 AM, devotions at 8 AM…hit the road around 8:30 AM to travel to the villages.  Our morning devotion was “We Are the People of the Towel.” (John 13—Jesus washing the disciples feet.  The pastor encouraged us to be “people of the towel.”)

Our group of 23 consisted of two teams—a team for construction and a team for medical and evangelism. (The construction team stayed at the camp and worked on various projects.  They were supposed to start a big project, but the machinery needed repair.)

This particular morning the medical team set up its clinic in the main house at the camp for the people in the surrounding village to be seen.

Two weeks before we arrived, the Dominican Republic mission team traveled to the different villages explaining to them that a medical team would be in their area.  Each family was allotted 2 or 3 tickets.  These tickets enabled them to see the doctor.  Therefore, they had to choose who had the most need for medical attention.  Over the 4½ days that we operated the medical clinic, we saw around 854 people.

The procedure:  While the families are waiting to be seen, the young adult missionaries (2 girls were from the US, 1 boy was from Ecuador, and the rest were Dominicans) set up their children’s ministry outside. They get the children involved through singing, dancing, puppetry, face painting, and making shapes out of balloons as they present the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The families register. (Lots of waiting lines at each station!) They are then led to the first station: Blood pressure, weight, and temperature.  Next, (second station) they see the doctor. (We had a US doctor who could speak Spanish, a nurse practitioner who could speak Spanish and a doctor from the DR.) 

The main complaints were fevers, colds, yeast infections, parasites, and skin fungus.  At one point during the week, we ran low on some of the medications.  We took up a collection one morning and collected $810.00-just from our little 23-member team!  The missionary (Nelson) went to Santo Domingo (2 hours away) and picked up what we needed at a pharmaceutical company.  He delivered the medicine to us at one of our sites.

Sunday night—We drove to a town called Villa Alta Garcia and attended church services at Vita Nueva Church.  It is one of the missionaries, *Joel’s (pronounced Jo-el) home church.

Monday, July 26—We started out in the morning for an hour-long bus trip to Guananito. Our first (on the road) clinic was held in a Baptist church.  We had an AM session, took a lunch break (all our lunches were brought to us from the surrounding villages—always rice and beans and…) and a PM session.  We lost our electricity at times and would have to fill prescriptions with the help of a flashlight because there was not enough natural light.

Tuesday, July 27—I celebrated my birthday in the Dominican Republic.  Feliz Cumpleanos!  One of the young adult missionaries, Ebenezer (Ebbie) gave the devotion on young “Amos.”  He spoke in Spanish and one of the US missionary girls (Dawn) interpreted for us. We took another hour-long bus trip to KM 61.  The clinic was held in a school.  We were set up in different rooms.  We had great natural lighting.

Wednesday, July 28—Our devotion for today was given by Dawn (from Georgia)-- “Why Don’t We Understand?”  Proverbs 3:5-6.  This time, we had a two-hour bus ride to Hormigo.  Our AM session was in a building next to a little Pentecostal church.  I met the pastor and his family.  This area was very, very poor.  In fact, each day that we went out, each place was poorer than the next.  After the morning session, we ate lunch, then headed down the road about 2 km and set up clinic in a little church building.  The construction team visited us on this site.  They became involved in the evangelistic children’s ministry that was taking place outside.  I heard it was pretty powerful.  I was working in the farmacia the whole time and couldn’t take a break to see.  We finished up around 6:30 PM and headed home.  We got home 2 hours later and had dinner. (At this site, there were many “skin and bones” dogs and lots of babies!)  Remind me to tell you about Herbie.

Thursday, July 29—This was our last clinic day.  We drove an hour to another school building.  On our way home, we came to the road “bridge” that we always cross.  It was completely flooded.  The water was rapidly pouring over the top of the road.  It was amazing to watch.  I think someone tried to call to let the camp know that we would be late.  At first we were told it would be hours before we could cross.  I thought about the men (construction team) having to wait for us to have dinner as they had done previously one night when we were late getting back.  I was watching the water when I turned to my left to see a red truck packed with groceries waiting to get through.  I looked and standing behind the truck was Martha, the cook and her husband, Manuel (They are the caretakers of the camp)!  They were stranded too!  I thought it was funny.  We really only had to wait about an hour and we were able to cross.

 Thursday night was our last night.  It was a “church camp” Thursday night when everything comes together and testimonies are given, etc. The young missionaries were amazing!  They took over the night with games and endearing presentations.  At the end, they formed a prayer tunnel and each of us (from LRA) slowly walked through it and was prayed over by each member of the Dominican mission team.  Then afterwards we circled around the young mission team, layed hands on them and prayed over them. We were blessed beyond measure!

Friday, January 30—Breakfast at 7, devotions at 8—all packed—headed back to Santo Domingo.  We went to the market place for a little shopping then to a hotel.

Saturday, January 31—breakfast at 7; departed for airport 7:30ish…home safe and sound.

The trip was moving.  Everyone should go on a mission trip at least once in his or her lifetime.  We want for nothing in the United States!  Sometimes, I think it is to our disadvantage.  These people have nothing. They actually have what Jesus says not to worry about…food and raiment.   I see how they could accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ more readily than someone who has the riches of this world.  (Actually, a mission team brought a children’s ministry to *Joel’s town when he was a child.  He got saved and has been working with this mission team for nine or so years.  He is the team’s leader.  He is a very energetic, Christ-centered young man.  Of course, he sees the value in children’s ministries!

I truly want to learn Spanish so that I can somewhat converse with Spanish speaking people.  We quickly learned the word, “bano” which means bathroom.  I won’t go into detail, but the conditions where we were are not what we are used to.  “When in Rome…”

I was able to say, “Dios te bendiga.”  God bless you.

We had no air conditioning at the camp or in any of the villages.  We slept with ceiling fans on when the electricity worked.  We slept with bugs…salamanders, roaches, “no see ums” (so small you can barely see them), etc….  You just get used to life there…you adjust.  The camp was nice.  It was very scenic.  The people were warm and friendly and each had a servant’s heart.  They were “people of the towel.”