Dominican Republic

Hello!

We have had a very busy and exciting couple of days since the last post. Seems we've been going non-stop! We wake up every morning around 8:00 and are served breakfast, then we take off for our first destination of the day. In the past three days, we've been to several different locations. Twice we have gone to Santa Fe, a Christian Children's Center where kids who cannot afford to attend the local schools go to get a little education five days a week. They have a few classrooms and an area to play outside. We went there Saturday morning (a lot of childen came even though it wasn't a school day) and this morning (Tuesday). We did a short Bible lesson and a craft with them and then played games outside. Both times seemed very successful and everybody seems to be building good relationships with the kids there. 

Sunday morning we went to Pajarito, a small, extremely poor village where Henry wants to start a children's center. His goals for us there were just to build relationships with the kids through sports with the older children and coloring/bubbles/piggyback rides (they wore us out!) with the younger children. We are going there again later in the week. Sunday night we went to Henry's mother's church. It was really an interesting experience for all of us. Besides being extremely loud and all in Spanish, the service was not at all what we are used to in format. The congregation constantly took a very active role in the service, shouting and moving and breaking out in song in the middle of the sermon. Everybody was very touched, though, when they broke out in a Spanish version of "How Great Thou Art", and we were able to sing along in English with them. 

Monday morning we went to Sananton, and played with a lot of the kids whose families attended the very nearby church. This was an interesting experience for a lot of us, who discovered how much (or little) we remembered from our jumproping exploits in elementary school. We also got to see a little bit of how they entertain themselves, as one of the local adults came and led us all in a few games, inluding a modified Spanish version of Simon Says.

During church on Sunday night, God laid a vision on Henry's heart. He explained this idea to us later that evening. A little while ago, someone from the church had told him that he could use a wall they owned by the road to paint his ministry logo on. But God told him on Sunday night that it should be used for something different... and that he should have us be the ones to do it. His idea was to cover the wall with the handprints and names of the children of San Pedro, along with a painting of Noah's Ark that he had a big stencil for. So, with the extra supplies money we brought with us, we picked up a big bucket of white paint, a few other smaller cans of blue, red, yellow, and black paint, and went to work on the wall Monday evening. In the 4 hours we worked on it that evening, we had the whole thing covered in white, half of the Ark and its animals painted, and some 90 handprints and names. Several of us were thoroughly covered in paint up to our elbows, too. This evening we finished the project, completing the ark, acquiring at least 75 more handprints (along with our own after we'd finished), and placing the ministry's name in big letters at the top. The wall looked spectacular. It was an incredible experience too, not only for us, but for Henry and for the community. Henry kept telling us how these people who would never have otherwise spoken to him or even given him the time of day were coming up and asking if their children could put their handprint on the wall. One local politician also volunteered a wall outside his house to Henry for whatever project he might want to do with the kids! So many people were brought together for a good cause, and it's something that these kids will be able to point out and remember for a long time. We were really part of something big.

Whew! There's so many more things I could talk about... the food... the jokes... the potholes in the roads... but maybe some other time. It's time for bed... early rise tomorrow!

Some things you can pray for:

Preparation of the kid's hearts to receive the lessons we've prepared

The local community... that the wall we painted would help them realize that they can work together to do something good, despite their individual situations.

Us... for continued energy despite the nonstop activity and unrelenting heat.

Thank you for reading!

-Brian Richards, for the Dominican Republic Team-