Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The coffee drinkers on the team were delighted to be having breakfast at the school, because it meant that Millie would have coffee for them! We enjoyed a breakfast of scrambled eggs (huevos), toast with guava or pineapple jelly, and fruit – papaya and mango.

Today’s home visit was to one of the children we sponsor – Rafael. His home is near the school and kitchen that previous teams built. When we got there, only Rafael and his older sister were home. Both parents work in the city of Santo Domingo. We had a nice visit. When we asked for prayer requests, Rafael asked that we’d pray his mother finds a better job. They sent us on our way with plenty of fresh coconuts to share with the team! We dropped those off at the kitchen, and walked on to visit Jenny’s sponsored child, Ray (rah-ee).

As we walk, we often sing, and I noticed Nataniel sings very well. I asked him if he would help sing in VBS, and he said that he didn’t bring his guitar. (He leads music at his home church.) I tried to convince him he didn’t need to play guitar to sing, but he seemed reluctant.

Ray is very tall! Jenny has sponsored him for several years, since he was quite small. His mother, Freddi, is a community health care worker. She shared that, a few years ago, leaders of the church walked around their community, claiming it in the name of Christ. This reminded Dilio of one of the songs we’d been singing, “Look What God is Doing”, so with him translating, we sang the verse that applied: “He is calling faithful men, to carry out His plan. So in the power of Jesus’ name, go possess the land!”

Freddi asked about Fred (my husband), and I assured her that he was well, but could not come to visit. A few years ago, he injured his knee badly. It’s fully recovered, but it took several months of therapy and treatment. He became very ill last year, and it took a long time to recover completely from whatever that was.

Jenny and Ray had a nice visit. He is handsome as well as tall, so we weren’t surprised when a lovely teen from nearby stopped in to talk!

Ray has a friend with a guitar that Nataniel could borrow, so no more excuses! He’ll be helping with singing this afternoon!

The last home we visited has four sponsored children! Their sponsors were not on the team, but we knew at least one of the sponsors. The oldest child is 15, and she showed us some of the academic awards she’s received. One of the boys’ names sounds like “Beeto” when he says it, but it’s Victor. He has an infectious smile!

After lunch, off to VBS! Nataniel, Sheila (in the DR, it’s pronounced Shay-lah) and Katarina helped us with the singing. The kids are catching on fast to the Pharaoh song!

After VBS, letters were given to the sponsored children. Lynn and some of the kids kept doing Pharaoh, and we tried to keep the children who didn’t have letters busy with singing and games.

Martires has another team coming before we leave, so he had to ride the bus into town to do some of the preparation. It’s a two-hour ride. I don’t envy him the schedule he’s keeping!

We were joined by Eliezer (Ay-lee-ay-TSER), a young man from Constanza, about two hours north of our location. At 19, he’s taught himself English. The team enjoyed teaching him and Dilio some English idioms – piece of cake, mind your p’s and q’s, that sort of thing.
Supper was mashed bananas and onions, similar to having mashed potatoes, and cheese. Eresmende of FH joined us for devotions. Then he talked about how FH and the church we work with, Iglesia La Senda, and Pastor Miguel have worked together. He talked about how the churches tend to be somewhat insular, and learning to reach out to others outside the church is a challenge that Pastor Miguel is meeting.