DR Mission Trip Summary!!!

Hello Friends and Family!

My life has been what I like to call "An Adventurous Jumble" since returning from the Dominican Republic and starting life in Boston! I actually completed the rough draft of this email 3 weeks after the trip; however once school and work started I lost all free time and never finished!! I apologize to you for not having completed this sooner, and I thank you for your patience!! God is SO AMAZING, and has been proving Himself over and over again to me. He is faithful!!! Here is the long awaited and lengthy update on my mission trip!!

The DR Mission Trip was WONDERFUL!!! A little background: My Boston church, REUNION Christian Church, supports GO Ministries which is based in Santiago, Dominican Republic (DR). Through GO Ministries we support Pastor Luis Vargas, who ministers to the people of the DR through his church and also a nutrition center (any child can come get a free meal once a day). Pastor Luis has been called by the Lord to have his ministry based in La Mosca (the Fly) which is also a huge garbage dump. It is literally a vast community, where people live, work and play in the garbage. Through the support of REUNION, Pastor Luis is able to focus entirely on the ministry, and he is not required to get an additional job to support his family (Reina his wife, and his two sons Dilson and Jason). We also worked with Jen Goodenough, who is a full time missionary to with GO Ministries to Santiago, DR and in the Hato del Yaque area. In her own words, Jen "helps to facilitate teams from the US that come to the Dominican for Short-term mission adventures". John Martinez, also a full time missionary in the DR, is AMAZING and basically makes "it all" happen! He is in communication with GO Ministries, Pastor Luis, REUNION Church and other ministry supporters, and he just gets things done!!! :) I'm sure there is a more technical job description for all of his hard work, but I just saw him "make it all happen"!! ahha Hato del Yaque is an area that was developed when the river flooded and overflowed a very long time ago. People relocated to the area now called Hato del Yaque, and they never left. It is very poor, as most all of the areas we saw are. GO Ministries has a Nutrition Center and Church in this community, and that is where my team stayed and where our construction crew did most of our work.

I have to start out by saying that the mission team I went on this trip with was ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!! There were 29 of us; all ages and backgrounds. As a whole, I have never been with a more open, inviting, loving, friendly, hard working, fun, real, non-cliquish, God loving group. What a HUGE blessing it was to be welcomed into a new church community with such open arms! I tell you, if you ever move to a new location all by yourself, make sure the first thing you do is to immediately go on a mission trip with your new church. I am so blessed to have come away with 26 new friends (I already new myself, Jess and Torre!!)... 20 of which live in Boston and go to REUNION! What a blessing!

What did we do with our time in the DR?
We had two teams: Construction Crew and Medical Team. Torre and Jess were on medical, and I was on construction. The construction crew was working on a few projects: Filling in the foundation of two houses being built in Hato del Yaque; one for the Pastor and his family (not Pastor Luis... another pastor who works specifically in Hato) and one for Jen (missionary), fixing the dirt road leading to and from the nutrition center/church, and working on the "car port" which will house vehicles (GO Ministries and others). What I did was basically shovel dirt (and I use the word 'dirt' losely... it was more like piles of large rocks with some dirt thrown in!!) from the 7 huge piles they delivered, into wheel barrels, and then that dirt was dumped into the foundation. We had three days of construction, but unfortunately about half our crew was sick for the third day. We still aren't sure if it was something in the food or if it was a short virus, but it wasn't pretty! Never the less, our team was INCREDIBLE, and we managed to get pretty much all of the foundation of one house filled in. Sadly, if we had had some sort of vehicle moving the dirt it could have been done in hours. I had to stop and take stock once again of everything we take for granted in the US.

Fixing the road: This was done by carrying buckets of rocks from the "dirt piles", over to the large ruts in the dirt road and filling them in. Apparently the corrupt government receives money allocated for the fixing of roads, but somehow that money always ends up elsewhere. :o{
Car Port: On the day that I wasn't feeling quite up to par due to the nausea and fatigue from...whatever it was...I helped work on the "car port". We nailed up large, rough, wooden slats to form shingle-looking walls. The roof had been put on the day before and that was some sort of tin/aluminum sheets. We did have a few men who lived and worked with the ministry who were in charge of the entire construction process, so we weren't just running around on our own. :) They were a joy to work with... very talented and organized!

Medical Team: The medical team was awesome and held a 2 day clinic in La Mosca inside Pastor Luis' church/nutrition center. We had received an enormous amount of medical donations from the Boston area which we brought with us, and the team served over 600 PATIENTS in that small amount of time! Talk about 2 long days!! :) The medical team's presence/clinic also served as a means for the Pastor Luis to reach out to the people of the community and make them more aware of his presence and the availability/location of the church.

On Saturday our entire team walked around La Mosca in small groups, visiting the homes and inviting the people who lived there to attend church with us the next day. We also invited all the kids to join us at the church that afternoon for lunch (again, the only meal some of the would receive that day), a fun time of songs, a skit and also a craft. We had around 200 kids show up which was awesome!! The skit was based off the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-23). We acted out each scenario and had signs around our necks that said what part we were playing in Spanish (rocks "piedras", birds "aves", sun "sol", etc) The kids seemed to really enjoy it, and then they participated very nicely in the question and answer session at the end. For craft time we had Ziploc baggies all set with everything they needed to make paper plate tambourines (plates, crayons, string, beans and a sticker with the Sower Bible verse)! Since there were so many kids they had to work in pairs, but they didn't seem to mind and the end result was great!

We also had the honor of attending Sunday morning service at Pastor Luis' church!! He is so full of joy and passion for the Lord and for this community!! Their church is small, about 18 adults, but that is actually currently considered a good size for the area. He and his family are SO PRECIOUS. Please join me in lifting them up in prayer for continued safety, encouragement and the words to say in order to minister effectively to the people of La Mosca.

I am excited to report that during our time in La Mosca we saw quite a few Dominican people accept the Lord as their Savior!!! Woohooo!!! Praise God!! THAT IS WHAT THIS TRIP WAS ALL ABOUT! Not only being there to serve where needed, show Christ's love through our action and leave a positive impact, but also to see lives transformed through the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ!!! I was certainly blessed by the beautiful Dominican people and the amazing people on my team, but once again my perspective on life was realigned. I cannot believe how easy it is to lose sight of all the blessings we have been given here in America. Regardless of the fact that they have nothing, the Dominicans welcomed us into their homes, they make every effort to keep themselves clean and presentable and at times I did see that joy in their eyes that signals hope and love.

REUNION continues to support GO Ministries and Pastor Luis throughout the year, and we have even started scheduling SKYPE sessions with Pastor Luis and John Martinez!!! Technology is amazing, and how fantastic is it that we can speak "face to face" with our beloved brothers-in-Christ even though we are so many miles apart!?! This truly helps us all feel connected and aids in fostering a more consistent relationship until we can be with them again next summer. Next year's trip has been scheduled for Aug 2 - 9, 2011!! The first meeting is Nov 21 (this month), and we will be discussing details, fundraising, etc... Although I would love to be a part of this next trip, there is another mission opportunity that is also pulling at my heart. That one focuses on Orphan Missions, which has been a calling I have felt for quite some time, and I am looking into those details as well. I would love to be able to do both trips, and I am in prayer about what the Lord desires for me to do. Doing two trips would require a much more extensive fundraising campaign, however if it is the Lord's will then I KNOW He will provide!!

Thank you again for supporting me financially and in prayer and allowing me to be able to be a part of such a life changing event; not just my life, but the lives of so many who live in the DR and in the US. Please keep me in prayer as I determine what the Lord has for me for this coming summer, and also please be praying about the opportunity for you to once again support me financially as I do my part in Spreading the Knowledge and Love of Christ to the Nations.

For those of you who supported me financially, I submitted your addresses to REUNION Church upon receiving the donation so you would receive your tax deductible receipt. If you have not yet received that receipt please let me know right away!! I want to make sure you get that in time to include it when you file your taxes!!!

If you are interested in supporting a DR Child through GO Ministries so they are able to attend school, please let me know and I will provide you with that information.

If you click on the link at the bottom of this page (or maybe highlight, copy and paste into a new screen), you should be directed to the website that holds all of the photos that Jessica took during the trip. You will see bits and pieces from everything I described above. If you have any questions about a specific photo, send me an email referencing the photo # and I will do my best to elaborate the details. I hope it allows you to really sense what your donation helped make happen.

I love you and God bless!!
Jaimie
Isaiah 6:8, Exodus 14:14

you can view/copy/down load/order our DR pics at this link!
http://picasaweb.google.com/104224334735368471680/DR2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-886CcxL3z9QE&feat=directlink