Dominican Republic Report

July 2007

    The trip to the DR was an amazing adventure as most mission efforts are. Our team was incredibly compatible. Everyone understood that the interest of the children we were teaching and the work of the local church was top priority. Landing in beautiful Santa Domingo, we were blessed to see another part of God’s world. The scenery was breathtaking with an ocean view that rivaled both American coasts. A five hour bus ride took us to the village of Neyba, which would be our home for a week.   

    The village was very poor, but still managed to have an ice cream shop at the corner of a town square that was surrounded by small run-down businesses. The square was the gathering point for townspeople and, literally, all hours of the day and night, people were selling products, music was playing, and motorcycles circled. Our hotel was directly across from the square so the noise level was akin to New York City at Christmas time. Our job for the week was to help the local congregation with a VBS for 300 plus children and to make connection with the Children’s Home supported by the church there and see what our WFR church family could do to help. Both tasks were very successful.

    The VBS went off without a hitch and by the last day, we had close to 400 children. It was so fun to see the faces of the children light up as we gave them a handful of crayons. They were used to only have one crayon a piece. The local helpers were amazing and although we didn’t speak the same language from our mouths, we did from our hearts. God translated for us. As for the Children’s Home, we were able to bring the children toys as they had none and to purchase a new refrigerator and stove while we were there. To say they were appreciative would be an understatement. Our thanks to David Heath for so capably making all the preparations for our trip and to Maxine for going ahead of us to make sure everything was there that we might need. What a blessing to have people so willing to leave the comforts of home to make someone else’s life a little easier! It was a great trip and hearts were touched with the love of Jesus through His people.

Chrys Howard