Thanks to goods & cash donated we raised about $1,100 each at the garage sale – THANK YOU!

19 of the 28 Women that journeyed to the Republica Dominicana

We took 3 sewing machines, 2 laptops, overhead projector, cd player, cds,

clothes, tools, books and school supplies etc.

The flight was breathtaking

Deb, Carol & our niece, Jessika

We stayed at the Hotel Aloha Sol

Accommodations were very nice

We rode a bus about 40 minutes each way to our

work site everyday

We were surrounded by beautiful jungle foliage

They were outgrowing their rented building for Nińos Felices (Happy Children) Development Center

They don’t use chairs in any of the classrooms

When we arrived at the project, they were finishing

up pouring the concrete floors in the new building.

Screeding the concrete in the future cocina

(kitchen)

Deb’s ToolCarol’s Tool

Something’s wrong with this picture!!!

We were assigned jobs…

We scraped off the bulky concrete,

then “polished” it

Ladies took turns taking down the washed down

barbed wire fence. Careful to save the staples. The

barbed wire was rolled up for re-use for the

replacement fence to come

Many people gathered to watch us work – they were not used to women doing

this type of work.

We ate lunch at a host home across the road from the

Development Center

Lunch usually consisted of lots of rice, plantain patties, chicken & a little bowl of beans and cokes.

We learned the first day all our leftovers were saved for the children. Nothing ever wasted!

Our niece brought 1,000 balloons, the children LOVED it!

We packaged salvation bracelets

to distribute

We met every evening to plan for the following day

Church Service

We painted all the walls with

primer

The green paint that they chose for the

Development Center was almost a perfect match with the shirt color the Women’s

Ministries staff picked without planning.

It’s not everyday you see a

trunk FULL of

bananas!!

It was pretty common to see 3 to 5 on a motorcycle

A pickup loaded with groceries &

gifts followed us to homes

We planned to take groceries to 25 homes which would cost $750. Then found we needed groceries for 41 homes.

Without telling anyone the need – Becky received enough money to buy 41 bags of groceries (EXACTLY)!!!!

God is GOOD!

Deb (in her element) with some of the kidsDeb (in her element) with some of the kids

We had a time of sight

seeing while

waiting for paint to dry

All of the sites weren’t pleasant:

They took us to the dump – where people (called divers) live and

go through trash looking for food

73 year old “Maria” went on the trip & received a temporary “we can do it” tattoo for

her hard work &

continuous good attitude

We painted murals on 4 of the walls

We signed our names to our

handprints in the kitchen

“Noone has ever done anything

like this in other

projects”

The Staff were thrilled

New fence posts

We re-used the barbed wire

We met people the Lord has laid on our hearts. Our

lives will never be the same!

The reason we went . . .

. . . and why we must go back!