Day Two, a Wet Day

On Monday night (after our last blog), we had a chance to hear from the Director of the Care Center. He came to our house and shared with us for over an hour about his passion for these kids and the work that they are doing. When they took over the facility about 5 years ago, there was just one building and they could serve about 60 kids. 5 years later, their facilities have grown immensely (because of work teams) and they are now helping about 200 kids. The size of the facility is still what keeps them from growing further. They simply can not fit any more kids in there at once.

He shared about how they help kids with their education and while doing so, share Jesus with the kids every day. Their hard working teachers start at 8:00am and go until 4:00pm. They do Bible classes every day in the midst of teaching them critical skills like reading and writing. They have a set program Monday through Thursday and then on Friday they do all Bible teaching and games with the kids. It is the favorite day of the students. It is the AWANA program that many of us our familiar with back home.

The hard part is that there are about 600 kids in the village that they serve and they are only meeting the needs of a third of them. They have kids standing at the fence watching and wanting to be a part of it. It is very difficult for them to make decisions about who gets in and who doesn’t.

We asked him about the impact this is having. He answered that question by sharing a story about a young man named Carlitos. His dad had died and his mom was an alcoholic. He was constantly in fights and getting into trouble. He shared, with tears in his eyes, how he is amazed at the difference in Carlito’s life as he sees him nearly 5 years later. Kids like Carlito are his motivation for getting up every day and doing what God has called him to do.

It made all of us excited that we were here serving such a great ministry. It energized us to serve more the next day. I know that more than one of us wants to find a way to get home and help raise money for this ministry that is having such a big impact. What a privilege it is to be here!
- Scott

Well today is day two as you know and we are already feeling the strain, and affect of our hard work. We are all excited to see the playground go up but it definitely comes at a price. Instead of burning up like I did yesterday I was either soaking wet, cold, or half asleep today. Throughout our tour of the village this morning I was constantly humbled by what I saw. People living in tin huts were smiling bigger than me who lives in something quite nicer, and doesn´t have to worry about whether or not I´m gonna make it through the week. I´m constantly faced with challenges during this trip, but with the help of God and everyone around me I am finding them less stressful and easier to overcome. Please continue to pray for strength for me and the entire team as we push our way through to the end. God is with us, and we are constantly reminded of it.
-Sam

If you are on Facebook I am trying to also upload all our photos on Facebook (the will be in the album Dominican Republic) by Todd Patrick