Wrapping up and heading home!

Wow.  This is fun!  Friday morning found us taking off a few of the last forms, and having a time of "dedication".  When the last minutes of time together draws to a close, it is not easy for this team to say goodbye.  We really cemented some relationships, as well as church walls.  Lots of hugs, and it is bittersweet knowing we likely will not see these people again.  Knowing our Faith Church family extends to these people warms our hearts, and encourages us to continue this ministry.   

Well, I will be completely honest we got the roof on except one sheet; but at the beginning of the week I didn't think we would get that far.  The Lord blessed us with excellent local workers and we would not have gotten this far without them.  It was such an awesome time working side-by-side them even as well as praising God together each day.

Bittersweet

Day 5 on the jobsite.  A day like today is bittersweet.  Coming to serve with our brothers and sisters in the Dominican Republic has been a joy.  The church is not quite finished, but there has been a ton of progress.  Rafters were placed.  The tin was put on the roof.  The columns for the front doors were poured.  More importantly, relationships were formed in the progress.  The local church was fully invested in building the their church.  Many individuals were eager to learn and stepped in on most of the tasks.  And so, it is a bittersweet day.  Our project is as far as it will go with our assistance, but now we need to say our goodbyes to our new friends. It is a joy to walk alongside and know that our brothers and sisters in Christ are excited for their new place for worship, even the kids want to be in the new church building. We are looking forward to the celebration tomorrow with Christ’s body.  

Building and pizza

Just a quick update tonight as we aren't having great internet service tonight.

We had another great day!  Today, we continued the work on the walls and finished those up along with the top bond beams.  This afternoon, we built the rafters and got them ready to go up tomorrow.

This evening, we enjoyed pizza at a local pizzeria that is owned by a couple from Kansas City who moved to the Dom. Rep. 2.5 years ago at the calling of the Holy Spirit.  One of the Pastor's sons works here and had invited us earlier in the week.

Tomorrow will be our last work day at the site.  We hope to finish the roof and a few other small things.  

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers over this trip this week.

Birthday Tuesday

Today was another great day for our team and members of the church who have been helping to grow a little more in relationships.  Now you may think because of the language barrier and culture difference that it would not be possible to get to know each other very well, but those differences will only stop you if you let them.  The people are extremely hospitable and are starting to open up to us and we are having lots of laughs and enjoying working together.

Today was also a special day as Brent Kooiman celebrated a birthday as well as a young man named  Modesto.  He is one of the pastor's sons and is the man who runs the show because of his expertise in building.  We got to sing happy birthday to both of them and it was a joyful moment for the both of them.

Our work day consisted of laying block, making re-bar cages, forming concrete corners and bond beam, and ending with pouring concrete.  With all the mortar and concrete work it is not an easy job since both are mixed on the ground and carried from there by hand.  The Haitians are pros and their system is very impressive and we work together to get in from the pile to the walls by human chain.  Its one of my favorite parts of the project to see people different race mixed in a line to accomplish the same goal. 

We finished our work about 4:30 today so we got an opportunity to jump in the river and the ocean to cool off before supper which was very refreshing.  We again enjoyed a Dominican meal of rice, chicken, noodles, toastones, and they even made us mashed potatoes!! We ended the day with devotions and some history of Dominican Republic and some snacks.

Back to work!

It is Monday...no not like that Monday....IT WAS MONDAY!!  😁

We were excited to get back to the worksite today after having the day off yesterday.  Today was a day of wall building, but also of breaking down walls (barriers).  We got to know many more of the congregation members today as we worked alongside of them.  We learned more names (and forgot a few) as well as what they do for work or what they are going to school for.

We began the day again with prayer over the worksite by the local pastor and then began tearing off the forms from the lower bond beam.  Next was laying block and more block.  By noon we had the north wall completed and the south wall about 1/2 way up.  

At noon, we enjoyed another meal prepared by the ladies of the church

The afternoon continued the block laying and then also forming up the first of the columns on the north wall.  By the end of the day, the north, south and 1/2 of the east walls were up and all the columns on the north wall were poured.  It was a good ending to a good day.

We had lots of help with any tasks we were doing

We continue to enjoy our view and the future view of of the church window.

Sunday

What a day! We enjoyed a day relaxation in the local area which was highlighted with an evening worship service at a local CR church currently lead by the pastor who will be leading the church we are building. A rain shower caused the road we thought we needed to take to become impassable. We tried to make it up the steep path but the attempt ended with all of us getting out and pushing the van back on the path and backing down onto the main road.

Soon after we realized there was a better path and we were able to make it up a remote river-bed to the church shown in the picture below. 

Due to the rain shower the crowd was smaller but the enthusiasm was lacking nothing. We gathered in song and praise with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are rich in their love for bring praise to God. The singing and prayers were with such sincerity that even with the language barrier we could sense their love for Jesus. The team sang a few songs in English and we concluded our service with greeting of handshakes and hugs to one another. We were blessed.

1st day onsite

Hola! Buen Dia!
     Saturday was our first day on the work project.  We started our day with prayer and introductions.  Pastor Moses shared with us his thanks and praise to God for answers to prayer for a new church building.  It is humbling to see how God works and answers prayers, even through the hands of people from Sioux Center and many others, of course.

     If you expect that a project in the Dominican will go like those in the US, you would be mistaken.  We may have needed more supplies.  Those supplies may have taken a while to get there.  By the end of the day, you would have no idea that any of this occurred.

     Our group had the privilege to work along a large number of local congregants to continue work on the church.  We laid some block, made some re-rod cages , and poured a substantial bond beam.  Local women provided a delicious noon meal.

     The location of our hotel may be along the ocean.  That location provided us with refreshing break after a great day on the job.  An evening meal was enjoyed, and we ended our day with group devotions.

Travel to the site

After breakfast this morning, we went through some orientation/presentation about the Ministry here in the Dom. Rep.  I would invite you to check out sinergiaflt.org and find out about all the exciting things happening here!

After that, we packed up the van with our bags and all the tools, had lunch and then headed out for our 4 hour trip from Santo Domingo to Los Patos.  It is really a beautiful country and a lot of diversity, from city to agriculture of sugar cane, plantains, tomatoes, corn, etc.  A little further along and there are mountains and coastline and even desert and cactus!

We were glad to finally reach our hotel around 5:30 pm

We decided to check out the construction site before eating, since it was just a little over a mile down the road. The congregation had gotten a great start and had the foundations laid and ground mostly leveled.

As you can see, we will have some great views while working on this project overlooking the water 

Thanks for all your prayers for safety in our travels and for continued prayers as we start work tomorrow and that God's kingdom may be spread and shown to all those who we encounter.

First Morning in DR

We arrived in Santo Domingo and were able to have get to the ministry at 1:00am. When I go to different countries one of the things I find interesting is figuring out the rules of transportation, Dominican Republic is no exception. The biggest adjustment was having roosters outside our window. I can probably count on one hand my interactions with roosters. It was a quick moment to help me switch mindset for the next 10 days. I cannot expect simple things to be the same and they might seem to be irritating but it is all part of life here, and part of my life for remainder of the trip. For breakfast we were able to hear stories of Guido, a Hatian, and his journey to believe in Christ but also how he became involved in his work now with the denomination and ministries. 

Today we will be traveling to our work site in Los Patos.  Please pray for safety in travel.

For those who have been here before, it was a sad day....the old grey van was retired 😫   We have a different van for the trip. 

On our Way!!

We are just getting ready to take off from Atlanta for the final leg of our flights.  So far, everything has gone smooth and we plan on being at the Ministry Center in Santo Domingo late tonight.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

2020 Trip - Getting Ready!!

The Faith team is getting ready head to the Dominican Republic on February 20th through the 29th.

This year, the team will be working in Los Patos (the ducks) which is about 3-1/2 hours west of the capital of Santo Domingo along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic.  The project is working alongside Pastor Moise LaFleur and the CRC congregation to build a church building as they are currently meeting in a rented house.

Please pray for the team and the congregation in Los Patos.  That we may bless them and they may bless us during this experience.

The team:
Steve Boer
Karla Byl
Jon Dekkers
Dave Eekhoff
Scott Hulstein
Brent Kooiman
Glen Mouw
Duane Postma
Jesse Punt
Lisa Smith

Thank you for the support from Faith CRC to provide for the building materials for this project and for supporting and praying for us and our families.

We love to hear from you via comments to our posts while we are gone.

If you would like to see what we will be doing, please check out the previous posts below from previous years.  This project will be very similar to those.