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Dear Family and Friends,
I noticed that a few minor things were not reported . . . .
1. The shoes that were left outside of the guest house (where we are staying) were stolen on our first night. That means that just about everyone lost one of their pair of shoes. Someone must have climbed the 10 foot cement wall which surrounds the house. The dogs were tied up and didn't seem to mind the intruders. Anyway, it's a small inconvenience and we all seem to be getting along fine without them.
2. A large truck which is loading rocks and dirt from a construction site across the street broke the water main which feeds us our water. It has a steady leak and there is a stream of water running down the street. We have enough, though, to give ourselves "cup" showers upstairs. Two showers downstairs operate at full pressure. So . . . again . . . it is a small inconvenience which we can live with.
Blessings,
Karen
Beach Day
Dear Family and Friends,
In about half an hour, we head out to the beach in Puerto Plata. We will meet up with Dave and Rachel Veurink at about 3:30 PM. This morning, we were able to finish laying the first layer of the foundation. Fourteen of us did a pre-breakfast "work-out" (mixing mortar, etc.) and we were able to complete our goal.
Thanks always for your prayers. It is much appreciated.
Blessings,
Karen
In about half an hour, we head out to the beach in Puerto Plata. We will meet up with Dave and Rachel Veurink at about 3:30 PM. This morning, we were able to finish laying the first layer of the foundation. Fourteen of us did a pre-breakfast "work-out" (mixing mortar, etc.) and we were able to complete our goal.
Thanks always for your prayers. It is much appreciated.
Blessings,
Karen
Dear Friends and Family,
Thanks for checking in on the blog. It's been a very interesting experience so far. Such a different culture. Kerianne and I have gone out for a run the past two mornings and our scenery includes roaming animals - cows, turkeys, chickens, lots of yappy dogs. We start out on a bumpy dirt road and it quickly changse to a paved busy street - noisy with vehicles. One can see wealth and poverty almost on the same street.
The women all helped with Shelley's camp this morning. Fun!!! Adorable children. Eddie, one of Cam's friends from when he was here 3 years ago, was teaching me several Spanish phrases this morning. It was fairly easy to catch on to because of the hours I spent marking Kerianne's Spanish homework when she homeschooled as a junior (grade 11).
It's time for lunch and I'm hungry. It doesn't take much to build up a healthy appetite and I am loving this food. So many fresh fruits and vegetables. Avacado has never tasted so good.
God is good.
Blessings to you and thanks for your prayers!!!!
Karen
Thanks for checking in on the blog. It's been a very interesting experience so far. Such a different culture. Kerianne and I have gone out for a run the past two mornings and our scenery includes roaming animals - cows, turkeys, chickens, lots of yappy dogs. We start out on a bumpy dirt road and it quickly changse to a paved busy street - noisy with vehicles. One can see wealth and poverty almost on the same street.
The women all helped with Shelley's camp this morning. Fun!!! Adorable children. Eddie, one of Cam's friends from when he was here 3 years ago, was teaching me several Spanish phrases this morning. It was fairly easy to catch on to because of the hours I spent marking Kerianne's Spanish homework when she homeschooled as a junior (grade 11).
It's time for lunch and I'm hungry. It doesn't take much to build up a healthy appetite and I am loving this food. So many fresh fruits and vegetables. Avacado has never tasted so good.
God is good.
Blessings to you and thanks for your prayers!!!!
Karen
The concrete has been poured into the trenches with the steel skeleton (rebar frame). Three cement trucks filled in the first foot or two deep. This will set for a few hours (lunch) and then we will put the first layer of cement block down. This is an important step because being level is very important. When this sits (from Sat to Sun) we will then continue the foundation. We estimate 6 layers of brick to raise it to the ground level. Walls go up from there.
Catching Up and first day of work
I will start with a better description of our travels yesterday. There´s not a whole lot to say about the flights, they both went very well. The interesting stuff started when we arrived in the Dominican. First we exit the plane and head to customs. The first thing you have to do is buy a $10 tourist ticket and get into another line where the guy shreds the ticket and tells you to proceed. Then you proceed to get your passport stamp and go wait for your luggage. There is more to this but a little to confusing for me to type out. Just ask anyone of us to explain in more detail the experiance at the airport and they will tell you. After getting through everything we proceeded to exit where Guille, Shelley and the kids were waiting for us. Now remember that my sister Kim was a surprise the whole time. I was about the 5th person out and I dont know if Shelley was thinking I was ignoring her but at that time I was scrambling for my camera. Kim stayed back in the pack and stayed hidden pretty good. Once I found my camera I said hi to Shelley and the family and proceeded to the back of the line where Kim was hiding behind 2 other guys. Once Shelley made it to them Kim jumped over behind me and waited for Shelley to finish welcoming everyone. Once that was done Kim jumped out and tapped Shelley on the shoulder and asked her if there was room for one more. It took Shelley a couple moments to figure out that it was Kim but the picture below explains the emotion that was experianced at this moment.
After all the emotion we had to get going so we loaded the majority of the 42 pieces of luggage and carry ons into Guilles truck as shown below. I like the way Pastor Heino jumped right "on" and helped out.
Its amazing the differences here to the USA. We can load a truck with all these suitcases and nobody blinks twice at it.
After finishing the loading we headed off to Santiago in a bus that a friend of Guille and Shelleys has. The driving down here was an eye opener to most. One comment that was made was that it was the first time that they ever rode in a vehicle that passed a car that was passing another car. No worries anyone we made it and we are safe.
After we arrived at the host house, we had dinner, which the food is excellent, was led through the do´s and don´ts of the DR. After that we all were pretty exhausted and headed to bed.
Day 2 The first day of work.
The day in all was a success in my eyes. The team worked extremely well and achieved alot. We had to finish off the remainder of the rebar for the foundation work that the team before us was unable to finish. We finished that, moved a TON of clay dirt that was piled inside where the classrooms are going to be. We cut more rebar to tie into place along with move all the block on site into position for when we pour the foundations tomorrow. All in all we did a great deal of work and our next step is falling into place with the foundation. Once we pour that tomorrow we will be able to let that cure and start building the walls on Monday. See pictures below.
After all this hard work we were able to shower have a nice light dinner and serve with Guille and Shelley in their Thursday service. The team sang 2 songs and had to testamonies about how God has affected thier lives. Along with this we were able to meet and greet with the church members as well. It was a very wonderful and enjoyable time experiancing the services of Guille and Shelley.
All in all it seems to me that everyone is having a good time so far. I know we are all excited about being here and helping out.
I will try and keep everyone updated as much as possible. I am getting pretty tire and plan on going to bed.
Chris
After all the emotion we had to get going so we loaded the majority of the 42 pieces of luggage and carry ons into Guilles truck as shown below. I like the way Pastor Heino jumped right "on" and helped out.
Its amazing the differences here to the USA. We can load a truck with all these suitcases and nobody blinks twice at it.
After finishing the loading we headed off to Santiago in a bus that a friend of Guille and Shelleys has. The driving down here was an eye opener to most. One comment that was made was that it was the first time that they ever rode in a vehicle that passed a car that was passing another car. No worries anyone we made it and we are safe.
After we arrived at the host house, we had dinner, which the food is excellent, was led through the do´s and don´ts of the DR. After that we all were pretty exhausted and headed to bed.
Day 2 The first day of work.
The day in all was a success in my eyes. The team worked extremely well and achieved alot. We had to finish off the remainder of the rebar for the foundation work that the team before us was unable to finish. We finished that, moved a TON of clay dirt that was piled inside where the classrooms are going to be. We cut more rebar to tie into place along with move all the block on site into position for when we pour the foundations tomorrow. All in all we did a great deal of work and our next step is falling into place with the foundation. Once we pour that tomorrow we will be able to let that cure and start building the walls on Monday. See pictures below.
After all this hard work we were able to shower have a nice light dinner and serve with Guille and Shelley in their Thursday service. The team sang 2 songs and had to testamonies about how God has affected thier lives. Along with this we were able to meet and greet with the church members as well. It was a very wonderful and enjoyable time experiancing the services of Guille and Shelley.
All in all it seems to me that everyone is having a good time so far. I know we are all excited about being here and helping out.
I will try and keep everyone updated as much as possible. I am getting pretty tire and plan on going to bed.
Chris
We have arrived
I would like to apologize for the delay in letting everyone know that we have arrived safetly and with no issues. We found out today that there is not a computer for use at the host house but they due have wifi access for our use. For the next couple of days we will be working on this so hopefully everyone can use the site to keep you updated. It has been a very long day and I am exhausted. I am going to go for now and update you all in more detail tomorrow night.
Also, please keep the remainding 2 team members, Dave and Rachel Veurinks in your prayers for they are coming down on Saturday.
Thank You,
Chris
Also, please keep the remainding 2 team members, Dave and Rachel Veurinks in your prayers for they are coming down on Saturday.
Thank You,
Chris
Luggage
Through a considerable amount of donations, we were able to gather enough school supplies (paper, pens, pencils, crayons, etc.) for the school to fill approximately 22 suitcases. If you break this down to lbs. we are allowed 50 lbs. per suitcase (which we tried to achieve) so we have approximately 1100 lbs of supplies for the school. The team members are allowed 2 suitcases and one carry on, so one suitcase is for their personnel belongings and the other is the suitcase full of supplies. This is such a wonderful way to get these supplies down to the DR considering shipping 1100 lbs worth of supplies would've cost a fortune.
Thanks to all for the donations, the school now has a good stock of supplies for the upcoming school year. Let's pray that no one dares to open some of these suitcases, it could be a disaster.
Thanks to all for the donations, the school now has a good stock of supplies for the upcoming school year. Let's pray that no one dares to open some of these suitcases, it could be a disaster.
We will spend ten days in and around the city of Santiago continuing the work begun by other teams. Our main work will consist of constructing walls made from cement block to the Christian school there. This will add much needed classrooms to the growing school and shorten the waiting list of hopeful students wishing for a Christian education. We will also aid in a summer vacation Bible school program that occupies the summer holiday. Please pray for blessings on our work.
Thank you to all my family and friends who are supporting me financially and through prayer. Our group will, Lord willing, leave together from the Peace C.R.C. parking lot at 4:30 AM on Wednesday morning, April 5, 2009 on our way (through Miami) to the Dominican Republic. Use Google Earth to find our host church in the Dominican at 19 25’ 45.5’’ N – 70 28’ 57.97’’ W.
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