quick note...

I will blog from Atlanta about yesterdays events, but I wanted to let you all know that group one has left the Dominican Republic and is headed to JFK.  I leave shortly and the remaining missionaries are off to the resort.

Pray for our safe travel...we are praying for you and looking forward to seeing you soon!

- Heather

Wednesday...last full day of work....

HI!!! 

It’s Rebekah, or Vaca as the kids are calling me, which means cow, they all get a big kick out of it. When I introduced myself I said Bekah -- V and B sound similar in spanish. Now i can tell when they are talking about me because they all start to mooooooo. 

The kids all have so much energy its inspiring. Its as if they don’t know how to frown. I love them all so much, and i know they really have left such a deep hand print on my heart. Today was much like the other days though the sun was hiding in the morning while we finished the ditch. My hands and arms are sore from holding the jack-hammer and digging rocks out. My work gloves might be my favorite thing i brought (thanks mom, now i see why they are your favorite). After working for a few hours in the morning out on the playground with our rock moving team my hands were shaking. heather told everyone on the bus she was worried i wouldn’t be able to get the food in my mouth during lunch. I made it as well as usual - lots of rice on the table. 

In the afternoon i got to paint a little which i love, and am so glad I got my moms neat painting skills. i miss home a lot of course but i’m so glad to have this experience. getting to know everyone on the trip as been a true blessing. 

I haven’t stopped talking about the beach. I can’t wait!! i can NOT wait!! its really going to be too much fun. 

My camera is broken, it broke the first day, (surprise, surprise family i know!) But i promise it wasn’t my fault, i PROMISE! haha. its been great though and heather let me take pictures. with hers though and i think i got a few good ones. 

... not much left to say, i wish you all could be here with me enjoying this culture that is so rich and alive you can feel it in your blood. seeping like oil based paint - you wont ever get it out, trust us, we know! its so loud! and everyone seems to come out as we are getting ready for bed. 

i feel like i’m on a reality TV show... (i’m so scatter brained, its been a long day and its still so hot i’m in short and a tank top at 9:30 pm) Its too beautiful and amazing to be real. but, i am getting so tired from all the crazy work we did today. i miss you all so much, i really wish you could share this with me. I hope you see the change i feel. I love you all and pray for you every night. 

i’m sending you internet hugs and kisses!! and will think of you (elspeth) while i’m on the beach tomorrow.

love. you. 

-Bekah 

Check out our photos...

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/heatherlpayton/MissionTripToTheDR2009?feat=directlink

Comments & Photos...

Tonight I'll be uploading photos from our trip, but many of us are missing many of you and would love it if you would post some comments or questions.

-Heather

Hot Rocks....

Piedras, piedras y mas piedras!  (Rocks, rocks and more rocks!) This is Peter again.  Yesterday we cleared the playground of perhaps 4 tons of small rocks (Don Burt’s estimate).  Today we used Don’s engineering design skills  to design a drainage system for the playground, which has a decent slope to it.  We constructed a “French drain” according to Don, using all indigenous materials.  We dug a ditch about a food wide and 18 inches deep using pickaxes and shovels, in rocky soil - tough work in tropical heat!  I was wishing that my 18-year-old son, Zach, and some of his strong friends would have been here with us.  But we had a good crew - Courtney and Elin and Don from St. Aidan’s, and Hannah, Kelly, Ben, Clara, Kris and myself from St. Ambrose.  And we were joined by quite a few of the Dominican children again, mostly ages 8 to around 18.  Although one of my highlights of the afternoon was when a 2-year-old boy, Henry, joined us.  The shovel was taller than he was, but he was helping me shovel small rocks into the wheelbarrow, when we started to fill the ditch with various sizes of rocks to line it.  Henry really liked it when I gave him rides in the wheelbarrow, after we filled it with rocks.

Our group is really working hard, and we are getting a lot done.  We have “the three P” teams - plumbing, painting and playground.  The plumbing team, the smallest, has been repairing toilets and sinks.  The painting team has painted the school library and its contents (bookcases), and also and outside iron fence in lots of bright colors.  The playground team also removed a metal seesaw today that was sunk into two big chunks of concrete.  The church women are preparing wonderful meals for us at lunch, where we are probably getting our best sampling of Dominican foods - lots of dishes with plantain prepared in different ways.

We also had a nice visit after getting back from work today from two American missionaries who have been in the D.R. for 13 years.  Bob and Ellen are from Nebraska.  Bob has been a deacon for almost 24 years and is the Canon to the Ordinary here.  Ellen is the one who organizes all the mission groups who come to the D.R. (like ours).  They clearly had a strong calling to do this work and really enjoy it (their children are grown and in the U.S.).  They shared some beautiful stories about how the church here is growing (from 23 to 65 churches since they’ve come, and from 7 schools to 24).

For those of you who are parents, your children are doing really well - working hard and having a good time.  My daughter, Hannah, just went to bed at 8:30, so we are wearing them out!  

I always go on too long.  Time for someone else - we love you all so much and miss you, but this is a great thing for our two churches.  Hi Julia and Zach, and hi to all of you at St. Ambrose. We’re going to have great stories to share with all of you.

Grace and Peace, Peter

Work today was grueling!  The heat was amazing.  It had been sort of overcast the last couple days but today the sun was out in full force.  We all had a bit of a rough time working out the cramps and tight muscles from yesterday’s work.  When we had shown up in the morning there was a giant pile of dirt waiting for us to be moved to the playground...then 20 min later another load came and added to it.  But our lunch was great as always and the Dominicans always keep us smiling and laughing.  We got back to our rooms, quickly showered and met Bob and Ellen Snow.  They are two amazing missionaries who have amazing stories.  They are two of the most faithful people I have ever met.  We had evening prayer afterward and they stayed to worship with us.  I am very proud to say I was in charge of the music portion of evening prayer as well and I brought Taize to the Dominican!  Taize is a style of worship, mostly through song, that is practiced by monks in France.  Many of us at St Aidans enjoy this style of worship and I taught our group a couple Taize songs!  

We are taking so many pictures (along with the kids who love to take our cameras and go on picture taking escapades)!  I hope Heather can upload some so we can show you what we’ve been doing.  Somehow I don’t think the amount of rock translates as well in words.  We also love eating the mangos here!  They are really delicious and every night we have Jugo de Chinola (Passion fruit juice).   We are crazy about that Chinola!  And I have never tasted such good ice cream as we had tonight.  Granted it was Baskin Robbins but I think it was amazing because it is so hot here.  We all have been having a great time but it seems as the sun begins to go down we get more and more tired each night.

Right now Peter, Elizabeth, Heather, Kris and I are sitting in the rocking chairs on the patio and chatting.  After all the experiences during the day we always return to talking about the people we love once we get so tired and almost ready for bed.  A dog is barking in the distance, beneath us we can hear Dominican music blasting from a stereo and the cars passing by make a great soundtrack for this conversation.  I am exhausted and should go to bed soon, but it seems like we are trying to cherish all the time we have together here, even if it means being quite tired in the morning.  Dominican coffee is not only tasty but essential to mission work.  I look forward to tomorrow but for now sitting with my friends gossiping is a great time.  I wish you all a peaceful and restful night.  Please pray for us, you are in our hearts.

Your sister in Christ, Courtney

Day one...what mission is all about

We woke up early, scarfed down breakfast and headed for the church this morning early.  When we got to the church we gathered in the chapel, prayed and introduced ourselves to our Dominican work partners.  I shoveled, raked, and hauled coarse gravel for half a day.  It was the definition of back-breaking work.  It was glorious!  The Dominican sun, humidity, and the smiles and laughs of the kids all day really made me feel blessed.  The idea of a “work day” is very different in the Dominican than in the States.  We took turns with the four shovels that the church had to clear all the gravel out of the playground next to the chapel.  When I wasn’t helping with the work the Dominican kids would play pranks and tell jokes to all of us.  I became the official translator of our small group and translated everything from “What is your name?” to some admirations from the young boys.  Lunch was amazing authentic Dominican food and while the adults sat and digested the rest of us went and played baseball and basketball with the kids.  By the time we had to leave for the day we had almost completely cleared the playground!  I would have never thought we could finish it today.  

Today I realized what mission really is all about.  It’s not just to do the work (which is very important) but to also connect with the people.  I thank God that there were only 4 shovels, not only because I could rest some of the time but because it made the rest of us look up from our work and interact with the kids at the church.  Sometimes in the US we go to work, work hard constantly for 8 hours and then go home.  Many of us don’t know much about our co-workers and we don’t really enjoy the freedom of enjoying our hard labor.  In the Dominican work is only a part of life, not life itself.  The lunches are 2 hours long and creating community is far more important than making sure a job is done vigorously and perfectly.  I never thought hard labor in heat and humidity could be a breath of fresh air.

I am very grateful to God that he has given us the insight to find where our help was needed and the strength to go through it despite our fear and angst.  There were many times before we left that I questioned whether this was the right path for me but now I know it was.  Already this has been one of the most profound and enlightening experiences of my life.  I can’t wait to come home and share my experience in more depth with you all, but for now I’m so blessed to stay and continue to help these people doing God’s work and connecting with them.  Please pray for us, you are in our hearts.

Your sister in Christ,  Courtney

Mangos, Rocks, and new friends...

Today there were many adventures to be had, and I’ll let the team responsible for blogging share that with you, but I want to tell you some lesser great moments... Today I learned that I am funny if I only tell one word jokes.  While scraping paint off of the ceiling in a very small room, Dustin & I were about to get our picture taken with masks on, so I encouraged him to smile, in spite of the mask.  Later on in the cigar shop, we were getting our photo taken and the kind man I met in September was there again and he offered to take our picture.  The first time he said, “say American Cheese” so the second time I said, “queso” which made us all laugh.  So we are either more easily entertained here without television or I have gotten funnier.  The are a few of us who share similar loves: jugo de chinola and mangos.  Jugo de chinola is passion fruit juice, and it is amazing. Tonight my dinner partners and I took multiple shots of the chinola for later facebook profile photos.  The other love of our lives is the mango.  Earlier this evening a lady was selling mangos across the street - I bought four which quickly appeared on our faces.  I then bet Ben that he couldn’t get mangos cheeper...Ben won the bet, but only because he charmed the lady selling them!  Needless to say, we are on an adventure and learning to love life in the Dominican Republic...there are those threatening to stay for the mangos....

Sending our love through mango-covered faces....

Heather

My team gets to help with redoing the plumbing in the church and school buildings.  The school has 800 students, preschool through senior high.  Our first foray rebuilt a bunch of toilets in the mens room, but tomorrow I think we get promoted to sinks!   It was all worth it though, because they fed us mangos.

Don  

Ten of us worked with painting today.  I started with the ceiling and got more paint on me than on the ceiling.  Both our Dominican coworkers, Alesandro  and Tofi (?), wanted their pictures taken with me.   Alesandro did most of the ceiling.  We did the walls until we ran out of paint.  More paint came at the end of the day so we will have more to do tomorrow.  There was a spirited basketball game at coffee break with some of the school kids.  The playground team moved a couple of tons of gravel from the playground (and you think I’m kidding!).  There were many kids to play with us!

Kris

Working Day One....

We are about to head off for our first day of work, and Mary Jo suggested I tell you a bit about the development plan for the Diocese of the Dominican Republic.  Congregations within the DR who can host churches (meaning they have accommodations available) receive mission groups.  This means that some of the congregations who receive mission groups may not look like they need them, but they do have meaningful work.  We send ahead quite a bit of money - some of which is spent on our project, but half (or more) is then spent through out the year to help churches who cannot receive missionaries.  This development plan allows for all of the congregations to develop at similar rates.  In new buildings, Bishop Julio puts a staircase in regardless of a second floor being put in or not, with the hope that one day it will.  There is also a scholarship program where you can sponsor a child go to school here.  Lots of good things to help the country move forward.  The Bishops plan is working so well, that other Episcopal Diocese are now modeling their program off of his.

Now off to work!

- Heather

Sunday - Church & Sightseeing

Hey everyone! Hannah here. (: Today we went to church at Iglesia San Marcos in the town of Haina, a little bit west of the capitol, and met some very very very nice people. Then we toured Santo Domingo with a tour guide named Green, visiting several Museums, The Roman Catholic Cathedral and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  After, all of us went to lunch at different places. I happened to go to a pizza buffet, not very Dominican, with my dad, Kelly, and Ashley. We shared two delicious pizzas. For dinner, a number of us met up with the priest from the church we worshiped at in the morning.  His wife and two children joined us.  The thing I most enjoyed today was playing with the priest’s son, Emmanuel, who was nineteen months old. He is probably one of the cutest boys I have ever met and Torie and I took several pictures with him and played with him so his parents could finish up eating.  

So far, this trip has been awesome!  The culture is great and I love experiencing it.  We are meeting such kind people and experiencing things we never have that are helping us become more grateful.  Tomorrow we are starting to do our mission work. The jobs are painting, plumbing and clearing rocks from the playground to make it safer for the children. 

This is Peter writing now.  It was my great privilege to preach at Iglesia San Marcos this morning.  With Julie Boyd’s help, I was able to give the first part of my sermon (greeting and introduction) in Spanish.  Then I gave the rest of it in English, with Julie translating.  (Julie has a real gift and love for speaking Spanish!)  Father Juan Rosario has been a priest for 16 years, and serves three churches.  The other two are smaller and one of them is a house church with about 20 people.  He also is the principal of the school adjacent to San Marcos - preschool through high school with over 800 total children.  His wife, Reina, is one of the fifth grade teachers.  Juan’s English skills are quite good, but I have been working on my Spanish, too.  My three years of high school Spanish are coming back to me, but I do have times when I get confused and don’t understand.

This trip is bringing back a lot of powerful memories and associations from my Peace Corps time in Dominica (east of here in the Windward Islands) from 1982-1985. Although Dominica was not a Spanish-speaking country (English and a French creole spoken there), the climate, some of the food (e.g., fried plantains) and the friendliness of the people seem very familiar.  Also bringing back memories are the music that you often hear playing in the background, and seeing men playing dominoes at a small table right along the street (and how animated they get when they play).  There is always time to “hang out” in the Caribbean culture, and it is very conducive to making friendships and simply having fun.

I want to allow time for others to write.  Please know that we really appreciate your prayers, as well as the financial support that many of you have given us.  Everyone in the group seems to be doing quite well, aside from the normal frustrations with language barriers and humidity, things that are minor when compared to how grateful we are to be learning new things.  May the Lord bless and keep you all.  We look forward to the stories we can share with you when we return. 

Grace and peace,

Peter

I woke up this morning at 6am Dominican time and was surprised at what I saw when I went to sit on the patio.  The streets were deserted, apparently Dominicans don’t wake up before 7am.  It was so different from any other big city I’ve lived in or visited where everyone is up bright and early for work.  The couple people I did see walking around looked more like they hadn’t gone to sleep yet instead of just waking up.  The warm, overcast morning was a nice change from the frosty night Elizabeth and I spent in our room.  It seems our A/C only has two states, off and arctic.  We quickly dressed, had breakfast and drank coffee from a small art gallery, and then headed for church.  

The Dominican people may not be as wealthy as us monetarily but they more than make up for it with faith.  Everyone was so welcoming and I wish we could hear such profound “Amen!”s and “Alleluia!”s at St Aidans.  The hymnal music was sung from the heart, it didn’t matter that the music wasn’t printed, they were literally dancing in their pews to the beat of the drums and beautiful guitar improve.  It really is a blessing to  share time and work with our Dominican brothers and sisters.  

We went to go sightseeing after that.  We started out at the cathedral and a guide decided he was going to take us on a Dominican sightseeing escapade.  We didn’t ask him to but it was a great gift to be lead along the streets of the DR to museums and ruins.  We saw century old artwork and looked out the same windows as Christopher Columbus’ son in his beautiful mansion.  It was beautiful.

We spent the rest of the day eating and exploring and finally ended our day with check in and worship.  It was a great experience and we all look forward to beginning our real work tomorrow.  I pray God gives us the strength to give our whole selves to the Dominicans as we gain so much from them everyday.  Elizabeth and I are sitting on our beds after an unfortunate toilet malfunction sent us into hysterical laughter earlier.   I hope the A/C doesn’t keep us shivering all night.  Please keep us in your prayers, you are in our hearts. 

Your sister in Christ, Courtney

And so it begins...

Wow!  What a beginning to our trip!  We started out very early Friday morning on our flight to the DR and finally landed here at 2pm Dominican time. Walking off the plane a wave of hot humid air met us in the terminal.  It was the first thing for me that clicked after 11 hours of travel that we were really here.  Everything is green, and flowers grow in shallow piles of dirt that have gathered on rooftops and window sills.  The ride to our hotel drove us past amazing sites of the deep and rich history that the Dominican has.  We passed by two hundred year old forts which were nestled in between shops and busy apartment buildings.  We saw many statues of great men who have shaped the Dominican and drove by the old lighthouse that used to guide boats safely to shore hundreds of years ago.  We got to our hotel, checked in, and finally took some much needed showers.  

Every corner we turned and every shop we entered had a radio blasting music.  We sat in the square and watched the bustle of people go by as we ordered dinner in Spanish and hoped for the best.  The streets are full of people and there is a feeling that time is secondary to enjoying the world around you here.  As the sun went down and the  street lights flickered on we sat on the balcony of our hotel.  The air was still hot and sticky but we all felt at peace, partly from dinner and the lack of sleep but I think it was something more.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we will leave early to go to church and worship with these amazing people before we set out to do the work God has given us to do.  Please keep us in your prayers, you are in our hearts.

Your sister in Christ,  Courtney Chapman

We're Here!!

A quick post to tell you all that we have arrived safely in the Dominican Republic and are settling in at the Hotel Freeman.  Members are gathering shortly for our first team meeting and there will be posts after that.

- Heather

DIA

For all of you following the exciting exploits of getting new tickets after our flight was canceled, I wanted to let you know that we are all sitting at the gate, with boarding passes all the way to Santo Domingo.  Life is good.  Our flight departs at 1:15a...please keep us in your prayers as we travel.  So far, so good.

- Heather

Departing Soon...

Welcome to the blog for the St. Ambrose Episcopal Church mission trip to the Dominican Republic!  There are 19 of us going... six high school students, five college students, and eight adults.  Our mission work takes us to Haina, where we will work on the pipes so the school and church can have clean water, a small electrical project, we'll clear (and if there is time build) a playground, and lead an art class.  We'll also see the sights, eat Dominican food and visit the beach. 

One small change...our Delta Flight was cancelled and they didn't tell us, so we are departing on June 13th instead of the 12th.  Part of the group will return on the 19th and the rest on the 22nd.

We'll update our blog each day (as we are able to get internet service) to share photos and stories of our days in the DR.  Different people will write and will tell the story from their perspective and we welcome your comments and questions.  One of us will answer questions as we are able.

Please keep us and our work in your prayers.  We also want to thank you all for your support of our mission trip, know that our hope is that this blog will help you come with us on this trip...so that next time you might pack a bag and come with us.

-Heather