I arrived in the DR March 16th, home to humidity and to the sounds of dogs barking all night along with the roosters(I actually hard a hard time sleeping with all the quiet when I returned back to the states!) My first two weeks in the Dominican I spent checking in on the community medical clinic, visiting with my neighbors, and clearing out the family of mice that had moved into our apartment! I didn't realize mice had a fondness for Italian spices, but Eric and I left some in a bag up in the cabinet, and the little guys made quite a mess! One night I finally caught and disposed of my friend. I felt really bad about it, my niece and nephew have a pet mouse named Mr. Nibbles. (We actually had a small earthquake that same night which woke me up. My bed was shaking and in my sleep I remember thinking that the mouse had come back for revenge and was crawling up my blanket to get me!!) Next time, Eric gets to kill the mouse the subconscious remorse was not worth it!!
While I was there I also visited most of our staff and gave them all tetanus shots. With all the construction we work with, and all the not so clean places we visit, it's important that we take care of ourselves.
March 27th, F
irst Capital Christian Church came to Batey Nueve for teaching and men's ministry. What an awesome week!! We had never taught health classes before, and we really did not know what to expect. The ladies from FCCC taught on germs, the importance of hand washing, importance of clean drinking water, parasites, importance of breastfeeding, and the prevention, symptoms and treatment of dehydration. With each lesson that was taught, they used stories and examples from the Bible. It is one thing to have medical clinics to treat people, but is is equally if not more important to educate them as well.On
Tuesday, we talked about the importance of drinking clean water. The ladies had made up three bottles of water. Each bottle contained a different ingredient. One bottle had salt water, the other sugar water and the last bottle had watered down coffee in it. The idea was to show them that although some of the bottles looked clear, there were "germs" hidden that you could not see. In the afternoon session we talked about the spreading of germs, and the importance of washing your hands several times a day(after you go to the bathroom, and before preparing meals.) The ladies proceeded how to show them how to make a "tippy tap". It's a hand washing station made from a 2 liter bottle, a piece of soap, a nylon stocking, and a coat hanger. The idea was to show the ladies the importance of keeping their water clean, and to make it easy and accessible. A lot of the families have to walk a good distance to get to a community well for their water. By hanging the "tippy tap" on a tree branch in the sun, it keeps the water clean and purified by the heat of the sun. On that first day, we had 68 women for the class!Wednesday
s we spent the morning talking about parasites, and how you become infected. This is a huge problem, and a leading cause of dehydration among infants and children. Many of the children there don't wear shoes, and as a result contract hook worms. You see children and infants without underwear and diapers, and next thing you know they have pin worms and spread them to their brothers and sisters. We also talked about the importance of covering their food to keep fly's and other egg laying insects at bay. It was amazing to see how how the ladies responded to the topics of conversations and how smart they are. This was the first time I had ever been in classes with them. They just soaked it all up! We also talked about the power of mothers in the home. That it's the mom's who have the power to improve the quality of the physical and emotional health of their children and spouses. Mother's can change the world!! It was awesome to encourage them and to help them really realize how important their role really is to their families! At the end of the session, we handed out hygiene bags to the ladies, vitamins, and parasite pills.Wednesday afternoon, we had a special treat! We traveled to Barahona and witnessed about 20 or so youth get baptized! It was a beautiful day as we watched from the beach as Pastor William and Richard baptized them. We sang some songs and listened to their confessions of faith. We also had the privilege of witnessing on of the Americans from the visiting team be baptized as well! SO exciting!!!
Thurs
day was another full day. We spent the day talking about diarrhea, dehydration, how to make Oral Re hydration Solution drinks, how to take a temperature, the importance of breastfeeding and passed out 5 gallon jugs for clean drinking water. Diarrhea and dehydration are BIG issues with children and infants. They stop urinating, have fevers, tummy's swell, and can actually kill small children. The ladies taught the mom's the recipe for the ORS drinks, provided them with thermometers, and with liquid Tylenol for the children. They even had a dummy called "Diarrhea Annie" that demonstrated how diarrhea works, what is looks like, and how it looks when a child gets hydrated. The country as a whole has been promoting breastfeeding since last year. In the DR, it seems like that there is this stigma about breastfeeding...only the poor breast feed. We explained to them the importance of breastfeeding their babies, and the benefits. A lot of the women said that they thought formula would be better since a lot of the women's diet was not very good.We explained to them that the "breast" is always best, and told them that even in the states we encourage our women as well to breast feed if they can. The women loved it...before too long they were laughing and asking questions. They were even making jokes about the superiority of women and all the things women can do that men can't! It was a great time! For three nights, after the education classes were closed for the day, the men of FCCC had a night of men's ministry. The men hosted domino's night, showed the movie Braveheart, and on the last night the men had a foot washing clinic for the men who worked in the sugar cane fields. In total they had about 100 men from the community that participated in the men's events. The men of the visiting team made sure that every night the love of Jesus was shared with them. They live a hard life, and even a desperate existence at times. How do you survive that without the love and hope Jesus has to offer?
Eric has been continuing to work with receiving and shipping goods to the earthquake victims in Haiti. He is also coordinating G.O. Ministries largest fundraiser with the Kentucky Derby.
Eric and I are in need of your help. As of right now, we are operating at a deficit of $800 a month. The cost of living in the states for half the year is a lot more expensive than living in the DR full time. We are in the process of support raising right now. What we need from our current supporters is to introduce us to your small groups and bible studies. Are there people that you know who would be interested in supporting a missions family? Are any of you all gifted in support raising and have some great idea's for us, or even better would you be willing to spear head a support event on our behalf?
We hope that you all are having a wonderful spring so far. We had beautiful weather in Kentucky. We just finished up with our major fund raiser of the year with the "Kentucky Derby." Our staff meetings pumped us up for teams. It's always so good to get together with all our staff family! We miss them when we aren't in the DR with them.
Eric and I were able to get most of the baby's room finished before we left for the Dominican May 12th. We are looking forward to meeting our baby boy!
Please send us a email and let us know how you all are doing. We love to hear from you all and let us know how we can pray for you!!
Dios Te Bendiga!!
