Recently I had the privilege to be a part of the team that went to the Dominican Republic on a missionary trip to assist the Haitian refugees who live on the outskirts of one of the towns called Sosua. The sum of money we to raised helped to move three families from shacks into new homes with three rooms and a working toilet. At first view of the new homes I couldn’t believe that this was a step up from anything but later, after seeing the shacks they would soon leave, I realised that comparatively the houses were luxury.

Los Algodones was a village that sprang up while the Sugar Cane workers lived there. The Government built ‘bunker’ houses for the workers and soon they moved their families over from Haiti to live with them. When the Sugar Cane business closed down the men were left with no work and the families began to struggle. Mission Direct has teamed up with a Canadian charity called the Samaritan Trust that has been working in the Dominican Republic for over 20 years.

They have been building projects all around Sosua and Puerto Plata.  The new village Villa Esperanza is one of those projects.  Eventually there will be over 200 homes in the new village replacing those that were in the old (Los Algodones), moving families from shacks to real brick houses that are safe and secure.  The new village also has a school; clinic and church, which are accessible to several nearby villages and help, create jobs for the local community. The Samaritan Trust charges the family nothing for the houses but they must stay in them for 5 consecutive years before it is officially theirs. Their old shacks are demolished and they can make money by selling the scrap metal and wood to a dealer. This also stops new refugees moving into the old village, which would cause a rift. The families are chosen using a series of systems that determines their need to move. The families that need to move more urgently are given a house more quickly.

We spent our mornings in prayer led by one of the group before driving over to the worksite where we mixed cement, transported concrete, painted windows and doors, shovelled sand and entertained the local children.  Many of the team got really involved in this section of the work and it was clear that Josh’s experiences working for his father really helped. One of the team, Chris, had lost the use of his left arm after a car crash several years ago. The sight of him working just as hard as anyone else on the worksite inspired not only our leaders, but also the village workers, and me. Rob, our leader, pointed out just how important this was to the locals as people who have lost mobility in limps in that culture would usually be consider as useless. Chris’ work showed that everyone is important and to focus on what you do have and focus on what you can do.

After our time at the worksite there were several different charities and ministries we visited. One of the first was the Mustard Seed orphanage for children with disabilities. Here children with physical and mental handicaps were living with carers who would feed and care for them. The saddest piece of information about this place was even the children whose families lived nearby were never visited because the families want nothing to do with them. While we were there we helped to feed the children, put them down for a nap and wash their clothes and tables. For many of the group this was a tough experience because it was hard to hear that their family could abandon these children so easily.

Another ministry we visited was the clinic in Esperanza. Here villagers can pay as little as 20 DR$ (about 30p) to see a qualified doctor and receive medication. The 20 DR$ helps to keep the locals from coming just to get the medicines to sell. Their details and records are stored and filed. This way the Doctor knows their history and can check to see if they are properly following treatments. They will also help to pay for different hospital procedures such X-rays and CAT scans that the patients would not be able to pay for themselves. This is 90% funded by donations. The 20 DR$ helps to buy new medication and pay for power to the clinic. There is also a nurse and secretary to employ. The Doctor is a Haitian man who was lucky enough to go to the USA and train. He works in this Clinic, the clinic in Paradise (another Samaritan Trust village) and the clinic in Aguas Negras. He is also the doctor for the Mustard Seed.

We also visited the public Hospital. This was a tough experience, but really helped us to grow. We went with the youth group of our translator who is his church’s youth pastor. As we visited the different patients we gave them a present and offered to pray for them. This was hard as they could not speak English and there was a limited amount of translators. It was really amazing to see how on fire for God the youth group were and the evangelism really took off. Josh was part of the most shocking event of the day. A boy who wasn’t eating had been recently told that he would only have three days to live. His mother and he were not Christian but in their desperation accepted the offer. Surrounded by many members of the youth team and our team, including Josh, they were prayed for and came to Christ. It was a wonderful moment.

On Friday we were able to take part in the Creole church service in the Woods. This was a very lifting experience after the hospital the day before. The service was very open; anyone could stand up and say how God had worked for them that day. The worship was very energetic with everyone joining in clapping, singing, shouting and dancing. I had the chance to share my testimony and so spoke about proverbs 3:5-6.

“5: Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
 6: Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” (NLT)

Another ministry we worked with was to visit Villa Paraiso or Paradise.  Here we played with the local children who were on their summer break from school. Sadly, in the Dominican and Haitian culture, children are not cared for and held as important as they are here in England and the western world.  We played ball games, such as baseball and rugby, painted faces, made bead necklaces and bracelets, painted fingernails, made balloon animals and took pictures, which the children loved because they could see themselves. Although this was one of the more tiring activities on the trip it really was fun.

One of our trips took us to a village called Chichigua. This village really is a poor area but the Samaritan Trust cannot get planning permission to build there as a golf resort is being built next to it and the chances are they will force the villagers to move. The village has no running water and is too high up a hill to drill down for a well. To combat this, an American family pays for a large tanker to be filled with water on a regular basis for the families that live there. While we were there we gave food bags to different needy members of the community and invited them to a showing of the Jesus Film that night. Josh gave his testimony that night, as did Emily.

We visited our translator’s Church and took part in a children’s event that involved over 250 children. Here we sang songs such as Father Abraham and Our God is a great big God, and we performed a drama representing the story of the Good Samaritan.  Ana gave a talk on how important it is to go to church and to be with other Christians. The funniest moment of the day was when the Donkey, played by me, would die due to the weight of the Samaritan, played by David. This was met with laughter, which helped to make the story fun and memorable. At the end of the day we gave each child a little package that contained some food and a little present bag. The children were very grateful, including some who actually said ‘thank-you” in English.

Our last visit was to Aguas Negras, which is a slum in Puerto Plata. Its name translated means ‘black water’. It was named black water because there is always sewage running through the streets.  We went during the dry season so there wasn’t very much water but the water can be knee deep during the rainy season.  The reason that Aguas Negras is so bad is because its surrounded by sea one side, a river the other and a sewage plant the on another side. It can be flooded by the river, which is growing into an estuary, flooded by waves from the sea and by a deluge from the sewage plant.  In the town we met with a local woman called Sandra. She felt called by God to start a school and even through many hardships God has helped her ministry to grow. She now controls a school, a clinic (in which the Doctor from the Samaritan Trust works) and she also runs a vocational college where women can learn to sew and earn a living. Her story showed that we all can do our part in our own communities and that you don’t have to go to another country to work for God.

At the end of the trip we gave three houses to three different families. The houses are given to the women because they are more likely to stay and look after their families than the men. With each family we prayed and gave them a house warming present. They were given the chance to say something to us and it was really touching to hear that they wanted to repay us but knowing they haven’t got the money would pray for us instead. We then helped the families to move and destroyed their old shacks. This did cause a problem as one of the shacks had been separated into two homes and we could only take down one side. When we finished we said our Good byes.

The trip wasn’t all work though.  On our last day we went to the 27 waterfalls, which is one of the main attractions on the Island.  We walked along with guides, wearing life jackets and helmets, to the 8 waterfalls that we were going to jump and slide down. It was a fantastic experience and I was amazed when the guide climbed up to a 40-foot drop and dived off. We jumped quite considerably smaller jumps than that but it was still amazing.

The trip was a real eye opener for Josh and myself. It really showed how important God’s love is with in this world. It was God’s love that sent this team out to the Dominican Republic and through God the connections were made so that we could help those who needed to be helped. Thank you so much for helping Josh and me to get to the Dominican Republic by helping with our funds. It would not have been possible to get there, or make as big a difference as we did with out your support.

God Bless

James