Day 3 in the DR

We are about to begin day 3 in the DR. It's going to be a very busy one. Our schedule includes a morning @ Casa de Luz where we will pour the sidewalk, make sandwiches for our outreach to the burn unit @ Walter Reed Hospital and finish the backpacks for the Haitian outreach tomorrow. As always we will love on and play with the children there. After the outreach this afternoon we will be going over to SCORE for a worship time with about 400 people. I will post more on that later.

The trip to the Maternity Hospital yesterday was an experience that the team will not soon forget. We handed out gift bags to 65 new mothers. The bags had bottles, formula, wet wipes, diapers, baby clothes and some personal care items. They people were warm and open and wanted us to see their babies. Conditions there were far from good and we again realized how blessed we are in the states.

I am assuming Michael got in late last night. My last Twitter update from him said that his flight was delayed. He was to take a cab from the airport and arrive late. I have not seen him yet but I am sure he is safe and sound. We are glad he is here

Last night we went out for Pizza as a team. It was a good time. Afterward we went and visited Jackie's House. It is another orphanage located on the opposite side of Santa Domingo from Casa de Luz. It was quite a long and interesting drive. It was up in the hills. We arrived there about 8:00pm.

Jackie's house has 14 children. 3 of the children are handicapped. Jackie and her husband Hernando have run the facility for 9 years. Most of the children have been abused and abandoned by their families. I hope to share more about Jackie's House and how it is connected with Casa de Luz later

When we arrived we were met by the beautiful children there. The all had on matching shirts and were gathered outside. We quickly went in because the area was in a blackout and the generator was providing light only in a portion of the inside. When we got inside the children all introduced themselves in English. They were quite proud that they could do that. A few of them then shared their stories with us. It was quite emotional to hear their journey and how they had come to Jackie's House. As soon as I can download the video I hope to post a portion of a few of those stories.

The children sang some songs and danced for us. I can tell that other mission groups from the states had visited there because of the dances. We got to spend time individually with the kids and then they shared pictures they had made for us. Lots of hugs and love was shared. We said our goodbyes and headed for a long journey home.

The day ended with us trying to process all of the events of the day. To say we were in overload would be an understatement. I guess the greatest lesson from today was the team's reminder of how blessed we are and how we need to use those blessings to reach out to those who are less fortunate.

Video and pics should be posted today. Look for them later. Please continue to pray for us and our ministry here.

Tim