Esperanza village Dedication

 

After 4 years of working in this community....260 homes later...villa Esperanza is finished. A grand celebration & dedication ceremony took place in the school yard as it was the only place that was large enough to hold the ceremony and most importantly........ the only place in the shade.

 

Students wearing their school uniforms participated in a drama, presentations of many plaques of recognition of the countless hours that went into building a village and creating a place of hope ...aptly named ~Esperanza.

The streets held a decorating competition with almost everyone taking part. To our big surprise...they named the streets after members of the Samaritan Foundation who had an integral part in building this community.

 

Thanks be to God for his mercy and grace and for the honour bestowed on us to help the poor in the former community of Los Algodones where families have previously had no access to health, education, clean drinking water, homes  and most of all the spiritual community in the church are now finding it a reality in everyday life.

What is left is the barren landscape with an ocean view of where 220 families had previously lived in tin shacks. Just a few homes remain which belong to the sugar cane company and cannot be torn down. 

 

It was an inspiring day to see how the community worked together to not only decorate their streets, but also named the streets after members of the Samaritan Foundation who actively particpated in the building of this community.

It's Reading Week

It is University Reading Week and we welcome 4 teams all from Southern Ontario to join us this week. This is teams 4,5,6 & 7 already for 2013. There are 100 members all staying at the same resort giving them a chance to get to know each other in the evenings...and some have found friends from many years ago.
Thank you Lord that we have an awesome team of leaders to help us make things run so smoothly. 4 teams....7 busses each going to their own unique destination. By 8 am each morning all the teams have picked up their lunches provided by the hotel at the cafeteria, and hopefully have gotten on the correct bus. The first day we had everyone out the door, on the bus and on their way in only 15 minutes. Talk about orgainzation...eh? We pray that the week will continue smoothly as we prepare each day for ministry with a word of prayer for safety  and that we may impact many lives in our ministry work. We see God's hand working mightily and are being blessed as we go out into the community to serve.

 

January visitors

from time to time we receive the blessings of visits from family and friends.  This month, John's sister Pat joined us for a 3 week stay with the desire to teach a sewing course at the school in Paraiso. The timing was perfect as this was the week before the next set of classes was to begin. 16 ladies...most of whom had taken sewing courses in the past year at the school were eager to learn new things so Pat taught them how to make simple pillow case dresses in 3 different styles.

With the help of Stephany as her translator and Petra (the office manager of the school) their workshop was a huge success. One man even joined the class as he wanted to make a dress for each of his 2 daughters....no previous experience on the sewing machine. Everyone enjoyed the course immensely. Thank you Pat.

Over our Christmas break we ran into great friends from years past...Kerry & Elaine Charbonneau who coincindentally had already booked a vacation to the Puerto Plata area....took a day off from the beach to tour the villlages with us and really see what the Sama
ritan Foundation is all about.

 It was an eye opening experience according to Kerry and just a glimpse of what a mission team would do when they come to partner with the Samaritan Foundation. Francia showed them how to roll paper beads, and during their tour...they experienced a real Dominican lunch at a local hotspot....Rosa's. For those of you who have been...you know what fabulous food she makes.

a new year has begun

boys rolling their hoops

Funny how some things change and others just stay the same. We are grateful for safety and the fellowship we shared with so many people over Christmas and now we are back in the Dominican ready to make a difference. For 2013 we have 30 teams booked already....what a difference they will make in the lives of so many people. Enabling the locals to help themselves is always our goal instead of providing just a hand out. Lord, help us to do your will in the best way possible in all that we do and say.

home improvements in Esperanza 

Teamwork!

2 containers were released from customs last week: one full of wood for building more homes.....and another contained a shipment of food, sewing machines,27 boxes of toys from the Toronto fire department and countless number of milk bag mats.....This container was delayed in shipping for 2 weeks due to hurricane Sandy but it finally arrived safe and sound.Two containers and 2 mission teams during the same week...wow.

Thank you to the York CRC team who instead of taking their last day off to see the sights...spent their time sanding and painting church pews, organizing the soup packaging room and lending a helping hand to unload the container. 

 

It was fun to race and see which row of volunteers working side by side with the local crew could unload by hand their skids of soup tins and buckets and barrels first.

 

This day was also the national day of Violence against Women in the Dominican Republic and the students from schools participated in a march through out the village.

 

 

Day by day

Fortunately for us Hurricane Sandy skirted our island. It has been an

extremely hot and dry summer and fall. The temperatures have been in the

30's consistently with humidex making it feel like the mid 40's. The teams

usually only do construction in the mornings when it is more bearable but

as John tells everyone who comes.... "shade is your best friend". We are

looking forward to the temperature change which generally occurs in mid

November to a more manageable 25 - 27 degrees Celcius. 

 Another container was loaded this past Thursday and is on its way now. There are 90 barrels of dehydrated soup mix from the Ontario Christian Gleaners on this load which will go a long way towards feeding the poor. Tourism is very low on the north coast here and so many people are unemployed because of this. These people are desperate to feed their families and the soup will go a long way to helping out.

Robberies are quite common especially now as it gets closer to Christmas. We lock our house securely each time we leave to go out. Even the police are asking for something to eat for dinner if you get stopped along the road. We need to be extra cautious as we travel about for you never know when someone will "accidentally" run into your car or person to try to get some money from you...after all...they look at it as we are white and have money and therefore can pay for everything. We are truly blessed compared to their situations and try to show the love of Christ in all our actions. We know the Lord is our protector and shield.

This past weekend..John brought someone to the hospital twice in less than 48 hours who desperately needed help. Thursday evening after dinner he took a dear Dominican friend and her 13 year old daughter who had a fever of 104 degrees....she received 3 treatments through an oxygen mask and was released 4 hours later with no follow up instructions. Friday the girl was at the clinic in villa Paraiso where they live to see the doctor and receive her medication free of charge. However.... Saturday afternoon she had a raging temperature again and after a desperate call to John, they went back to Puerto Plata (25 minutes away) and spent 8 hours waiting in the public hospital emergency room. No bed was given to the young girl...she just sat on the chair and waited along with about 25 other people. A few hours later she saw a doctor briefly...they took blood samples and then they waited for the analysis.

Repeatedly, the staff came into the room to report that the machine was broken and would be fixed soon. Each time this happened...all the other patients looked toward John as the only gringo in the room to see how he would react. During the next 5 hours of waiting the people just talked with each other....no one read a book....just chatted until finally the machine was fixed. They waited another 1 1/2 hours to get medication and finally were on their way back home. This is an example of everyday life and how the people don't sweat the little things....they just accept it and live one day at a time. Was this the way we had planned on spending our Saturday afternoon/evening, especially since it was supposed to be our date night for our wedding anniversary? No... but God calls us to help the widows and orphans not matter the circumstances. This lady has a special spot in our heart as she tries to raise 4 children on her own ....especially Nicole her 13 year old daughter who has chronic bronchitis and asthma and needs to go to the hospital often. The slightest weather change will compromise her health.

We are thankful that we can be a blessing and help in our work and daily lives here in the Dominican. 

Blessings, Jane

SPRUCELAND RETURNS

For the 6th year in a row…a team from Spruce land Millworks in Alberta has arrived in October not only to work hard putting the roofs on 18 more homes they sponsored….but also to share once again a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at the Morau Mai restaurant in Sosua with the local staff of the Samaritan Foundation. Thirty four people enjoyed a turkey dinner with all the trimmings….complete with pumpkin pie and real whipped cream on Monday, October 8th, 2012.

All week the tea has braved 33 degree plus humidity = 42 degree temperatures while working in the direct sun as they strapped and later installed the tin on roof tops. Others were able to find a sliver of shade alongside the new homes as they painted all the windows and doors which will be installed this week to finish off their homes.

During one body cooling break….“superman” passed by during a photo shoot with the team photographers. All in good fun….Vic….you are truly a “super” man.

At the thanksgiving dinner….a challenge was thrown down to John regarding his facial hair. $3000.00 has been pledged if john will shave his moustache and next month his goatee also with all monies going toward the costs of operating the soup repackaging program. 96 more barrels of soup are arriving from the Gleaners via a shipping container next month and we need sponsors to offset the costs of purchasing these additional items. Please make your generous donation payable to the Samaritan Foundation with the FEED A FAMILY noted in the memo to help us reach this goal. By the time all the barrels of soup will have been distributed….880, 000 bowls of soup will be available to the poor.

We need to raise $9000.00 in total to cover the additional costs of the packaging. Can you help to meet this goal? Thank you and may God bless you all this Thanksgiving season.

During week 1, Dori & Gail with the help of our interpreters interviewed many families to hear their stories of their previous situation and how their lives have been changed with the gift of their new home. Meanwhile… Christa and Lorel the official tea photographers took photographs of each family and their homes, gardens, schools etc. etc. to show in a beautiful way these lovely families.

Week 2 begins now and as they continue to finish these homes, we look forward to the house dedications for 18 new families in the village of lower Zion on Friday.

In the meantime….Lorel and Christa both accomplished seamstresses (and a quilter too… yaaaaay) along with our interpreter Stephanie…will work in the sewing trade school teaching the students how to make finished seams which makes their clothing articles look professionally done.

In Christ, John & Jane Huizinga