A medical clinic is dedicated

It was another wonderful day for us as The Samaritan Foundation completed another project for the poor here in the Dominican Republic. A medical clinic opened in our village of Nazareth and will be operated by Phil and Donna Williams of Servant Heart Ministries. They will be managing and staffing the clinic which will service close to 2000 people in over 5 local villages. For many of the people here, this is as close as they will get to a local medical facility and one that will supply free medical services and dispense medicine to those who cannot afford it. The centre is the result of two churches, one in Simcoe, Ontario and the other in Grimsby, Ontario who were willing to supply the funds to build this clinic for the poor. Thank you for showing the love of Christ to those in need!

A sad goodbye

It was a sad and hard day for us here in the Dominican Republic when we had to say good bye to some very special people that God gave us the blessing of meeting and loving. John and Lily Nakonechny along with their 3 children Zaviyth, Gabriel and Rebecca were with us here for 8 months and worked along side with all of us in one capacity or another. Both being completely fluent in Spanish and English made their contribution almost irreplaceable. Their love and kindness shown to all of us, their tireless efforts and willingness to help all of us with our limited language issues will be almost impossible to replace. We'll carry on without them, although it will be hard but God is faithful and his grace and mercy is never ending. As John and Lily go back to Toronto where John is a teacher and Lily is a stay at home Mom, it is their plan to come back here full time next year. It is our hope and prayer that this comes to pass and we gladly look forward to the possible return. John and Lily, God Bless You and your children and we'll be waiting for you.

Those daring young men and their "Dirty Jobs"

One day I am going to call Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs" and introduce him to the Dominican Shoeshine Boys. These darling and challenging fellas took on the extremely dirty job of cleaning my running shoes. Yes they did and even lived to tell about it. What they said about cleaning them might have been dirtier than the shoes but how was I to know, they were almost unconscious when they finished and their speech slurred. Anyways, for their good work they got some pesos and a free lunch complimentary from a church group here on a mission trip from Grimsby, Ontario. Well done guys!

Down time

Every once in a while, and I mean “not very often” we take a day off. I think we work more hours here in one week than we ever did in our previous jobs so a day off is treasured. This turned out to be “a guy’s day off and a girl’s day off”. We guys went into the mountains for a day on the mottos and the girls went to see a local botanical gardens type place. It was a great day, excellent company combined with great weather only meant we all got fried by the sun. Awesome! All the people featured in the pictures live here doing missions work, Arnie and Betty eventually we hope. HOG WILD wanna be's!!! The newly formed wide brimed hat club!
The amazing plant life here is incredible but so is the view on a motto.

Keep em coming

Arnie and Betty are becoming a real main stay around here! They were back again for 3 weeks and it felt like 3 days. I think it helped that I treated them like “rented mules” and worked them to pieces. Betty helped Jane in the sewing shop getting the last of the projects that the ladies needed a little help with to finish. You see, the sewing shop is going to close for a couple of months because everyone needs a break. Lily, Jane’s right hand, and her family were moving back to Canada after being here for 8 months, (that’s another story itself) and it seemed the right time for the time off. Arnie was my right hand man doing all the errands that would otherwise chew into my time so I could spend more with the teams and crews. This was a real treat for me since I don't usually get the pleasure of a helper. Please come back again soon!

Happy Birthday to ....

Sometime ago I told you about a family that Jane and I sponsored, the Polanco family. Well one of the children, Adahisa, had a birthday coming soon so Juana, the mom of the family, asked if she could bake a cake for her daughter. Normally it is discouraged for the sponsor family to let the sponsored family see where you live if it is in the same country. Well unfortunately Jane and I couldn’t do that so over came Juana and off to bake a cake we went. Juana bought all the ingredients from their meagre income (she didn’t want to seem like she was taking advantage of us asking for us to supply the ingredients) and Juana and I (mostly Juana, hey someone had to lick the spoon ), with Jane’s supervision, baked a cake. Jane had to help a little here and there but before long we had a big birthday cake in our kitchen. It didn’t turn out like most cakes but to Juana it was a work of art and we were all proud of her! The next day after church, we gathered the whole Polanco family, Jane and I, Arnie and Betty went to the beach to celebrate a birthday. It was one of the most special days we have ever had and to see the delight of the children eating the cake their Mom had made, made this day even more special. This was the second trip to the beach with this family; the last time they went to the beach was 3 years ago. Thank you Lord for these special days!

Hey, supervising should only be done by the professionals!The Polanco family the day of the birthday, just before we trashed the good clothes for the swim suits! The birthday girl is Adahisa, the one front and center with the red jump dress.

Betty with Nerosila, just a tad chilly at 25 degrees Celcius. Confesor and Juana with the baby Liedy.

Hey, it’s the Cal

You know, you can never get to much company when you live a zillion kilometres from our Hamilton home. Our son Calvin came for a week and it was awesome! He worked with me for the week and at the end we took a day off and spent it on some mottos. All work and no play makes everyone BORING!!!!

Ray and Cheryl Koetsier

Well we blessed with another couple from Hamilton coming for a visit. Our good friends Ray and Cheryl came by to make sure we were behaving and so Jane put on her best behaviour. They visited the villages, work sites and contributed in the sewing center (Cheryl) and work sites (Ray). I think Ray even developed a blister. The week flies by and before you know it, it’s done. Thanks for coming Ray and Cheryl and for all your hard work, everyone appreciates it and hopefully you'll come back again. The picture is of the 4 of us at the airport having our last ice cream together before they left.