Update for Day 4, 5, and 6

Hello from the DR. The CPC Missions team is working hard and enjoying every moment of service. The Nationals have served us as much as we serve them. They have opened our eyes to God's kingdom work, and the simple faith that it takes to serve God effectively.

Friday - Day 4
We continued the work on the two homes that we had been constructing since day two. We completed the foundations of both houses and ended our work by laying the first bricks which will eventually become the walls of the home. The GO Ministries team have been working on this project for a year now, and will continue to build up these homes through the hands of the next missions team. One GO staff person reminded us in wisdom that God's work is a marathon, not a race. He makes all things good in His time. At the end, we surrounded the construction team with prayer and gave glory to God for the impact these families will have in the community.

Saturday - Day 5
We changed our focus from construction to Vacation Bible School. We visited two places, "The Fly," a neighborhood that benefits from a GO Ministries nutrition center for children. As we drove into the community, we quickly realized that it was surrounded by burning compost. It is literally on a trash dump with the smell of the chemicals in the air that they use to decompose the trash. The children were some of the poorest and roughest we had met. About 100 kids attended VBS, and all were well behaved and happy to hear the stories and share in the worship with us. We focused on Beattitudes and helped the kids with a craft of making a heart shaped pillow. We had the children place inside the heart pillow a verse written on ribbon, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God." Matthew 5:8 as a symbol of us placing the Word of God in hearts as well. A big brown-eyed little one loved playing "pelota" (ball) with the heart pillow, but kept it in the baggie to make sure it stayed clean. In the afternoon, we went out to a new neighborhood to be a part of Medina's church which currently meets in a home. The neighborhood was wiped out by a flood recently and they have many hopes to impact the community by finding a permanent place for their church to meet, doing outreach in the big ball field and with the men who were sitting outside playing dominos. We prayed through each street! By the evening, Helen was not feeling well (heat exhaustion!) and by night, Bethany was not feeling well either. Pray for them :)

That night, we had a special team time where we shared words of encouragement and appreciation for one another. There were many tears and it was beautiful.

Sunday - Day 6
We went to Eduardo's church today and the worship was hopping! He is the son of Gabriel, the founding pastor of GO here in the Dominican. He works with a recovery program of men who are finding hope after a life of addiction to drugs and alcohol. Many of them were there and worshiping and one shared his story. Our own Rob McIlvoy got to preach and share the truth of Matthew 6. It was so amazing to worship with our christian brothers and sisters even if we didn't understand everything being said. After playing some softball, we are going to head out to Medina's church to worship with them. I hope Megan Jow gets to see her sweet little friend who wanted to hold her hand the whole time :). Helen and Bethany are doing well today.