Our trip is four weeks away....

A message from our team leader, Fred Richter (Trinity Episcopal Church, Statesboro GA):

Dear friends,

 

Although Julia and Julius have provided frequent and abundant updates about our imminent (yes, it is now less than a month away) trip, I want to welcome you and offer a personal take on our upcoming adventure in the Dominican Republic.  Most of us are repeat travelers and know what a rich experience awaits. Those of you who are new to this particular mission experience are in for many wonderful encounters, beginning with your fellow missionaries. I trust you all have your passports and airline tickets near at hand (I check mine regularly, just to be sure).  And that you are clear about our 6 p.m. meeting on June 13 at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Orlando, the evening before we leave.  I refer you to the website listed below for the details of our departure as well as everything else you need to know about our trip.   

 

We work according to our abilities, hard, but not too hard. Most mornings we meet for morning prayer and breakfast with our hosts Padre �lvaro and his wife �ngela, and we are usually off to our work projects by 8:30 or 9 a.m.  We are fortunate to have bilingual Charlie Nakash, an American missionary who works for the Diocese of the Dominican Republic, to prepare for and oversee our construction work, and our dear Julia to lead the knitting, crocheting, crafts, and sewing team.  Since we have two construction projects, we will likely divide into two work teams for these projects. We will offer the construction workers the opportunity to switch from site to site each day to add variety to their work. 

 

We are diverse and multitalented, ranging in age from 14 to 70-something, each of us bringing unique gifts to the mission.  Probably two-thirds of us will be involved with the two construction projects which we have committed to: repurposing a small block house into a day care center adjacent the Episcopal Day School which, on earlier trips, we helped to build; and raising up a small block home for a family in El Pedregal, which will be our village home during the week of June 15-22.  As with our own Habitat for Humanity enterprise here at home, family members and other villagers will work side by side with us as we bring up the walls. 

We will work until we reach a halfway point on both projects, and then the Nebraska team with whom we partner will take over when they arrive just as we leave.  The knitting, crocheting, crafts and sewing team, which has long been making preparations already, will host the women and girls, most of whom have some experience of the craft.  Expect to buy and bring home some lovely new creations of the village entrepreneurs. 

 

We break toward noon for lunch and a gentle restart by about 1:30 (naps are possible; I speak from experience).  And depending upon circumstances on the jobs, we usually lay off between 4 and 5 in the afternoon.  Evenings are leisurely, including supper and a team meeting and mingling with our hosts and the staff of Camp Transfiguracion.  

 

Spanish is enormously helpful, but thanks to some of the bilingual villagers, and to Charlie, we almost always manage to overcome the language barrier.  Brush up your Spanish if you can and/or download a translator app for your phone.  Mine is the Lonely Planet Translator app, a free version that downloads rather than connecting with satellite, which is quite expensive.  Somewhat cumbersome for a normal conversation, I have nonetheless found it useful more than once.  The mission trip is not a virtual experience, however; it's the real thing, so we keep our phone use to a minimum.  Leave it home if you can.  See Julius's piece in the previous Countdown article from Julia for details about communication while in the DR.  

 

Our setting is quite beautiful, at least one rainbow over the mountain almost guaranteed.  We are in a fenced compound in the mountains (the bus crawls in low gear on some stretches) on a bluff above a river in the west central part of the country, which means it's not nearly as hot as it would be were we in a coastal location.  Jarabacoa, the nearby small city, is a tourist destination offering hiking and whitewater rafting experiences to many visitors to the country.   Our accommodations are probably better than you might anticipate on a mission trip.  We will be staying in a dormitory, probably up to four to a large room with adjacent bath and shower.  The food is always good and safe, especially in recent years.  Lots of fruit and vegetables, chicken and pork.  And we will probably have something like a "dinner on the grounds" banquet with our hosts and local members of the congregation.  Expect to dance, regardless of your talent therefore; the locals of every age and description will not take no for an answer. 

 

Thanks to the generosity of our several congregations over the past 10 years, we scholarship many of the students in the Episcopal Day School on the lovely grounds of our Camp Transfiguracion.  From all indications, we will be delivering a record number of scholarships for the kids this year.  Interactions with the kids, both at school and in the village, is one of the greatest joys that I experience on these trips. 

 

Since Julius and Julia have selected a centrally located hotel, our final treat is an opportunity to explore Santo Domingo's Colonial District on Sunday afternoon and evening, and on Monday morning before we load up for the airport and the journey home. 

 

As I said at starting, Julia and Julius have provided a wealth of information on the Christ Church Valdosta website and in regular emails to all of us.  These will continue, so please do take the time to read them and, in particular, to have a look at some of the wonderful photographs provided of our previous visits.  The photographs of the place and the people will inspire you.  If you haven't already, or if you have questions, please go to the following website; most if not all of your questions are answered there. 

 

https://christchurchvaldosta.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/planning-for-our-2015-mission-trip/

  

On a recent mission trip to San Francisco de Macoris with the EYC teenagers from Trinity Episcopal Church in Statesboro, the team adopted the following creed attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:  "Preach the gospel everyday; if necessary, use words."  That's us.  Our witness is in our work and in the love we bring to our Dominican brothers and sisters.  And we almost always conclude that we get better than we give. 

 

Welcome, my fellow servant hearts,

 

Fred

 

 

If you have questions, please email or phone me. 

Your friend in Christ, 

Julia