Three Days to Contribute

Three days to do our work. I wish it were more, there's not doubt. I would have liked to have been able to do 5-6 days, but the logistics of travel would not allow that unless it became a 10 day trip.

But realizing the positive impact only three days had is what the focus needs to be. And here I need to quote one of our leaders, Mark, in an email he sent the team after we arrived home. His list of blessings sums it all up! And this is just some of the 22 blessings he shared with us.


~ Fifty-seven people were able to take time away from their families and normal routine to serve God’s Kingdom in a very special way; the largest group from CCCH ever and included 27 first-timers!

~We delivered about 100 packages to the kids from their CCCH GO Kids Sponsors.

~Fred and his assistants treated 71 patients in the Dental Clinic and pulled 83 teeth.

~In addition to the many prayers offered to people we saw in the Medical/Dental Clinics, several went into the village to evangelize with very interesting discussions about Christianity, Batey culture and the church.

~We completely built an 80-foot long, 4-foot high wall and moved mucho blocks, rocks, dirt, cement, and mortar.

~Through funds provided by CCCH, we served about 85 children their lunch that they now receive every day.

~We were able to teach and share with about 125 kids in a VBS-style of children’s ministry.


~ The almost 1-1/2 tons of donated medicines and clothing.

Besides all these tangible blessings, there were the more subtle things happening throughout our week, especially during the teamwork of Thursday, Friday and Saturday of that week.

Young and not-so-young worked together on both the construction teams and the medical teams. The youngest team member, to my knowledge, was a twelve year old girl, Hope. Her parents can proudly say she was a trouper! She, and all the younger adults were so impressive. Their work ethic and their behavior towards each other and the children of Batey Nueve was a sight to behold. They truly displayed what it means to show people Jesus through actions.

New friendships were made amongst the team members all throughout the week. I personally enjoyed connecting with several of the women who I may have never gotten to know had I not done this trip. Getting four or five hugs and several 'hello's' at church last Sunday was a welcome feeling of belonging that this trip brought about.

But since a lot of folks have asked, 'So what did you do, exactly?'... let me explain!

Construction and Medical were our two major focuses. We are constructing a new two story building to house a first level feeding center and second level worship center.

We had one dentist, a nurse practitioner, a doctor, along with a D.R. national doctor, and a nurse from G.O. Ministries. Everyone else in the clinic was a helper who asked a lot of questions before doing anything for anyone. The leaders were wonderfully patient with us and all went so smoothly for the most part.

Basically each day we were able to choose where we worked, which was wonderful. Some knew that construction would be a bit taxing for them and that meant they had the clinic to help in. Or some were able to do a little of both, which was my choice.

Thursday was my day to be a construction worker and it was fun! It was a hot day with a strong wind and white puffy clouds. Fabulous day to be outdoors working hard. Cement had to be hand mixed with shovels -- right on the floor of the future feeding center! Then buckets had to be carried to the two men who were building a wall up the future stairway, and to the front of the building where another surrounding wall was being built.

I was 'hand picked' by Luis, the funny leader of the construction crew. He's quite the clown, speaks more English than I can speak Spanish, but still struggles a bit. He stood in front of me and pointed at me and said, 'YOU are special helper!' wiggling his index finger for me to follow him. He put me on the landing to the second floor and pointed to my 'boss', Martolo. I was Martolo's assistant for the rest of the day, carrying buckets of mortar or cinder blocks up a very steep, bumpy cement ramp whenever he needed them, handing him his level or hammer, finding broken pieces of blocks for the uneven areas he needed to fill in making a wall around the landing. He and I had some fun trying to understand each other, playing some charades, teaching each other some of our words for the objects we were using.

My back never hurt after that day's work...just my left ankle from all the ramp walking. But it was a good day of work!

The next two days I chose to work in the clinic, feeling the desire to have more contact with the people of the village. I worked with several other women in the pharmacy. By that I mean we worked in the school room where we set baggies of medicines all over several tables and waited for the people to arrive after having seen the doctors in the other classroom. Kids and some adults were using chairs to peek into the windows at us. I actually did the same thing to get a good peek into the dental room! While on the chair peeking in I had one young girl point to my ankle bracelet and motion that she'd like me to give it to her. I wish I could have, but we were told we could not do that or we'd be inundated with children asking for everything we owned.

Each person who saw a doctor was given a brown paper lunch sack where the doctor wrote their name, age, symptoms and medicines prescribed. They brought the bags to us where we would fill them and hand them to a Spanish speaking national to explain the medicine use. Every age from young to old were seen those three days, with the oldest we know of being a woman who was 103 years old!

We were handing out lots of cough drops, mostly because our nurse felt that they would need them sooner or later and we had an overabundance. Well, sure enough, the second day we had youngsters at the door holding up empty cough drop wrappers, hoping we could give them more. They were eating them like candy! Well, I guess it wouldn't be the first time a child has done that, but it was a bit of a frustration, no doubt.

We had some Haitians coming in which caused a bit of a translation issue for the woman explaining the prescriptions. A young boy who seemed to just be hanging around (and who I was trying to shoo out the door because he was taking up a seat that some older folks could use!) ended up being someone who was able to translate some of the Creole spoken by the Haitians. He seemed to feel very proud of his work in helping us and we really appreciated his help.

All in all, the clinic went well. Especially day two, which started with a downpour in the morning. As I mentioned earlier, the folks in the D.R. do not like rain, so we worried for the success of the clinic that day. We opened a bit late and saw plenty of people by day's end. I do not know what happens there on a regular basis to meet the medical needs of the villagers. That is something I still want to ask about. But we were able to help in some way, at least, and we felt that it was appreciated by the people of Batey Nueve.