Dawn breaks gently on the sleeping saints and a whisper in the wind glides past the hearing heart…arise my love I have other children that need your labor.

We wake up this morning to a much warmer day. It seems much more humid than yesterday, but our spirit has not been dampened. Frank, Artie Lord, Mary K., Mary Miller and George Bechta have been up since 5am and have made a breakfast fit for a king for us. Frank has already started the process of baking bread for later day consumption. The kitchen crew has the hardest job of all and is given the most respect. Their job starts earlier and ends later than all the rest. They carry the well being of all of us in their hands.
The bus arrives by 8 a.m. and our team is off for the various work sites. Everyone in America should come on at least one mission trip in their life, it would make us realize just how blessed a nation we are. There would be fewer complaints of anything in life. It is amazing how little we really need to survive. And of course happiness never stems from what you own, but from what you give away!
The work site is about 30-minutes from where we are staying and the sights on the way are very interesting. Palm trees of different varieties line the roadway along with row after of row of extremely tall cactus. Goats can be seen browsing along the way. Some must be feral as they were to far from any habitations. A few donkeys also roamed the area and I am supposing that they were also wild. I drove with Bob on one of his many missions during the day, along with Pastor Ben, who is the local Pastor from Mixta and Chrissy who translated for us. Chrissy Irene is a young woman of 22 years who is working here in the Dominican with the Peace Corp. She has been here for 3 months and she stayed for a few hours today to help translate. We are short on translators this year and it has added to the frustrations. But the Lord is always providing. Chrissy has volunteered her services to us for several more half days and also said there were several other Americans in her group who would help out along with a few Mormon young men that are in the area.
We first stopped at a house where the concrete floor was being put in. Jim Lord and George Haeshe were on their knees spreading the cement in a very precise manner. Nick B. and David Daum were their helpers for the day and mixed cement. David told me he had already drank his 100 oz. of water and had to go get more in order to function. The heat can just zap all of your strength in a matter of minutes if you do not keep well hydrated. There are 3 small rooms in the house that is being worked in. The walls were fashioned out of thin, flat slabs of wood with plenty of spaces where I am sure the rain must come in. The folks were extremely impoverished, as is the case with the entire area of La Colonia de Mixta. They owned 3 beds in which the family of 7 sleep and I saw one white plastic chair in which they graciously invited me to sit. An electric refrigerator was also visible along with a small TV on top of it. A clothes line strung across the room was used as a closet for their clothes. Even amongst all the dire poverty, two things stood out dramatically. One is the beaming smiles on their faces as they conversed with us through the translation of Chrissy. They were so thrilled with the prospect of having an actual floor in their home that they must have felt like they had just become the richest people in town. While I wasn't able to translate the words of her language, the smile on her face was translated by my heart. And heart to heart we looked at each other and felt the bond of love through a smile. We asked if we could take a picture of them and their home and they nodded in agreement and excitement. The translator had walked away to do something else and I was left alone to decipher what was being said as Bob went to get the camera. The women giggled with excitement as they called all the children into the room and then grabbed for a comb to straighten their hair for the picture. This lovely woman who lived amongst what we would consider filth and dire poverty wanted this preserved image to be the best she had to offer. What a parallel here, what a spiritual lesson. When people look at us, what do they see? Who do they see? What and whose image is stamped on our countenance to represent for eternity who we serve?
Next we went on to the building site. The kitchen crew had just arrived with the crate of sandwiches and lemonade and the weary workers stopped for replenishment. It is easy to see the form taking place and becoming a church building. Chrissy, who has never heard of our group looked in amazement and said "you are going to finish this in 2 weeks?" We nodded yes, that is our plan. Pastor Ben told Brian Caster and Bob where he would like the gate entrance to be and the plans for that were set. Everything must be gated here in order to guard its contents. Local people were around studying the situation as local children played in the sand. Several of the kitchen workers set a block for the church while there today. We each want the blessing of having our hand and our sweat directly put into that church building, no matter what our regular duty is while here.
The heat was blistering above imagination at the work site today. At 10 a.m. it was officially 127 degrees in the sun and a cool 92 degrees in the shade, of which there was little to be found. What dedication and love it takes to continue on with heavy labor under these conditions. I am so blessed to be able to know these people that I am brought to tears by my good fortune.
The medical clinics were our next stop and they were just about a block away from the building site. We had already received word from Stuart Dixon and then Roy Kellerman M.D. that they were in need of more team members to help with crowd control. It is so easy for this to become out of hand and even become a riot scene very easily. Pushing and shoving as they make sure of their space in line and jockeying for first place status is a survival tactic here, as in most 3rd world countries. We must do all we can to control the crowd so it does not become out of hand and stop us from our work or put us in danger. Tomorrow we will be hiring two police guards to keep control for us. The dental clinic had to come to a complete stop while crowd control was instituted. By the time we left it was already flowing easier. During the lull, Mark Turner DDS, who had already pulled 11 teeth before the chaos began, invited Bob and me to sit down and open wide. But we both decided to shoot out of there quickly upon that invitation.
In the medical clinic people were being ushered from one section to the next. First sitting with Bob Whitney as he registers them and takes down there complaints. Then it is on to have their vital signs taken and then next to see the doctor for diagnosis and treatment. Once leaving there, they will have a number in line at the pharmacy to pick up any medicine the doctor has ordered. I observed Evans Daniels M.D. examining a small child who was very frightened and crying. Nurse Rosalie was hugging up the little girl with the sore throat, soothing her spirit while Dr Daniels diagnosed to sooth her physical pain. What a joy to behold the healing touch of ones who work because of love.
In the back of the medical clinic is the optical department. Stuart D., Hank Potter and Jena Bantjes were very busy with the line up of folks for reading glasses. They had their work area set up outside, but it was in the shade and a nice place to be. The optical clinic was the area of the worst crowd control and Jenna was whisked out of that area until we knew all was safe. Safety of our people, especially the younger ones always comes first. The pharmacy is a building to the side of the clinics and Melissa Rousseau and Joan Notghi along with Suzanne and Nickie M. were busy filling the prescription orders. It has been a very long hard day in all the areas and sleep will be a welcomed friend tonight.
The count for today was 404 blocks put down
Medical clinic saw 320 people
Dental clinic extracted 49 teeth
And because of the rudeness of the people, only 150 pair of glasses was handed out

Pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks

Smiling at you from Dominican Republic,

Jennifer Young
Berkshire Mission reporter