Our first full day in the DR was packed with all new experiences. First up was groundwork at a construction site. Quite literally, we were human bulldozers for the morning! We moved dirt from one pile to another pile. Not glamorous. Not exciting. But necessary. The location where we worked is the future home of a campsite where a 5-story building will be erected to provide leadership training and education to local pastors, as well as a place for women’s retreats and children’s camps. The project is a dream of the DR’s Christian & Missionary Alliance churches, and we had the privilege of helping to get it started.

The view from our front porch

Yours truly w/ a mango tree

Loading up the van to head to the construction site

Essentially, the job required three different types of workers: shovelers, runners, and dumpers. The shovelers would load wheelbarrows with dirt piled up by Dominicans who were digging five-foot-deep holes where concrete foundation piers will eventually be poured. The runners took the wheelbarrows off the construction site to a central dumping pile closer to the road. Then the dumpers would muscle the wheelbarrows to the top of the dirt pile and empty them so the process could be repeated, over and over again. A hot, sweaty job but also a great lesson in teamwork . . . and humility!

Our destination!

Trenches in progress

More trenches!

Everybody hard at work!

Kathy in action

Shovel-icious!

Whoopsie! Sometimes they tipped over

No worries . . . help was never far away

Andrea rockin' manual labor w/ style!

High traffic area

Brian . . . always ready w/ a smile & a song

Finally - lunchtime!

Fueling up

From there, our next activity was prayer walking in a nearby impoverished area called El Tablon. We went door to door with members of the community’s church and visited with the residents there. An interpreter came along and translated for us. We asked questions about the members of each family and then prayed for the needs they had. Many had health issues themselves or mentioned physical problems their relatives have.

The church in El Tablon

The child care center next door

What impressed us the most about this experience was how welcoming each person was. They were quick to invite us onto their porches or into their homes and brought out chair after chair to make sure everyone had a place to sit. Their houses were more like shacks, very small with only two or three dilapidated rooms, but the atmosphere was friendly. The people were genuinely glad to have us there and appreciated the opportunity to talk and spend time with us.

Picture perfect!

What a contrast to the United States! If we would try that type of outreach at home, we’d have a lot of doorbells go unanswered or a lot of doors shut in our faces. But here . . . relationships matter more than agendas. And people take time to get to know their neighbors. They don’t have much when it comes to material possessions, but they do have a strong sense of the importance of community. A great reminder to put people first . . . as Jesus did!