Brenan and his fanny pack

Barb, this is for you

Church service in Barahona

We just got back from church at the central church in Barahona.  The church we are building isn't ready yet for worship. 

One of our team members, Rafael, preached on his journey back to the DR after leaving here in 1965. 

We also had a great bible study before church led out by our team. We studied the story of when Jesus healed the blind man. 

Here are some pictures of our worship.  

The God that repels Mosquitos

For anyone that has studied the Bible, you know that God has many names (Redeemer, Savior, Sustainer, etc).   

Well, on this trip, God has revealed another name. One of our prayers has been to not allow anyone to get infected by the mosquito borne virus prevalent in the DR. One of the church elders mentioned to our team that mosquitoes in this area are ao prevalent they are usually swarming around you. 90% of the town has the virus.  He mentioned that three days ago (the day we got here) he stopped seeing mosquitoes in town.  I think I know why.....

Friday report

We had a great day on all three sites. We had 125 kids on the children's ministry- up from 80 the day before! The kids are really getting into it and learning more about Christ.

Our medical team saw about 100 more patients. On Monday they will begin a health clinic for dental health.

On construction, we got more done than expected. We got done with the 11th course which leaves only two more on the sides.

We had a great worship tonight to bring in the Sabbath day. We also had one of our team members ( James Friesen) late to the bus today and he had to act out a skit tonight as his penalty. If I ever get the video I will post it.

We look for to church tomorrow and a day of rest!

First day of vbs

We had our first day of children's ministry. They had about 85 kids and had a very success day. All the kids enjoyed themselves.

Our medical team went door I door for he morning and handed out medical pamphlets and fluoridation pills for clean water. They handed out glasses in the afternoon.

On construction we got up to our seventh course of block. Very happy with the progress. We had three people sick today with a cold, but are all better tonight.

Things you see on the way to the construction site bathroom

A church member lets us use their outhouse. Here are a few things we see on our way. It's like our own petting zoo!

First day of ministry

We had a great first day of work. Our medical team saw 152 patients and ran out of medicine for the day. They will bring more tomorrow.

Our children's ministry team organized today and have all the crafts ready for the kids.

We had a good, but hot day on the job site. We have a lot of new construction crew members and they all did a great job. We got 3 courses all the way around and 4 on the ends.

Ernie's new friend

The things you find at the job site .....

Safely in barahona

We made it to barahona and the hotel at about 10:30 pm. Had a quick dinner and meeting and headed to sleep.

A long day, but a good day. We begin our mission tomorrow. Keep us in your prayers.

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On our way to barahona

We arrived safely to santo Domingo only one hour later than originally planned. Praise God!

And even better, all of our bags made it except one!

So we are eating pizza and relaxing on the bus ride. Looking forward to getting to the hotel in a few hours.

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Praise The Lord for delayed planes

Prayers are answered! They did hold our flight till we arrived. We all made it on and we hope our bags made it as well.

The flight crew said they NEVER see flights held for passengers. I told them we were 54 missionaries and they said "a higher power must be at work here".

Couldn't agree more!

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On the plane

Ready to go

Slight flight challenge

We arrived at the airport in Houston to find out they cancelled our flight to Miami. We are now boarding a flight to Miami that is supposed to arrive at 1:15 pm. Our flight to DR is supposed to leave at 12:50. The plan is that they are going to try to delay the flight from Miami and hold it for us.

Keep the flight and personnel in your prayers that make the right decision and hold the plane for us. Otherwise, we will wait for the next flight which won't get us into DR till 11pm tonight.

Thanks.

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2014 Summer Youth Trip to Barahona, Dominican Republic

We leave on July 22 for the Dominican Republic with 36 youth and 22 adults. We are looking forward to building a church, helping with a medical and dental clinic and leading out in children's ministry.   This is our third year leading a mission trip primarily focused on our youth.  This is an opportunity for them to begin / continue a life of service to others.  It is also an opportunity to spend time growing as a team and closer to God.

Please keep the team in your prayers. We hope to post daily updates. 

Landed safely in Houston

After two days of excursions in Rio, we are safely back in Houston 

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Safe arrival in Rio

We did arrive safely in Rio. Had a small scare as Aunt Geneva left a carry on bag in the airplane. They were able to bring it to us in baggage claim, so crisis averted!  

Checking into the hotel and look forward to a great two days here. Raining now, but praying for good weather. 

Church dedication

We had a wonderful church dedication today in Quingoma. The conference president was there to have a dedication prayer and a ribbon cutting ceremony. Then the entire church went in and we had songs, testimonies and thoughts from the pastor. The church gave us all a gift of a cd of Portuguese songs. Always humbling to get a gift from the congregation. 

We then gave out our team tshirt to a few folks that helped put tremendously on the trip. Elmer and Elder are the two Maranatha coordinators that were with us every step of the way. Pastor Abraham and his two junior pastors helped with organizing the local congregations. The junior pastors start evangelism in the area shortly. The man who lives across the street from the church donated his land to store the building materials and tools. One of the elders, Aldenir, helped with getting transportation free of charge from the city and also getting additional medical help. 

I preached a short sermon and we had two testimonies from Eliel and Joel. A wonderful service and is always the highlight of the week. 

We then went back to the hotel, eat and pack up for the trip to Rio. We were sad to leave the hotel. They were extremely good to us. Would stay there again and again if I am back I the area. 

We fly to Rio to start our excursion tomorrow. Hoepfully the rainy forecast is not accurate!

Our mascot is attending church!

Final day of vbs and medical and excursion day

Vbs and medical had their last day of ministry today. They have truly been a blessing to the community this week. Their ministry is so essential to the long term success of this work. They are the ones that lead people to the churches and schools we build. 

Since we finished a day early, the construction crew took an unscheduled excursion today!  We went on a tour of old town Salvador, a lighthouse from the 1500's and then went to a beach. It was a great day and we thank our tour guides, Elmer, Elder and Aline. 

Old town Salvador

Old lighthouse from the 1500's

We had two people that were late today- Ray and Joshua. Ray had actually suggested their punishment earlier in the week and it came back to bite him. They had to perform synchronized swimming in the pool!  Words cannot describe.  I will try to post a video later. 

We are preparing for our church service tomorrow and to leave for Rio. It will be a highlight of the week to dedicate the church tomorrow!

Work completed!

We completed the work and roof completed at about 3 pm today!  Praise The Lord for great weather, a wonderful team, no major injuries and little sickness. The Maranatha team was also great to work with. 

Here are some pictures of the job site, our team, the Maranatha crew and Bobby massaging our mascot with a broom.  

Almost completed

Our medical team is doing great work. They saw over 50 patients today and completed a couple of procedures. They are also able to share Jesus with their patients as well. 

Our vbs team has about 30 to 45 kids each day. The kids are really enjoying themselves and the crafts. It is a blessing that we only have that many kids because we have a small team. 

We almost have the block work on the church completed. We finished the outer walls and got the scaffold torn down.  We have about four courses of block and the roof to complete. God willing we will complete it all and clean the church tomorrow. 

We have had great weather. It got a little warm today in the early afternoon. One of the crews was really getting overheated so we rotated them out.  

The team is really doing well and working well together. Our evening worships have been great and have built our team atmosphere. 

Here are some pictures of the job site. 

And here is our mascot

Uneventful day

We had a good day on the construction site and got up to the 13th course. We made great progress and had no accidents.   Beautiful weather and no rain at the job site. It was raining as we left the hotel, but God hears prayers!

David spencer was late to the job bus. He had to perform for us and his kids emailed with his punishment. He had to sing a bob Marley song. Very entertaining!

Scaffold Surfing

We had a very eventful day. Our vbs team completed their first day. They had 25 kids for the first day.  We expect more tomorrow as we had a lot of kids at the medical team. The vbs was very well received and the crafts were great. 

Our medical team saw 94 patients today which was more than expected. Very busy and handed out a lot of eyeglasses as well. 

We got a tremendous amount done on the job site. We got all of the ninth course completed and fears extended. We also had to put scaffolding up for the first time. We haven't worked with this type of scaffolding in the past so had to learn how it works. We have no side braces as we normally do. The Maranatha crew showed us what to do and it seemed a little unstable, but reasonably safe. 

We had one of the front ones collapse when someone got on it and we chalked it up to too quick of a weight transfer. We rebuilt it and put other braces on the top. 

Right before lunch, we were pouring the bond beam and had six people on the scaffold pouring concrete. I heard a crash and the entire side scaffold collapsed with everyone on it. It is truly a miracle that no one was injured beyond a scratch on Carolina's arm!  We spent some time after lunch and rebuilt all the scaffolds and found what we had missed before. They are now secure and rock split. Praise The Lord that our mistake didn't hurt anyone. 

Bobby is now our "dog whisperer". Our mascot was back again today. In the afternoon, he was laying in the middle of the street. A large truck was coming and was stopping. The dog wasn't moving either. Bobby ran out into the road, stopped the truck and got the dog off the road. We would have had a lot of upset people if he would have gotten hurt. 

Our weather was great again today. Ken keeps praying for no rain. We had just wrapped up work and cleanup and Ken mentioned to me that our prayers were answered again. At that exact moment, the skies opened up and it started raining-just as we were done. God is good!

A great start to the week

We had a fantastic day at the job site. We started the day with dedication of the job site. The pastor and church members were there and had a bible, prayer book and prayers that our group wrote down. They put in a box and then buried as a time capsule and a cornerstone for the church. It was a very special ceremony and had some wonderful words and prayers to end the ceremony  

I wasn't expecting the pastor to ask me to place the box in the hole. I joked with him that he wanted me to get dirty!  We all got a chance to put some do the dirt in the hole. 

We made great progress on the job site. We got almost done with the fifth course, a little ahead of schedule. We only had one person (Renata) get sick. We had some fruit brought to us on the job site and we think that is what made her sick. 

It didn't rain and didn't get too hot. Praise The Lord. We had a lot of folks praying for great weather and it was granted!

We also have a new mascot. A puppy wandered on the site and stayed the rest of the day. He is a very cute dog but doesn't know how to get out the the way. He got stepped on a couple of times but was ok. 

The power went out briefly at the motel but came back on in time for dinner. No candlelight tonight!

Sabbath in Brazil

We had a wonderful worship service with the church in Lauro de Freitas. The church we went to today is the church that is evangelizing in the Quingoma area. There is no church where we are building but they have three groups receiving bible studies at his time. 

Geneva led out in our Sabbath School bible study. The pastor and our Maranatha construction leader, Caleb, joined us as well. We had a very good study. 

The church service was fantastic. One of the conference leaders preached the sermon. Very inspiring and it gave me some ideas for a future sermon or worships.  We also had a couple of our volunteers participate. Eliel had the prayer and Claudell called for offering. 

The church is very warm and welcoming. We look forward to working with them throughout the week. First thing tomorrow morning, we are going to have a groundbreaking and bury a time capsule with a bible, Great Controvesy and prayers that our group will write out tonight. 

We will relax this afternoon and prepare for tomorrow after evening worship tonight. 

First evening in Brazil

We are done with our first very long travel day. Our hotel is great and cooked a wonderful meal for us. We had a great worship and everyone is starting to wind down for the evening. 

Our Atlanta team decided to make their own shirt for the trip. They always call themselves the "a" team. Pretty funny. Here is a picture of them. 

At the hotel in Salvador

We had a quiet flight and short bus ride to the hotel. We had some food and are now relaxing. All bags made it safely. We are blessed with nice weather so far. Praise The Lord !

On the plane to Salvador

Everyone made it through customs and is on the plane to Salvador. Kourtney and Joel had a scare and had to wait forever for their luggage, but finally got them. One last leg left in our long journey!

Arrived safely in rio

We have made it to Rio safely and are waiting for luggage. One step down! 

Greg Hatch
Managing Director
Alvarez and Marsal Business Consulting
700 Louisiana Street Suite 900
Houston, TX 77002
Mobile 832.492.4023

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On our way to Rio

All of our group but one is in Houston and boarding our flight to Rio. We hope for a quiet and safe flight!

Mission trip to Brazil

Our team leaves for Quingoma, Brazil on Thursday the 13th. We have 29 volunteers headed there to build a church, conduct a medical mission and children's evangelism. 

Pray for our group that will be safe and that God will continue to lead in these efforts. It is a long journey and we have an exciting time ahead. 

I will do my best to post daily, God willing. 

Safely in miami

We landed in Miami and made it through customs. Most of the group are eating or at the gate.

One more step to go!
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Headed home

We had a great day on our excursion on Wednesday. We took a bus to a port east of our hotel and then boarded a boat for Saona island. We spent time on two beaches and got to visit a sea turtle conservation project.

Everyone had a great time and it was a perfect ending to the trip.

We are now making our final preparations and packing to leave. We are sad to leave, but also glad to get back home. Some of our team have some stomach issues, so the time is right to go home.

We look to continue this missionary spirit as we return to our daily lives and trsut that God will bless our efforts.

Pray for our safe return.
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Our Maranatha crew

Church members and our team

Our mission team

Completed church!

Work completed!

We just left the Colirio jobsite. We completed five courses of block on the back rooms and helped with the roof. The entire church and our team met for a dedication ceremony and prayers. It is great to see the entire church, but we are sad to leave them.

We are all headed back for a little rest and relaxation this afternoon before our excursion tomorrow.
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Update on Julian

Julian and Gracie made it back to Houston safely last night. Julian went to Texas Childrens and mercifully, it is only a stomach virus. Thank goodness it wasn't appendicitis, but better safe than sorry.

We are on the way to the jobsites for our last day of work! Pray for safety for all.
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