There is a change to report on the membership
of our 2018 team for the June 17-24 trip. Two people who had planned to go have had to drop out, so as of this morning, we have fourteen missioners. The current list of missioners is on the trip planning page
here
. The deadline to join the team remains tonight, January 31, or whenever the 18 slots fill up -- whichever comes first. Since we have had no recent inquiries about the trip, it looks as if fourteen will be the number for 2019 -- which is the same as in 2018.
For the veteran missioners receiving this message
, whether or not you are on the 2019 team or not: we would appreciate some help in considering the scope of the planned construction project which currently has us building a bedroom out of concrete blocks for Pirlulu, our special-needs friend of many years and one of Leidy's first cousins. This new bedroom would replace a dilapidated structure of plywood and poles that is currently attached to one of the side walls of his grandmother's house on the main street in El Pedregal. Given that we have three full working days, maybe 3.5, during our trip, is this project enough or could we look for something else to do either in the village or at the Campamento? Please let us know your thoughts via email to <julius.ariail@gmail.com>. We will use any feedback to prepare for our trip to El Pedregal on February 5-7 where we will be meeting with Padre Canela and others in the community to make more plans for our trip.
And Save The Date of May 3
-- our annual DR dinner and auction to raise funds for scholarships at the K-8 school we support and for a portion of our project costs is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 3, at the Cotton Corner in downtown Valdosta. We'll have lots more information out in the next month or so, but for now we wanted to let you know that the date has been set.
The DR message next week should be out on Thursday, February 7, but might be delayed until sometime that night. We'll be in El Pedregal until around 1 p.m. on that Thursday, and probably will need to wait until we're in a hotel in Santo Domingo to have a strong enough internet connection to make this message magic work.
Julia and Julius
* * * * * * * * * *
The planning webpage for the 2019 mission trip
is online here.
All information about the trip will be added to this page just as soon as it is available.
For information about Christ Church's mission work in the Dominican Republic, including a summary report and photographs from the 2018 trip,
click here
.
