I'm back from the on-site planning trip to El Pedregal to work out more details about our June 2019 mission trip. You may notice that this message header is for the "mission team" and not the "mission trip." Starting today, Julia and I will be sending some fairly detailed messages to the 2019 Go Team missioners only, with occasional messages about the overall trip to the larger group from the Home Team.
Bedroom Construction
: Padre Canela approved our main construction project, the replacement of a dilapidated bedroom structure of poles and sheets of scrap lumber and metal roofing with one made of concrete blocks. The photograph above shows Leidy standing at one corner of the bedroom, which is used by one of her first cousins, Pirlulu, the special-needs young adult that our team has sponsored in a Dominican special education school for many years. He has now graduated from that program and is fairly self-sufficient, although he lives in this bedroom which is attached to the house of his grandmother, Elena.
I asked Padre Canela to work with Euclides, a construction foreman and long-time friend of our team, to come up with an estimate for the cost of the new bedroom plus furnishings for the inside (mainly, a new bed and perhaps a set of storage shelves). Once that estimate is received, then Julia and I will transmit the funds to start that project to Padre Canela, who will then authorize Euclides and other local workmen to begin work. We're thinking now that almost all of the work can be completed before we arrive, and the only major steps remaining will be to mix and pour the concrete for the new floor and paint and perhaps plaster the inside and outside walls. We're hoping to have Pirlulu attend the church worship service on June 23 so we can recognize him as a friend of our team and formally turn over his new bedroom to him.
Next week:details on another project.
And Continue to 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. If you would like to donate one or more items to the auction, please let Julia know at <
juliacariail@gmail.com
>. For photographs from the 2018 dinner and auction,
click here
.
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
.
