2019 Dominican Republic
Mission Team
Christ Episcopal Church
Valdosta, Georgia
Bedroom progress, team fees, and scholarships!
Lots of news this week! First, construction on the bedroom we are funding for Pirlulu, our special-needs friend in the village, has moved along quickly. Euclides, our favorite contractor and a long-time friend of our team, has been working with another villager to complete the phases of preparing the site, raising the concrete-block walls, putting on the roof of wooden rafters and new metal sheeting, and plastering the walls inside and out. When we arrive, our construction team will mix and lay the concrete for the floor and will paint the entire structure. Leidy is working now on getting estimates for the new bed, mattress, and sets of sheets that we will set up in the room and present to Pirlulu during the church service on Sunday, June 23 -- just before we leave to return to Santo Domingo. One photograph of the new room is above. To see more, click here.

On May 7 Julia mailed a check for $4,531 from the church's DR Fund to the Diocese of the Dominican Republic to pay for more of our expenses during the trip. We had sent another check for $1,600 earlier to pay for the first phases of the bedroom construction (see above) and to install wall fans in our dormitory rooms. If you have been wondering what your team fee of $650 is used for, here's a partial answer:

Doors and Windows for bedroom construction project--$200
Room and Board for 14 for 6 nights at Campamento--$2,968
Paint for Kindergarten and Bedroom--$170
Splash Party for children at Campamento--$600
Servitur Bus Service to and from camp--$493
Diocesan Mission Team Fee--$100
                                               TOTAL -- $4,531

Finally, we are so happy to report that the 2019 DR dinner and auction on May 3 raised $16,899 to support scholarships for children enrolled in the Dominican Episcopal school in the village of El Pedregal, our mission field. This is an increase of $1,336 over our 2018 total of $15,563, and is a new record high amount for this ministry.

We sent this information a few days ago to Padre Ramón Canela, the Dominican Episcopal priest and school administrator in El Pedregal, and he quickly sent back this message: Dios bendiga el esfuerzo que ustedes hacen para mantener éste centro de estudios, Dios continúe dando prosperidad a toda la familia de la Iglesia de Cristo. [God bless the effort you make to maintain this center of education. May God continue to give prosperity to the whole family of Christ Church.]

We expect more scholarship donations will come in before the deadline of June 30, and we look forward to sending all of those funds to Padre Canela in the first week of July for use in the 2019-2020 school year.

No new information documents this week. The current list of available 2019 documents is at the bottom of the planning page here.

Julius

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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 .