Another wonderful morning of serving in the village of Esperanza with our chauffer/host Rob and our inspirational translator Issachar….

We were greeted by Tina at the clinic where we presented our donated medical supplies and she briefed us on how the clinic operates, benefiting many from the village and the local area. What stuck with me from what she said is that we can help the locals but we should not deprive them of their local ways of providing for their families. In other words always respect their culture.

Well, today I found a lot of things were coming together on our projects. Not only are we getting used to working in one area, we are establishing growing relationships with the local workers and the leaders. I believe that because our team is able to work well with very minor supervision that the projects are moving ahead at a very fast pace. (Not having rain is also a great blessing)

At the beginning of the week some of us were questioning the way they were doing the construction work. With our past experiences back home with all the machinery, technological instruments we figured we could do better. I truly feel that we saw today the way they are accomplishing their projects benefits the workers and their families, which gives them a sense of pride, dignity and self esteem. So in conclusion I admire them for their efficiencies in completing a house, allowing them to provide more houses for other less fortunate families.

This afternoon we visited the public Hospital in Puerto Plata for the second time and amazingly, we had enough gifts and supplies for all the patients. We witnessed the same types of healing and saw Jesus’ love fill their hearts as they accepted him. It was also a blessing for us that they recognized us from our visit there last week. Their genuine smiles confirmed our love towards the entire staff, patients young and old, terminal or not.

Kind Regards,
Aime Sabourin

P.S some of us got to hold an 18-hour-old baby, can’t wait to be a Grandpa!!!!