EV Free Youth Group Christmas Party

Youth Group Christmas Party @ the CRISER HOUSE (6-9pm) Don’t miss out!!! That’s **THIS SATURDAY, Criser house from 6-9pm!!!

Day – Eight: Home

We just landed in Boston.

Waiting for bus at 10:05

10:20am On the bus, heading for the Cape.

Day Seven – Worship The LORD with Friends…

Well rested and excited by what God was able to accomplish with our hands, we are looking forward to our worship this morning with our friends at church. Pastor Rudy has asked two things; first, he asked if Evan would share his testimony with the congregation, they were praying for him from the moment they heard about his accident and seeing him will be an encouragement to their faith. Second, he asked Nate to preach so the faithful team of NateOto with preach and translate… But Breakfast calls so Adios for now.

Day Six – TIME to Build This Chapel

It’s 4:00am and we are getting breakfast and heading out to the village 3 hours away where a foundation lies in need of a chapel. And we have just the right building for them. This one was constructed by the 20 of us from Cape Cod, but it was made possible by the donations of the friends and family of our brother in the Lord, Matthew Warren. He so wanted to be on this trip with us, and in a way he has. Through the memories we have shared as friends, with his aunt Karen & uncle Wayne being here along with aunt Lisa, uncle Scott and his cousins Evan & Ryan, and others that knew and loved Matt, we have him in our hearts. Now we can build this for people who will certainly have a smile on their faces today,how appropriate is that…

Well, With the help of many friends, and the Lord’s blessing for great weather, the chapel is built. We got back to the TIME center around 9:00PM so I thought the best use of my time would be to show you in pictures what we were able to provide this congregation as we honored our brother Matthew with this chapel exactly 7 months to the day he went to be with the Lord…

More to come after some rest, it’s been 20 hours for me now and I need some sleep… enjoy:

Day Five – This is Going Too Fast

 

In case you were wanting to share the morning wake-up that we experience each day…

So now that you have experienced the Official TIME Ministries – Jean Carlos AM Wake-up Call, you can understand how motivated we are each day to Rise and Shine.  We are treated to a wonderful breakfast each day.

Fresh Fruit

We will finish the components this morning and should be ready to load the truck this afternoon.

Well, All Items are done. In fact, we were able to make three more benches for a church AND varnish all the benches that were made by another group prior to our trip.  We are happy to report that we have had no real injuries thus far (thank you for your prayers for safety) and we are actually slightly ahead of schedule and are able to enter the build date with a little rest. Now by little you understand that we are leaving for the build site at 4:30

Day Four – More of the Same (That’s a Good Thing)

Our usual 6 am reveille from Jean Carlos got us out of bed and ready for Bible study and breakfast. French toast,sausage, and fresh fruit, and of course Dominican coffee.
If you have ever had some of Rich Chase’s coffee, it’s strong; THIS is Superman strong… but it gets you going early in the morning and ready for a hard day of work.
I say “more of the same” is a good thing because the work we’re doing here, although it is hard, is enjoyable and the friendships, in addition to the chapels we are building, are long lasting.

We only have windows and one door left to build in the shop and our Saturday build day looks good. Pray that it doesn’t rain TOO HARD on Saturday.

This afternoon we are going to play a Dominican team in Softball. We have the majority of our church team on the trip, let’s pray all the great Dominican ball players are already in the States…

Is This What They Mean By "Farm Team?"

SCORE UPDATE: In an unofficial game (4 innings called after RAIN/Thunderstorms) we were tied at 5-5 in our International battle of DR vs USA. The field recently served as a home for several cows, as evidenced by their… well you know what cows produce. (No, I am not referring to milk). So rounding 1st and going to 2nd required proper foot placement to ensure that you made the trip “Clean”. The heavens opened and we were blessed to end in a tie against our much younger and faster Dominican opposition…

The team went to minister to another church vacation Bible school tonight. The rain seems to have subsided, so we should have another wonderful evening.

Daytime Three – Building Panels and Relationships

We have the entire team with us this morning as the Foundation Team arrived “Home” at 8:00 last night. More to come were just getting ready for morning Bible study, songs and some breakfast.
We were able to build another 10 panels today plus 6 roof panels, 2 trusses and a greater friendship with both TIME’s Dominican staff, and our other young helpers. 
This afternoon (after lunch and a cool shower) we are going to the Mercado and this evening, visiting the chapel we built in 2009. More to come after lunch.

The Caves...

After lunch we got on the TIME bus And drove to downtown Santa Domingo. We shoppe at the Mercado, It’s a giant collection of various vendors selling all things Dominican and other trinkets and gifts. We then continue to ”Los Tres Ojos”  The Three Eyes. The three eyes are symbolic of the 3 lakes found in the underground caves. It was actually amazing to be that far underground it almost felt as if you’re walking back in time. They shot scenes from the movie Jurassic Park at this location and Jacques Cousteau’s divers found an 1800 foot long tunnel going out from the from the caves.

The Crew...

The Traffic...

We return to have a wonderful meal, our favorite, Taco Salad, and then we were back on the TIME bus to go visit the church we built in 2009 in the village of Hatillo.

The reason...

What a blessing to see so many people gathered on a Wednesday night singing and dancing and celebrating the Lord.
We actually sang 3 songs for the people gathered at the church and then were able to assemble inside the chapel we built 2 years ago. The Pastor thanked us for the gift of the chapel and encouraged us to continue doing good work for God’s kingdom.
It was great for people who have not been on a missions trip ever to see exactly what it is we’re building and how it will all come together on Saturday morning when we build the chapel.
We were able to see Pastor Rudy tonight and look forward to worshiping with the church on Sunday. It is late and I will jump on in the morning and post some photos as soon as possible.

Day Two – Foundation Team & Cutting Team

 

It’s 5:00AM for the Foundation Team

At 5 o’clock the foundation crew was getting ready for the 3 hour drive to the village where the chapel will be built. It is a town called Jarabacoa

Tony's Spanish!

Breakfast was “GGGREAT” only it was spelled slightly different.

The group that stayed back completed 10 panels today. Not bad for rookies. They were led by TIME Staff Member, and our good friend Jean Carlos and our own honorary intern Evan Williamson (or as he’s known down here Guapito). You will see from the images attached, the teams of people building the panels that we will assemble on Saturday. The foundation team is not back from the site yet, but we will add to the update upon their arrival.

Well, they arrived at 8:00pm after Thunderstorms, trees blocking the highway (our guys chopped the tree and dragged it off the highway so the traffic could pass.) The location is, as Rich Chase said, “A picture perfect site in the mountains.) The road to the site is more like “ICE ROAD TRUCKERS – Most dangerous Roads” but God is Good and the team is back together for our work shop building on Day Three.

The Better Half of the Wood Cutting Team "Williamson & Williamson"

Our Window Panel Team (Joe, Kayla & Karen)

Girl's Team Building a Wall Panel

 

Building inside the TIME Building

 

Evan and Team Nino/Nina Gettin' R Done

The Google Earth Image of the Site

 

The Foundation for the Chapel

 

The Site

Dominican Republic 2011 Mission Trip- Day One

Things Have Changed on JetBlue

2:30 am Twenty of us are on a shuttle bus on our way for the first leg of our flight to the DR. BOS>JFK then after 2 hours in NYC on to Santo Domingo.
We are going to build our 4th chapel with our friends at TIME Ministries, but this one has a lot more emotion attached to it.
We are going to build the chapel that so many people gave contributions to in memory of and to honor our dear friend (our nephew) Matt Warren who passed away this January. Matt had planned to be on this trip with us this year, and in a way he is with us.
The memory of his smile, the way he would help anyone who needed it is on our minds as we fly down to build a chapel with the funds donated in his memory.
Thank you all who gave a donation towards this chapel, thanks to Matt’s family for encouraging Matt’s friends to honor his memory in this very tangible way.
More to come as we continue on day one…

Landed in New York, waiting on our continuation to the DR for a few hours.
Boarding JB823 JFK to SEQ leaving a little late but we are excited to get going. TTYL

Noe and the TIME Staff with THE BUS at Airport

Caption 1 "Look ma, no Sharks" Caption 2 "Imagine the Number of Tourists We would have if Nauset Looked like this?"

The Haiti Mission Trip Video

God Loves the Children of Haiti… So Do We. Please Support http://www.danitaschildren.org/