When Kids Pitch In

It's amazing to me to see our kids respond to the opportunity to go on our upcoming service project trip to the Dominican Republic. Earlier this week they each received a small amount of money in the mail as a special gift. They informed me that they were donating it to the DR service project whereupon they wanted to know the whereabouts of the "money box."

The money box (an orange shoebox) got its start on a sunny, late September Sunday afternoon, when they decided to have a lemonade, snack and candy sale in front of our cul-de-sac using the leftovers from a previous church rummage sale fundraising event for the trip. They even contributed some of their own toys to the merchandise inventory. Our kids are certainly no strangers to hosting mid-summer lemonade stands, but this one was unparalleled in its planning, execution and results. They created signs highlighting that the proceeds would go to the DR service project and I helped them rehearse their sales pitch. With ample amounts of sunscreen applied to their faces, they were excited to spend the afternoon selling their delicacies.

Their hourly per-person profit far exceeded my expectations. Total revenue was about $55! Oh me of little faith. Our gracious, big-tipper neighbors generated much excitement as the kids reported their sales to me and enlisted some of the other neighbor kids in the project. After cleaning up from the event, they each decided to donate some of their own money to the box.

In the overall financial scheme of this project, anyone who has responsibility for a checking account or mortgage can smile dismissively at these efforts as "cute" but would readily point out that they're just a "drop in the bucket." But I'm realizing that in the even bigger overall scheme of things, the kids' attitudes reflect heart-changes that are positively delightful. Their awareness of others' situations and of their own ability to make a positive impact in the lives of others is growing...along with mine.

Mission of Water

For further insight into the broader water-as-mission movement in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere and the entrepreneurial vision that was birthed in Colorado which has yielded more than 51 million gallons of clean drinking water for the world's poor, read today's front page article in The Denver Post featuring Healing Waters International, a Colorado-based non-profit organization that provides sustainable filtration technology.

Rediscovering Hispaniola

Today is an occasion for some in the United States to celebrate and learn more about the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, the Age of Exploration or Italian-American heritage. For others, Columbus Day symbolizes a legacy of imperial oppression and the many injustices it has fomented over the last half-millennium. Many more simply pass the day like any other, unless they happen to be employed by a retail financial institution, apathetic to its controversy and unlikely to ascribe anything more than an historical footnote to this date on the calendar.

For a brief moment, I'd like to borrow this day to "rediscover" an island, a country, a community, a people and to announce a project - a calling, of sorts - which I will describe here over the next three months. Christopher Columbus is credited with having landed on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola 516 years ago on his first voyage to the "New World," subsequently settling what is now its oldest city, Santo Domingo, on the south coast of today's Dominican Republic.

In 2005, Jose Rodriguez, a native of Santo Domingo, decided to bring hope to people who live amidst extreme poverty in one of the poorest districts of this old city. He was commissioned, not to discover a land, conquer a people, or export gold, but to live amongst these impoverished families and serve them. He and his wife Carmen have come alongside these people and have organized the building of a water purification system and well to help combat the sickness that runs rampant in the community. They have cleared land and collected relief funds from international partners to build and operate a school to teach kids so that the next generations can live better lives. In addition to helping meet the physical and economic needs of these people, they have served the spiritual needs of this community by planting a church to help people grow in this vital dimension, too. But the work is not finished. They also have plans to one day build and staff a medical clinic that will advocate for better health and to treat the various maladies of the community.

Our family has decided to accompany a group from our church - which has adopted the Rodriguezes and this community of Villa Hermosa - to assist in another service project that will expand the school to accommodate more children and create an additional classroom. We look forward to this one-week trip this winter to go as servants, not tourists; to support a committed, loving, indigenous servant-leader as he and his family bring hope to their fellow Dominicans.

I invite you to watch this space over the next three months to "Rediscover Hispaniola" and to catch a glimpse of the hope Jose and his family have brought to this community.