Servants of Villa Hermosa

Courageous. Loving. Visionary. Responsive. Humble.

These are but some of the words that describe the servant-leaders we met who have sacrificed to minister to the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of people in some out-of-the-way places that we visited in Republica Dominican. 

These people work together. Really together. And sacrificially. Their stories are powerful examples of service, commitment and responding to a call.

Lupita Gonzales (left) visited these communities in 2004 on a "vision trip" from her home in Nogales, Mexico and decided to move to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to join the team as a teacher and children's/youth minister.

Alba Estevez (right) is a medical doctor who joined the ministry team about five years ago and runs a community health program, providing health check-ups and visits, vaccinations and hygiene and birth control training for people in various outlying and rural communities in the DR.

Jose and Carmen Rodriguez (left) have been the heart and soul of the church, school and water purification plant in Villa Hermosa since their inception a few years ago. These modest facilities are like a community center, or the city gate in ancient times, as Agua Bendicion (the water store, literally, "Blessing Water") does a very brisk business, attracting young children, grandfathers, single mothers, twenty-somethings, the local robust retired army general, the 94-year-old woman who lives across the unpaved street and anyone else looking to fill their 5-gallon water bottle with clean drinking water. Pastor Jose knows just about everyone who comes along and he greets them all with a hearty smile and a warm greeting, even at the end of a very long day of wearing multiple hats -- mason, laborer, program director, children herder, VBS emcee and gracious host to our group of American volunteers.

Jose earned a university degree and had a good career as a manager at a ceramics manufacturing company. His story is truly inspiring. To hear him tell it (via Andy, our trusty translator) and to see his emotion and humility was for me, a special moment. His life was transformed by a message of hope -- found in the person of Jesus -- a message that he initially resisted hearing. He actually threw rocks at Joaquin, the pastor who started a church and school (and eventually a water purification plant) in another part of Santo Domingo where Jose used to live. Jose and many others actively, and sometimes violently, worked against Joaquin's efforts to share this message and plant this church.

Once transformed, Jose brought this message of hope -- God making things right -- to the people of Villa Hermosa, taking his daily lunch breaks from his job to walk down the sometimes muddy road into the nearby community of the poor and forgotten. 

Joaquin (right) and Jose (middle) have since reconciled and are now friends and ministry partners working together to help others. Jose has passed the torch to Juniel (left), entrusting the care of these people, their church, school and water plant to this young man. Jose and Carmen's future plans are to push about 20 km further into Villa Hermosa and begin anew because Jose's heart is to be at the frontier of transforming lives, transforming communities with good news and the accompanying abundant life of social, spiritual, emotional and physical healing.

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

- Proverbs 25:25

I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

- Jesus

Blessings! More later at http://dominicanproject.blogspot.com

Kids' Perspective of Villa Hermosa

Straight from our children's lips come their stories about their experience in Villa Hermosa.

C (8 years old):

I liked playing baseball, and I really liked meeting Jeffrey (our bus driver's 18-year-old son), and I especially liked working - it was really fun.

Me and J were really tired, so we took a nap one day. I was sleeping and I heard a blow on me and I was wondering what it was. It was Antonio, so I woke up and he took my hat. I was running after him to try to get it. So we were running around chasing each other playing tag. At the end of our last day there, I gave Antonio my Colorado Rockies hat since he really liked it.

Mommy handed me the camera so I took pictures of him and he kept on wanting me to take more and pointed to things for me to take pictures of.

One day, Antonio said my name and pointed out the rest of the (American) people and knew many of their names, but I had to help him with some of their names. I thought it was cool that he wanted to get to know the people from our church group.

Every day we played baseball. On Tuesday, I played baseball and I was trying to scootch up to hit, and another kid said "after me" in a little bit of English. So after him I tried to go up to bat, but there was a 15-year old girl there and she went up before me.  When she swung really hard it hit my back a little bit and so my back was sore from that day on.

E (10 years old):

I liked making friends. One of the really cool friend experiences for me was this little girl named Dana. She was sitting all by herself and she looked bored and sort of sad. So I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of her and she said "no," but since I said it in English I figured she didn't understand so I took a picture of her anyway and showed it to her. Then she was really excited when she saw it so I let her use my camera and she took pictures -- lots of pictures and she really liked it. On all the days after that, she would find me and give me a hug. So we became really good friends, even though she's just six years old.

The kids came early for VBS on Monday so they started playing in the side yard of the church. I thought it was a good time to take pictures so all these kids came up and wanted me to take their picture and show it to them. A girl named Michelle wanted to take a picture of me with some of her friends and she took a lot of pictures with my camera. When she gave it back to me she said "thank you" in English. She started talking to me and so we talked and became friends and played together the rest of the days and tried to communicate.

On Sunday, we had lunch with a family and I got to know the little boy named Antonio. The next day I was carrying Dana on my back and Antonio remembered me and called me by my name. So I said "hola" and I thought it was really cool that he recognized me.

On Sunday, they gave us little paper presents that say "God Loves You" in Spanish and I thought it was really nice of them to make those for us. Even though they don't have very much, they made something for us and that showed me that they really cared about us and were thankful that we were there.

I liked it when Lorena braided my hair. On the first day she braided K's hair. I really liked that so mommy told her that, so she braided my hair on Wednesday and she braided mommy's hair, too.

On the last day when we got on the bus, we hadn't even left Villa Hermosa yet and I already missed the people.

I really want to go back!

Kids of Villa Hermosa - Part 2

Several people from our team helped host a 3-day Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the kids in Villa Hermosa, as they too were on Christmas break from school. During the mornings, various members of our team prepared crafts and activities for the 2-plus-hour afternoon VBS sessions. 

In the hours leading up to the start time of the program, dozens of kids came early to play and watch what was going on with the construction project. It was very much a thriving community center for many kids and several adults, too, except that there were virtually none of the amenities that North Americans typically associate with such a place, save for some improvised toys and games -- often the best way for kids to have fun from any culture!

Groups of kids rotated, en masse, between various stations for different activites such as organized games, crafts, a Bible story and snacks. We brought craft supplies, prizes, candy and balls from the U.S. for the kids to enjoy.

We had been told to plan for about 100 kids, so we brought goodies for 120. 

The first day about 150 kids showed up, the next day approximately 220 kids, and around 240 on the final day. Our crew bought more supplies and improvised rather creatively so that everyone had craft material to use. Imagine the chaotic scene at the end of the day when winning ticket holders were called to receive prizes! Ay caramba!

Kids of Villa Hermosa

Meet Jose Ramon.

Jose lives in Villa Hermosa, a forgotten community far beyond the city limits of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was one of the kids playing stickball on our Day One visit.

On Day Two, Monday morning, our group arrived onsite ready to put our backs into the building project, our hearts in the children's Vacation Bible School (VBS) and to contribute in any way we could.

Jose came up and pointed at me and made a bat-swinging motion, indicating (without words) that he recognized me as having taken a few swings at stickball Sunday afternoon. Giving him the only reasonable response, I said: "Si. You know Sammy Sosa?" parading my knowledge of one of Dominican's most famous professional baseball players. He nodded affirmatively and enthusiastically. I said, pointing to myself, "That's me!" To which he responded "Albert Pujols, me!" pointing to himself as one of baseball's best players and most feared hitters, also a Dominican. And thus started a friendship that was renewed similarly each day thereafter, each time with slightly more Spanish on my part.

The boy on the left in this picture is the son of the foreman on our construction project, Pablo. Each of the Americans brought gloves to work with the gravel, cement, cement blocks, shovels, etc. None of the Dominicans who we worked with had any, though we brought extras to give to those who wanted to use them.

We offered gloves to the pastors and others from the village who worked with us up on the roof of the building project. One of the Dominican boys received a pair of gloves. Later, the foreman's son, who's no more than 8 years old, asked me for gloves. I was fresh out, and looking around and seeing none available, I said in my finest Spanish, "we don't have any more," or something hopefully close to that. 

An hour later he was back on the roof, undeterred, where some serious heavy lifting and cement-slinging was going on. He showed off his newly acquired pair of gloves to me with a big grin. Every time we met thereafter, that day and following, he would proudly show me the pair of oversized brown gloves engulfing his hands, to which I usually responded, "Que bueno!"

It was delightful to see our American kids enthusiastically helping out with construction and VBS, working and playing together with Dominican kids, adults, with whomever and at whatever.

The children made many new friends in Villa Hermosa. My daughter (10) insists that she will never forget our trip and that it was the best trip ever! My son (8) reports two thumbs (and two feet) way up!

Tune in for more ("manana" -- some time) at http://dominicanproject.blogspot.com

Gracias,

Neighborhood of Villa Hermosa

Three impressions of our mission/service project trip stand out for me: the neighborhood, the kids and the servant-leaders. I'll save the latter two for posts in the near future. First, a sense of the setting for the stories of these people is in order.

Day One, Sunday. Our group of 25 attended a church service in Villa Hermosa in a simple one-room building, no more than 20 feet x 20 feet. We consumed half of the real estate inside the building creating a standing-room-only scenario for the regulars. During typical weekdays, it is home to a school where six teachers share space in the school house and the back covered "patio." It was the most plain church or school building I'd seen, aside from the historical landmarks displayed by preservation societies in old towns in the U.S. But the week was young. A more primitive house of worship was yet to bless us.

Situated on a dirt road thoroughfare (a clearing that formerly served as the railway through a plantation), the property where we were to spend many of our waking hours is a ten-minute drive from the main road. But what a difference those ten (or so) minutes make. Within a few hundred yards of the main road leading from the city of Santo Domingo, the scene changes dramatically as Villa Hermosa overtakes the first-time visitor.

I would later find out that the most "affluent" families in this area live on about US$3.00 per day. Families here, many of them headed by single mothers, often stretch their budgets by eating a single meal per day. Fresh fruits or vegetables are typically limited to what can be found growing on nearby banana, coconut or citrus trees or other plants.

A vendor drives around the neighborhood in a small truck offering oranges and vegetables to those who can periodically afford them. The most substantial houses are constructed of cinder block and metal roofs. Many are built from assorted lumber scraps.

After the church service, each of the American families were invited to join a host family for lunch. Our missions coordinator had sent money ahead of us for these families to buy provisions for this meal. Otherwise, to feed one family for lunch according to our North American standards, could be about 2-3 weeks' wages for a family. 

Our meal was delicious and our hosts were very gracious as we muddled through a conversation using all 18 words of Spanish that we know. They knew even less English -- all part of the fun! Hanging sheets served as walls that divided the sleeping quarters from the cooking/eating area. The floor was partly tiled, partly dirt. Somehow, the home had electricity.

As lunch ended, a stickball game caught our attention from the muddy-dusty street outside. The boys use 1.5-inch diameter sticks or PVC pipe for bats and a cap from a 5-gallon water bottle for the ball. The pitcher had excellent control with lots of "stuff" to make the disc "ball" execute various aerial maneuvers before crossing the strike zone. How hard is that to hit?! 

These kids love baseball. It's not the national passtime; rather, it's the national passion. Some of us joined in the fun. 

(We brought 120 baseballs to hand out to the kids on Day Four...

and yours truly hit the bottle cap!)

Stay tuned at http://dominicanproject.blogspot.com/ for more about our trip.

Faces and Scenes of Villa Hermosa

Economics of Water

Do you take clean drinking water for granted? I do.

Yet 1.1 billion of our fellow human beings do not have access to an improved water supply, according to the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report.

Looking at our recent home utility bill, I see that we pay $3.08 per 1,000 gallons of water. As far as I know, it's generally good drinking water. Nevertheless, we drink even cleaner water via the filtered water dispenser on the refrigerator door. The grocery store one mile from our home sells 5-gallon bottles of drinking water for $6.99. A local distributor will deliver (presumably with a service contract and equipment rental) for $6.85 per 5-gallon bottle.

The median household income in my suburban county, after income taxes, is somewhere in the vicinity of $200 per day. So a 5-gallon bottle would cost my neighbors about 3.5% of a day's wage.

Outside the city limits of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, a 5-gallon bottle of purified water on the regular market sells for the equivalent of US$1.25. More than half of the households of one of these poor communities live on less than US$2.00 per day, according to a Harvard study. For these people, a 5-gallon bottle of safe drinking water costs them the equivalent of more than 60% of a day's wage for the family, or effectively 17 times what it costs my neighbors.


Thanks to the contribution of a generous donor, the visionary collaboration of two non-profit organizations (Ministerios Benedicion in the D.R., and Missions Door in the U.S.), the work of a group of volunteers who have gone before us and the selfless leadership of local pastor Jose Rodriguez, clean drinking water now flows abundantly and more affordably in Villa Hermosa.


The mission of the Villa Hermosa water project, pictured here upon its completion earlier this year, is:

"To provide safe, clean and affordable drinking water to the underdeveloped community of Villa Hermosa through a self-sustained economic development project that will allow the local church to provide spiritual, physical and social healing."

May we be ever more thankful for the bounty we receive; may we increasingly and joyfully lavish our abundance on others; and may we steadily realize that ultimately, provision comes graciously from our Creator.

Grace and peace...

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.