Today was a wonderfully full day. We started the day with a great deal of painting and scraping at the clinic and at the Church. Anita and Micahel Dohn reminded us that our painting is in fact medical mission work. He told us that the clinic has a VERY tight budget this year. As a result no money has been set aside for painting or maintenance. So, by providing our labor and the cost of the paint we are letting the clinic provide needed medical help to the poor and disenfranchised. On a hot and sunny day, those words were very helpful as we kept painting.
Two groups went out to visit the local barrios. Shirley, Lauren and myself went on a driving and walking tour meeting with a local family, seeing a local well which provides water for a half mile radius (when water is available, many weeks water arrives at the well no more than once a week). We also saw an open cesspit which an entire neighborhood is built around. It was eye-opening and shocking. Gary and Joan went to visit a gentleman who is about one or two days away from death. This was one of the poorest areas that any of us have ever seen here. Another eye-opening thing was meeting and holding a five-month-old HIV-positive baby who is coming to the clinic on a very frequent basis to receive medicine and care. The work which the Dohns do, and which we have the privilege of sharing in through our time here and our financial support from St. John´s, is truly incredible.
VBS was a reminder that things never go according to schedule here and that God is none-the-less watching over us. Three out of four of our Dominican Teachers had not arrived at VBS 30 minutes after it was scheduled to start. That said, a number of other Dominican volunteers had arrived (including Natalia Dohn and two other bilingual teachers) and they offered to help translate and teach. Each and every time it looked like we would not have the supplies we needed or the right number of teachers, God kept sending us just what we needed in time. VBS was a blessing, even if it was very hot and chaotic.
Tonight we had the pleasure of heading down to the waterfront to grab a cool beverage as a group, sit near the waterfront, talk with four other short-term missionaries from Virginia and spend time with Juan Pablo a recently graduated seminarian from El Salvador who has been helping us a huge amount while we paint and at VBS.
At 6:30 p.m. we had dinner with the Dohns and then enjoyed a fantastic presentation by them about the work we have been doing here and about the work they do here.
Today has been incredibly full and incredibly wonderful. Thank you for all of your prayers, for the emails that you have been sending, and for the way you too are part of this mission.
Two groups went out to visit the local barrios. Shirley, Lauren and myself went on a driving and walking tour meeting with a local family, seeing a local well which provides water for a half mile radius (when water is available, many weeks water arrives at the well no more than once a week). We also saw an open cesspit which an entire neighborhood is built around. It was eye-opening and shocking. Gary and Joan went to visit a gentleman who is about one or two days away from death. This was one of the poorest areas that any of us have ever seen here. Another eye-opening thing was meeting and holding a five-month-old HIV-positive baby who is coming to the clinic on a very frequent basis to receive medicine and care. The work which the Dohns do, and which we have the privilege of sharing in through our time here and our financial support from St. John´s, is truly incredible.
VBS was a reminder that things never go according to schedule here and that God is none-the-less watching over us. Three out of four of our Dominican Teachers had not arrived at VBS 30 minutes after it was scheduled to start. That said, a number of other Dominican volunteers had arrived (including Natalia Dohn and two other bilingual teachers) and they offered to help translate and teach. Each and every time it looked like we would not have the supplies we needed or the right number of teachers, God kept sending us just what we needed in time. VBS was a blessing, even if it was very hot and chaotic.
Tonight we had the pleasure of heading down to the waterfront to grab a cool beverage as a group, sit near the waterfront, talk with four other short-term missionaries from Virginia and spend time with Juan Pablo a recently graduated seminarian from El Salvador who has been helping us a huge amount while we paint and at VBS.
At 6:30 p.m. we had dinner with the Dohns and then enjoyed a fantastic presentation by them about the work we have been doing here and about the work they do here.
Today has been incredibly full and incredibly wonderful. Thank you for all of your prayers, for the emails that you have been sending, and for the way you too are part of this mission.
-- Peace in Christ,
The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery
The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery
