Under the leadership of Josh Martin, youth leader of Community Mennonite Fellowship, a group of 26 travelled to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on May 4.
The group included: Adam Driedger, Brent Ellison, Georgina Ellison, Jaclyn Ellison, Shona Frere, Angela Guest, Donna Hirtle, Phares Horst, Lynn Horst, Lauren Horst, Nathan Horst, Seth Horst, Calysta Kaye, Mary MacKenzie, Anthony Martin, Connor Martin, Dawson Martin, Kate Martin, Krista Martin, Luca Martin, Marlene Martin, Mike Martin, Alecia Weber, Travis Weber, Zach Woodburn, plus eight more from Harmony Road Baptist Church, Oshawa.
It arrived at Lighthouse School of Los Alcarrinzos with work clothes, gloves, water bottles, sunscreen and hearts ready to serve. Although excited to be available the team wondered if they would be of any value for eight days.
The group participated in an Impact Team and had the opportunity to contribute to the important ongoing community transformation work of International Teams (iTeams). The goal was to join with them to grow new friendships and to exchange knowledge, skills and resources to help interrupt the cycle of poverty. iTeams have programs all over the world. Their vision is to meet the needs of widows, orphans and refugees by transforming lives and communities by the power of God. They do this by working with partners to provide resources, expertise, services and infrastructure to indigenous leaders and churches that exist to help the impoverished.
“We were one of many churches building into the development of the Dominican Republic, more specifically the Lighthouse project for the past 26 years,” officials said.
Los Alcarrizos is a municipality outside of Santo Domingo. In the 1980s, people started moving to Los Alcarrizos to work in the textile factories. Lighthouse Ministries opened a vocational school to teach adults how to use the machines in the factories for higher incomes. Presently, 300,000 people live in Los Alcarrizos but because it is an unplanned community there is very poor infrastructure. Lighthouse started a school for the kids in the area who had moved with their families. The school goes from Grade 1 to 12, and the children learn math, English, history, geography, and more advanced courses like computers, marketing and extended ESL classes. This community has 42% unemployment.
Lighthouse has also built most of the curbs and sidewalks in the community which prevents water from running into the homes. Later the government recognized the innovation and came alongside. Lighthouse builds homes for families that meet a certain criterion; these houses can be built in up to two weeks. Lighthouse also provides affordable clean drinking water through its water filtration plant. Children no longer show symptoms of “big belly” from drinking water tainted by sewage.
The Lighthouse compound now has a three-storey school, water filtration building, gym, vocational school, baseball diamond, basketball court, cafeteria and living area for the volunteer teams. The next phase is building a university to the compound.
Universities only run in the afternoon and evening because they use primary and secondary schools once the school day is done. The closest university is in Santo Domingo.
“One of our young translators Manuel currently trains to be an electrical engineer and daily takes the bus more than an hour each way,” officials said.
Villa Altagracia is a community half an hour outside of Los Alcarrizos and with 72% unemployment, is a haven for crime, drugs, abuse and early pregnancies. Lighthouse has been invited to work similarly in this community. It has started by building a basketball court and a water filtration building. Trust is building. One of our days commenced the paving of the laneway that would allow trucks to manoeuvre. The other half of our team introduced paint to the new washrooms and compound. They have also purchased land to build the vocation school. Lighthouse’s dream is to work in three additional similar communities throughout the Dominican Republic, which would multiply the successes Los Alcarrizos model.
Another key project was preparing for the foundation of a small home. The family with major health concerns and a son’s death were receiving the very modest accommodation of living/kitchen area, two bedrooms and a bathroom.
The foremen trained volunteers in rebar preparations, which they positioned with years of experience. Vounteers mixed cement mixers and became the bucket brigade, for the foundation. Cement cinder blocks are standard building materials in the Dominican Republic. While frost, installation and heating are not an issue, termites and rainfall are. The team did not complete this home, but the baton is in place for the next team to run with the next length of the project and so the work dovetails and continues.
“Compound retaining walls for safety were still in process and we learned as fast as we could how to make mortar and lay cinder blocks. Again, our appreciation goes to the professionals and quality control,” officials said.
Church, a community walk, a “tourist day” and a swimming pool were part of the rest versus intense work of the week. “Americanos” are frequent visitors as volunteers, and the community readily welcomed the team regardless of Canadian pasSports.
The community of Drayton and surrounding areas encouraged the team with their generous prayer and financial support. Fundraisers, (rock picking, stick picking, apple fritters, apple crisps, a pancake breakfast, a recent baseball tournament and more) were a huge team builder in the 11 months leading to departure.
“We are confident that our community’s prayers actively protected and encouraged us in our travels and work,” officials said. “Though economically fragile we sensed a vigour and genuine happiness and gratitude among the people we met. Despite the language barrier the message ‘love your neighbour’ is universal. The cultural education left a positive impression on our lives; it is our hope that it was mutual.”
