Welcome Home!

Porfirio and his family moved into their new concrete block home in Los Alcarizzos, Dominican Republic on Thursday, August 7. The entire neighborhood, plus two other mission teams were on hand to celebrate as the two pick up trucks containing all their household possessions pulled into the street. Our team helped move the family’s bags of clothing and kitchen utensils, and their simple furniture into the two bedroom home, gleaming with a stainless steel double sink and new stove top in the kitchen, and flush toilet, shower and sink in the bathroom.

Through the week Porfirio and his girls were on hand to help with the work of building their home – he mixed concrete and laid concrete blocks, and the girls, age 8, 9 and 15 helped carry water from a couple blocks away to make the concrete. The little sister Larrisel, almost 3, also helped sweep the floors just before the belongings were moved in, and did an amazingly good job! The work was hard manual labor, in incredibly hot, humid weather. But these hard working people will clearly take good care of this new, though simple home.

Los Alcarizzos is an extremely poor area, yet the smiles of the people were warm and welcoming. In the neighborhood where we built the house, several others have already been constructed, and a building lot was being cleared for the next home. One other mission team was helping finish a school, which has been supported primarily by outside groups, but also through a collection by the neighbors of $91. When they received that amount from these poverty-stricken residents, the mission organizers deepened their commitment to finish the school. Nearby, a church is being constructed, with a community center planned, and basketball and volleyball courts for play.

In addition to building the home, our team held Bible School sessions on two afternoons, and distributed backpacks to the 96 kids that contained school supplies (notebooks, pencils, erasers, a calculator, ruler, Spanish-English dictionary, Spanish New Testament) and toiletries (toothpaste and several toothbrushes – so all in the family can have one – soap, shampoo, tissues, bandaids, deodorant). Our extra bags contained over 1,000 pounds of donated supplies for these grateful people. They may be poor in material things, but they are rich in God’s spirit!