TBC Dominican Republic Mission Trip: Another Good Day...

From Julie, who did Medical today:

Today we went to Los Esantes Batey where we saw approximately the same number of patients as yesterday. We dispensed a lot of benadryl, ibuprofen, acetaminaphen, antacids, antibiotics and blood pressure medicines. Additionally, we gave vitamins, toothbrush and toothpaste to virtually every patient. Today we had more children as patients, and we also had a DENTIST. However, it was quite an experience for us to see that the dentist did almost nothing but pull teeth! Adults and children alike, if they sat in her white lawn chair, they got one or more teeth pulled! She did give them a shot or two to numb their mouths first, but then she quickly got into the physical labor of extracting their teeth. We also put our ministers, Glen and Mike, to work administering the anti-parasitic medication, and they did an outstanding job at that. The chapel/ community room where our clinic was set up seemed to be hotter than outside, but despite that, the day felt successful and rewarding.

Workers in the sugar cane fields

Riley, Emma and Adina taking blood pressure

Mike and Glen dispensing medicine

From Dustin, who did VBS today:

Today in the vacation bible school we told the children of the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. Afterward we gave the kids backpacks. On these backpacks they wrote “Jesus me ama” which means Jesus loves me. After lunch we shared with the children the story of How the good friends lowered their paralyzed friend through the roof to get to Jesus because the crowd was too large for them to enter the house. We acted both stories out and climbed trees and lowered friends. The children were given a quiz by the translators afterward and I believe that has helped them to remember the stories.

(in Espanol...)

Hoy en la Escuela Bíblica de Vacaciones les dijimos a los niños de la historia de Jesús y Zaqueo. Después nos dimos las mochilas los niños. En estas mochilas, escribieron "Jesús me ama", que significa Jesús me ama. Después del almuerzo que compartimos con los niños la historia de cómo los buenos amigos bajaron a su amigo paralítico por el techo para llegar a Jesús, porque la multitud era demasiado grande para que entren a la casa. Actuamos ambas historias a cabo y subimos árboles y amigos bajados. Los niños recibieron un cuestionario por los traductores después y creo que ha ayudado a recordar las historias.

Teresa doing VBS

Quite the crowd for VBS Day 2

Getting down on the kids' level

Telling the story of Zacchaeus

From Jeff, who did construction today:

We had another great day at the church site today. We finished up some rebar work and then jumped right into sweeping the floor of the church to ready it for tile! After cleaning the floor, we quickly split the group up with about 6 working on mixing concrete for the front wall footings, about 5-6 painting the inside walls and the rest mixing and carrying mortar for the tiles. It really is amazing to me how fast things are progressing. I feel like God has truly energized the entire team working at the site. It's a joy to work with the workers and all the kids.