Hard Work

The cement floor project is hard work. As you have seen in other blog posts of teams, mixing the cement, shoveling and wheel barreling it to the house is exercise. Our Friday Harbor team did a fantastic job of sharing the work and keeping everyone involved. We had some excellent mixers; C.J., Isaiah, Austin, Vinnie and shovelers; Collin, Otis, Fred and Mandy. Monique got in there a bit too. I was great at leaning on the shovel. (-: I think everyone took a turn at the wheel barrel too. After the work was done, we had some play time with the kids and Collin needed an extra workout so he hoisted kids above his head for 10 minutes. They loved it as you can see. The two boys with their tires were ready to play their favorite game, rolling and balancing the tire, using a stick. They are very good.

Joy and Praise

One of the comments I heard most from our team is that of the joy that the children and young people have in life. This is a joy that comes from something outside themselves, as it becomes quite clear during a week spent here in the villages; that the joy doesn't come from the stuff people have acquired. Here is an example of Monique experiencing this joy a couple of weeks ago. See the video.

Spontaneous front porch Praise! from Victor Woodward on Vimeo.

"7" a shooting game

In this brief video you can see the enthusiasm and excitement the guys had during basketball camp. We were playing a shooting game at both baskets that I call, 7 game shooting. It is simple. The first team to make 7 baskets wins the game. Vinnie Carter was on the winning team; notice his excitement too. It was contagious for all.

7 game from Victor Woodward on Vimeo.

Reflections from the Casa rooftop

I was sitting on the roof of the Casa the other night and thinking, how in the world did you get here? Honestly, me in the Dominican Republic, for the fourth year in a row. Then I remembered a short conversation I had with my friend Darlene Clark about taking basketball to another place far far away from San Juan Island; teaching skills...a camp...wouldn't that be fun, she asked? She gave me a little encouragement, off she went and so did my imagination. However, I had no idea I would end up in the Dominican Republic, in fact the geography was pretty foggy in my brain...hmmmm? Where is the Dominican Republic? Here I sit, four years later, reflecting on last weeks camp, which saw young people from Friday Harbor, experiencing the people of the Dominican Republic, serving our great God through basketball and the hard work of mixing cement for families in need. I'm feeling pretty filled up with awe and wonder...just like I know our team is as they fly back to Seattle. Just take a close look at Otis, pictured with the little boy in his arms, a know what a huge impact he made on this little guys life. This scene was multiplied many times over this past week through everyone of us. More stories and pictures are coming. Thanks for making this possible for all of us through prayer and financial gifts. CJ said it best I think for all of us when he shared something like this at our good-bye party..."These memories will live with me forever and I have been changed."

Camp talks

On Tues. and Wed. we had our basketball camp, teaching basketball skills to the guys in the villages (bateyes). After each camp session we took the opportunity to share our life stories with the guys...stories about our walk with God. Manuel Emilio from Altagracia, (pictured here) also shared his life story with us. As you can see, all the guys were riveted and connecting with his story. Austin and C.J. shared too...which demonstrated that life's challenges aren't unique to different cultures. Austin encouraged the Dominican guys in how they treated Mandy with respect during the camp, and exhorted them to treat the girls in their villages to treat young women in the same way, with honor and respect. I'm so proud of our team, as they are mixing and building relationships with everyone here. So beautiful to see with my eyes and I hope the photos bring this back to you.

Team Friday Harbor is here

Hello friends and family! Our island to island outreach has begun. We welcomed all our friends from Friday Harbor here to the Casa on Sunday night. We were all very excited to see everyone and show them around, introducing them to our COTN family here. Here are a few photos and there will be more to come. There are a ton of photos posted on Facebook too. Check out our page; Dominican Republic 2012 - COTN. The basketball camp has been going great. It has been really really hot here during the camp...so we are guzzling the water. It is kind of weird, we get a few cooling rain showers, they stop and then the sun super heats us with intensity and humidity. I think I speak for my family in sharing that we are seeing relationships grow amongst our team and with the Dominican kids and young guys here in the bateys. Life changing stuff...things of God.

Saturday night

I wrote this last Saturday night...and am just now getting to post it. If you listen to the music above the post will have more flavor and meaning... It is Saturday night here in Barahona and that means that you can almost always hear music in the distance, sometimes merengue and sometimes bachata. I’m not sure I would want to be next to the speaker it is coming from, because it has to be very loud for me to hear it at the Casa. Whoa! This music makes you want to move...very fun to listen to and hard to stay seated. We just got news that the team from Seattle that is coming tonight won’t arrive until around 7:30 p.m. I’m pretty sure they are going to be exhausted. I hope their drive here goes smoothly. We had some thunderstorms here in Barahona today; refreshing when it happens, then the humidity usually ramps up big time. Our friend Manuel Emilio stopped by the Casa to see us and get out of the rain. He came in town with friend Yelin to get some medicine. Dominicans generally don’t like the rain, at least working or traveling in the rain, especially if your riding a motorcycle. Last night our friend Franklin invited Carly and I to his church. As we were driving around the streets of Barahona I was struck by how many neighborhood churches there were here. Our cook Manuela tells me that there are four churches on her street. Just driving through the neighborhoods you can here people singing praises to God. It was a Thursday night too. The people this church meet four times a week.