“The Village” Mountain Mission Project

“The Village” Mountain Mission Project Newsletter

Volume 2 : Issue 2

Mission Statement

We at “The Village” Mountain Mission are committed to the service of those in need. Our goal is not only to simply build homes or provide care for their health needs, but to also build lasting relationships with people that will last for years to come. We seek to provide life-changing experiences for our participants and the people they come into contact with.

Palabras con Percy – Culture Shock

Sitting in the apartment in the Dominican Republic, I work diligently on my laptop. As I watch the battery meter slowly go down, I know that it’s only a matter of time before it will die. The electricity went off around 7 a.m. and should come on any minute, but who really knows? A ‘pop-up’ appears exclaiming that I am now working on reserve battery, less than ten minutes remain until all unsaved work will be lost. Eight minutes and I’m sweating. Five minutes and I’m writing my last email to Bill. Two minutes left and click, the refrigerator turns on. The fan starts moving in a sad attempt to chill the Nalgene of water, the only object that resides in my fridge. But the good news is that the electricity is on, and work can resume.

Flying home to the States after being in Luperón for almost ten months, it’s always a little scary. Walking through the super market is an experience they should charge for. Taking a shower with all the running hot water I could ever want is like dreaming. But the weirdest thing is when I am sitting at the kitchen table working on the computer. My mom walks through and click, the fan on the fridge kicks in. A small smile walks across my face as I think to myself, “yes, the electricity’s back on.”

The Family continues to grow as we welcome in our four new families from the summer Building Project.

Victoria and seven children.

Yolanda and her husband Bojo (Kendi, Endi, Kelvin, Cala)

Nani (Dominga, Carlitos, Dindi, Ana, and her newborn)

Maria (Elizabeth/Geva and Nana)

C.A.R.E. (Children At Risk Education)

If you are not already aware, we have committed to take on one of the greatest needs of the children in the Dominican Republic….EDUCATION!

After considerable research and listening to the voices of the Dominican people, we have gathered some rather heart breaking facts:

- Only 1 of 2 children ever completes the 4th Grade.

- 1 in 4 go on to finish 8^th Grade.

- Only 1.2% of the country’s GNI goes to Education, ranking them one of the World’s lowest - 162 of 168 surveyed nations.

- 55% of adult males and 47% of females finishing only Primary School are unemployed- rural areas are 3 times worse.

- We are unaware of any preschool in the area we serve, the closest being 60 miles away.

-  In rural villages, malnutrition among children of poor families is a daily reality.

SO we have begun the necessary steps to open our own PRE-SCHOOL!

At the C.A.R.E. Project,

- We will provide two nutritious meals a day to each child.

- We will build the Spiritual foundation needed to bring hope to their lives.

- Through simply exposing a child to English, they can become bilingual by age six and give them the greatest tool they need to later find work.

BUT we are going to need lots of Help!

- We are going to need some inspired people to step up, get involved, and help guide us to develop the very finest program possible. We want this to be a model for the future.

- We are going to need a select few dedicated people, young and old, to come aboard and devote a year or more on site to facilitate our classrooms and make this work.

- We are going to need Sponsors for each child to help cover the costs of meals, teachers, clothing, materials, transportation, and basic facility expenses.

HOW ABOUT YOU? How can YOU get involved?

Follow the process and progress on our website. Also find additional information about Sponsoring and Internship opportunities at our website.

A Holiday Greeting –

During this time of prayer and giving, we hope that you keep in mind our friends and family in the Dominican Republic. Whether it be Luperón, Pueblo Nuevo, La Sabana, Novillero, Cambiaso or one of the many other communities that you have touched, we know as they barbeque their pig over the holiday season, they are most definitely thinking of you. So as you continue to celebrate this holiday season, continue to share the love of “the Village” as we continue to work with our people.

Coming down for your third trip? Tired of the old schedule? We are looking to offer a varied schedule to try and keep things fresh. It’s no surprise that people love spending time with kids, so we are looking to present a second schedule that will maximize time spent with children. You will still build, you would still partake in all of the excursions, you would still share your love with a family, and in addition to all of that, you would run a half-day camp for children from one of the villages. The children would be bused over to the shelters each afternoon, after you work the morning on a house, to partake in games, arts and crafts, English lessons, songs and dancing, and much much more.

Contact the Program Coordinator if you are interested in making this a part of your next trip. Email

Health Field Studies – (Medical Mission)

When Bill first opened the medical door of “the Village,” the main component and dream was to educate a group of local women who would someday be able to work on their own. Well that has come.

The Medical Mission has taken a new direction that will focus on the Healers and put more responsibility into their hands. The goal is to move away from the clinics and focus more on the Healers. They will use the knowledge that our Medical Professionals have and will continue to give them to go out into communities and be true educators, they will teach. They will go door-to-door teaching about hygiene, diabetes, anemia, early childhood health, and many more topics and in doing so, they will gain the respect of the communities while beginning to surface examine the families they educate. When our Medical Groups venture down to the Dominican, they will then go to the four or five sickest families in a community, chosen by our Healers.

The hope is that the Healers will take on the responsibility of diving deeper into the health topics that are presented to them, teach each other until they are all at a similar level of understanding, and then show the communities that they can help themselves through door-to-door classes. The Healers are extremely excited to be able to go forth into the villages and begin to gain the respect that they have intensely worked for, and patiently waited for over the past six years.

The Escuela Project

When we told our 15 high school seniors that they would be the first participants in The Escuela Project through”the Village” Mountain Mission, the word “excited” did not quite capture their feelings. They prepared activities, collected school supplies, and created a countdown to our entry into Luperón on November 7.

Once in the Dominican, we jumped right into the culture. We toured Luperón and the surrounding pueblos, met families, put on carnivals, and built bookcases for teachers. But the majority of our time was spent in two local schools, Novillero and El Estrecho Abajo, where our participants split into groups to teach English, lead crafts, and play games. The Dominican students were like any elementary-aged children, creative, eager to learn, and excited to receive attention. So excited, in fact, that some of our boys would come back inside the school house, sweating and with five giggling children in tow, saying, “It’s someone else’s turn to lead a game of tag.”

Back at the campsite, we slept in hammocks, tried to avoid tarantulas, and talked about what we were accomplishing in Luperón. Most of the other mission projects taken on by this group from Ohio included cooking meals for the hungry, providing the basics to needy families, and building homes for the homeless. In a project centered on human interaction, the big question became, “What were we leaving behind?” We realized that what we were really “doing” was just “being”—being positive, being loving, and being present in the lives of people (especially children) who may often feel forgotten. We found that building hope may be just as important as building a house, that providing love always outshines providing money. As excited as we were to be the first group to take on The Escuela Project, we are even more excited knowing we will not be the last.

Sarah Kientz

First Community Church

Columbus, OH

SPONSORSHIPS

As you may or may not know, “The Village” does not have a major sponsor, nor do we do fund raisers. We carry a bare bones staff with extremely low overhead. Our wish is to keep our fees to a minimum.

However to serve does indeed take dollars. This allows those who are unable to come with us, find a way to still share and help us reach out.

Family Home Sponsor -           $2,500

Floor and foundation Sponsor- $1,100

Roof over their Head Sponsor- $650

Window & Door Sponsor-       $300

Child Sponsor*  $950

Teacher’s Aid Sponsor - $ 500

Healer Sponsor (Local in village VMM trained health care educator/advisor) - $750

Please visit our website for tax ID number and mailing address for Sponsor donations.

*Child Sponsors are in relation to the C.A.R.E. Project. We will begin selecting the most at risk children as we receive sponsors. We wish to begin construction of our School this year and open in 2011.

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!”

-Hamilton Wright Mabie