By Travis Allen
"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
For the past two days our team has been working in Barrio Beraca. Our days have consisted of Vacation Bible School and construction. Our site is made up of a church and a school for Haitian children, who otherwise would not be able to go to school. These children cannot attend the public schools because they are not citizens of the Dominican Republic. The school currently has grades kindergarden through third grade. The current enrollment is 148. In the morning VBS is held for thirty in each of the 6 classes.
Construction for the most part has consisted of digging footings for the wall/fence that will go around the water filtration systems. Part of the team has been helping construct the building that will house the filtration system itself, while the rest of the team has been preparing the ground for the cement foundation for the perimeter wall. Today we finished the trenches and began pouring the cement footing for the wall. We have also almost finished the outside work of the purification building and will soon begin the flooring on the inside.
Today I got to have a conversation with the Pastor named Elise. She is quite the visionary and has been working for many years in the La Romana area to assure health care, education, and the Gospel is shared with all of God's people in this area, no matter if they are Haitian or Dominican. She has many goals and great expectations for the church and its mission. The dream in particular that she shared with me is her hope to build and provide an elderly care facility. The La Romana area only has two, to serve a community with a population over 200,000. Her desire, compassion, and determination showed me how faithful and hopeful she is that this will happen. She reminded me, as a pastor, how important it is to have dreams and hopes as we serve God in our own communities.