Our Day Off

We usually have one day off each week, and a few weeks ago I decided to make this vlog (video log). Hope you enjoy!

-Alec

 

Adios!

Hey guys. Marcus here. So today I’m to be writing about something that has taken place two days ago (Wednesday). So, here we go!

At the very beginning of the summer, I cut my finger in our fan. So about a day later, I asked one of the Romano’s this, ‘What is the most painful thing you have ever experienced?’ Their answer I got was ‘Saying goodbye.’ Well, I kinda wanted to say ‘Yeah whatever.’ But I managed to keep it to myself. I guess I never realized how right she was until Wednesday…

So after saying goodbye to most of our beloved interns (James, Sam, Kristen, Anderson, and Brittany), we still had three left. Who? Well, if you really want to know, it was Meagan, Adam and Laura. Meagan was like the older sister I never had. And she sure acted like it, too. Bossy yet kind-hearted, annoying but hilarious. Well she left a day before Adam and Laura did, so they came over for lunch the next day. Well Adam and Laura were a young married couple from New Jersey (meaning they had ridiculously funny accents), maybe in their mid-twenties. The thing is they arrived like a month before the other interns did, and they stayed the longest, too. So Laura was… well… a short, funny, feisty, go-getting Colombian girl. Now Adam, well, he was definitely one to remember. He liked to hear what I had to say. But not only did he listen, he actually talked back. Even though we had like 15 years of age difference, we still were ‘friends.’ We talked about stuff, from the new Xbox to his broken pinky knuckle. And then I had to say goodbye. I never knew how painful it was to say goodbye. I mean, I know I’ll see my family again back in NE, but I may never see these guys again. They were like family to me. 

Here is a picture of Adam, Laura, Alec and me down below. Well, I’m sorry to say, but this is the end of this blog ;) Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope you have a blessed fall! 

Final Week

It is hard to believe that today marks the start of our final week of Short term mission teams coming to the DR.  We have been working hard with a new team arriving every Saturday since April 26^th, with one week off near the end of May when our interns arrived.  If you haven’t seen our schedule, it is at the bottom of this blog. 

Although this busy schedule was a huge challenge, we handled it pretty well.  Another thing that was challenging was the poverty that we witnessed every day.  Even though many of the people we worked with had very little, they seemed to be content.  Several times a woman has come to our house and dug through our trash cans out front, looking for food.  That was really hard to see, but imagine how hard it was for her.  Do you feed her and then when more people come, feed them too?  Do you just pretend you don’t see her?  The first time we just said, “hi” and kept on going, because it surprised us.  Then, Teri set some mangos from our tree in the trash to help a little.  Maybe that sounds like not doing much, but we wanted to be subtle, and still help. 

We also see people on the streets asking for help.  We try help when we can, but there is so much need and you don't always know if it is real.  Once we gave money to someone on the street that was walking through traffic on crutches and looked pretty bad.  After traffic started moving, I looked back and saw him holding both crutches in one hand and walking fine.  When you see that, you get upset and think that you got fooled.  But we did not let that keep us from helping others.  A good friend once told us something that stuck.  She said, “I would rather get to heaven and find out that I was more generous than I needed to be, than the other way around.” 

The point is you don’t always know the circumstances that someone is dealing with.  That is true for anywhere, not just the DR.  If your action is motivated by Love, then there is nothing to be ashamed of if things are not what they seemed. 

Please pray for as and we will pray for you that the Holy Spirit lead us to help those who really need it.  Amen 

Our Weekly Schedule

Sunday: Breakfast at 10 then Church on the Beach (~1 hr drive each way). Then back in Santiago with Dinner at 6 and Orientation until 8:00-8:30

Monday – Wed – Friday: Prayer at 7:30; Breakfast at 8; Leave for worksite/ministry at 9 until 4:30ish; Dinner at 6 and after that Devotional until 9pm

Tues – Thurs: Prayer at 7:30; Breakfast at 8; Leave for worksite or ministry at 9 until 4:30ish; Dinner at 6 and after that there is a Church Service on Tuesdays and we have a Staff meeting on Thursdays until 9:30-10pm

Saturday: Turnover Day: Old team leaves and new team arrives.  We have to clean our Work Team Center and get everything ready for the next week.

We have one day off each week.  Some of our team will have Saturday and the others Sunday and it rotates.

Just a note

 

As I sit down to blog I am wondering what all to report.  There have been so many things happening here in the Dominican that it is hard to pick just one.  After some thought the thing that comes to mind is how blessed we truly are.  This isn’t a new revelation but a new perspective for us.  We knew that coming to the Dominican Republic wasn’t something that many have the chance to do.  We knew that getting our church behind us was a huge blessing, not to mention the support from our families.  But this week we have seen so much more.  Last week both Matt and I have had the pleasure of working with our kids.  Again this isn’t something new or that we haven’t been doing all summer but it is something that we love. 

A few mornings last week Matt took the boys to work with him in the town of Moca.  The church there is adding a second floor for the Pastor and his family to live in.  While the boys were there they worked on pouring the stairs.   It is fun to hear them all share their stories from the day and how hard the work was.  While they talked you could see how much they enjoyed working together.  They worked with the Pastor and they know how excited his family is about their home.  Even though they were hot and tired they loved being a part of something much bigger than themselves. 

In the afternoon I was able to take the boys a few times and separately the girls another time with me to VBS.  Again, they all worked hard helping out where it was needed.  There was a day the girls decided to stay back with Matt because they remembered the pastor’s daughter from earlier in the summer and they wanted to play with her more.  Not only did they play but together they cleaned out the wheel barrels of cement.  They laughed as they told me the stories of spraying each other with the hose.

Then there was Friday when the only one that wanted to go anywhere was Isaac.  The others wanted to stay home and just relax after all the work they had done last week.  When I went to leave for the café he just cried and said he wanted to go. At first I was hesitant to take him because it is slow and at four he tends to become bored and a little busy.  But when I looked at him I thought why not if I was at home he may not have this chance to go to work with me.  We stayed at the Café for over 3hrs and he really enjoyed it.  It didn’t matter to him what we were doing or that we were practicing English, it just mattered that we got to do it together. 

I know this wasn’t really about all we are doing here in the Dominican Republic but it is something God  is showing us.  Thank you all for your continued prayers.  Please continue to pray for strength and endurance for our last two weeks of teams.  Pray for our team to finish the summer just as strongly as we began.  Lastly pray that God continues to show us how we can help those in our community. 

God Bless!

Crash!!

Hey guys, Marcus here. So today I’m going to be writing about something that takes place about two days ago. Well it started off like this…

It was a nice day, a day that I had actually slept in, Saturday. The sky was a brilliant blue, the sun was shining, and the chore chart was full. Yep, we had chores on the day that most people relax. Sweeping the front porch, living room, bedrooms, and back patio. Also picking up shoes, doing laundry, and the one that Alec and I dread the most: Picking the mangos up off of the roof. Most of you probably know that we have a mango tree that hangs right over our roof. So every week the two of us have to go up there and separate all the good mangos from the bad, and then put them in trash bags. Last Saturday we had seven bags of bad mangos and four bags of good mangos. And doing that probably took around an hour or two. So when we were all done with our fifty-thousand chores, two of our interns, James and Sam, came over to get their hair cut. So while we were finishing up cutting the second intern’s hair, we heard none other than the very common sound in the Perrotto’s house, a big loud CRASH!! And of course it was coming from mine and Alec’s room. We both raced upstairs only to see Isaac standing there crying. Well that’s a relief, he probably just fell off the bed or something. I took him downstairs and everything was fine… or so I thought. I could still hear running water coming from my bathroom. I went back up stairs and into the bathroom and saw our sink laying on the ground and water spraying everywhere. Alec ran downstairs and got my dad and the two interns both upstairs, my mom following. Well while everybody was getting towels, my mom just simply turned off the exposed pipe. So now Alec and I have no sink in our bathroom. Sooner or later we’ll get another one, but for now I guess we will just have to get used to the one downstairs. Isaac cut his foot a little bit on the shattered sink, but nothing too bad thankfully.

Well lesson learned I guess. Isaac should never be allowed to wash his hands on unstable sinks without a stepstool or someone else’s help.

Please keep us in your prayers and thanks for reading!

CCC makes a big impact for God's Kingdom in the DR

When 90 people from one church step out and serve in the name of Jesus, whether it is in Nebraska, the Dominican Republic or anywhere else in the world, big things will happen.  It just goes to show that by ourselves, even though we can work hard, we have little impact compared to when we work together as the Body of Christ.

That is exactly how things played out when 90 High School students and adult leaders landed in the DR on June 8th.  Throughout the week, they ministered to more than 350 children through VBS, moved tons of block and dirt, mixed 1000's of pounds of concrete and mortar, participated in baseball ministry with over 40 youth, prayed with and for in the citizens in their homes in different communities and helped teach English in the Cafe'.

It is our hope that it is not only what they did that had a major impact, but what God is doing in each one of them.  If you know one of these students, please take time to ask them about their trip and how God is working in their lives through their experience in the DR. 

Please pray for a lasting impact both for the Dominican Church and for Christ Community Church.  We know that now everyone is back home safe and sound, but the challenges didn't stop once the plane left the DR.  Many had flight issues on the way back to Omaha.  Even though things like that are frustrating, we trust that the amazing events from the week will completely overshadow any of the negative things that happened.

Here are several pictures from the week.

Big week with CCC

Hey everyone.  This week we are blessed to have a group of 90 High school students and adult leaders here from our home Church in Omaha, NE, Christ Community Church.

Please pray for safety on the work sites, for lives to be impacted for Christ and a productive work week.

We will be painting 3 churches, continuing construction on a new church, breaking ground on an addition of an existing church, multiple VBS's, Baseball ministry, Café ministry and prayer walks.

As you can see, we have our work cut out for us, so please be in pray with us this week.