DR day 4

Day four was our last day at the project and the last day in the country.  The day consisted of much the same as the other days spent in the projects:  time in the classrooms, the kids eating lunch, then time in the church.  While spending time in the classrooms on this day we were able to take a craft to share with the children.  I took necklace kits for the kids which was just a piece of cord, some beads and a wooden cross to string together to make a necklace.  It was pefect for the age group we had and it went very well.  They all wore their necklaces the rest of the day!  While in the church we had time to play and interact with the kids.  We took more stickers (these kids LOVE stickers!!), candy, pencils, etc.  As you can see from the pictures, we had a lot of fun!  There was even a game of musical chairs with some children and some sponsors.  Fun!! 

 Our family group's translators (there were 6 of us in our family group):  Johan and Julio

 This is Rolando and he was accepted into the Leadership Development Program that Compassion runs.  The LDP is a program designed for students who graduate at the top of their Compassion project class, demonstrate leadership qualities, are Christian and have filled out the mounds of paperwork and gone through many interviews.  This past year there were 25 students out of 200 applicants chosen to enter the program.  Rolando is studying at the university to become a Mechanical Engineer.  He hopes to work with cars.  When I told him what Mike does he was so excited!  And then he needed a picture taken so I could bring it home to tell Mike about him! 

We left right from the project to the airport.  The culmination of emotions from the week overwhelmed me at this point.  I have not mentioned it yet, but the Dominican people as a whole are amazing people.  They are friendly and easy to talk to, even walking through the streets.  Of course, we always had Compassion staff and translators with us whenever we were off resort property, but I was still amazed.  And the Compassion staff and translators....WOW!  They take pride in their work and it shows!  Awesome!  So with having so many goodbyes all at once was very difficult.  The bus ride back to the airport was perhaps a little quieter than the rest as we all tried to digest everything that we saw and did over the past couple of days.  God was in every single detail of that trip, was with us every step of the way and it was every bit as amazing as I thought/hoped it would be. 

I will say it once more.....
If you can afford $38 per month to sponsor a child, please do.  These kids need our help!  And if you choose to sponsor a child and you are able to visit them at some point, I can tell you with certainty that that will be a dream come true for them!  It is definitely not the $38 a month that keeps these kids going....it is the letters, the pictures, the knowledge that someone far away loves them and prays for them and believes in them that does it!  And it is amazing!!  http://www.compassion.com/