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Mission Discovery 2002: Puerto Rico |
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Mission Discovery - Puerto Rico (2002)
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| Our Puerto Rico journey … by Cara Beth Newhouse |
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Hola! I've just returned from Puerto Rico and wanted to
thank you once again for your sup¬port and prayers to
make this trip possible, muchos gracias! I had an amazing
time with some fabulous people, both participants from the
US and persons we worked for and with in Puerto Rico. It
is nearly impossible to capture the beauty of the land and
the experience through words or even pictures, but I'd like
to share with you what I can about this trip. |
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| Nineteen participants from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin,
lllinois, and Iowa (listed below) gathered for this trip. We
were met with a warm welcome from various church members all
over the island. Our plan upon departure was to spend a week
in Patillas doing Vacation Bible School (VBS) and repairs on
a church and then to travel to Vieques to hold another round
of VBS. We soon found out that God's plans for-our visit didn't
quite match up with those we had laid out |
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| The contact we had in Patillas who was to arrange our work
had suddenly become ill and was hospitalized (just before we
left she was released and well). Fortunately, simply by chance,
one of our leaders heard of a nearby church that might have use
for us. We ended up spending three days at this small church
in Patillas do¬ing all we could to help. While there we held
2 days of VBS for about 30 children, met some incredible church
members, and transformed this little church. We were able to
repair and paint all of their pews, repair and paint their ceiling |
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and rafters, build new doors for their entrance areas, repair
and replace siding and trim all over the building, repair
their "garage" roof, weed vari¬ous areas and
clear out snake infested areas (don't worry, none were poisonous),
build a new welcome sign to hang above the door, and repaint
the entire outside of the building. However, the best part
of this experience is that after the completion of our 3rd
day, we were confronted by a member of the church who explained
she had been praying for help for their church for many months.
She had prayed for the manpower and resources to give their
church a change. Praise God that we were allowed to be the
messengers for their answer to prayer! |
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| Our surprises however, did not end there. We then traveled
to Vieques (a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico) for
a full week of VBS. Upon arrival it was explained to us they
had moved their VBS to the week prior to our arrival and were
hoping we could adjust our plans to work on their church building
that was under construction. Unfortunately, the pastor was gone
for the first 2 days of our time there and no one knew what to
have us do. We spent the first morning cleaning up large construction
trash to be removed as well as preparing the landscape for plant¬ing
of grass and flowers. We removed weeds and rocks for hours! |
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Some team members completed preparation to pour a sidewalk;
leveling ground is such a . thankless job. And other team
members- worked in the back of the grounds-leveling the area,
removing trash, and cutting weeds and grass to set up the
children's playground. After this first day, however, it
was obvious they had nothing to keep us busy. After searching
the island for individuals or churches to help, we realized
this just wasn’t the place we were needed.
We therefore cut our time in Vieques short and headed to
San Juan. There we made contacts to find someone, anyone,
to help. We were sent to an inner city church location. |
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| We began working at this facility as the first
mission team they had received and we were able to work with
children in their daycare facility, clean and repaint their kitchen,
repaint 2 classrooms, tile a new outdoor kitchen, cut and paint
a welcome sign for the facility, and repair and repaint various
equipment through¬ out the building (such as cubbies, chairs,
tables, etc). |
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| Along with the work we completed, we were rewarded with so
many new friendships! Every place we spent time in, we were greeted
by people from all over! In Patillias, we had |
3 different groups from various area churches who somehow
found out we were in the area and wanted to celebrate with
us. We had
dinner with one youth group, songs and dance with another,
and a third group created a performance to represent their
local church. The people of the island were more generous
with their love and time than we could have ever expected
or hoped for.
Our final day in San Juan and on the island we had a chance
to experience what was outside our worksites. We traveled
to the historical Old San Juan to walk the streets and ended
our day at EI Junque Rainforest where we hiked and enjoyed
some amazing falls and water holes. A beautiful ending
for such an amazing trip. |
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PARTICIPANTS to Puerto Rico |
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Rebecca Bradley
*Oscar Carrasco
Carolyn E. Carter
Stephanie Dallenbach
Tiffany Dallenbach
Leah Dietterle
Paige Dietzel
Liliana Garcia
Michelle Gerard
Stefanie Gilbert
Aaron Griffin
Christopher Groth
Meighen Alice Heyburn
Cara Beth Newhouse
Andrea Oedling
Mark Sims
Thomas Stettner
Christina Swanson
Erin Wernette
Gretchen Kaye Yockers |
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Prospect, IL
Chicago, IL
Wilton, IA
Iowa City, IA
Laurens, IA
Frankfort, IL
Mishawaka, IN
Chicago, IL
Mishawaka, IN
Marion, OH
Perry, IA
Winterset, IA
Akron, OH
Gurnee, IL
Bloomington, IN
Columbus, OH
Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines, IL
Remus, MI
Stevens Point, WI |
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| *Team Leader |
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