Trip update

Calvary Brothers and Sisters

What a day! It started at 330am this morning when we met at the church to head to BWI for a 630 flight to Miami. We arrived at the airport and checked in with no major problems. We checked in 10 extra suitcases we took packed to the max weight limit with clothes, shoes, toys, and some other items including health items and tools. We had a good flight to Miami, and a short layer then flight to Santo Domingo.

We breezed smoothly through Immigration and Customs. The airport is much improved since our visit 3 years ago. It is very clean and modern. Leonardo was waiting for us with a 12 passenger van for us and a pickup truck for our luggage. We got loaded up just before the rain hit, and we were rained on most of the trip to Yaguate. One poor Dominican boy rode in the back of the pickup and got soaked. Traffic was very heavy and it took us over an hour to get to Yaguate. BTW, it appears gasoline is about $20 per gallon here, so we should count our blessings. It seemed that Santo Domingo was a little more prosperous than our previous visit with lots of new cars on the road and many new modern buildings under construction.

We arrived in Yaguate to a warm welcome with singing and mucho hugging and renewal of old friendships. We introduced the new members of the team and all were made to feel immediately welcome. We were amazed at how nice Nieve´s house is now that the 2nd floor is complete. We are all staying upstairs.

After we got settled in, the family had dinner for us which was as delicious as we remember. I immediately chugged down a few glasses of¨chinola a local passion fruit drink.

After dinner we went to visit the site of the new church. They are planning an enormous structure, that will be about the size of 3 Good Shepard Halls. It will have a balcony in the rear of the church and fellowship-multipurpose room behind the sanctuary. Tomorrow they plan to being work and will have a backhoe here to start digging the footers. We will help clean up the ditches and will likely spend the week helping them pour the footers. Tomorrow morning they will have a service at the site and mark where the columns will stand. We have the opportunity to help them start this project from Day 1. We are very excited and feeling blessed.

We completed the evening with a church service in a small frame building about the size of the storage room in the Good Shepard Hall where we store the tables. As before, the crowd poured out into the street. Light rain did not dampen the spirit. After the service we were served cake and ice cream.

Anyway, it is getting late and tomorrow promises to be another full day. We send our blessings to all back home and know that we feel your prayers.

YBIC

Dave Meadows

PS. Bob Leon´s Spanish is working very well and we are having no problems with communication. Jessie King is also holding her own. It´s all good.

PPS. The Meastro sends his greetings to John Hale and the rest of our 2005 crew. He is working this job and we met him at the site tonight where he was marking the ground for excavation.