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Starting to Lay the Floor

Conga Line

Laying the Floor

Floor

Working Hard

The work is moving right along.  The team finished up building the rebars trees and started mixing the concrete for a family’s floor.  Imagine if you and all your children lived in a one room shack with a dirt floor.  It’s hard for us to even imagine, but when the rainy season comes this floor becomes a mud floor.  The team is making a dream come true for this family by pouring a concrete floor.  What an awesome blessing!  It never ceases to amaze me how many lives are touched by the work of the teams, motivated by the love of Christ.  Keep up the good work, and as Greg says bring a bigger team next year so you don’t have to work so hard.

Softball

Building Rebars

House

Praying for the family

Starting the floor

Sunday Worship Video

Team Worship

Worship

Worship Service

We then drove to the coast and spent some time this afternoon enjoying a resort on the ocean…there has been good food, lots of Dominican music, and a time to relax at the beach after a very busy week for us all…in many ways, it is somewhat strange to be at a resort after being part of a community with such great physical needs during our time in the DR…you find yourself feeling somewhat guilty and somewhat resistant to what you see all around you…yet in many ways this resort represents more of who we are as blessed Americans…and the greatest challenge of this trip is yet to come in many ways…God’s calling to us is not to just feel guilty and grateful…it is to live with what we have seen, experienced, and heard from God in a place of prominence in our daily lives…it is the challenge of living in our own community and culture that God has placed us in as a Christian who is compassionate, communicates about the needs of others near and far, and serves out of a heart that is full because of what God has done in Jesus for us…that’s really our final task of this trip…to spend time asking God to show us specifically what our response individually and as a team will be as we come back to Cornerstone and the semester ahead…we’d ask you to pray for us to be motivated and passionate to be advocates for the people of the DR and to help us to build a community that is focused on others and creates a mindset of service and love and character in the soccer community and other places of influence in our lives…

We are tired and yet so very blessed after our time on this missions trip…thanks for reading this blog…I’ve loved being with young men and women who I believe will indeed change the world…CHIP HUBER

This morning we joined several hundred students for a time of prayer, Scripture, and the singing of the DR national anthem outside before school began…and then we jumped into our painting mode and finished the 3rd floor project, including putting on a new color today…we are pretty excited to see the progress that has been made thru our work with our Dominican friends in preparing this facility to open in a few weeks.

The afternoon was filled with time with students from the school…activities included face painting, bracelet making, coloring contests, and ring making.  Our team has loved interacting with many different groups of children this week.  We even popped into a few classrooms to see what they were learning and up to as well.   The power of education continues to be reinforced to us here, and we are grateful that even our participation in this trip helps that to be possible for more and more kids at risk and need in this area…you can’t help but be excited about what God has in store for them as Christian leaders in the DR in the future.

And then we had our first official soccer match against the JOMA club team from Santo Domingo.  Our girls had a big win led by goals from Kate, Jen, Anna, Amanda, and coach’s son Mitch.  We played against a men’s club team connected to this group the last couple years, and we love building a relationship where they are excited about playing soccer with Americans, are very interested in what is happening at Cornerstone, and are exposed to what it means to be an athlete who loves Jesus and plays as His representative.  It has been a blast to have this sports component to our trip here.

We held our final nightly debrief session tonight as well reflecting on what we’ve experienced, how we have been impacted by the people and community here, and how we hope to participate in a renewed way in God’s Kingdom work, at home and across the world.  There was a spirit of immense blessing among us for the time here and the opportunity to serve and learn and love and be loved in the Dominican Republic.  And I hope that all of you connected to this team will have a chance to hear their stories, talk about their questions, and be encouraged by their experience in seeing and joining making Jesus known in word and deed in a place unlike what we call home.

Tomorrow we head into Santo Domingo to see one of the oldest communities in the western hemisphere, and we hope to catch a few final rays of sun on the beach before flying back to snowy Grand Rapids on Friday.  Thanks for your prayers and partnership.  I’ll close with the words of the apostle John that summarize what we have seen and hope to live out in the days to come:

I JOHN 3:16-18 (The Message)

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.

Sponsored Child Why We Do This

Goodbye D.R. Hello G.R.

Awesome Work on the Third Floor of the Gym

Using Sports as Outreach

Chip Huber Meeting his Sponsored Child

A Break in the Action

Soccer Clinics Were Fantastic Opportunity

Amazing to see the Additional Gym Floor

Great Work this Week!

It also brought a tour of the water purification system that they have here on site…they produce over 25,000 gallons of clean water every day that is sold at reduced cost to the people in the community, many who have no other clean water source…they even employ pastors as small business partners to distribute the water; and every day trucks roll out of here and literally save and help make better the lives of children.  Clean water diseases account for more deaths of children than anything else in our world today…and I love the fact that this ministry is providing living water on both levels in Los Alcarrizos…in fact, we were here with the men’s soccer team two years ago when the earthquake in Haiti occurred…and the Lighthouse project was able to bring over 100,000 bottles of water to church partners in Haiti…I love the passion here to not only change this community but also in the nation next door.  Dominicans serving Haitians is a powerful example of the church at work across traditional boundaries.

We continued in our soccer clinic work today…we hosted 30 or so students from the school ranging from ages 6-18.  Every time I come here there is a growing interest in the community in relationship to soccer and more kids are ready to play this game…even a few who who have given up some time with baseball to play “futbal.”  Marissa Bliss shared her faith story with this group of kids after we finished our time with them.  After the clinic we played a short match with some of the older boys who have put together the first-ever Lighthouse School soccer squad.  The soccer field at the school is really the only facility in the area.

A highlight of today’s time here was a visit from another CU student.  Marcel, a member of our men’s soccer team, lives in the city of Santiago here in the DR.  He was a Dominican high school student and soccer player who watched our men’s team play last year and eventually ended up at CU this fall to begin college in the States.  We’ve loved having him as part of the soccer and Cornerstone communities, and it truly is a blessing to see how God has connected him to us through our ministry and mission partnerships here in his own country.  He worked and played alongside us today  It’s a pretty great story, and we’d love to someday have a graduate of the Lighthouse School here attend school at CU.

Tomorrow is our final full day here in the Los Alcarrizos community.  We’ll conclude with work, visits to classrooms, time with kids, a final soccer match and some visits with children sponsored by folks in the CU men’s soccer program.  It will be fun to reflect on all we’ve experienced and what we will do in response to our time here.  That’s a huge part of what we are praying for.

Thanks for praying and following us this week.  We enjoyed the most sun and warmest temperatures today.  We love you and miss you much!

For the DR team,

CHIP HUBER

Soccer Clinic Video

Highlight of the week video

Highlight of the trip video

Nate is one lucky guy video

One of the unique things about our partnership down here is the “physicalness” of the trips…in many ways, I think it is why our athletes love the experience…it gives us an opportunity to serve with our hands and feet and the rest of our bodies in a tangible expression of our belief in the Kingdom work God is doing here…we are simply being led by the Dominican leadership as we do some things we might not normally do back home…and there is a pleasure in that service that we find in knowing we are part of God’s bigger vision…even in small and hidden and tiring ways…and I am quite certain God is pleased…

Tomorrow we will get to meet over 1100 new friends as the students at the Lighthouse school return from Christmas break…there will be energy and laughter and conversation all around us…and we see the very reason we are here…we’ll be popping into a few classrooms on our morning work break and hosting another soccer clinic for kids from the school in the afternoon…

This morning we read several passages demonstrating the compassion of Jesus in action in the Gospels…pray that we’ll chase after that example of compassion in action as we care for one another and develop a new heart for the people and children of this community…and may it move us to action at home and across the world as a result of our time overseas…

For the DR team,
CHIP HUBER

Shoes1

Thank you for the new shoes!

Choosing shoes