Hospitality of the Nations: Expanding Ministry in the D.R.

KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. You may be wondering why this is titled "Keep the dream alive" and I hope you are. Just this month, for the first time since I began working with COTN, I realized that after my paychecks this month I will be in the red - meaning, I will have a negative balance in my account because I do not have enough financial support coming in to cover my part time salary. You can see on the left how much I have monthly and how much I need total. That means I need another $565 per month committed. That's a lot! I know it can be done though.

I am praying, and will continue to do so, that God's will is done. I love being a part of this ministry and wish to continue here. Especially since I sit in the Dominican Republic as I write this. Maybe God is calling me away from COTN, and if so then I trust Him. I don't feel that calling though. I feel called to push through and get the funds raised that are needed.

(please keep reading in post "Keep the dream alive")

***If you are new to my blog, or new to COTN, please look in the righthand side bar for JANUARY 2010 posts "A Tidbit on COTN" and "A Glimpse at the Hospitality Program" to gain some background knowledge.

November 14, 2011

Expanding Ministry in the D.R.

Hello again!

This fall I have ventured into the world of architecture and construction. Strange, considering I have no knowledge of either field. As our ministry in the Dominican grows, our facility and capacity needs to grow as well. What a wonderful problem, to have so many people wanting to serve the children that we have run out of room! Each year we send on average 300-350 participants to the D.R. who serve in a number of ways. More people are constantly signing up to go - which is great! So now our goal is to fit and feed them all.

We are expanding Casa Bethesda (COTN-DR ministry site). The expansion is broken into three important phases:

- Phase 1: Kitchen renovation. A new, industrial sized kitchen will enable us to cook for our increasing number of guests, and provide great on the job training for COTN teens studying Tourism.

- Phase 2: Dining Hall. A dining hall will provide a great location for our guests to eat, and will keep them out of the hot Dominican sun.

- Phase 3: Additional housing. This new building will provide beautiful living quarters for our participants who serve with us for longer periods of time.

For some unknown reason, I have been entrusted with the responsibility of leading this charge. Thank you Jesus for providing so many amazing volunteers to help! Architect John Drake of Green Apple Architecture has given his time to develop floor plans for phases 1 and 2. (photos below). In addition, architects Justin Towart and John Aprati also spent countless hours volunteering their time to create the plans for phase 3. We couldn't do this without them! Other important players in this project are Gregg and Jo Hopkins. (see my Dec 2010 post for more on them). Gregg and Jo are generously helping in the fundraising process by sharing this expansion with their networking circle so that we have the resources needed.

I can't say it enough - thank you to all who are helping! Please join us in prayer as we complete this mission. Please pray for funds to come in, and that our newly remodeled mission site will be a blessing to those serving, as well as the children being served. If you would like to give directly to the Casa Expansion Project, you can easily do so by clicking here. Thanks for reading!