Dungannon: In Retrospect

Now that the roofs and floors are done

we must wait for the storms to come

In a year, what will be gone?

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As the years plod on, Dungannon may grow

or it may slow, populations may hit all time lows.

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But we will journey and we will learn and love

we will toil and thank the Lord above

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for the finest treasures

are  simple ones we cannot measure

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Thank you, Dungannon

Monday

Today was our first day of work. My team worked on putting tin roofing on a roof of a house owned by two sisters. Their parents, who had built the house in 1921, died eight years ago and the older sister has a cognitive problem; the other sister cares for her. It's great to know that by the end of the week, their ceilings will stop sagging when it rains; the tapping of rain on the tin roof will be a testament to God's power to change us through service and selflessness...

The roof was very hot, but my team worked well together, and by 4 pm we had done about half of the roof!

Sunday

On Sunday, we split into groups and visited local churches. There was a fiery rant at the Freewill Baptist Church, a guitar-playing Reverend at the Methodist Church, and a 12:00 mass at the Catholic Church. After we returned from our respective services, we had lunch. We then split into groups: one group went by car to the spring near the Dungannon, and others hiked about a quarter of the way to the spring when they were unable to proceed further because several fallen trees blocked their ways. We (I was in that group) chatted and played and sang (a bit) for about an hour. Afterwards, we had dinner, which was barbecued chicken. It was succulent enough. Compline was from the New Zealand BCP.

Oh, Dungannon

Nestled in the valley 

lies a town, a gem to see.

Driving in through drying rain

meeting my home to be.

for seven days, five of toil,

two of leisure we'll discover

an undercover God

in the hearts of those we meet.

Fixing and painting and reveling

praying and singing and slinging 

stories of friendships, stories of grace

we hope to see God face-to-face

with prayers from a parish

our works shall not perish

our deeds will be scribed,
and nowhere will God's love be denied. 

Phil Vollman's poetry may be found here

Oh, Dungannon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Kids Helping Kids

Matthew 10: 13 and 14
People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.'

So began Thursday at Mission Possible, a day for the St. Anne's kids to remember that Jesus counts children as important members of God's kingdom.



Some painted birdhouses, some played bingo, some watered plants, all made new friends among the children whose special needs are addressed in a local summer program in Fairfax County Public Schools.

We walked our new friends to their buses and headed back to St. Anne's for a lunch break.

Over the past two weeks, members of the congregation have been dropping off school supplies. This afternoon the Mission Possible team sorted through the pile of donations.

Supplies were organized by category and decisions were made as to how to pack bags for elementary aged students and middle school or high school aged students.

The sorted and packed supplies will be taken by the youth group members who are headed to Dungannon, Virginia this weekend.

Mid-Week at Mission Possible

How do you know which day it is at Mission Possible? Here's a clue: if it's Monday, Wednesday or Friday, the group is wearing gold shirts; Tuesday or Thursday, the shirts are gray!

As you look at the pictures in this post, you'll see that it was Wednesday. The shirts have been through the laundry once.

When you look at pictures on Friday, you might see some dark splotches on those gold shirts... souvenirs of the paint job done at Lift Me Up, a therapeutic horse-back riding program located in Great Falls, VA.

The group listened to an orientation by the Lift Me Up staff and observed a lesson.

Then, it was time to work!

There was fence to paint! And tack to clean!

Much good work was accomplished by cheerful Mission Possible team members!

Weeds = Bad; Dirt = Good

Tuesday at Mission Possible...

Gather at 9:30 (view previous day's photos)

Sing some songs

Identify Bible reference for the day
(Gen. 1: 26-28)

Listen to a story (St. Francis)

Load 'em up, head 'em out (sort kids to cars)


Arrive at work site (Reston Assoc. pathway)

WORK - pull invasive weeds under supervision of Reston Association staff

Weeds are bad; pull them up.
Knock off the soil; dirt is good.

WORK - keep pulling weeds, fill bags, haul bags to truck, chop down a couple burning bush bushes.





SMILE! - Work has been accomplished, mostly in the shade, with cheerful attitudes and with visible results.

Load 'em up, head 'em out (back to church)

LUNCH!

Team building activity (create a living statue)

Group photo of living statues and their sculptors

Unwrap living sculpture(s)

Sing some more

Announcements for Wednesday

HOME

SHOWER

Rest

Get ready to repeat tomorrow!

Must You Pack a Suitcase To Go On a Mission?

The answer at St. Anne's is: NO!!!

Today was the first session of Mission Possible, a day camp for rising 6th through 8th graders. For the next week this group will meet in the morning to read the scripture theme for the day, sing and prepare to head out for the day's outreach event. Upon returning to St. Anne's in the afternoon, the group will re-read the scripture and discuss the project of the day and journal about experience.

Monday is a team-building day. We drove to Claude Moore park and spent the day getting to know each other through better by using problem-solving activities. We also got the chance to swim for a while before heading back to St. Anne's to wrap up the day. We'll be working in four locations in Northern Virginia this week as we live into the theme, "Growing Hearts for Mission."

We're Heading "Home"

With Father Hipólito

An essential part of every mission trip is the "going home." Leaving the people who have been so hospitable and so much a family for the week, and heading back to the people who are also family, is a bitter-sweet event.

Bob and Stacy

And so, we said goodbye to our Cristo Salvador family on Sunday after church with tears and hugs and promises that we'll be back next year, "si Dios quiere."

Jim and Lazaro

We boarded a comfortable, air-conditioned bus and drove to the north coast for a couple days at the beach before catching the plane to Virginia.

The beach is beautiful and we've been lucky enough to have Poly, Lilian and their kids with us here... kind of a gentler way to start the work of re-entering the culture we live in "the rest of the year." How do we integrate the experience of living in the Dominican Republic with open hearts and open hands with the busyness of work, studies, traffic, bills, and all our other obligations. Tough, it's tough!

Tomorrow, I'll make my own café con leche. I'll do my laundry, I'll get a reminder call from the dentist. I'll long for a hug from Leonardo, I'll wish for the chaos of passing out and collecting crayons from the VBS kids. I'll hear Fr. Hipólito's voice calling, "MARTA!" in my head but not with my ears. And I'll get a call from my granddaughters, I'll get excited about sharing our experience with my St. Anne's family, I'll get a frappuccino and I'll remind myself that we are separated only by distance in miles, not by distance of the heart!

It's been a GREAT trip! Thank you, St. Anne's. The team will be fired up for a while, ask us about DR2010, we'll be happy to tell you.

More photos here.

Yesterday Was Tough

After much preparation and many prayers of petition,  the 2010 DR mission team has spent a very fast week here in Santiago. As I write this, we have been in Santiago exactly a week. And now, we're preparing to say our good byes.

Friday is always my most difficult day. I start the day tensely, praying for a re-make of the loaves and fishes miracle while we pack up 200+ goodie bags to be given out at the end of the VBS session. We strategize how to dismiss the kids so that no one gets trampled and each child gets a bag.

After working with the week's theme of Noah, it will come as no surprise that Friday was the day God made a covenant after the rainbow appeared in the sky. Our rainbow was made of post-it notes!

The session began with a fierce tropical rain shower. Kids came in wet. We sang, we chatted about God's promise to never cause that kind of flood of destruction again and the responsibility we have to keep God's creation working in the way God would want us to keep it. We colored. We sang some more. And then... it was time for the bags!

I caught Milet's eye and we went upstairs to fetch the bags. Poly sang a calmer song than usual. The kids were told that we would dismiss them pew by pew. Finally, we opened the door and started sending them home.

Why do those kids love those little bags so much? Why will some of them actually accost each other in the street to take a bag that has pencils, stickers and some cookies? The week's activities are really about the relationship we share. They know my name because I've been here so often. They learn the names of new team members. They ask to have their pictures taken with us. They want to know where Fiona and Matt and Ann and Kati and Susan are. I have to comfort myself with the idea that the pencils are fine but the hugs we've given them will last as long in their lives as the hugs they've given me last in mine.

DR2010 Team w/ Constanza in the background

We also said goodbye to our construction crew. Chencho and his brothers Danilo and Mariano are also part of our Dominican family. Each time we pack up to head home, I know that I leave a part of my heart in this place and I carry them all home with me.

Today we took a field trip to Constanza, a beautiful drive into the mountains and a rich agricultural area of the country. Tomorrow we'll go to church at Cristo Salvador and then head to the north coast for a couple days on the beach. We'll be home before we know what hit us!

Watch for more photos. I wanted to make sure you all know we're thinking of you, that we're grateful for St. Anne's support of this trip, of this relationship. Pray for us tomorrow morning, as I know the people of Cristo Salvador will be praying for you.

Faithfully,
Martha