Through our connection with Rivers of the World, a team of seven JCPC members traveled to the Dominican Republic during the summer of 2015 to help construct a school in Barrio La Lachoza near the city of La Romana . The project is sponsored locally by Maranatha Mission.

Located just outside of La Romana, La Lachoza is a poor neighborhood where ROW and Maranatha Mission recently completed construction of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.  This church serves as a place of worship and a safe haven during hurricane season; the new school is being built across the road from this church.

Education in the barrio is rare.  Private schools exist, but are costly and require transportation - eliminating them as an option for almost all families.
When complete, the school in La Lachoza will serve up to 180  children and also house adult education and technical training classes.

JCPC provided a week's worth of manual labor as well as funding for materials and additional local laborers. A mountain of dirt and rock was moved to support floors, and concrete was mixed, hauled and poured for footers and support columns.  In addition, the JCPC mission team provided a VBS experience for neighborhood children.

Our team visited several rural Bateys around La Romana to experience the deplorable living conditions of immigrants from Haiti who work in the sugar cane fields. Most of these folks are not legal immigrants and have no access to schools or public services.

These migrant workers and their families are lodged in shacks that typically lack electricity and running water. They are expected to work long hours cropping sugar cane and hauling it to railroad cars--in wagons drawn by oxen. The cane is then transported to sugar mills along the coast for processing.

This trip was a life changing experience for our missionaries and hopefully for those we touched! Our goal is to build on the work that was done during Spring Break by collaborating with ROW on future mission projects in the La Romana area.

We also hope to send another mission team to the area in the near future. That team will have an opportunity to work with Jonathan Santiago, our amazing guide from Maranatha Mission, pictured here with his father, Ramone. Ramone serves as pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

If you are interested in participating in a mission trip like this one, contact Ellen Grand or Joyce Bedenk.