Each community raised the funds to ship a full container of food to the DR. In one day, Monticello packaged over 285,000 meals or 1320 boxes, and Albany packaged over 216,000 meals or 1000 boxes!
For the past several months, Ramon Pastrano from ImpactLives in MN and Pastor Carlos Soegaard from Iglesia Centro Cristiano Shalom here in the Dominican Republic have been filing documents, making phone calls and driving several times to the port in Santo Domingo to prepare the way for these two 40-foot containers of food.
The food made it to the port in Santo Domingo on July 29th, but several more phone calls, trips and documents were necessary before the food would be released. Many people have been waiting, praying and preparing for the arrival of this food!
On September 17th, we were informed that both of the conatiners of food would be released the next day. One conatiner was scheduled to arrive in Santo Domingo around noon. The other was expected to arrive in Hato Mayor later in the afternoon.
The Santo Domingo Story - Container #1
On Monday, I called Pastor Felipe from our Santo Domingo location. He gathered a group of men from his church and from the Gomez drug/alcohol Rehab house in Boca Chica to help unload over 1000 boxes of food.
At 12:00 we were all there anxiously waiting for the truck to arrive, eager to get to work, a little hungry as it was lunch time and looking up and down the street, wondering how the huge semi-truck would fit on this small neighborhood road in Santo Domingo.
At 12:30, we called the port. They said the truck would not arrive until 3pm. We were a little disappointed, but also a little releived because that would give us time to eat some lunch!! Pastors Jose & Maria Gomez and I went to Pica Pollo to get some lunch for the guys and headed back to wait under the big tree. We talked, laughed, sang and waited together....
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| The gang waiting under the tree....after Pica Pollo! |
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| Pastor Felipe Mendoza |
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| Pastors Jose and Maria Gomez They have a home for men in need of drug & alcohol rehabilitation |
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| This was a real scenario! As we were waiting, we learned the answer to the question, "How many Dominicans does it take to change a light bulb?"!! |
3pm came, and there was still no truck. At 4pm we called the port again. They told us it would be another half hour. We all wondered if that was a "Dominican" half-hour or if it would truly arrive in 30 minutes. As our patience was running low, we smiled and acknowledged that God is giving us an opportunity to practice patience!
At 4:45pm, we called again. The driver apologized and said that they had problems with a tire on the way. It was fixed and they were just 15 minutes away. We all took a deep breath, said a little prayer, put our chairs away and sent a few representatives to the end of the street to welcome the driver and help him identify the street more easily.
At about 5:20pm the semi-truck turned onto this small neighborhood street. The truck was finally here!! The next challenge, helping the driver manuever over the huge dip in the road, between cars parked on the sides, through trees that hang over the road and under the many electrical wires that run from house to house.
It took a team of people working together to help the truck get through all of the obstacles in this distance of only about two blocks.
They parked the truck in front of the house where we would store the food. The driver got out, and our team gathered at the back door of the truck, eager to see the boxes and get to work unloading. BUT, there was one more obstacle: the lock. In order to prevent robbery, they place a strong metal rod through the lock on the door. The owners are supposed to have a special tool to cut through this rod and open the cargo. We didn't have that special tool, but we had hammers and saws!! The guys worked together - they were resourceful!! After several more minutes, they broke through the lock and opened the doors. Finally after months of waiting and six hours that afternoon, we could see the food and begin unloading!
We made a chain of people, starting inside the truck and passing boxes one to the next to the next to the next and began restacking the boxes inside the house. It was hard work. After about four palletes, everyone was sweating, and we realized we weren't even close to half done!! We worked until 9pm unloading the truck.
Kids from the neighborhood started to help, too. We needed them to crawl on top of the boxes and help us fit boxes where we couldn't reach. Other than the small space we left for a bed, every inch of that house is filled with food!
As we were carrying the boxes into the house, I thought about the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000 with just a few fish and pieces of bread. I laughed to myself, and I prayed several times for a different sort of miracle. "Make it fit, Lord!" was my prayer!
One of the girls commented to her father, "Dad, I think there's enough food here to feed the whole world!"
We're praising God for the blessing of this food, for all the people who worked so hard back in the US, investing their time, talents and financial resources to get this food to people who need it. I want to say thanks once again with all of my heart to each one of you who helped make this possible. May God bless you richly!
We appreciate your continued prayers as we begin to distribute this food. This is a BIG responsibility, and it takes a great about of wisdom and discernment to make sure the food gets to the hands and bellies of the people who need it most.
I'm also incredibly thankful for Pastor Carlos, Pastor Felipe and Pastor Chappy who aware and alert. In Santo Domingo, none of the food will leave the house without Pastor Felipe's approval. In Hato Mayor, the food will not leave without Pastor Carlos' approval. Both of them will be present every time the food is distributed to see that it gets to the right people, is done in a way that is honoring to God and is used in the way we intended it to be used -- to bless people in need.
This is not the end of the story -- Now, a new chapter begins!
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