Parent-Child Activity in Villa Vilorio

On Friday last week we all went to one of the communities where we've been working with the children for some special activities.  In the morning we split up into small groups and went around to talk with some of the parents and visit the children we've been working with in their homes. 

We really want to take more time to get to know the parents and allow them to get to know us, so we can work together and support them more as they raise their children.  Some of the parents were home, some were working, some are Christians, some are not. 

We're going to start doing this once a month in each of the communities to start building these relationships as much as we can.

Then, in the afternoon, we invited all the parents to come to a special activity in which we shared a little bit more about the ministry...what we do, where and why we are doing it. 

Some of the kids prepared a special song doing actions.  They call it a pantomime.

The youth of the community prepared a drama.  This is one thing we are excited about in this community.  There is a large number of youth that have been really helpful and have been participating a lot with the children's classes.  We are looking for ways to engage and empower them even more as leaders and role models in their community.

The youth of our ministry prepared a special drama as well.  If you haven't noticed, it's really popular and effective to communicate through dramas in the Dominican Republic.  It seems you can communicate a strong message without even using words that is really impactful to those who see it.

The church was full.  There were some parents and grandparents.  We're hoping that each time we do it, more and more of the parents will come.

Afterwards thanks to a donation from Resurrection Lutheran Church, we were able to bless each family with a bag of groceries.

Here are some pictures of the team leaders preparing the food the day before.  They did a good job planning the activity.  They had a budget to work with and thought through all the details: how many people might attend, what groceries to purchase and where to find the best deals, transportation, etc.   

They did a really good job and will only get better as we go along.  We've done this in one community and have three more to go!

Each of the bags had rice, beans, oatmeal, spaghetti, salt, oil, sugar, two types of flour, chicken-flavored seasoning, tomtato sauce and salami.  All of these are very typical ingredientes for dominican meals.

Thanks Resurrection Lutheran Church for the donation for the food!