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Five men from our home base, Grace Church in Coram, NY (churchatthemovies.com) came to the= Dominican Republic to make a difference. They jumped right into the work w= e had planned for them. They = wired up a new school building, built a counter top for a computer room, bo= ok shelving for a library, completed the electrical work and hung doors and= shelves at the Los Charamicos public clinic. In our clinic, they helped install a new electric backup s= ystem, sorted eyewear for our vision center, and repaired an old dental cha= ir. They also visited with their sponsor children and gave them gifts. It w= as the first trip here for four of the five men. Their lives were touched b= y the poverty and the amount of difference they could make in one week. Good work, brothers! Hope to see you all again soon.

From left, Irving Rosado, Al Saponieri, Elias Mendez, Danny Mitrani, = and Jimmy Fallarino from Grace Church, NY in front of the newly remodeled p= ublic clinic in Los Charamicos.

Danny Mitrani, an electrician, installed ceiling lights in the dark c= lassrooms. Danny’s wife, Robin was here in April.

When the electrical work was done and the lights turned on, the schoo= l kids spontaneously broke out into applause and laughter. The men were so = blessed by their gratitude.

Al Saponieri’s wife Nancy snd daughter Jessica were on the team that came in April, too. The= y returned with a good report. Al decided to come see for himself. = ; He met with their sponsor child in La Union, El Batay. He likes it= here and said he’ll be back again. If you come here once, you’= ll want to return, too.

The inverter, purchased by Grace Church, works on six volt batteries that “inverts” DC= power to AC power automatically. We now have lights, fans, computer and refrigeration in the clinic whi= ch is necessary for vaccines whenever electricity goes out, which happens e= very day for several hours. Thank you Grace!

Jimmy Fallarino and Elias Mendez are carpenters who installed this co= unter for the new computer lab. They built shelving, bookcases, hung doors = and did other handyman work. The school director, Judy Morales, was amazed = and grateful for the work the men did for her school.

The team carried in about 1000 pair of eye glass frames donated by De= b Ingino of Marchon Eyewear, Melville, NY. Now, people all over Sosua are coming for eye screening and g= etting great looking glasses in our vision center. To the right, Irving Rosado sorts through the differe= nt styles of frames with designer names like “Nautica” and R= 20;Calvin Klein.” Irvin= g’s wife came with a team from Grace Church two years ago.

Left, Child Sponsors, Jim and Patti Carroll of Atlanta, GA came for a= week of ministry. They worke= d in Arroyo Seco where their sponsor child is enrolled in one of our sponso= r schools. They also helped us at our clinic and helped de-worm children at another one of our sponsor s= chools in La Union, El Batay. They brought a large amount of school supplies to help several families st= art a small retail business. Good idea!

On the right, Child Sponsor Pat Spreadbury helped us with a mobile cl= inic at a school operated by the Dream Project in Cabarete. Pat and his wife Chris are from Rochester, N= Y and live in the DR part-time. We appreciate their support. = ;

Our clinic is helping more people than ever and as a result our medic= ine supply is Low. We are at a critical level. There is also a flu ou= tbreak and we are seeing many small kids with Pneumonia. We must have these= medicines in stock. We need your help to re-supply our inve= ntory. We need $1000 to purchase = antibiotics, antifungal medications and comfort meds such as Tylenol. This will last us through January.= Will you help us with a financial gift for these medicines? You can make your donation on our website t= hrough PayPal at www.islandimpact.net= /contact_us.html . Thank you and may God bless you for car= ing. <= /span>

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I have not been back to Haiti since 1998. For Kelli it has been over 12 years! The Haitians refer to the country as “Cher= i Haiti,” or “Dear Haiti.” No matter where they live, they all desire to return to see= their country again. And so = Kelli and I now realize why. = A friend of ours who opened a school in Haiti asked us to go over the border to do a mobile clinic for h= er school’s children. W= e drove 3 1/2 hours to the border where were allowed to cross over into Hai= ti. The school has 75 childre= n and most were quite sick. W= e plan to return for follow up care every couple of months. It was good to = return to the country we spent so many years serving the Lord. But our ministry to the Haitians does n= ot end there. We minister to = the Haitian refugees and migrant workers in our clinic and in our mobile cl= inics as well. Kelli and I bo= th agree Haiti is still “Cheri Haiti.”