Wednesday, July 23

The small community we've been working in is called La Represa. It's a community that has been hit by flooding and economic hardship. Pastor Tomas, with whom we've been working, has a vision of community development that extends well beyond his own recognition. Our specific project this week has been to extend out the four walls of his tiny church building to accommodate the growth that his congregation is experiencing. DeLise Kroening, a member of CPC's Mission Steering Team as well as a World Servants staff member, has shown great leadership on this trip. After two solid days of work on the building, we have completed 75% of the outer walls of the building. The inner, preexisting walls will eventually be torn down, leaving the outer walls as the new church. Today, Wednesday is our day off. We will spend it in the capital, Santo Domingo, sight-seeing and visiting Dominican cultural sites.

-Paul Tshihamba

The last couple of days have been filled with activity. In addition to the nine of us from CPC, we were joined by Chuck Webster and his daughter Elise, also from the Twin Cities. Once in the Dominican Republic (DR), we met up with two other church groups, both from Murfreesboro, a city outside of Nashville, TN. These two churches have a longer history working with World Servants in the DR than CPC. Worship on Sunday evening was lively and passionate, and very meaningful. We gathered for worship in a school yard because the church building is being rebuilt - by us! Very humbling for this group of amateurs to be entrusted with such a task. Monday was a full work day, as we were joined by members of the community to expand the walls of the church.

-Paul Tshihamba

Off And Away

Please pray for our CPC members who will be traveling to the Dominican Republic for a Family-friendly GoTrip with CPC's mission partner, World Servants. Our team of two families will travel from July 19 - 26. We plan to work with a local church community that is building a school and offering other services in the community.

Please consider the following needs as you pray:

o A true cross-cultural experience, where we move outside of our comfort zone and into relationships with Dominicans;
o A strong sense of God’s presence throughout the week and a real experience with Jesus
o An experience that unites the families
o We will be joining travelers from other churches and communities from across the US.

Please consider praying for these CPC travelers by name. They include:
DeLise Kroening, Tom Kamp, Cheri Kamp, Madeleine Kamp, Ellery Kamp, Sydney Kamp Paul Tshihamba, Josh Tshihamba, Jake Tshihamba.