I couldn't say it better....

.... so I won't try.

Copied from a post on Craig and Dana Albrecht's blog.... Arja's cousin and his family. They will soon be serving in medical missions aboard Mercy Ships.


One of the rough, cinder-block homes in the village of Villa Ascension in the Dominican Republic had, painted on its side in white paint, a message easy enough for anyone passing by to read. It was not written in English, but with the few words I knew, somehow I made sense of the rest. When a translator came along, my reading was confirmed. The message was, essentially, “The gringos (white people) have the money of the poor people”.

Villa Ascencion is a village among now-defunct sugar cane fields, populated by mainly unemployed Haitian immigrants and Dominicans. In the past several years, up to 40 work teams per year have arrived from various countries and organizations. The village infrastructure has benefited greatly as these teams have built homes, a school, a church and a clinic. We saw several children with Tim Horton’s shirts on, evidence of aid provided by our fellow-Canadians. Previous Mercy Ships teams had taught gardening as a food source. A local Kids Alive school provides children with one big meal a day. But still, the main concern we heard was “I’m hungry”.

We learned in our time in the Dominican Republic that helping people, whether individually or as a group, is not a simple process. We do have to consider, on a large scale, whether we as ‘gringos’ have gained by taking advantage of the poor, either currently or long ago. We also have to do our part to stand with our brothers and sisters in poverty by providing food and housing. But at the end of it all, we may discover a need that is deeper. Is that the need that persists in our hearts, even in Canada with warm homes and full bellies? Is that a hunger that can only be filled by a Father who has more wealth and more wisdom than anyone who could walk into Villa Ascension? Still, an exciting prospect that stirs in our hearts is the possibility of actually being the hands and feet and feelings of the Man who walked into similarly poverty-stricken areas of Palestine 2000 years ago and fed 5000 people with 5 loaves and 3 fishes.


Thanks, Craig. We share your struggle, and your excitement.