Greetings from San Juan de la Maguana

Just a note to let everyone know that the Second Pres Bibles and Bricks group has arrived at the guest house and had our first day of VBS and construction at the Jim Smith School at El Rosario. We had an uneventful trip down to Santo Domingo and a nice stay at the Lina Hotel Saturday night. We attended church with Rod and Sandy in Santo Domingo at Principe de Paz which was an amazing 2 hour service with music and dance performance and skits and a high energy 1 hr sermon( in Spanish with no English)! We then loaded onto the buses and came to the guest house eating lunch along the way. We came through a pretty severe thunder storm but arrived safely at the Guest house about 5 PM.

Today was a really good first day at El Rosario with a very enthusiastic VBS opening with which everyone seemed very pleased. The construction crew got a good start working on the kitchen. We filled in the floor and laid most of the block which we will try to finish tomorrow so hopefully we can reach our goal by the time we leave on Friday.

We are grateful for the church's support and prayers. And thankful to God that we made it safely and have the opportunity to serve him here.

The Bibles and Bricks team 2008

Letter from John Starr

----- Original Message -----

From: cicdoc1@aol.com

To: Bobjoe9134@aol.com

Cc: pastor@spres.org

Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 10:55 AM

Subject: greetings from the SRM guest house

Hi Bob

I am sitting in the guesthouse waiting for Raoul to come back from el Circado and give me a ride to El Rosario so I am stuck in 'Domican time' as I expected him about half hour ago. I had to take care of some business items by email and phone so didn't go with the 8 oclock group.
I have been working with the construction group at the ER school and they are making great progress with the roof, cleanup and interior painting. I will get some good pictures for you.

We have a really good group and so far everything seems to be running pretty smoothly. The kids are doing a great job with the Bible school. the only problem is the profusion of VA Tech and Carolina t-shirts ( George's daughter Rachel is the only one of these so far, but that's bad enough).
Rod Meyer is here and we are trying to get involved in distributing some of the Rotary water filter systems later in the week depending on how the other projects go. I will send you more about that with pictures later, hopefully. Nancy is working with us on this so that we don't interfere with the primary goals of the trip. She's doing a great job of keeping everything running smoothly and worrying about the kids and bible school.
We've all been pretty healthy so far, but I have been giving out a little more Cipro than I expected. This early I have to suspect the tap water or lettuce at the Gran Lina on the way in. Raoul just arrived so I will end this and send more later.
yours truly John

John W Starr MD

Bibles and Bricks 2006: Possible VBS Format

Physical set up at El Rosario
four classrooms plus library plus gazebo
Electricity available if running (maybe half the time; unpredictable)
current enrollment: 198, preschool through grade 6

Possible Schedule
9:00 – 9:15: Arrival and check in
9:15 – 9:30: Group Gathering/ Music/Puppets
Three “Rotations” in three groups
Teams: Bible, Crafts, Recreation
9:30-10:15
10:15-11:00
11:00-11:45
Assumption: Regardless of the number of children, they get divided into three groups.
With four classrooms, the Bible team and Crafts team can have two classrooms each and thus can divide the large group into smaller workgroups
The Recreation team should be prepared to divide into smaller groups depending on the number of children; will use outside and under the gazebo (for water and rest between games)
11:45- 12:00: Snack and Dismissal
Recommendation from Sandy: save snack for when they depart (We’re all curious as to why.)

Preparation Teams with Adult Leaders
Bible Study: Connie Vermillion
Crafts: Lee Stanley
Recreation: Rob Erdman
Music and Puppets: Beth Vaught-Jenkins (will help us get ready); Marybeth Robinson

Resources/Curriculum
The following Arch books are published in Spanish. We need to choose four to become the Bible story for each day.
Possibilities are (minus Spanish accent marks; translations from the web site):
La historia de semana santa (The Week that led to Easter)
Mi libro de Pascua (My Easter Book)
El hijo prodigo (The Prodigal Son)
Tres regalos para el nino Jesus (Three Presents for Baby Jesus)
La historia de Navidad de Maria (Mary’s Christmas Story)
Jesus bendice a los ninos (Jesus Blesses the Children)
Jesus lava los pies a sus discipulos (Jesus Washes Peter’s Feet)
El arca de Noe (Noah’s 2-by-2 Adventure)
Moises cruza al Mar Rojo (Moses’ Dry Feet)
Jesus sana a un paralitico (Down Through the Roof)

Important links and information

Here are some important information links for our trip.

 

For immunizations: http://www.cdc.gov/travel/caribean.htm  (We don't need to be concerned with rabies.)

The number and contact person at the Roanoke City Health Department is: Debbie Sams, 387-5530, X31. 

 

These are two notes Mr. Kreger sent about the hepatitis B shots:

(Nov 1) Debbie Sams at the Health Dept. and Dr. Nottingham suggest that if you have never had the Hepatitis B series that you begin the series NOW. Get the first one from your primary care physician. The series of 3 shots is given over a six month period of time and it would be ideal if everyone completed these prior to our trip!

 

We are working to schedule a meeting time soon after the first of the new year for the Health Dept. staff to meet with our group for a "GROUP IMMUNIZATION AND TRIP PRECAUTION AND EDUCATION SESSION."  As soon as the meeting time is set, I will advise all trip participants. ( This is being arranged to expedite the immunization process for us and the Health Dept.)

 

Your Trip Administrator,

 

Trip Kreger
Email     trip@abkreger.com

 

(Nov 9) Hello to All,

Just a reminder that this immunization requires a series of 3 injections, taken over  6 months. It is strongly suggested by the Health Dept. and Dr. Nottingham that you begin this NOW with your primary physician so it is complete prior to our leaving in July.

 

The rest of the needed immunizations will be discussed and hopefully given at a meeting after the first of next year as I noted in a previous Email.

 

 

Your Trip Administrator,

Trip Kreger
Email     trip@abkreger.com

 

 

For Solid Rock Missions: http://www.solidrockmissions.org where you should have already registered for our trip.