The Dominican Republic Part IV

Our last distribution in the D.R. was at the Pedro Martinez Foundation.  To get to the Foundation, we drove through the city, which seemed like it took forever.  We saw all types of people, buildings, cars, vendors, animals, etc along the city streets on our way there.  (I was amazed at the number of dogs we saw just running the streets!)  When we pulled up alongside the Foundation, the first thing I noticed was the rod iron gate across the entrance and the stone wall surrounding it.  It was the complete opposite than anything else we'd experienced so far on the trip.  We walked through the gates and saw this beautiful building!

As we walked into the building, we were met with a sea or red and green shirts and the students standing and applauding us. To think that these kids, who had no idea who we were, stood to applaud us was humbling, very humbling. I wanted to say "No, No - we need to be applauding you!"

After the presentation and the shoe boxes were handed out came the time to open the shoe boxes.  In Operation Christmas Child style, they counted down while the kids very eagerly sat in their seats holding tight to their precious shoe boxes to open them.



I had a great time going around talking trying to talk to the kids in my very broken Spanish about what they got in their shoe boxes.  They had so much fun digging through the boxes to see what they got, and if they weren't sure on what it was that they were holding, they'd hand it to me, and I'd do my best to describe it.  If I couldn't describe it, I'd end up playing with it so the child could figure it out.

Opening his Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box

Another item I will try to include in shoe boxes for the kids are bags.  The kids LOVED it if they got a bag in their shoe box that they could store all of their toys in.

Sweet boy holding tight to the bag that came in his shoe box

My favorite part of the distribution took place after all of the shoe boxes had been handed out.  As the kids were leaving the building to go out to the AWESOME playground for a break, the Cha-Cha Slide started playing in the sound system.  A few of us in the group started doing the dance to the song, and some of the girls at the Foundation started giggling.  Kathy and  got the girls to start dancing with us.  We were able to grab a quick picture afterwards.

Group shot after dancing the Cha-Cha Slide

After the mini-dance session, we headed outside to get ready to leave.  I was surprised to see little groups of kids all over the playground huddled around their boxes.  Apparently, they were having trading sessions.  I could only imagine their conversations.  "Hey, I'll trade you this beanie baby for your match box car..."

Inspecting their friends shoe box goodies

More shoe box goodie inspections

All of the kids were wearing green and red shirts, the colors in Operation Christmas Child's logo.  While we were outside, a young guy walked up to me, and before I could understand what he was trying to ask me, I caught a glimpse of his bright red t-shirt.   What was the likelihood of me, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, finding a Ball State University t-shirt on one of the kids receiving an Operation Christmas Child shoe box?  (For those of you who are not in Indiana, Ball State University is about 45 minutes north of where I live and I have many friends who graduated from there.)  I couldn't believe it!  I had to figure out how he got that shirt.  Come to find out, many organizations like Goodwill and the Salvation Army will donate clothing to needy organizations overseas.

My new friend, the Ball State University fan!

The last photo I took before we boarded the buses to head to the airport was one of my co-workers that I was so privileged to travel with for the week.  Nathan thought it would be fun for us all to let our inner-child out and climb on the spider web on the playground.

The K-LOVE Staff monkeying around :-)

As we pulled away from the foundation and our last distribution for the trip, I started to think about the 1500+ kids we interacted with during the week - kids who were given shoe boxes thanks to the 1500+ people in the United States that took time away from their schedules to go buy some toys to put into a shoe box.  I had heard numerous stories from friends, co-workers, and listeners at work about shoe boxes and the impact they made, but never really got it until I saw it with my own eyes.

Matthew 25:45 has a whole new meaning to me now: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how you can pack shoeboxes online!