Hola, my dear friends,

This morning we went to speak with a Russian real estate, but unfortunately the agent was not in. Our hope was to discuss different apartments in areas where there are opportunities to minister to both the Russians and the locals. As the real estate agent was not in, we used the time to visit a friend of Mike. His name was Jean Carlos, and he lived in a very poor part of town. There were huge, abandoned complexes (though they were not abandoned). Squatters have moved in… many of these are women that are trapped in the sex trade. There is an awful cycle that has been occurring in Sosua. Women here are born in squalor and have almost no opportunities. Prostitution is an easy way out, but like most sin, very entrapping. Many of the women have four children (the product of their trade) in a small shack that doesn’t belong to them. At this point, they continue work to support their family without a husband. Very sad… and the number of women in this situation is staggering. They need the Lord’s help!!!  After this, we packed up and headed for the (garbage) dump. The dump is a place where many Haitian refugees live. They live there waiting for garbage trucks to pull in and dump the trash. The Haitians work through the trash looking for items that will allow them to live another day. We drove up and served them soup, speaking to them in Creole/French. When they were done with the soup, we gave them ice cold water, filling up all bottles they had (most were the plastic water bottles that were thrown away). It was AWESOME! After this, we would went to Alex’s house (Russian friend) for lunch. It was a traditional Russian lunch that included Borsch and cabbage.  After this, we went with Alex and met some of his Russian friends, including a very good contact that provided much insight into the logistics of moving into the Dominican Republic. We ate supper at a Dominican restaurant and took a walk downtown. We finished the night by worshiping together and look forward for a good night of sleep. Please enjoy the pictures below...

We appreciate your prayers and God bless!