Greetings from the Goos family!
Our family is participating in a mission trip to the Dominican
Republic with Children of the Nations (COTN). You probably know that Erica and
I met while we were in Russia as missionaries. In addition to changing our
lives because we ended up marrying, the experience taught each of us many
things about how other people live out their faith. We started to see how
issues of economics and culture affect our own views of faith and the gospel.
These lessons have continued as we have gone through our 15 ½ years of
marriage. While we try to teach Helena and Esther what we have learned, we feel
that some of this needs to be experienced first hand.
To that end we plan to go to the D.R. for 8 days next summer
(June 29 - July 6) with a team of 3 other families. While in the D.R., we will
be doing family friendly activities such as helping sponsored children write
letters. We plan to do more, but we’re not quite sure what that is yet. We do
know that we will spend most of our time with ethnic Haitians. Their standard of
living is very low compared with not only Americans but also with Dominicans.
This trip will cost around $6500 for our family (~$3600 in
airfare and ~$2800 for food and lodging). We are asking you to consider
supporting us financially to get us there and back. We feel led to do this and
your support is one of the things that validates this calling.
In addition to finances, our group will be collecting underwear
for distribution to the population we will be meeting. We’re not sure of the
details of this right now, but this might be a way you can participate as well.
Of course keeping us in your prayers is something we would
appreciate.
If you would like to support us financially, please visit the Children of the Nations website (this link should take you to a page setup with our information). If giving online just doesn’t work for you, let
us know and we’ll figure out something! B-)
