COTN who are they?

  Children of the Nations (COTN) is a Christian based, sponsorship and assistance charity that serves in many countries to provide medical, dental, educational, and basic needs for children. We will be staying near the "batays", which are shantytowns set up originally to house Haitian immigrants who came to work on the sugarcane plantations. Unfortunately, once the immigrants had children, the children were not considered Haitians any longer as they were born out of the country, but the DR does not welcome them either and gives them no citizenship. As a result, the batays have become communities that are impossible to escape, and are now multigenerational towns in rural areas without electricity, running water, employment, etc.
   COTN has come into these batays and built schools, medical/dental centers, and assists with basic needs through child sponsorships and donations as well. 
You can find more information here: https://cotni.org/where-we-serve/dominican-republic/barahona-dominican-republic/village-partnership-programs/los-roble

What will our team being doing in the DR?

It's still yet to be determined as to the specifics of what we will be doing in the DR. There are several different options. One option is to work with a special education teacher to help set up their classroom. Another option is to be involved with the COTN child sponsorship program (delivering letters to the children, helping children with their correspondence to their sponsors, taking updated photos of the children, etc). One opportunity we are certain of is that we will be collecting as many pairs of children's UNDERWEAR (boys & girls, all sizes, new in package) as we can. If you would like to donate underwear or would like to contribute money towards the purchase of underwear, let us know.

Ways To Help

• We are collecting new underwear for kids to take along for distribution to the DR.
• You can participate financially and support through your prayers
• Praise & prayer for:
• Praise for $1200 of the $6500 of our support raised.  Thankful for those who have given.
• Prayer for full funds to be raised by May 29th.
• Praise for team preparations, continued prayer for team unity & bonding.
• Prayer for fundraising efforts for the entire team.
• Prayer for wisdom & discernment in decision making as Erica facilitates this team.
• Sponsor a child

Stay tuned, I'm hoping to get Helena & Esther to write some of their thoughts and hopes for this trip in the days ahead.

Erica

Our Team

Our team going to the Dominican Republic consists of 14 people: 7 adults & 7 children (ages range from 10-6 years old).  This group was initiated by our common desire to serve together as young families cross-culturally (while experiencing a cross-cultural experience).  We wanted to interact and engage with others who were culturally, socially, economically, and theologically different. The hope is that through this experience we will get a glimpse of what it means to be the feet and hands of Jesus and as a result have God's worldview be enlarged in us and through us.

As with many trips, this trip began months before with preparations.  Since September, we have met every other week to prepare. We have been learning about one another and the Dominican culture and about the Haitians we will be serving.  As many of you are very aware, a short-term missions experience can have many mountains and valleys and alot of unknowns.  It is these unknowns where our faith is stretched and challenged.  Please be praying for our team that our experience of community would grow as we face these unknowns together and that our hearts would be transformed by knowing God in a different way.