Dominican Republic
Two-thirds of the Dominican Republic’s children face an uncertain future.
First Presbyterian Church, Arlington Heights, Illinois, has been sending mission teams to the Dominican Evangelical Church (IED) for almost thirty years. It recently partnered with a United Methodist congregation in Maryville, Tennessee, to bring potable water to the town of Gaspar Hernandez and surrounding communities.
Gaspar Hernandez was the site of the first water purification system, built in 2006. “That was the beginning,” reports the Rev. Osvaldo Vilorio, pastor in Gaspar Hernandez. “Now we have water systems in two more communities.” Each system produces three hundred gallons of drinking water daily.
Throughout the year, the three congregations plan for the next project. First Presbyterian’s mission team spends eight days in the Dominican Republic each year, followed immediately by the team from Tennessee. Both work alongside their colleagues in the IED so that clean drinking water and the living water of Christ reach the homes and the hearts of people in surrounding communities. This Presbyterian-Methodist collaboration is particularly fitting since the IED was formed in 1922 by Presbyterians and Methodists.
Other PC(USA) congregations collaborating with Dominican churches and organizations to bring safe water to communities include New Wilmington and Clearfield Presbyterian in Pennsylvania; Church of the Redeemer in Snellville, Georgia; Westminster in Greenville, South Carolina; and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, New York.
PC(USA) People in Mission
Kristin Hamner, mission volunteer, facilitator for Self-Development of People in Dominican Republic
Partners/Ministries
Dominican Evangelical Church (IED): The Rev. Miguel Angel Cancú, president, Bishop Alejandro Figueroa, executive secretary and coordinator, volunteers in mission
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Marybeth Rutkowski, BOP
Elder Elias Sahiouny, GAMC
Susan Salsburg, GAMC
God of all life, fill us with the living water that gushes up to eternal life so that love and compassion might flow through us to all your children in the world. Amen.
Ps. 135, 145 Ps. 97, 112
Jer. 36:11–26
1 Cor 13:(1–3) 4–13; Matt. 10:5–15
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