We Need To Finish This House

Dear family and friends, The teams from TN and IN, working with Alcides and his crew, did a great job of getting the roof on this house in a week. We need to finish it. Want to buy a window for $80? A door for $120? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Blessings to you all, 
Bondye beni ou.
Richard Taylor

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Dalila

Dalila, an extremely gifted student born into abject poverty, able to attend college due a loving family in the USA.

Free Clinic - Just For One Day

Free Medical Clinic, so desperately needed in Sabaneta, Dominican Republic. Open just for one day due to some caring doctors, now in need of funding.

“He who oppressed the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”  –Proverbs 14:31

"Food, medicine and education are the heart and soul of Journey Into Hope"

Thanks to you all for your many thoughts, prayers, and support during the past few months; it has been an intensely busy time as we try to meet the needs of a world deep in poverty and sickness. Medical teams from Detroit and PA came to Sabaneta in March and shared their lives, skills, hearts and medicines with the folks in our area. Many home visits by doctors, physical and occupational therapists, nurses, pastors, and friends deeply touched the lives of the residents in our barrio. God’s love in action is the most powerful agent of change on the planet, and it was great to be a witness to so many wonderful acts of kindness.

Food, medicine and education are the heart and soul of Journey Into Hope. Choosing between these three life essentials has become a daily, often heart-wrenching task in our effort to help improve the lives of our brothers and sisters on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Malnutrition and starvation, sickness and death, illiteracy and poverty are the constant companions of many residents in our neighborhood. We continue to buy a lot of rice and beans and try to feed as many kids as possible with our limited resources. We purchase and give away medicines to many who will otherwise go without treatment for conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, typhoid fever, parasites, and epilepsy.  And then along comes a young nurse, Guylaine Codio, who has worked excellently with us during the past few years and asks us if we can help her go to medical school so she can return to work with us as a physician when she completes her training. Presently, we are providing financial aid to 30 students, ranging from kindergarten to graduate school; adding a medical student to this list has been prohibitively expensive in the past. Medical school tuition in Santiago costs approximately $6000 over the course of 5 years; but this is a long-term investment in the life of a young lady who wants to return and serve her community and improve the health of our neighbors. Such an investment would seem to be the perfect fit for Journey Into Hope’s heart and soul. If helping Gulaine appeals to you, please contact me and let me know your thoughts.

In His Most Holy Name, 
Richard Taylor

Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from those who need your help. - Isaiah 58:7

You can help today by purchasing:

120 pds of rice - a weeks supply of food for Journey Into Hope's Kitchen - $60
A year's scholarship to the Christian school of Sabaneta for one child - $335
A school uniform, required for attendance - $55

Any donation big or small is appreciated and can help better the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Dominican Republic.

Please click HERE to donate! 

I could choose not to move...but I Refuse!

 

I can hear the least of these
Crying out so desperately
And I know we are the hands and feet
Of You, oh God

So, if You say move
It's time for me to follow through
And do what I was made to do
Show them who You are

'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
Oh, I could choose
Not to move but I refuse

Richard in the DR

Family and Friends,

Richard arrived safely in the Dominican on Tuesday. He will be in Sabaneta through 3.29.12, a total of 30 days....Since being there he has moved his few possessions from his previous quarters at the unoccupied and unused medical clinic back to the house he occasionally rents. He much prefers being in this house. He has also worked doing some needed maintenance on the soup kitchen. He has been visiting friends and acquaintances assessing the many needs of the community. The annual spring medical mission team from Pennsylvania will arrive on March 10 for the week. A new addition to this medical team is a physical therapist from Richard's church in Tennessee. Chris will join the team as a therapist on 3.13 for the remainder of that mission week.  A medical team from Detroit will also be there sometime in March for another couple of days seeing the sick. The weather in the DR has been very nice thus far and Richard sounds good. We try to talk every day or two.  I will pass along your messages and blessings to him...

May you and yours be blessed,

Miriam

"Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me." Matthew 25:40

 

Purpose

     Journey Into Hope, Inc. is an independent, private, charitable foundation dedicated to improving the health and living conditions of desperately poor people in Latin America and the Caribbean. In whatever way we can, and using whatever means most appropriate to each situation, we strive simply to improve the health and general well-being of people suffering from sickness, hunger, and inadequate (or no) housing caused by extreme poverty. Although we are a Christian foundation deeply moved by the words of Jesus Christ “…whatever you do not do for the least of these, you do not do for me,” we reach out to help, and to receive help from, people of all faiths.

     By far, the very poorest of the poor in the Dominican Republic are the Haitian refugees; the most obvious needs of many of these families are a dry place to live and food to eat. Presently, hundreds of Haitians are living in the dirt and mud in the flood plain of the Sabaneta River. Seasonal rains bring as much as four feet of raging water into the tin and cardboard shacks of these people, and they are forced to evacuate several times a year. With adequate housing on dry land, we can dramatically improve not only the living conditions of these folks, but also their overall standard of health. All the best medicines in the world will not keep people healthy if they are malnourished, living in the mud and drinking and cooking with contaminated river water. 

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Vision

     Over the past several years we have been incredibly, amazingly blessed with sufficient resources to build our soup kitchen, our clinic, our church and our houses. Our challenge now is to sustain the very solid infrastructure we have created by providing the essentials, most basically rice and beans, medicines, and scholarships. In a way, building the infrastructure for the continuing daily work of Journey Into Hope has been the easy part; the Third World is scattered with abandoned buildings, many of them very beautiful and expensive, built by well-meaning individuals, churches, non-profits, or civic-minded clubs and organizations. But once the initial excitement of the building process has come and gone, the real work of sustaining the vision begins. A clinic without medicine and electricity changes quickly from a dream to a nightmare full of sickness and suffering. A soup kitchen without rice and beans and cooking gas is just another building surrounded by hungry kids looking for something to eat and finding nothing; hunger comes around about every six hours whether we cook or not. Babies will be born to hungry and sick mothers whether we can help provide groceries and milk for them or not.

     In this neighborhood there is a very, very fragile line between survival and death. My Haitian friends often tell me, “Life for us is cheap,” which is a simple, real-life translation of the fact that the average life span for Haitians is 54 years, the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Lack of proper nutrition and lack of decent healthcare and medicines are two of the most blatant causes for this unusually brief lifespan. We believe it is our responsibility as human beings to do all we can to help our brothers and sisters increase the value of their lives; indeed, for those of us who dare to call ourselves Christians, we are commanded to do just that.

     Sustaining the work of Journey Into Hope is a huge undertaking; it’s a community effort of many caring hearts and many caring churches. We ask each of you to pray for our work in Sabaneta and to help us help those whose “lives are cheap.”

In His Most Holy Name,
Richard

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Construction 

Since 1995, we have been involved in setting up free clinics and giving away millions of dollars’ worth of medicines in very poor neighborhoods in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. We have also worked at several schools and churches in Venezuela, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Presently, we are working toward providing decent housing and health care for Haitian refugees in and near Sabaneta de Yasica on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. To accomplish this goal, in 2005 we purchased property, a lot large enough (650 sq. meters) for three very basic homes. We have built three, 900 sq. ft., cement floor, concrete block, tin-roof, hurricane-proof homes at the cost of about $15,000US each. Currently there are 23 people living in our three houses. In 2007 we purchased adjoining property (another 650 sq. meters) and have since constructed a soup kitchen/pavilion, a clinic, and a church; these three structures have become very important centers of activity for our community. At the soup kitchen we can provide hot meals to neighborhood kids and adults who are hungry; often as many as 50 kids show up to eat lunch. At the clinic we can provide basic health care and medicines for to up to 350 patients a month. Pastor Sammuel Exanor leads a vibrant group of worshipers at many services throughout the week at the New Life Christian Church, located between the clinic and the soup kitchen.

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Educational Scholarships 

Education is the key to unlock the world of illiteracy, poverty, and hunger that prevails in our Sabaneta neighborhood. We are working hard to help provide school children with the required uniforms, books, and supplies. As we have watched many excellent students grow up and finish high school, we are now helping them pursue their university studies by providing funds to pay tuition and purchase books. We have supported medical students, law students, teachers, accountants, and a host of others. It is one of our deepest prayers that we will continue to have the funds to help these students finish their studies, enter the work force, and achieve great things for their families and for the glory of Our Heavenly Father.

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    Journey Into Hope, In^c. is officially classified as a public charity under code section 170 (b) (1) (A) (vi). Contributions to Journey Into Hope, Inc. are tax deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code. Journey Into Hope is also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code.