Last week I traveled to the Dominican Republic for the first time to see how Water at Work Ministry provides clean water and meet the people who actually make it happen.
I had been trying to prepare myself mentally and spiritually for my time there as I knew that I would be encountering poverty and hardships that we don’t experience here in the United States. But in true American fashion, I was too busy!
Between basement renovations, school projects, sports and social commitments, I was distracted right up until the day I left.
And the day we got there, the first place we went was House of Light, an orphanage for disabled children and the site of our next water plant.
We walked around and learned children’s names and ages and a little here and there about how they came to be there. They told us that many of the children were in good spirits that day, as many looked us in the eye and those that could smiled, and some said hello.
I held back tears and tried not to contemplate their lives. And thankfully the friends I was there with, reminded me that we were there to help.
Providing clean water, a basic necessity of life, is an obstacle that we can change for these children and I was happy to know that.