Dear Friends and Family,

I’m so excited to tell you about an opportunity that has been given to me. My church has partnered with a community in the Dominican Republic (and an organization there called Food for the Hungry) for the next 10 years. The goal of this relationship is to help them gain access to clean water and sanitation, education, safe shelter, improved agricultural activities, increased access to healthcare, vocational training and a strengthened local church! 

A large part of that partnership is that a team will travel to them once a year for us to learn from them about their way of life and for us to help them with projects here that will help them to move forward meeting the goals I mentioned above.

I’m a fan of this format because we aren’t coming in to the community as know-it-all’s to fix their problems but rather as learners and friends to encourage the projects they are working towards! 

As you can imagine we have to pay to get there, for our food and lodging and transportation on the ground. A part of our trip fee also goes to the project they are currently working towards, whether its education related or construction related; Food for the Hungry in partnership with the community leaders knows what is best.

I’m writing to you today because I need your prayer and financial support. The trip costs $2000 and I’m hoping to pay for half of it myself out of the abundance the Lord has blessed my business with.

Would you consider sacrificially giving to my trip as well? I will provide you with updates while we are there and with updates after I return. My vision for this is that I wouldn’t just go once but over the next 9 years of our commitment to El Mirador I would go several times. In 5 years when Kemly is old enough, he will be writing this fundraising letter! And in 9 years when Harper is old enough she will be writing this letter!

The gifts are tax deductible; you can support me financially in a couple different ways:

Thank you for partnering with me!  I can’t wait to share with you about this trip!

Sincerely,

Kristin Scott

About the Trip

11 people from the Harbor of hope community will be heading to El Mirador in the Dominican Republic in April of 2018 as the second part of Harbor's partnership with Food for the Hungry in El Mirador. To hear more from some of the team that was on the first trip in August of 2017, listen to their time sharing with their church community (http://www.harborofhope.org/media/sermons/global-sunday-el-mirador-first-service/)

About El Mirador

In October of 2016, Harbor of Hope (www.harborofhope.org) launched a 10 year commitment through Food for the Hungry (www.fh.org) to partner with the community of El Mirador, in the Dominican Republic. The community is located in a rural area about an hour north of Santo Domingo, DR. The partnership has the ultimate goal of mutual transformation, both for El Mirador and Harbor of Hope. We believe all of us are impoverished in different ways in four key areas; spiritual, social, physical, and community. We hope as a church to learn from where El Mirador is strong, and that they will learn from us where we are strong.

The community of El Mirador is a rural community, that is lush with greenery. They are a community that loves baseball, and their schedule seems to revolve around it. They are filled with great leadership who is guiding the community to develop through this partnership. God has been working through that community long before we were there, and we are excited to continue to see him work in this partnership.

About Our Partnership

The partnership is guided by the idea that El Mirador already has most of what it needs to succeed. It does not need us to do things for them. Instead, we will be there to walk alongside them and learn from them. We follow the guidance of Food for the Hungry on when the community needs anything additional to that. Food for the Hungry has many people on the ground who are there every day, and are far more effective than we are in helping the community.

Learn more about our partnership below:
Read about our partnership on our website - http://www.harborofhope.org/global/
Read a blog post from Food for the Hungry about our vision trip - https://www.fh.org/2016/10/03/massachusetts-church-finds-fit-missions/