Aaron Roth – HOPE International – June 2011

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Everything is sweeter during harvest time. I had mangoes for lunch today, and they came from a tree just a few minutes away. Might be the best I’ve ever eaten, and it’s true what they say, you have to savor the fruit when its in season. Here in the Dominican Republic, everything grows, and everything has its harvest time. The way the Dominicans say “zafra” (harvest) around here makes the word sound like it describes a festival where the whole town celebrates with music, dancing, and delicious food. But for the majority of Dominicans, “zafra” really just means “employment.” When food is ripe, it can be gathered and sold, and there is income. Certainly, this is something to celebrate.

I’ve been celebrating the rains that have come. Sure, it brings an extra bump in humidity amidst the temperatures of the high 90’s, but wow, when the rain comes, the wind sweeps through the house where I’m staying and it’s more refreshing than air conditioning. I’ve always loved the rain, and this is just another reason to add to the list.

I’ve realized though, that not everyone shares my affinity for it. Rain, in a developing country can make it impossible to do business or travel anywhere. Traffic jams are horrendous, and for some of our branch offices, our community bank meetings are unreachable because of the damage done to roads. (Check the picture to the left to see a road that’s covered in 3 feet of water. We had to drive into the brush to make it to the bank meeting.) Coincidentally, in the sugar cane communities, the rain marks the change from “la zafra” to “el tiempo muerto” (dead time) when harvesting is finished until November.

What the Rain Can Mean

I think this is a lesson in perspective for me. While I can experience the joy of cooler winds, others know that great rains bring great pains. I live on the second floor of an apartment in the capital city. There’s no dirt floor for the rain to mix with mud, and my windows are made of glass instead of sheet metal with ropes of twine as hinges. When I hear the rain it helps me sleep, but when I’ve talked to clients of ours, they talk about the pounding of the rain on their metal roof homes. For a family sharing one bed in a one room house, the children cry and the parents try to console them back to bed as the thunder and monstrous rain destroy a peaceful night’s sleep.

The arrival of the rain brings many lessons and new perspectives about the nature of overseas missions work and the kind of perspective I bring to it as a Westerner, or more aptly named, an Outsider. I’ve realized that as I make my way through these communities doing the work of HOPE, I enjoy everything I learn about the culture. But, I am an observer, I am not a participant. As a volunteer with HOPE, I am not a client of HOPE. I am independent of the local economy; the rise and fall of gasoline prices and their effect on local prices have no consequence to me. How much food I can buy to eat does not depend on the amount of money I make from customers that stop by my stand in the market. Here, on rainy days, people don’t go, or wait to go to the market later in the week. These small changes in consumer behavior can be crippling to the people at the bottom of the economic chain.

So when I speak of rain, I speak about it cooling down the humid nights, I don’t speak about it delaying a delivery of goods to my business, or preventing customers from buying my goods which helps to feed my family. I guess I’m learning more to listen, not just to differences in our cultures, but more to the reality of daily living for the clients we serve. Even in the sense of trying to practice sympathy with a client’s plight, they want you to know that even though the rains come and business is slow, the Lord is still faithful, and He will provide. Taking into consideration some of the stories I’ve heard, I could conclude that rain’s destruction is overpowering, but I am reminded daily by our clients, that even the rain has a Master to answer to. Every time I think about the benefit or a problem of something like the rain, I find that there is a greater meaning to it and a breadth of topics that follow. It is becoming clearer to me that we can all approach experiences in dramatically different ways.

Everything Has its Season

Which brings me back to mangoes. Mangoes are the sweetest right now. You can’t argue with that. You can find them just about everywhere in the markets. But if I were you, I’d ask a Dominican to buy the mangoes for you. You may think that the grocery store has the best mangoes, but honestly, the locals know who’s got the best deal in town and where you can find the freshest delivery. You may think mangoes arrive in cardboard boxes and get stacked in nice neat piles in the fruit aisles, but you might not realize that there’s a mango tree near your residence. You may think that you’ll need a ladder and gloves to get the mangoes, but they can show you how to knock them down with a well-thrown stick.

So when you talk to people about the rain or mangoes or sugar cane, be sure to mention that you are keenly aware of the importance of perspective, or better said, “that everything has its season.” And say it in the way that you understand that in the sweetness of mangoes and in the destruction of rain, “everything has its season.” You’ll probably get a response like I get, “Si, si. Dios sabe lo que pasa. Todo lo que pasa, el sabe y nos da la esperanza por cada dia. Ya, debemos confiar en el.” (Yes, yes, the Lord knows what happens. He knows everything that happens, and he gives us hope every day. We should just put our trust in him.)

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens . . .” . . . “(v. 11) He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. “

Blessings,

-Aaron Roth
aroth@hopeinternational.org
www.AaronRoth.net
Skype: aprothwm05

Aaron Roth – HOPE International – May 2011

• Download this email as a pdf: Aaron Roth – May 2011 Update.pdf
• Blog and Support Page: www.AaronRoth.net
• HOPE International Worldwide – www.HOPEinternational.org
• Newsletter Archive: AaronRoth.net – Monthly Newsletters

Back in December, I stopped by a friend’s house before going into the office of Esperanza (HOPE International’s partner organization here in the DR). I looked over to the corner and spotted something that was strangely familiar to me. There stood a 5-year old Konica Bizhub c250 commercial printing machine. But “why” was it doing here?

I asked my friend and he said that a church had donated it to his church about two years ago. I could tell he sensed that I knew something about the complicated machinery covered with dust next to the window. He asked me, “Do you know how to fix it? It doesn’t work.” I laughed and kind of groaned. When I worked in a marketing department back in Richmond, VA, I spent hundreds of hours with our lovely 4-color, 30 pages per minute, automatic duplexing and collating wonder of modern technology. (I remember celebrating the 500,000th copy that we made.) I also knew that even the smallest bump or mishap could mean a call to the specialists and 3-5 hour downtime. There are about eight  replaceable parts that need maintenance every six months, and the four toner drums for color last about 2-3 months. In short, running a Bizhub c250 is expensive and requires a trained specialist.

I apologize if it was your church that sent that copier down here, and now I’m using it as an example of overseas charity and development. I will say that it was a nice gift made with the best of intentions, but donating a commercial grade printing machine that needs constant upkeep can be troublesome, not to mention thinking about what might have befallen the temperamental and delicate printing princess during shipment. Again, I’m not really sure what the Dominican Churches needs were over two years ago, and maybe someone did ask the question stateside, “But are they really going to use a Bizhub c250?”

What Do Poor Communities Really Need?

“But are they really going to use the water?” Maybe that’s what went through his head when an American thought about donating a cistern to a poor Haitian community on the outskirts of La Romana, Dominican Republic three years ago. No, wait. He probably didn’t. I think he had the same feeling that I did when he walked past the barbed wire fence and entered through the sheet metal door to the Bethel Church and Primary School: “There is a real need here and we can help.”

I’ve been thinking a lot more about the nature of overseas aid, development and missions work. I’ve seen so many examples of compassion and charity at work here that make me happy. And, I’ve seen a lot of examples where compassion and charity almost worked. As you spend more time in poor communities around here in the Dominican Republic, you see a lot of “projects” that either almost made it to completion or almost made it past their first year of use. Sometimes these projects failed because of lack of knowledge, lack of interest, or often just a mismatch of an understanding of the real needs in an area. I think a lot of gifts were given with good intention, but the real question is always: “Are they really going to use . . .”

On a tour of the small campus of the Bethel Primary School, Reuben shows me the water spigots and the bathrooms that he recently built. The cistern supplies the water to the bathrooms and to the water access points on their school campus. He said that people come to the church and send their kids to school here because they know they have water. People come daily to get water, bringing buckets, bottles or whatever container they can find to transport water. I look around and think that just three years ago, this community did not even have a basic necessity we take for granted: WATER. Reuben shows me the bathrooms they built a few months ago. They have running water and are the only sanitary restrooms in the area.

This makes me think about that original question of usefulness, “But will kids really need to use the bathroom during a school day?” And of course, I laugh because I think we all know the answer to that.

So, as I was talking to Pastor Reuben of the Bethel Church and Primary School about the cistern he said, “This was a gift from the Good Lord, from a man like you.” “A man like me?” I questioned. “Yes,” he said, “An American gave us this water.” Previously, this community did not have running water. So when that American asked three years ago, “Would you use a cistern?” I’m sure Reuben responded with an emphatic “Absolutely we will!”

When They Own It, They Use it

We came to visit Reuben and his daughter Claire because they are applying to be a part of our Edify.org school program. Schools in these programs get access to a low interest rate loan to build more classrooms, science labs, or computer labs. Most of these schools in the areas we work in have concrete floors, usually an old, broken blackboard, barely anything else on the walls, and student desks that are falling apart. When we talk about science labs or computer labs, were talking about four of five pieces of equipment for about a hundred kids. The Edify program is a new initiative with HOPE International and Esperanza that seeks to reach over 50,000 Dominican children with high-quality, low-cost education in the next five years. I’ve already had the opportunity to visit about 25 schools in our branch areas and have met passionate school directors with visions of impacting their local community. When we ask them, “What do you really need?” They usually answer, “More classrooms.”

Reuben knows that to build more classrooms he has to find a way to finance the project. Money does not come easily so he is careful about what financial arrangements he gets involved in. He knows that he will have to own the responsibility of this loan, and whatever he builds, he has to use it. We met Reuben in his office, which doubles as the kindergarten classroom, and we were open and honest with him. When we talk to someone about what we do at HOPE, we start with our vision to carry out God’s work in the places He has told us to go. We describe our passion for being involved in the community, to connect with the local churches, and our desire to help people accomplish their goals and satisfy their most pressing needs.

Reuben takes this financial loan meeting seriously, but smiles and interjects to let us know that, “God helped us build this church and helped us build this school. I trust him with these finances. We have 103 students right now, and I have parents asking me to teach their kids, but I have nowhere to put the students. With this money I will build three more classrooms, and I can add 60 more children.”

Lending money for income-generating activities is what HOPE International does around the world, and in this case, Reuben will be able to recoup the money for the loan with the tuition that the parents pay him per month. It’s only a $5 monthly payment to send a kid to school (which is a lot of money here), but it’s the only good school in the area, and it’s got running water and a sanitary bathroom, and it soon will have almost 170 students.

Again, that original question of “Will they use it?” surfaces in my mind, “But do you really think the local parents want to send their kids to a good school?”

I think we know the answer. We all try to make the best decisions based on what is available to us, and in this community where Bethel Primary School operates, this school is the number one choice.

Thank you for reading and staying in touch. I hope you and your families are doing well.

Blessings,

-Aaron Roth

aroth@hopeinternational.org

www.AaronRoth.net

Skype: aprothwm05

(Download this support letter here: “February 2011 Update.pdf“)

Aaron Roth – Prayer & Support for HOPE International 2011

A week before I came home for Christmas I attended a Haitian church in the Dominican Republic (DR), and had to introduce myself in Spanish to a community that, for the most part, spoke Creole. I announced, “You all are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and today I am glad that I have the opportunity to worship the Lord with you.” The congregation responded “Amen!” A church member came up to me later and said, “You speak Spanish well, and I think God wants you to learn Creole.” After I chuckled a bit, I said to him, “Well, if that’s what the Lord wants . . .”

I suppose if you would have told me a year ago that I’d quit my job in July, work at an orphanage in Nicaragua, spend three months learning Spanish with a local Mayan family in Guatemala, and get ready to spend a year serving a Christian Microfinance organization in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, I would not have believed you. After spending six months in Central America, I am truly convinced that listening to the Lord’s voice, and being obedient to Him is the best way to live and serve.

HOPE for Eradicating Poverty: Tiny Loans for Small Businesses

In the DR, it is reported that 42% of the population lives below the poverty line, meaning that a few million people live on just a few dollars a day. Upon arriving in the DR in late fall, I witnessed first-hand the community banks and small business training that HOPE International (HOPE) created to serve the poor communities. Right away, I knew that God was calling me to this place.

I heard His voice when I spoke to a woman named Isabelle in a Haitian community and learned that for the first time in her life she was able to feed her children well and send them to a good school with the small business that she started. She spoke with hope, not in the profits of her business, but in the eternal hope of Jesus. She gave credit to the Lord for His faithfulness, and to the work that HOPE had done in her community. She’s required to attend bi-weekly bank meetings of HOPE with other women, where they pray, read the Bible, learn business skills, and sing praises to the Lord.

Sounds pretty weird for a bank huh? It seems odd in the eyes of the world, but the method that HOPE uses to share the Gospel and to make disciples of Jesus is by facilitating small loans to the poor. They are the only lending institution that is willing to come to such destitute areas and provide Biblically-based business training, critical medical services, and low interest rate loans to communities.

What’s different about Microfinance as a form of ministry is that HOPE practices a “hand up” instead of a “hand out” approach. They equip, empower, and encourage individuals to create a personal sustainable solution for poverty. In the DR, HOPE has partnered with a local Christian microfinance organization called “Esperanza” (which means “Hope” in Spanish). Together, they have lent almost 22 million dollars. 98% of those funds have been paid back and have been made available for new community bank clients. With these recycled funds, HOPE has been able to help almost 50,000 families in the DR and Haiti.

What about the Spiritual Condition of the DR?

Economically, it is clear that Microfinance changes lives, but at the core of HOPE’s mission, Microfinance is simply a method to bring the good news of Jesus to people who not only are economically poor, but spiritually poor as well. Approximately 90% of the DR is Catholic, but the majority are said to be non-practicing. In some areas, the Dominican people still practice a form of Voodoo called “Santeria” where members believe that poor harvests are the fault of curses on the land. Throughout the country, many poor communities turn to crime, prostitution or drugs to make money in a struggling economic climate. HOPE believes that the solution to these widespread problems requires more than just providing quality business training and affordable microloans.

I remember a conversation I had with Josue, a Dominican HOPE loan officer, where I asked him what he enjoyed the most about working in these community banks. He said that before he started working with HOPE, he sold books in a small shop on the street. Daily, he enjoys reading business books, and loves to read stories of hope to his kids, but he told me that there is only one book that has the power to change lives. He said that the Bible, the Word of God, contains the real hope and the real power to change a community.

My Role as a Dominican Fellow in 2011

HOPE stresses the importance of creating a partnership with an individual like a bond between Christian brothers and sisters that reaches into all areas of their life. HOPE currently makes loans for groups, individuals, and housing projects and is looking to expand their services to include educational loans for Christian schools throughout the 11 community banks on the island of the DR and Haiti.

My role with HOPE will be to create a new partnership with a Christian Organization called Edify. Edify is looking to partner with a Christian Microfinance Institution to help create and improve Christian schools in some of the poorest communities in the DR. They bring Biblically-based curriculum and training resources for schools in the developing world. Groups of children from poor, overlooked, rural communities will have the opportunity to attend a good school and learn the skills they need to earn a sustainable income, and possibly attend college.

Timeline & Resources

After finishing a month of training at HOPE’s central headquarters, I headed back to the DR, to serve as a full-time volunteer. HOPE has established a budget for the 11 months I will be serving there. It’s estimated that I will need $1,000 a month for housing, food, transportation, health and dental insurance and miscellaneous expenses to live and work in the capital city of the DR, Santo Domingo. This amount also includes transportation costs to work in the community banks throughout the island. I am asking friends and family to financially and prayerfully support me in this exciting opportunity.

I’ll follow up with you about this letter within two weeks. Any amount you give is tax deductible, and you can find information about writing a check or donating online at the bottom of this page and in this pdf: February 2011 Update.pdf If you’re interested in knowing more about HOPE International’s work in the world, I’d love to talk with you about it over email, the phone, or a cup of Dominican coffee.

I hope you’ll consider coming alongside me in what God is doing in the DR. Whether or not I end up speaking fluent Creole, I know for sure that he’s asking me to follow Him. My prayer for you is similar: that you will encounter God daily, and that His voice will lead you in your walk with Him.

With blessings and gratitude,

-Aaron Roth
aroth@hopeinternational.org
(540) 421-8683
Skype: aprothwm05
Web: www.AaronRoth.net

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Online Contributions:

• Go to www.HopeInternational.org and select the “Donate Now” green tab on the right-hand side of the screen (or click this link: “HOPE International – Donate Now”)
• Under “Allocate your Gift,” find the “Contribution Preference Amount” drop down box
• Select “Other (please specify below)”
• *In the box beside “Other Gift Designation”, write “Fellow: Aaron Roth”

Contributions by Mail (send a check):

HOPE International
Joan Bauman, Donor Care Administrator
227 Granite Run Dr. – Suite 250
Lancaster, PA 17601

Please make all checks payable to:

HOPE International and put “Fellow – Donation: Aaron Roth” in the memo line.

According to IRS regulations, all contributions are treated as donations and are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.