Greetings from the Caribbean Mercy! We are in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
The Lord has shown favor on the Caribbean Mercy and we have cleared customs, now our vehicles, equipment and supplies are released. Our customs clearance was quite delayed and it held up the beginning of the outreach by about 10 days. After our customs clearance, we spent about a week getting the optical clinic and Dock Side Units cleaned and ready. We also had to get the surgical units sterilized and ready. None of this could be done until the equipment and supplies were released from customs. Now our different teams may traverse the country in conjunction with the Dominican Republic’s Government and visit the prospective villages into which the Lord is leading our ministries.
The officials from the government met with many of the crew to help determine where the greatest needs are. Phil Wilson, who directs the water well drilling aspect of the Community Development Department, initially identified 30 different sites which needed water wells drilled. Phil has traveled to 5 of these villages which were in the most desperate need of fresh water and has taken the well drilling equipment to the first of these villages and has installed a well for the village. The Lord is good all the time! The well-drilling truck, however, got stuck in a river and now needs a transmission. The team has worked out a solution and is renting a truck to continue the work and we will get the truck’s transmission replaced when we get back to the states. There is no way to get a new transmission here for a Dodge truck...they are afraid it would get tied up in customs.
The doctors have been out to many villages conducting clinics and screening for the eye surgeries. There are many Haitian villages and Dominican villages to reach with health care. The nurses and doctors go into the villages, set up clinics to help the people and look for eye surgery candidates. Many patients are helped and information is passed out to educate the people in basic health care.
When the prospective eye surgery patients are identified, they are given appointment cards to come to the ship for further testing and possible surgery. Visiting the villages is only one way that eye surgery patients are identified. We also had a screening day on January 31st at the optical clinic and about 600 appointments for eye screening and testing were given out. Some of these appointments also identify eye surgery patients. The optical clinic is set up at a local Dominican army base here in Puerto Plata, about 20 minutes drive from the ship.
Our Dock Side Unit (DSU) is up and functioning, this is the area directly off of the ship where the pre-op and post-op procedures are conducted; from here the patients are brought aboard and escorted to the operating room for their surgery. Amazingly, the cataract surgery process takes as little as 20 minutes and the patients are released with a patch over their eye and asked to return the following day. This outreach unlike previous ones we have been blessed to have two surgeons. They are performing an average of five to seven surgeries daily. In addition to cataract surgery they are performing surgery to correct crossed-eyes and to remove pterygiums (growths that form on the eyes from too much sun exposure) And the blind shall see! A lot of education is also done at the optical clinic to inform the people of the importance of wearing sunglasses and how to care for their eyes. At the optical clinic, almost every patient receives sunglasses and most patients receive glasses. If we can not provide glasses due to the limited supply of prescriptions available in 20,000 pairs, we write them a prescription. How do we know all of this….Denise was able to take a week away from her busy job as the Director of Human Resources and serve at the Optical Clinic located at the local military base in the base chapel. She led one woman to the Lord and also gave a Spanish Bible to several others, who did not have one of their own.
Rob spoke at a local church last Sunday and was warmly received by the people. One of the crew (Smirna DeJesus, from Puerto Rico) translated for him. Rob challenged the congregation to ask the Lord what God’s will is for their lives. The pastor of the church asked for those convicted by Rob’s message to come forward and many people came forward and we (the team from Mercy Ships) prayed for them individually. God is working among the Dominican people!
We have added a website to go along with our newsletter. To view the pictures that go along with this newsletter, visit our site at http://home.gowebway.com/~rdmiller . If you have any questions or want us to include other information, please email us. We’d be glad to hear from you!
We trust that you are encouraged by the work being done here, physically and spiritually and that you know that you are a part of what is happening here. We appreciate your support spiritually, emotionally and financially! We praise God for the close relationships we have with you! Please know that you are in our prayers daily and that we miss you! We are blessed to be in the center of God’s will for our lives! May your life be as wonderful as it was in the mind of God the day he made you!
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1
God’s blessings!
Rob and Denise
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Sunday, January 19, 2003
Hello from the Dominican Republic
Happy New Year! We have arrived in the Dominican Republic!
We were able to make a QUICK trip to Jacksonville, Florida and take care of some business prior to leaving the US again. We also enjoyed staying and visiting with our friends Angie and Pink Hall. We appreciated being able to spend time with many of you during a lovely open house that Angie and Pink hosted. We enjoyed greatly sharing with the Sunday School classes some of our adventures and mission work in Nicaragua. We look forward to receiving email from many of you whenever you can write a bit to keep us up to date. We'll do our best to get an answer to you.
We sailed from Gulfport, Mississippi on January 10, 2003 aboard the M/V Caribbean Mercy. The sail was for four days and the seas were calm and the Lord blessed our sailing with wonderful weather and no mechanical problems aboard the ship. In our cabin we learned to expect to be moved in the beds while sleeping by the rolling of the ship from port to starboard.
Since arriving in the Dominican Republic, port city of Puerto Plata, we have been busy with the business of removing all of the equipment from the ship's cargo hold and forward deck to the dock. Getting the water supply routed to the ship, hooking up telephone lines and the normal type things you would do when you moved into and apartment or a new home. In this case we moved the home and have to get the utilities turned on. The ship has hosted several receptions onboard for the local media, the local Pastors and the Mayor as well as various other groups. These receptions were well attended and help the people understand the services we provide to their country. The Caribbean Mercy has not been to Puerto Plata to do an outreach before. So relationships and credibility must be established.
We have received favor with the custom and immigration services to offload our vehicles and our teams are beginning to prepare for the outreach. We were reunited with some of our crew that had to fly to the Dominican Republic, and a joyful homecoming was had by all. We had only been away from some of these people for a few days to a week, but for some it was their first travel out of the United States or their first travel to a developing nation. So for them to see the ship and familiar faces it was a very welcome sight. Today, twenty-five new crew members are coming in from the airport to join us and work on the outreach. We can only sail with 87 people and during outreach the crew grows to 150 people.
Please pray as we prepare to serve the Dominican people that God's will for these people will be done! We are excited to be here and will try to keep you informed of what God is doing here! We pray that in this new year, God will bless you abundantly
We were able to make a QUICK trip to Jacksonville, Florida and take care of some business prior to leaving the US again. We also enjoyed staying and visiting with our friends Angie and Pink Hall. We appreciated being able to spend time with many of you during a lovely open house that Angie and Pink hosted. We enjoyed greatly sharing with the Sunday School classes some of our adventures and mission work in Nicaragua. We look forward to receiving email from many of you whenever you can write a bit to keep us up to date. We'll do our best to get an answer to you.
We sailed from Gulfport, Mississippi on January 10, 2003 aboard the M/V Caribbean Mercy. The sail was for four days and the seas were calm and the Lord blessed our sailing with wonderful weather and no mechanical problems aboard the ship. In our cabin we learned to expect to be moved in the beds while sleeping by the rolling of the ship from port to starboard.
Since arriving in the Dominican Republic, port city of Puerto Plata, we have been busy with the business of removing all of the equipment from the ship's cargo hold and forward deck to the dock. Getting the water supply routed to the ship, hooking up telephone lines and the normal type things you would do when you moved into and apartment or a new home. In this case we moved the home and have to get the utilities turned on. The ship has hosted several receptions onboard for the local media, the local Pastors and the Mayor as well as various other groups. These receptions were well attended and help the people understand the services we provide to their country. The Caribbean Mercy has not been to Puerto Plata to do an outreach before. So relationships and credibility must be established.
We have received favor with the custom and immigration services to offload our vehicles and our teams are beginning to prepare for the outreach. We were reunited with some of our crew that had to fly to the Dominican Republic, and a joyful homecoming was had by all. We had only been away from some of these people for a few days to a week, but for some it was their first travel out of the United States or their first travel to a developing nation. So for them to see the ship and familiar faces it was a very welcome sight. Today, twenty-five new crew members are coming in from the airport to join us and work on the outreach. We can only sail with 87 people and during outreach the crew grows to 150 people.
Please pray as we prepare to serve the Dominican people that God's will for these people will be done! We are excited to be here and will try to keep you informed of what God is doing here! We pray that in this new year, God will bless you abundantly
Thursday, December 26, 2002
Merry Christmas! .................December 25, 2002
Merry Christmas, Everyone! We bring greetings from aboard the Caribbean Mercy Ship!
We have had a wonderful Christmas Eve sharing how all the various countries celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! There are about 15 countries represented aboard the ship this year.
We had a wonderful brunch today and at 11:30 opened our exchanged gifts. We have had a wonderful Christmas here with the crew and guests aboard the Caribbean Mercy. We had a lovely Christmas dinner at about 4:30 and watched the sunset and dolphins swimming in the harbor. It is so beautiful here.
Terri Patoine (from our Crossroads class) came to join us for Christmas aboard the ship. This was a blessing! Currently the Caribbean Mercy is in port at Gulfport, MS. We are excited to be part of her crew. We are scheduled to sail on January 9, 2003 which is also Denise's birthday. The Lord really provided a great birthday present. We will be sailing to the Dominican Republic for a medical outreach until April 25th. Rob and I will be back in Jacksonville from Jan 2 to Jan 5th prior to leaving the country to visit family and friends. We are looking forward to that!
We returned from Nicaragua on December 13th and worked/packed in Texas and came aboard the ship on Dec 20th. So we've been quite busy. More about that later.
We love you and hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Rob and Denise Miller
We have had a wonderful Christmas Eve sharing how all the various countries celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! There are about 15 countries represented aboard the ship this year.
We had a wonderful brunch today and at 11:30 opened our exchanged gifts. We have had a wonderful Christmas here with the crew and guests aboard the Caribbean Mercy. We had a lovely Christmas dinner at about 4:30 and watched the sunset and dolphins swimming in the harbor. It is so beautiful here.
Terri Patoine (from our Crossroads class) came to join us for Christmas aboard the ship. This was a blessing! Currently the Caribbean Mercy is in port at Gulfport, MS. We are excited to be part of her crew. We are scheduled to sail on January 9, 2003 which is also Denise's birthday. The Lord really provided a great birthday present. We will be sailing to the Dominican Republic for a medical outreach until April 25th. Rob and I will be back in Jacksonville from Jan 2 to Jan 5th prior to leaving the country to visit family and friends. We are looking forward to that!
We returned from Nicaragua on December 13th and worked/packed in Texas and came aboard the ship on Dec 20th. So we've been quite busy. More about that later.
We love you and hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Rob and Denise Miller
Wednesday, December 25, 2002
Friday, December 13, 2002
Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Mercy Watch ........................ December 1, 2002
Merry Christmas!
We are currently in Leon, Nicaragua serving on a one month outreach as the final stage of our three month Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS) with Mercy Ships. Our class is here as a team of 31 people. This number includes 5 children, 2 teens, 3 CDTS staff members and our class participants.
Mercy Ships has a permanent land base here in Leon and has several community development programs for internally displaced people (refugees, except they are in their own country).
We have been working in one of these communities called “La Palmerita." The community is about an hour and a half ride from the base and the people were displaced due to the coffee crisis. These people worked as coffee bean pickers and have been displaced since early 2001. The coffee bean workers are paid after the coffee bean season and the beans have been sold. These workers were not paid for their work in 2000 and then were promised food for work in 2001. In early 2001, they were again not paid for their work and left the plantation and marched on the capital city, Managua to seek help. They were promised the land that the community is now located on; however, the land grants have not yet been signed. These people came to the community with only the clothes on their backs.
The base here has been involved with the other aid agencies that have backed out of this community, because of the dire needs and the turmoil between the leaders of the community.
These people are very precious and innocent. They have enjoyed us taking pictures of them and their children, just as we love people to adore our children. We were able to provide them with some of the first pictures they have of their families. Something this simple to us, blessed them tremendously.
The first week we were out there several men and women became believers of Jesus Christ. After building relationship with them for a couple weeks, Rob and I plan to lead some Bible Studies with women and children this coming week. They are hungry for the word of God. Please pray that we will be used by God to communicate His love to them.
Our next assignment will be aboard the Caribbean Mercy, which is one of the three ships operated within the Mercy Ships fleet of ships. We have signed a two-year commitment to Mercy Ships. Denise has been asked to serve in several capacities; she will be working as a receptionist, receiving, coordinating and forwarding all incoming calls and people coming aboard the ship. She will also assist in the Human Resources (Personnel) department and the Finance (Accounting) department.
With the crew of the Caribbean Mercy being rather small, most people fill a variety of positions; just as in any good family, she is so excited. Rob has been asked to serve in the Engineering department assisting in the scheduling of required maintenance, ordering, receiving, and storing required tools and parts. His responsibilities are still being defined and tweaked as this is a new position that has been created. We are so blessed to be able to serve in this capacity. We know that the Lord has placed us here at this time, because there are many people waiting, some for up to 3 years, to serve on ship at the International Operations Center (IOC) in Garden Valley, Texas.
Our current schedule is to complete our class in Nicaragua the 13th of December and return to the IOC in Garden Valley, Texas. Rob needs to stay and meet with Marine Operations for a few days for some “hands on" training on the software program used aboard ship. Denise will be sorting through our "house in storage" to decide what can go aboard the ship and what will continue to stay in storage.
There is not a couple’s cabin available, so we will be staying in one of the guest cabins. These cabins are designed for a 2-3 day stay and have very limited storage! We plan to be enroute to Gulfport, Mississippi by Wednesday, December 18th. We’ll be settled in to our cabin before Christmas and helping to prepare the ship to sail to the Dominican Republic for outreach on January 9th, 2003. This just happens to be Denise’s birthday, and what a great present the Lord has provided!! This outreach will last until April.
We have found that while in training it has been hard to keep in contact as much as we would have liked. We have enjoyed speaking to many of you by phone from Texas as we were able to and appreciate the cards and letters that we received from many of you. We are looking forward to getting back to the IOC and looking through our last month’s mail they have held for us. Communication has been especially difficult while in Nicaragua. Without access to a phone or the internet for several weeks, except for going down to an Internet Café on off times, and not having cell phones that work on the international band we were limited in our ability to communicate with you. We hope that while on ship this will change.
Please, know that you are constantly in our hearts and lifted up in prayer daily. It is because of your love, prayers and financial support that we are able to answer the call God has placed on our life. Thank you for this opportunity. We are humbly grateful and truly blessed to be allowed to live our dream.
We have discovered a way to share with you some of the pictures we have taken during our month in Nicaragua. This is a secure way to share our pictures. We have placed them on a website that may be accessed by email. You should have received an email from us directing you by a link for our photo albums. If you have not received and email from us, we probably don’t have your current email address. Please email us at rdmiller@gowebway.com and we will add you to the access list. There you have several options for viewing, sharing with your friends or ordering prints, if you like. As we take more pictures, we’ll add them to the album so you can check back regularly and view the updated pictures.
We pray that your Christmas will be joyous and filled with the spirit of love! May God truly bless you abundantly and may your life be as wonderful as God had in His mind on the day He created you! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR!
Rob and Denise Miller
Postal Address:
Robert and Denise Miller
Mercy Ships m/v Caribbean Mercy
PO Box 2020
Garden Valley, Texas 75771
Email: rdmiller@gowebway.com
Cell: (904) 472-6888 local Jacksonville, FL
Cell: (903) 372-9028 local Garden Valley, TX
We are currently in Leon, Nicaragua serving on a one month outreach as the final stage of our three month Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS) with Mercy Ships. Our class is here as a team of 31 people. This number includes 5 children, 2 teens, 3 CDTS staff members and our class participants.
Mercy Ships has a permanent land base here in Leon and has several community development programs for internally displaced people (refugees, except they are in their own country).
We have been working in one of these communities called “La Palmerita." The community is about an hour and a half ride from the base and the people were displaced due to the coffee crisis. These people worked as coffee bean pickers and have been displaced since early 2001. The coffee bean workers are paid after the coffee bean season and the beans have been sold. These workers were not paid for their work in 2000 and then were promised food for work in 2001. In early 2001, they were again not paid for their work and left the plantation and marched on the capital city, Managua to seek help. They were promised the land that the community is now located on; however, the land grants have not yet been signed. These people came to the community with only the clothes on their backs.
The base here has been involved with the other aid agencies that have backed out of this community, because of the dire needs and the turmoil between the leaders of the community.
These people are very precious and innocent. They have enjoyed us taking pictures of them and their children, just as we love people to adore our children. We were able to provide them with some of the first pictures they have of their families. Something this simple to us, blessed them tremendously.
The first week we were out there several men and women became believers of Jesus Christ. After building relationship with them for a couple weeks, Rob and I plan to lead some Bible Studies with women and children this coming week. They are hungry for the word of God. Please pray that we will be used by God to communicate His love to them.
Our next assignment will be aboard the Caribbean Mercy, which is one of the three ships operated within the Mercy Ships fleet of ships. We have signed a two-year commitment to Mercy Ships. Denise has been asked to serve in several capacities; she will be working as a receptionist, receiving, coordinating and forwarding all incoming calls and people coming aboard the ship. She will also assist in the Human Resources (Personnel) department and the Finance (Accounting) department.
With the crew of the Caribbean Mercy being rather small, most people fill a variety of positions; just as in any good family, she is so excited. Rob has been asked to serve in the Engineering department assisting in the scheduling of required maintenance, ordering, receiving, and storing required tools and parts. His responsibilities are still being defined and tweaked as this is a new position that has been created. We are so blessed to be able to serve in this capacity. We know that the Lord has placed us here at this time, because there are many people waiting, some for up to 3 years, to serve on ship at the International Operations Center (IOC) in Garden Valley, Texas.
Our current schedule is to complete our class in Nicaragua the 13th of December and return to the IOC in Garden Valley, Texas. Rob needs to stay and meet with Marine Operations for a few days for some “hands on" training on the software program used aboard ship. Denise will be sorting through our "house in storage" to decide what can go aboard the ship and what will continue to stay in storage.
There is not a couple’s cabin available, so we will be staying in one of the guest cabins. These cabins are designed for a 2-3 day stay and have very limited storage! We plan to be enroute to Gulfport, Mississippi by Wednesday, December 18th. We’ll be settled in to our cabin before Christmas and helping to prepare the ship to sail to the Dominican Republic for outreach on January 9th, 2003. This just happens to be Denise’s birthday, and what a great present the Lord has provided!! This outreach will last until April.
We have found that while in training it has been hard to keep in contact as much as we would have liked. We have enjoyed speaking to many of you by phone from Texas as we were able to and appreciate the cards and letters that we received from many of you. We are looking forward to getting back to the IOC and looking through our last month’s mail they have held for us. Communication has been especially difficult while in Nicaragua. Without access to a phone or the internet for several weeks, except for going down to an Internet Café on off times, and not having cell phones that work on the international band we were limited in our ability to communicate with you. We hope that while on ship this will change.
Please, know that you are constantly in our hearts and lifted up in prayer daily. It is because of your love, prayers and financial support that we are able to answer the call God has placed on our life. Thank you for this opportunity. We are humbly grateful and truly blessed to be allowed to live our dream.
We have discovered a way to share with you some of the pictures we have taken during our month in Nicaragua. This is a secure way to share our pictures. We have placed them on a website that may be accessed by email. You should have received an email from us directing you by a link for our photo albums. If you have not received and email from us, we probably don’t have your current email address. Please email us at rdmiller@gowebway.com and we will add you to the access list. There you have several options for viewing, sharing with your friends or ordering prints, if you like. As we take more pictures, we’ll add them to the album so you can check back regularly and view the updated pictures.
We pray that your Christmas will be joyous and filled with the spirit of love! May God truly bless you abundantly and may your life be as wonderful as God had in His mind on the day He created you! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR!
Rob and Denise Miller
Postal Address:
Robert and Denise Miller
Mercy Ships m/v Caribbean Mercy
PO Box 2020
Garden Valley, Texas 75771
Email: rdmiller@gowebway.com
Cell: (904) 472-6888 local Jacksonville, FL
Cell: (903) 372-9028 local Garden Valley, TX
Sunday, December 01, 2002
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