Bla's House Fire...Can You Help?
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When we first started Shine the Light Initiative, we had a strong sense of what we were called to do but a vague knowledge of how to do it. Houses - build solid, dry homes for people who lived in anything but. In relieving the stress of adequate housing, they could experience God’s deep love for them, as well as focus on providing for their families, education, and opportunities that will break the cycle of poverty. All in all, a very simple model. The vague knowledge of how to implement this model has been replaced with the wisdom learned doing over building 40 house builds in the Dominican Republic for as many families, with teams of volunteers from Canada and the United States who have partnered with us to help realize this calling.
But just as a house is transformed into a home by the history that unfolds by being lived in, so does the story of Shine the Light truly unfold by the countless stories of lives transformed…not just homeowner lives or those of the volunteers that join us on these trips…but the extended families, neighbours, resort workers, drivers, translators, and contractors who work alongside us to facilitate our ability to hit the ground running once our teams arrive to do the work of building a home. Each of them play an integral part of making the house building a success but also to experience the true nature of the Dominican people - their resilience, their joy, their determination.
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So when we received a call Monday afternoon that the house of our long time contractor, Bla, was on fire, we knew that yet again, God was giving us an opportunity to add more detail to his story of how Shine the Light is transforming lives. Many of you have worked alongside Bla. For the past many years, we have hired him to head up a house building crew, ensuring the houses go up efficiently and correctly, working with us to figure out sourcing building materials, sequencing of construction roll-out, and everything inbetween.
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We were able to get to the village late in the afternoon to offer our love and support to Bla and his family, wanting to be there with them so that they would know that they are a part of our family too, and that what devastates them, devastates us too. They are not merely a cog in the wheel but valued human beings whose presence on our job sites is a joy and honour. They were able to pull many items out of their home and into the lane in front of their home with the help of neighbours and family. But the roof over their home was damaged beyond repair, the mezcla sauve in a number of rooms peeled off the walls, and items in their granddaughter’s bedroom, where the fire started, are a total loss.
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In touring through the house with Bla and William, we estimate roughly that the repair to the walls, the new roof, the replacement of the faulty electrical system, and the purchasing of furniture and clothing to replace what was destroyed will cost roughly $5000USD. We know that Bla is hard working and entrepreneurial but we are fairly certain that this is a cost beyond Bla’s means to finance and so we want to help. At Shine the Light, we have been able to be very fluid in our finances - money that comes in goes straight to covering the costs of building each home. Over time, we have learned what these costs are and so each trip we do, covers the costs of the homes being built on that particular trip - nothing more, nothing less. So far, by God’s grace, we’ve never been faced with a need to do emergency financing for anything beyond smaller incidentals like providing groceries or medication for people who come to us in dire need. So this is new territory for us. But we ask that if you are willing and able, please consider partnering with us on this special project to help Bla rebuild his home. We would ultimately love to cover the entire cost of the repairs to his home so over the next 10 days, any giving you do through our online portal will go straight to Bla and his family.
Thank you in advance for your compassion and generosity. If you would like to donate to this cause, 100% of your donations will go undiluted to helping Bla and his family rebuild his home.
Sincerely,
Brent, Wendy, Jonah and Isaiah.
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