I am excited to share my dental mission trips with you. Stay tuned for more!
I have been so fortunate to be sponsored by The WCIF, The Women and Children's Hope Foundation, for my mission trips to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. This is an organization that has been founded by my sister, Danielle Bouchever. For our first 3 missions, we partnered with IASK (International Aids Serving Kids), and served the "hidden" Haitian population in the interior of the Dominican Republic. These were Haitians who had left Haiti for a better life, and it wasn't what they expected. IASK based their philosophy on "The Boy and the Starfish" story:
The Boy and the Starfish
A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.
As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.
The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied, "I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen." "But", said the man, "You can't possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can't possibly make a difference."
The boy looked down, frowning for a moment; then bent down to pick up another starfish, smiling as he threw it back into the sea. He replied,
"I made a huge difference to that one!"
~Author Unknown~
I will never forget the nervous anticipation I felt prior to my first mission trip, as it was all a new experience for me. Would I forget important supplies, where would I sleep, what would I eat, and the fact that I don't speak Spanish, kept me awake at night. Stayed tuned for my blog post on my first mission!
Monique