Next Solar Oven Partners team travels to the Dominican Republic

From both Dakotas, Wisconsin, California and far away Nova Scotia, a Solar Oven Partners (SOP) team assembled on Monday, March 7, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for twelve days of work at the invitation of the Iglesia Evangélica Dominicana (IED) church at Barahona and four other locations.

After 16 years as the Solar Oven Partners Director, Rick Jost (Volga, SD) says with a smile: “The best team is always the current team!” This trip, however, might be unusually special because Rick will be joined two “fans” who have followed this mission from its beginnings—his sister Ruth Jost Harding, a retired elementary teacher, (Wisconsin) and his brother Randy, a retired forester with the USFS, (California). Photos courtesy of Jost siblings: Randy Jost, Ruth Jost Harding, and RIck Jost.

The ten-member team will assemble solar ovens and assist Dominican church folk with solar cooking seminars for invited students.

Karen Workman, a member of the SOP Advisory Board says, “Our emphasis is to build relationships with our Dominican Partners. We look forward to serving with our team facilitators Gordy and Ardell Graner.

North Dakota natives, the Graners are UMC General Board of Global Ministries
 (GBGM) Missionaries serving in the Dominican Republic.

This volunteer trio joins the team with different stories. Jerry Suko, a retired railroader, is a member of McCabe UMC in Bismarck, a hotbed of support and volunteering thanks to Karen Workman’s enthusiastic recruiting.  Jerry has done hands-on work on solar oven components at the workshops in Volga, SD, and Moffit, ND, but this is his first trip to assemble ovens.

Retired pastor Phil Lint (Montrose SD) loves Volunteer in Mission service, building ovens on seven trips to Haiti and working on a number of US disaster response teams. “I’ll keep doing this as long as I can,” Phil says.  Phil serves on the SOP Advisory Board.
 
Meri Martin (Washburn, ND), a recent widow, went on the 2015 November Dominican Republic team and fell in love with the VIM experience. A busy United Methodist woman and grandmother, she retired from her cake decorating business but can’t wait to teach baking under the Dominican sun.Photo l to r: Jerry Suko, retired railroader from Bismarck McCabe UMC, Phil Lint, retired UMC pastor from Montrose, SD, and Meri Martin, retired cake decorator from Washburn, ND.

David and Mary McCaa, an industrial physicist and a teacher of English as a Second Language,  joined the Peace Corps when they retired.  Although they now live in South Dakota and volunteer in church and community, Mary says, “We are world travelers and started our mission experiences over fifty years ago.”

Karen Workman (Bismarck, ND), a veteran of six trips to Haiti, invited her twin sister Brenda Hare (Nova Scotia).  “I think it’s a God thing. We’ve talked about going together for several years—I’ve invited her about 50 times! When Rick said we needed another woman on this team and we had four days to decide, I called Brenda and she said, ‘Yes! that’s fine!’ I was shocked and delighted. We see each other only once or twice a year so I’m thrilled to have this time together. Besides, we are teaching cooking and she’s three times the cook I am.”

Photo, left: Dave and Mary McCaa were scheduled to arrive in the Dominican Republic March 7 for their first mission trip with Solar Oven Partners. Photo, right: Karen Workman and her sister, Brenda Hare, were also scheduled to arrive in the Dominican Republic March 7th.

Please pray for this SOP team and follow their progress on Facebook.

Rick is taking names for the July DR trip now with a possible trip planned in November 2016.  You can contact him via email here.