Coming off a challenging year like 2020, FCA Director for the Dominican Republic Miguel Terrero and his wife Rosy, who is the Director of Administration, wanted to do something meaningful for the coaches they serve in their community. Seeing many endure the loss of income and struggling to make ends meet, their desire was to simply bless coaches and their families by providing them food for Christmas.
Last year’s nationwide lockdowns throughout the Dominican Republic put coaches into unforeseen circumstances. From March through September of 2020, many had no consistent source of income. With sporting events on hold, they didn’t know when they could expect to coach again, leaving them discouraged and unsure of what the future would hold.
“Coaches are considered self-employed and didn’t receive any financial assistance,” Rosy said.
Miguel, Rosy and other FCA staff in the Dominican Republic came alongside them and began food distributions throughout the summer months to ensure their families were being fed while they were without pay.
As the holidays approached, Miguel and Rosy knew coaches and their families would have very little to spare for Christmas. Months with little income took its toll.
“Christmas is like Thanksgiving here,” Miguel said. “Families come in from all over to eat and spend time together. We started giving baskets to help coaches by putting food on the table for their families.”
Christmas baskets are a cultural tradition throughout the region, so this distribution was a special way to bless families and help keep their holiday traditions going, especially through a pandemic.
"We built off of what we had started over the summer,” Rosy said. “We were able to fill the baskets with what is in a traditional Dominican meal. They only had to provide the meat for their Christmas dinner, and there was enough to last them up to a week!”
FCA’s Director of Field Operations, Silas Mullis, and his family had the chance to serve and be a part of impacting coaches and their families in the Dominican Republic. He, his wife and his four kids traveled from the United States and brought a variety of treats to include in the Christmas baskets.
“This was a very practical project that didn’t cost a lot of money, but just took some intentional planning,” Mullis said. “Our family helped put the baskets together, then had the opportunity to go visit coaches who received the baskets with our Dominican staff. It was a wonderful trip getting to visit with coaches, see where they coach their sports and even see their home environments.”
Despite the restrictions of the lockdown, FCA staff remained diligent in finding the time and space to visit, pray and continue building relationships with coaches.
“For FCA, our Dominican leaders are the heroes keeping relationship with these coaches,” said Mullis. “Delivering a basket is a practical, small thing, but the big thing is that the leaders had these relationships and have kept them, and could personally hand baskets to the coaches.”
Initially, Miguel and Rosy’s goal was to distribute 18 baskets for the coaches they and other staff work closely with throughout six different regions. But because of the generosity and help of the Mullis family and other neighbors and friends, they were able to provide baskets for 31 families across each region.
“The baskets were just another way to bless those they were already doing life and ministry with,” Miguel said. “The joy they had when they received them… you could see how it blessed them.”
Joy radiated from those who were blessed by a simple act of generosity, thanks to sacrifice, passion and intentionality by the Terrero family and their FCA Dominican team.
Our Dominican leaders intend to make the Christmas baskets an annual project. It is their intention to bless coaches and their families in this tangible way for many years to come. If you would like to support Miguel and Rosy in their ministry efforts, click here.
To learn more about FCA’s global mission, visit fcaworld.org.
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Photos courtesy of Silas Mullis