Danny Perez has been an artist since he was a kid, drawing school work plus doing painting for gift shops in La Romana.  In 1997, he was encouraged by a couple from Wellsboro, PA.  Peggy and Ardell Thomas have him 20 dollars to buy the paint and brushes he needed after seeing a beutiful shirt Danny had painted for a member or their missions team.  They saw in Danny the furture of an artistic entrepreneur which would keep him busy with business for the missions teams from that day forward! 

From that day, Danny has been selling his beautiful shirts with the attractive drawings of the bateyes of the Dominican Republic and is not thinking of stopping even though he is a civil engineer now.  He wants to keep going with the art stuff!  He would also like to start an art school where all of the young kids from the church and the bateyes can learn how to paint and together they can start an enterprise where all of these kids, without a future plan, can find a way to survive and help their families get better.

U.S. groups will always have missions teams to the Dominican Republic so the artwork will not stop but we also need scholarships to get the batey kids to come into the city to study artworks and also enough materials like paints, brushes and a place to store the merchandise we make.  Maybe even a store to sell the products and show them to the team members and anyone else who would like to admire our work!

This project will help people at our church and in the bateyes get out of poverty because they will learn something that will help them make money with which they will be able to have plans, a future and increase their knowledge in other areas.  Danny dreams of a big gift shop with these students doing art at the same time that people are visiting.  Imagine!  Praise the Lord.