Solar Oven Partners Director Rick Jost has announced that a sea container of components for 1000 solar ovens was loaded at the Volga, South Dakota workshop and sent off on Sept. 29.

Jost says the shipment goes by truck to the St. Paul rail ramp, from there by train to the Port of New York and then by sea to the Port of Rio Haina, Dominican Republic, just outside of Santo Domingo.

Estimated arrival time for the container at the Rio Haina work site is November 1,2015.

Jost announced that the next SOP mission team will be traveling to the Dominican Republic December 1-10 to help build and teach solar cooking and water pasteurization.

A new door for the Solar Oven Partners is officially open in The Dominican Republic where Dakotas teams will work closely with the United Methodist Church and missionaries Gordon and Ardell Graner.

Solar Oven Partners is a Dakotas Conference Advance Special and an Advance Special project of the Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. Questions about Dominican Republic mission teams should be directed to Rick Jost at 605-692-3391 or rjost@brookings.net.

Photo: A “special team” of 11 SDSU football players came with Head Coach John Stiegelmeier (front row, left, in team picture) to load the container. "They were just warming up for the BIG GAME with NDSU on Saturday in Brookings!" says Jackrabbit fan Rick Jost.