(This was written a week ago, I just haven’t had the chance to post it until now.)
We arrived at the Dominican Republic three days ago and God is already opening my eyes to what ministry can look like. In the past, whenever I went on short-term mission trips, it was all so go-go-go. We were constantly on the move: teaching English in the mornings, leading VBS and village outreach in the evenings, learning skits, passing out bags of food for the homeless, playing with kids in orphanages, etc. But never did we spend the first couple of days immersed solely in prayer, like we’ve been doing here.
This month, my entire squad is serving at a ministry called HOPE Mountain, which is led by the Dominguez family. They do community outreach through children’s ministry, the mother leads a weekly women’s group, the father preaches at a small local church, and they are in the process of building a women’s shelter and children’s home on their property. Our original plan was to help implement the VBS children’s camp this month. However, after we arrived, we were informed that the Dominguez’ two daughters were incredibly ill with a bad stomach virus, which was causing them to go back and forth to the hospital. So for the first couple of days here, the squad spent hours in prayer daily up on the breezy rooftop porch. This has become a special, peaceful refuge for sweet community, a gorgeous view of the lush mountains, and a place where the Spirit dwells.
We’ve been learning about the power of intercessory prayer and WOW has it been an experience! This area of the Dominican Republic – outside of Santiago – has been in a drought, so unfortunately the waterfall in our ministry compound has been completely dried up. But ever since our squad spent an afternoon doing a prayer walk, laying our hands on specific areas throughout the compound, including the arid waterfall area…God has been POURING rain down. Every. Single. Day! Our prayers for rain in this drought-stricken place were answered, immediately, and it’s so cool seeing the waterfall slowly coming back to life a little more each day.
God likes to work in metaphors. I believe he’s raining down physical water, but also reigning in living water, and is drenching me and my squad with His goodness. As we spent a few days declaring scripture over the Dominguez’ sick daughters and begging for Jesus’ healing touch, it finally hit me that what we were doing WAS ministry! It just looked different than what I was used to. We may not have been tangibly doing hands-on things, but the Lord revealed to me that the days we were spending simply in consistent prayer was NECESSARY. During one afternoon, as I was soaking in intercessory prayer, God put an image in my mind of a wooden fence coated in many layers of paint. As one layer got chipped away, another layer of paint was underneath. Right away, I interpreted the fence as being HOPE Mountain and the coats of paint represented the layers of prayer we were painting onto this ministry site. We were creating a firm, thick foundation of prayer on our new home for the month. And that was exactly what the Lord wanted: for us to simply sit with Him for a few days and rest in Him, instead of immediately starting hands-on work.
I’m so happy to say that the Dominguez’ daughters are healed and happily back at home now. (Thanks God!) Prayer is powerful. Prayer is a gift. Prayer is something that we so easily take for granted but I’m learning to bask in it, rely on it, and truly understand how life-giving it is. After painting the grounds of HOPE Mountain in layers of prayer, I am so ready to embrace this month in the Dominican Republic and discover what the Lord’s plans are for this extraordinary place.
Prayer Requests:
– Our ministry hosts (the Dominguez family) have been hit hard recently with a lot of spiritual oppression so prayers for protection against any future attacks and for perseverance when they do come.
– That my squad will continue to build relationships with the local people in the community, which can lead to meaningful conversations about Jesus.
– For my team leader Lauren to safely return to the Dominican Republic this week, refreshed and ready to continue with the World Race. (Her grandmother recently passed away so she flew back to the States to attend her funeral.)
Photo Credit: Mantha
