Its official! We are in and have been in the Dominican Republic for the past week. We are living and working with Hope Mountain ministries. It is run by our hosts, the Domingues. They are a wonderful hard woking family who do great things here. Mrs. Vicky is from the states. They lived in the states for a few years but ultimately felt the Lord calling them to plant churches in the DR. Ruben is from the DR. They have 8 kids. 6 grown and living their lives and 2 still at home.
We live in the bowl of the mountains. The view I wake up to every morning is beautiful. They have a lot of property with many animals including cows, a horse, a donkey, chickens, ducks, 2 parakeets and 4 dogs. A river also runs through the property. You can’t see it unless you walk to it but you can always hear it. Its a very peaceful place.
Speaking of a peaceful place, their property has places for people to stay and rest. They also have hammocks everywhere and a pool. So far they have planted 5 churches in the DR. These churches are their main ministry. The parents help lead and raise up leaders for the church, Soli does dance ministry and Starr is starting a ministry for the youth and college aged people. (These are their girls still at home. Soli is 13 and Starr is 16) Their home, however, is also a part of their ministry. They use it to invite those who work in their churches to rest. They invite them to come, relax, enjoy the pool and escape the hardships of life when they need to. They also use it to house missionaries like us and they work with girls who have been involved with sex trafficking – this is not official because they don’t have the papers from the government to do so but they plan on being able to let the girls stay here – a safe haven – when they are able to get it approved.
So there’s a little bit about Hope Mountain, where they are and what they do. In terms of what we will be doing for our last 2 months on the race I’ll give you a little run down.
Admin
Outreach
Property
Creativity
We are working in our teams and each week we work in one of these departments. Then we switch the next week so everyone gets to experience each thing. Admin is office work. We help Ms. Vicky in there whether its organizing, typing up curriculums for her girls, typing up studies and devos for the church, etc.
Outreach is doing prayer walks through the community, preparing meals for some people in the community, making goody backs and writing kind notes for the girls involved in sex trafficking, etc.
Property is as it sounds, helping out around the grounds. Ms. Vicky is a big gardener so planting new trees and flowers is part of it. Moving dirt and stones for paths. There is some constructional work going on here currently so help with that. Etc.
Finally, creativity. This was the group I was in this week.
Jessiel and Jaime are a missionary couple who work with Hope Mountain ministries. Jaime is a professional dancer and Jessiel is a professional photographer/filmer. They are in charge of presenting/promoting the ministry. So they run the instagram page. Jaime also gives Soli dance lessons. During our time with them, Starr wanted some lyrical dances and skits that she can do for the new ministry she’s starting with the youth and college aged people. Our job was to create ideas and then record them so she could learn them herself and lead them. So we practiced a skit and learned a dance to You Say by Lauren Daigle and Jessiel recorded us when it was complete. My team and I are so excited to see the results. We worked very hard, especially on the dance, so I’d love to share with you all the videos when they are finished.
If any of you want to see pictures of what’s happening here, check out my insta or Facebook, and I highly encourage you to follow the Hope Mountain insta page. They post a lot so you will see us! (@hope_4_dr) A few prayer requests… it’s the last leg of the race so we are all starting to really miss the comforts of home. We are so close but we will never be together like this serving the Lord again so please pray we stay strong and push through. Also some sickness is going around, nothing major, but it kinda puts a downer on your day when your throat hurts and your nose is runny.
That’s all I have for you guys now! I hope you enjoyed these past 2 blogs. I will try to get some more to you all soon. Praying for you all!
Lots of Love,
Alex Paige
