Hey guys! Sorry that I’ve been missing in action for the past couple of weeks, life has been a little crazy lately. I’ve had to really focus on and press into the Father, and I’ve been learning so much through that. I can’t wait to share with you all about it. But first, I want to introduce you guys to the ministry I’m working with!
At the end of March (the day before my nineteenth birthday, fun fact), My squad and I made it safely to the Dominican Republic after a twenty-four-hour travel day. And for the past couple of weeks, we’ve been living and serving with this AMAZING ministry called “Mission of Hope”.
Mission of Hope (MOH) was actually started and is based in Haiti (the country that shares an island with the DR), and has been for the past twenty years. The DR base where we are is only about two years old. What’s cool about working with this base is that not only do we get to work with the surrounding Dominican community, we also get to work with the many Haitian refugee communities here. We get to be exposed to two different cultures, two different languages, and a ton of amazing people.
So let’s talk about what we’re doing. MOH’s mission statement is to “bring life transformation to every man, woman, and child”. How do they do that? MOH partners alongside local pastors and churches and gets to know their communities with the vision of meeting the present physical and spiritual needs. Ultimately, their goal is to “work themselves out of a job” and get to the point where the local pastors and churches are equipped and empowered to serve their communities on their own. MOH is also very intentional and passionate about creating deep and personal relationships with the people they work with.
Where do we fit into all that? My squad and I’s main ministry while we are here is called Strategic Ministry Time (also known as SMT). Basically, SMT is where our teams partner with a local church and do house visits in the community with the purpose of getting to know the people and families, creating relationships, and sharing the gospel. Through this, we can also identify physical needs in an organic and natural way. MOH of hope also does food distribution, water filters, and medical missions where needed.
MOH mainly does short-term (week-long) mission trips, so my squad being here for two whole months looks a lot different than what they are used to. There were even two youth group teams here the first week we were here, and it was really cool to get to do life alongside them and pour into them for the week.
So far, we’ve already had so many amazing opportunities and met so many amazing people. On Sundays, we get to go to local Haitian churches. Even though we can’t understand anything being said, the spirit of the Lord is so present and it’s one of my favorite parts of the week. We also got the chance to lead a bible study/youth group for the young adults at the church my team has gone to for the past couple of weeks, and it was such a blast. This past week, we got to work with a church way up in the mountains and had the opportunity to do kids ministry.
And one more thing I think is pretty cool that I get to do here is coffee shop ministry!! Okay, calling it ministry might be a stretch. But there’s a coffee shop on campus that’s usually open for the short-term teams that come, and the profits go to MOH’s women’s ministry. Since we’re the only ones here now, they basically let us do whatever we want with the shop, which means I get to be a barista again! And thanks to people like me who might be slightly addicted to coffee, we’re definitely raising a lot of money (whoops).
So that’s a glimpse of what I’m doing here and who I’m working with! God’s doing big things here. Please keep me, my squad, this ministry, and this community in your prayers!
Thanks for reading and keeping up with my journey!
You can learn more about Mission of Hope and what they do on their website, here.
