The English crew is split into two groups based on the student’s age. Matt and Katherine have the adult group, ages 14 and up; while Kelsey and Shara have the younger kids, ages 4-13. They teach every Monday – Thursday from 4pm to 5pm. They are doing a fantastic job and all of the students really enjoy the teaching and interaction.
The evangelism crew has been going to who Juan terms ‘cold Christians’ which are those in the community that Juan knows who have previously gone to his church, have given their lives to Christ, but have stopped going to church. Hebrews 10:25 reminds us “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” So far we have met with three families. The first is Juan and Marta who are in their mid-forties. Juan previously managed the best softball team in the Dominican Republic (baller) and he personally knows two professional baseball players that came from the Dominican Republic, it sounded like they both play for the Pittsburg Pirates. Anyway, we got to pray for them and the Lord gave me a word for their family; that they are a Spiritual power house of the Holy Spirit. I know that since it has been declared and since the Holy Spirit is on it, it will happen, but please be praying for them. We saw them both in church the next time we had service 🙂
The next house we went to was the mother of two girls that attend church. The girls are 14-15ish years old and their mom doesn’t go to church anymore because of a previous offence that happened. Their house had wooden walls and a tin roof, and the rooms were divided by sheets. We listened as Juan spoke with Santa (the mom) and listened to what Holy Spirit wanted to say. By now we had learned that when Juan is done he asks us if we have any Scripture to share, or words of encouragement; so we were getting prepared. We each shared something and it seemed that the Lord was all over Ephesians for both Juan and Marta and Santa as well. I was also given a word of encouragement for Santa that she received well. It is really fun to operate in this way and see the Holy Spirit move.
A few days later we met our third family, Diego and Jana (pronounced Jay-na). They are in their early 30’s and have a little boy named Diego (after his dad) and he’s a little over a year old. They are the new neighbors right across from the church and are Catholic, so Juan wanted to meet with them and see what they believe. Turns out that Diego grew up in the Catholic church but for a long time he didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus until he opened up the Scriptures for himself. He has dedicated his life to spreading the love of Christ to the ends of the earth and is currently attending Catholic seminary. His main ministry at the moment are those within the Catholic church that do not have a personal relationship with Christ. We were able to pray over him and his family and encourage him in his walk with Christ. Major got a word of encouragement for their family.
Other than that we hang out at our house (casa) and enjoy developing our friendships within our community. We just recently were given more freedom to come and go as we please and have been forming relationships with our neighbors. Just the other day we got to play street baseball with some kids from the church, it was legit, we felt like we were in some kind of strange sandlot-esque movie. Myself, Matt, and Major got to have some ‘man time’ to get away from the 11 women for a few minutes. We ended up at an ice-cream shop and met a missionary family from Idaho that has been here in Santo Domingo for four years already. It has been an awesome time so far and I look forward to the remaining days here in the lovely, hot, beautiful Dominican Republic.
Prayer requests: I’m still sick from a cold I had gotten a week before launch, please pray for complete healing in my throat and nose. Also, Rachel Tart has a sore throat. Please pray for unity within our team and community. Please pray also for Juan’s church, they are in need of $23,000 USD to buy the land that the church is on; they need it by the end of the year.
I love you all! Please keep us in your prayers! 🙂
-Paul
