"Missions is not a recruitment project for God's labor force. It's a liberation project from the heavy burdens and hard yokes of other gods. The difference between the true God and gods of the nations is that the true God carries and other gods must be carried. God serves, they must be served. God glorifies His might by showing grace. They glorify theirs by gathering slaves… " -John Piper
We have made it safely to the Dominican Republic. My team is in a small mountain village about four hours outside Santo Domingo. This quote resonated with me because we are not here to see how many lives we can save. It's not about the numbers. It's not a recruitment project, it's a liberation project. This trip for me is about making a difference through the small things and showing love of Christ to the people.
Our ministry this month is house visits, street evangelism, playing with the children, and teaching English classes twice a week. This is such a welcoming and friendly community. We can walk down the road, get invited into a house where they will serve us coffee or a treat/snack, and then we stay the entire morning talking with just one family. I love that it is about the quality time with a family and not the quantity of families we can meet. I really have enjoyed the house visits and the simplicity of our ministry. Simplicity can truly be beautiful. When we are not doing house visits/street evangelism we are surrounded by children. Beautiful children who just want your attention and love. We have been here for almost a week now and people are beginning to notice. More and more people gather around us and follow us to church. The word is getting out that 'Americans' are in town. This is only week one of the race and so much has happened, I am excited to see what God has in store.
This month we have lots of grandparents. Many of the elderly take care of us. There are currently three sets of grandparents who fix us treats, dulce, coffee, and take us in. The pastor's grandparents have generously hosted the team. They have given up a room in their house for the girls to stay and the guys are in tents. All of our meals are fixed by the pastor's wife and it's all traditional Dominican meals. Really good and lots of carbs. Every day we have coffee mid-morning fixed by various people or families. Yum… It's really good. Sooo I am officially a coffee drinker. I am truly blessed to be here and to be able to see God at work.
Prayer Requests for the Week:
-To be intentional with the time God has given us here
-For the relationships with the local people
-The health for my team (several members have already been sick)
-Veronica, the pastor's wife, is due to have baby next week!
