As I sit in a small private room in our air conditioned hotel at 5:45 this morning I am beginning to miss the Dominican Republic a great deal. Our last few days there there were filled with times of blessing as we got to finish strong in our main ministry to the youth of the church. I can honestly say that it was an incredible blessing to watch as every single participant on this team put everything into digging deep into relationships this week. It was sad to leave behind our good friends in Azua but the Lord is now calling us to a new mission field; home. One thing we have been pressing on adamantly during debrief is the idea that our true missions begin now as we aim to show people the active God we know and love in our homes, schools, workplaces and friendships. When the Lord said  those hundreds of times in the bible that the nations would know Him, some times we forget that applies just as much to America as it does East Asia or North Africa. The Lord's heart truly burns for all those we encounter every day, and now we simply have had our eyes opened to some tools to show them. I can't wait to hear from all the participants weeks and months from now how their homes are being impacted by the love of Christ. I expect huge things of every one of them and have truly been blessed to be able to lead them this summer.

 

Thank you again for all of your prayers and God bless every one of you.

 

¹When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2}For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

~1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Praise Be to God,

Sean

Just a reminder that the participants will be released Sunday, July 19, please pick them up by 12pm EST.

Hey everyone! Now that the trip is coming to an end, we all are finding ourselves bitter-sweet. The people here have been so welcome and great. It will be hard to say goodbye. This trip has been life changing for all of us. So please just pray for a safe travel home.

 

Christina

Itīs defintely difficult to pick a specific event and elaborate on it because so much has occurred on this trip and right now I could say Iīm overwhelmed. Iīm overwhelmed by the beautiful and glorious Savior of whom Iīve been given the privilege to know and serve. This whole "experience" has helped shape and broaden my faith so much. The most simplistic things here have broken my heart in many instances. The generosity of the people, the laughter of bright eyed ecstatic children who simply delight in our presence, the experience of the beautiful intimacy of the Creator, sitting in His presence worshipping and praying under the stars, and many more things of which I could elaborate on have made this trip, this journey definitely worth it. God s doing amazing things in the DR and Azua. I canīt even imagine the great plans He has for these people in the future. Although it is clearly suffering, although sin has had its toll on countless families and people, I can see Godīs love outpouring and His light shining on and through these people. This trip has been a privilege to be a part of.

 

April

Over the past few weeks in the DR weīve had the blessing of meeting an abundance of people. The people of the DR are incredibly generous and hospitable. Any time you go up to a personīs house they will immediately pull out several chairs and if you donīt say you have to leave you may have to sit there for quite a while just talking for hours about life, family, and eating any sort of assortment of Dominican specialties they present before you. Like I mentioned before, the people here are incredibly generous and hospitable. This is very evident with the family weīre living with. To me they have been extremely brave to let so many people come into their home for 3 weeks and basically take up any space in their house. They are very concerned about any of our needs and actually asked us for any suggestions for changes to improve. We couldnīt even believe it because if anyone needs change it is us. There are also two women here who cook our meals called China and Delenia. They do so much to make sure weīre taken care of. The love pouringout of these people is evident; and in th words of one of our teammates, which we all agree with, "I came here thinking I would show Jesusīlove, but here Iīve been given so much more love than I could even try to give"

 

Betsy

The past few days havve been very hectic as the team has worked to put on a sports camp in the community. Raulīs heart for the program has been to teach vlleyball and basketball to children and form teams for them to begin practicing with on a regular basis. A lot of preparation and sweat went into preparing for what we were thinking would be up to 200 kids. The first day came and at about 10:00 (we were supposed to start at 9:00. HAHAHAHA) we were looking at about 10 willing kids who wanted to have fun. I think it was a bit of a shock to most of the team and they really werenīt sure what to think of it. Why bother doing so much for so few, right? As I believe Paul would say, "By no means!" The Word tells us that the Lord intimately desires each of our hearts, so who are we to say that God couldnīt use this program to that in one, maybe even ten kidsī lives. Jesus changed the world with 12, why not Azua or the Dominican Republic with 10 children? So, weīve been pouring into what has become 14 children over the past two days and the Lord has been so faithful. Itīs given us great chances to be with each child and let them know theyīre loved. What more could we ask for?

 

After the camp is over tomorrow we have only 5 more days of ministry! Please be praying for us to finish the race strong. Everyone is doing so well and weīre so proud of each one for how much theyīre allowing the Lord to tear down walls in their lives and build them up as amazing women and men of Light! So praise God for what Heīs done so far! Praise the Most Holy for the way Heīs working this very minute! Praise Him, all you people, for the work His is completing! Thanks so much for your prayers and God bless every one of you.

 

John 17:20-24

 

In His name,

Sean

Doing ministry with Raul has truly been a blessing. Working with the church a lot we have been able to build relationships with some of the members. Because of our long hectic weeks we take Mondays off from ministry to catch up on sleep and to relax. Today we had girl time with three of the church girls and watched A Walk to Remember. Itīs been so neat letting God break down the language and cultural barriers and make these lasting friendships

 

Katie

One big thing that Iīve observed while being here in the DR is how the people worship. There is no large praise band with drums, 2 guitars, a bass, and professional singers. There arenīt any lights illuminating the stage or words on a screen. There is a simple building painted blueish white, 10 wooden pews, an altar and a basket for offerings. The people use their own voices as the band, and on occassions Sean will play some chords on his guitar. We sing bilingual songs like "Trading My Sorrows" and "Lord I Lift Your Name on High". As we sing, children dance and adults kneel and pray, and everyone claps rythms to the beat. You can see it in their eyes that these people are enthralled to be worshipping God. They may not have exactly the same trations as Americans, but even when they have seemingly nothing, their hearts are full of God. God has showed me that He is truly a God of the nations, and is not confined to how we praise Him at a specific place and time.

 

Hannah

So far on this trip we have all been stretched in many ways and have had the opportunity to grow immensly. One thing we are doing that Iīve done before is attemting to teach English to the kids. We teach at two locations: Raulīs school and the church in Buenos Aires. We plit up by ages because some of the older kids already know some English. Some kids come really eager to learn and some others just want to play and run around. In Buenos Aires, there arenīt any chairs and sometimes thereīs no chalk board. We have definitely learned to improvise for a chalkboard; we used the back of a suitcase we found in the street. For chairs we use rocks, and it all works! Itīs pretty hard to teach the little kids who canīt read or write but the ones who can typically want to learn. Itīs hard to keep the little ones focused but as long as they are having fun and we are building relationships with them, thatīs ok too. We didnīt come here strictly to teach English: we came to show Godīs love the these people. And iff a kid learns no English but has fun and feels loved, weīve done our job.

Kameryn