Every once and a while, it's good to give a quick summary of what has been happening. These past few months, we have been traveling in the USA and sharing. But our time in the USA was shortened and we feel we haven't had the opportunity to meet with everyone we would have liked. A lot has been happening. Whether we have been able to visit with you or not, this will provide a good overview of the last few years. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing!
In the
last two years we transitioned away from working with one church and have been joining the church planting efforts of a new association of churches in the
D.R. It's been painful to separate from Nueva Vida in Jarabacoa. But it's also been exciting and energizing to join the ministries of the Bendicion Church in Los Higos. You can read more below as we give a
recap of some specific churches.
Iglesia Vida Nueva in El Montana: This
church has seen many ups and downs, but is finally legally incorporated as a
church and independent from its mother church.
Pastor Damazo is mentoring a young man to become a pastor and with 30
adult members the church is actively evangelizing and discipling others. We have played a supportive but decreasing
role in their development.
Iglesia Nueva Vida in Buenos Airies: When we returned to the U.S. in 2015 we left the Buenos Aires church with a heavy heart
as they were struggling through some conflicts. The mother church had was intervening and we hoped things would have healed by the time we returned to the D.R. Unfortunately, when we returned to the
D.R. we learned the church had been closed and the property was being sold. This has been the most difficult situation we
have faced in our time in the D.R. The believers in Buenos Aires do want to see the church reopened. We
met with a remnant of the believers for about a year, praying and learning key
principles from the Bible. Please pray with us as we return
in August with the hope that in our upcoming term a new church would be re-planted
there.
Iglesia Boma: The faithful of
Boma continue to worship together and show love and compassion for their
community as its young people move to cities where there is better educational
and job prospects. Valle, a farmer, has
made it a habit to load his motorcycle with surplus produce and visit remote
cottages to bring spiritual and physical nourishment. Enrique and Blanca continue to serve the needs of the church and community.
Iglesia Bendicion in Los Higos: During
this last term we began to support the Ministry of Blessing church in their
efforts to train mature leaders and reach the youth of their community. U.S. teams have played a role by providing
sports activities and works of God’s love in the community. We look forward to broadening our role by
becoming involved in the “Ministry of Blessing” association of churches
throughout the island. This will present more and more opportunities.
And now for the most exciting news!!! We have teammates! Gil and Danna Leon are wrapping up a year of
language study in Costa Rica and fly to the D.R. the first week of September.
Jeimmy and Justin Smith are in the home stretch of raising their support, hopefully in 2019 they will join us as well. Pray for
them as this last percentage of support is the hardest to accomplish and they
are more than ready to join the work.
Upon arrival both families will take some time to
acculturate and build trusting relationships before diving into full time work.
Watch for updates on an expanding ministry as we target some new rural areas
for planting churches and investigate prospects in other parts of the
island.
We arrived in the Dominican Republic in May of 2007. It's hard to believe we have been there over 10 years. It has been a challenging but exciting time. And many of you have been with us the whole way. Thank you to those who have and thank you to those who have joined us since along the journey.
God has done a great work in our life, in the lives of many Dominicans and in Dominican churches. We have all been a part of that but to God, we give the glory! Praise Him.
