Hola de DSM2DR!

The last couple of days have flown by. Tuesday began with yet another delicious breakfast spread, followed by some encouragement and exhortation from Herschel. Herschel spoke of Hebrews 12:1-2, entreating that we fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter (finisher) of our faith. In the afternoon, we shared the Gospel, and Greg led Bible study, with Leslie translating. It was a very powerful time as Greg shared his testimony, followed by Becky! The amazing stories, of how Jesus captured their hearts, freeing them from the sin that had entangled them, clearly showed God’s greatness, and were relatable. We all face similar temptations and lies, but Jesus Christ has given us victory over the power of sin in our lives. Hallelujah!

By God’s providence, our mission team was invited to share the Gospel at a local school, by one of the teachers who met the mission team last week through our English classes. Seizing the opportunity, six of us (Pastor Tim, Gregurio, Andy, Leslie, Tara and Becky) departed around 6:45am Wednesday morning, with one million dollar bill Gospel tracts and supplies for bracelets. The Lord provided class after class of children, kindergarten-12th grade, who were invited to hear the Gospel in a fun and interactive way. Early on, principal came in and expressed her joy in our validating with the students what she has been working to impress upon them about our Savior, Jesucristo. Praise God!

We continue to meet up with and spend time with our Dominican friends, building up relationships. We praise God for our Dominican friends, and we ask that you join us in prayer for those who have been hanging out, attending Bible study, and the children who heard a clear presentation of the Gospel yesterday (at school!). Thank you so much for being of one mind with us. God bless!

Tara (on behalf of DSM2DR – Gregurio, Caleb, Shaly and Becky)

The Lord proved once again today that He is in control and that His plan is always better than ours. Carol was not feeling well and so we encouraged her to rest for part of the day. As we were ready to head to campus to share the Gospel and try to meet up with people we had contacted before, we got word that there had been rioting on campus and that classes were cancelled for the day. One group had already gone to campus, but made it back safely without incident. Now what? Well, Marcos, a guy the Lord led us to outside of Baskin Robbins, came by this morning to see us. He had the whole day off and so we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon with Him, sharing favorite verses and encouraging Him in his faith. He became a Christian about a month ago and it was awesome to here how well he understands the Bible and Jesus in such a short time. He also led us to the best Dominican food we have experienced yet which was half a block down the street from our hostel.

Later on in the afternoon, we invited people over to our hostel for bible study. Paul, Hannah, Emily, Alicia, and I went through John 3 with Marcos and Jason. Jason is not a Christian, but understands the Gospel clearly and knows he needs to make a decision for Christ. Please pray for him! He is so close to becoming a Christian. As a group, we have been praying that God would give us two people to build up in their faith and spend quality time with during the trip and He answered that prayer today. There were also about 10 others that came by the hostel today for bible study and so the other groups got to spend the same type of quality time, studying the Bible and sharing the Gospel with small groups of people.

Before dinner, Carol, JC and some others took a girl from bible study out for ice cream. While there, Carol handed a tract to a gal working and she turned out to be a Christian who has been looking for a long time for a church and is so excited to get connected with the Christians here. Praise God!

After bible study, we had a party at our hostel to thank Evelyn. She is a local who has been so great in organizing our trip here and getting us all the contacts we have needed to make this trip a success.

God is doing such a great work here. It is such a joy to see such soft hearts towards the Gospel, hearing stories of salvations and doors opening to other groups, and being a part of it. Today was so awesome. I am reminded, though, when the disciples returned to Jesus from seeing people healed and God doing amazing things, Jesus told them not to rejoice so much in what God had done, but that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). Being saved by God and given an inheritance with Him in heaven for all of eternity is so amazing. The love of God compels us to go and share the Good News and I am so blessed and privileged to be a part of this trip and see God working in the lives of the people here in the DR. Praise God!

P.S. What battle did Napoleon die in you ask? The last one of course. Ha!

It was an encouraging morning in the D.R. After starting the morning with some songs, we shared stories from so far this week. It was so awesome to hear what the Lord has been doing in the Dominican Republic this week through this trip.

There was a small team, including Andy, that spent the morning and early afternoon at a K-12 school teaching a lesson that included getting to share the gospel with pretty much the entire school.

As the rest of the group was getting prepared to make our way to campus, we found out that there was a protest going on at the campus protesting an announcement that the university hospital was going to be privatized. Due to safety concerns and the university president canceling classes for the day, we decided not to go to campus at all today. The morning and early afternoon were spent in our hostel praying, reading, and contacting people we met earlier in the week as well as people the team from last week met, to follow up.

After lunch we went to the sand volleyball courts near our hostel to play some volleyball and share the gospel. There were a lot of really good conversations and tracts handed out. We continue to be blessed having two fluent Spanish speakers on our team. Those of us who are, to put it kindly, less than fluent continue to make attempts at speaking Spanish and adding to our vocabulary.

The night ended with a party at the hostel to thank Evelyn for all the work she has done to make this trip the success it has been so far. We had many of our friends we have met in the D.R. join us for the evening. It was great to continue building relationships with our friends here. It is hard to believe we only have two more days left before we return to Des Moines. We can't wait to see what else the Lord will do in the D.R. these last couple days.

Andy, Ed, Sara, Kate, Carla, Muje