God is revealing himself in the DR in ways I never could have anticipated. I've honestly been avoiding this blog and have been volunteering every other member in the group to write it each day for fear of diluting the mighty things He's done. Sharing the gospel in the DR is a wonderfully encouraging experience because of the people's willingness and even eagerness to sit and listen to you talk about Christ--for hours even. I have never been turned down or ignored. It's mind blowing, coming from a culture where simply making instantaneous eye contact with a stranger is painful for most.

I was stoked to be back on campus yesterday to share Jesus with the students after the riots prevented us on Wednesday. I had the opportunity to share the message of salvation with many students before bible study on campus, and many of the people I met were interested in joining the study. After Ashlie and I shared with a few groups of people, I asked God to provide a Dominican translator so I could dive deeper into the Gospel. Israel is our only Spanish speaker in the group. I am only able to get through the Gospel using Way of the Master in a very basic fashion and carry on simple conversations. At that time I saw Andy and decided to go chat with him for a minute. Andy had Estevan with him (a Christian Dominican who has devoted a lot of his time to translating for us). It turned out that Andy's group needed to leave that moment to go teach one of the English classes which freed up Estevan to come translate with me. Really God? This gave me the opportunity to share many more analogies, examples, and parts of my testimony to help get across the reality of eternity. What's even more strange to me is that I've had 5-6 Dominicans tell me my Spanish is good and my pronunciation even better. This is just whack, but praise God for bridging communication gaps! I make no boast in this.

Because fellowship is basically nonexistent for these students, the idea of us leaving tonight is breaking their hearts and ours. Please pray that fellowship on campus would grow and that they would be one in Spirit and purpose. Also pray that we would return to Des Moines ready to blast the city with the love of Christ, maintaining our current pace. In the words of Herschel, "We know too much to kill time." I appreciate your prayers and support. I'm excited to tell you all more about how God is pursuing people, renewing my mind, and reviving my heart.

Kayla (Heavenly Realm Gangstas)

Wow, what a crazy week! It is hard to believe that it is already Thursday night. The week has flown by. The Lord has provided in unimaginable ways. I truly believe that any words I type will not do justice to the work that the Lord has been doing in the DR. It can best be summed up in the bible study that we had today @ 4. This is the foundation and heartbeat of the Church that is forming here on campus. We had over 50 Dominicans that came and worshipped with us during this time. Many were believers (a decent number became Believers and were saved within the past 2 weeks) but many are still not yet believers. It is so obvious that the Lord has a desire to reach this section of the world. There are also what appears to be many faithful men and women who have a desire to labor for their fellow students on campus. The hearts of the Dominicans are so soft. Our prayer for the final 24 hours is that we would finish strong as a group. The we would love the Dominicans to the end, just as Jesus did in John 13.

Our additional prayer is that men and women on campus would unite together and form a body of believers that will be used to reach the campus for Christ. It will be very easy for Satan to destroy the work that the Lord has begun here if he can keep the new believers out of fellowship with one another. Please pray that relationships would be formed and built upon amongst the students.

We thank you for your continual prayers for the time down here. We have seen many salvations, and have witnessed the gospel go out to literally thousands of people over the week. You know you have a good problem on your hand when you run out of bibles to give away! We have been humbled to see the ways in which the Lord has used us, knowing that he has worked many times over behind the scenes.

We are all sad to leave here, but many are missing friends and family back home. We look forward to seeing you all. God Bless!

Erica, Jon, Jassey, Alison, Alexandra, Japheth


Praise God!!

JC's Birthday Party

French Fry Pizza