Update from "Las Tortugas"

Hola Amigos!

This is the Tortugas! (Josh M, Liz V, Niki W, Taylor R, Emily C & Allison Y). We have had a great few days in the Dominican so far.

Saturday we were all pretty exhausted from our travel. It took just over 24 hours from the time we left Des Moines. After arriving, we unpacked, rested, ate, and went to bed! Sunday morning we visited a church with Evelyn, who helps host our teams. It was a great experience to worship with 500+ Dominicans. After that, we toured the campus and got into several great conversations.

Monday and Tuesday we hit the campus hard with the gospel. We have spent most of our time the last two days sharing the good news about Jesus with university students. We utilize Spanish tracts and Bibles, along with the help of some translators, to communicate relatively effectively despite our limited Spanish.

Yralissa was one of the first people we had met. Praise the Lord for a fluent English speaker!! She told us that a few years ago she was an atheist who had frequent, demonic dreams; each dream, she prayed, asking the Lord to stop them. And He did. After going through the Spanish track with her, and explaining the good news of Jesus Christ, she prayed to receive him in her heart with tears rolling down her cheeks. Yralissa told us how amazing it was to have a God who could forgive her sins.

Monday, while at the library, we were sharing with two girls, who knew ZERO English. Ronny was sitting next to these girls and scooted on over to help translate the conversation. After going through tracks with these girls, Ronny asked us why we were in the Dominican. He wanted to know why this university. And we told him we came to talk to him about Jesus Christ. As he left, he said this message must be really important to come all the way to the Dominican Republic from America to talk to people. Today, we ran into Ronny once more. Again, he translated the gospel for us, but this time for one of his best friends. As the gospel resounded in his friend’s life, he pleaded with Ronny to listen to this message. We sat down and discussed everything from creation to morals. Ronny said how he is searching for the answer, but just doesn’t know what it is yet. The conversation had to end, as Ronny had class, but he insisted that we meet again tomorrow. Same time. Same place. Same topic.