Update from Team Nathan

This post is written at the end of four long days of sharing the gospel. While the heat can be exhausting, God has used that to refine us and help us to lean on Him as we share the "secret" of eternal life with dozens of students, day after day. It has been humbling to see how open the Dominicans are to listening to the gospel message. The gospel is indeed written on their hearts. Most of the people that we talk to believe in God and understand that Jesus has died for their sins. That might cause you to ask, "Why are we sending people to the Dominican Republic? Wouldn't it be more effective if we sent people where the gospel has never gone before?" But the fact is, most of the people that we talk to, although they believe in God, are not sure of their eternal salvation. They are not sure where they will go when they die and they are not aware that the Bible tells them they can know for sure. It must be explained to them, just as to someone who has never heard the name of Jesus, that JesuChristo is the only way to get to heaven. That if they have Jesus in their hearts, then when God looks at them, He sees the perfect life of His Son. This is a truth that can be hard to accept for many Dominicans for they feel that they must do something to earn their salvation. Although Jesus is a free gift, some are not ready to accept Him because it's ingrained in their minds that must live a good life in order to be acceptable to God. Many understand that they are sinners but don't understand that there is nothing they have to do before they can "walk across the bridge" of the cross to God, who is waiting on the other side with open arms. Please pray for those who are thinking about this big decision in their life right now and are not sure if they are ready to follow God; pray also that God would help them see that Jesus died for sinners and that God uses broken people.

Here is one encouraging story that happened today: a brother met "Alexander," and proceeded to share the gospel with him. He was very receptive of it and truly did believe that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life but revealed that his walk was stunted because there was no one to build into him. It was encouraging to be able to offer him the solution: La Vid. He was very excited about the opportunity to have other believers build into him. Unfortunately he was busy today, but he said he would check it out tomorrow. We were able to give him "Primeros Pasos," a Bible study for new believers, and a Bible, as well. We also told him that if he really wanted to grow in his faith he needed to belong to a family of believers that could strengthen him in his walk. Please pray that he would come to La Vid tomorrow and get plugged into a discipling relationship that would help him run hard for the Lord.

Thank you for your constant prayer and unwavering support for the work that God is doing in the Dominican Republic.

Love,
Team Nathan