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04/18/16
Last Friday night, as a church body, a few hundred people gathered in Des Moines to pray. Why? Because we know that God "hears the prayers of the upright" (Proverbs 15:8) and because we know and trust that He delights in our prayers. We know this, so we do it.
What is the by-product of these prayer times? The easy answer to this is "answered prayers", but I think that it's more than that. As we join to pray, it unites our hearts. It unites our minds. It unites us as a body of believers in a way that honors Christ. It helps us to focus on the goal of our faith. Paul exhorts the saints in Philippians 2 to "make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose."
Our prayer for the saints of La Vid has been that they would be growing together, unified for the sake of the Gospel. That they would grow in their love and devotion to one another as they grow to love Christ more and more and that the outpouring of this would be fruit in their lives and fruit in the form of souls won for Christ.
Tonight, after breaking bread together (and I do mean breaking bread - Jordan ate 5 pieces before his meal was even served) we joined together in prayer, and it was beautiful. It was beautiful to hear the hearts of the saints unite in different languages, one language, the language of God: the language of prayer.
We thank you for your prayers for us and for the people of the Dominican Republic. We are truly grateful and know that God is at work. There is much more to share, but we'll leave that for tomorrow.
Shaly Moyal
On Friday we were invited to have supper at Yuri's mother's house. She made us an authentic Dominican meal that was delicious! David said she made the best tostones he's ever had in the Dominican. She also made us a Dominican drink called Tamarindo that was delicious - it tasted like a cold apple cider! We shared our favorite Bible verses and enjoyed a great night of fellowship with our Dominican friends. When we returned to the hostel we made protein balls for Yuri and Gabriel to take to work the next day so they could bless their coworkers.
This morning started out with a bit of excitement. Bri and Mel woke up to find a cockroach in their room! First, please understand that cockroaches in the Dominican are at least 3 inches long. Also, they have wings and can fly! So, it was a terrifying sight to see first thing in the morning. Ed and Tyler came to the rescue with a cheese grater, shoes, and a Bible. Thankfully the shoes did the trick and other weapons did not need to be used in the process. After we were confident that our hostel was once again cockroach-free, Carlos and Diana brought us to Los Tres Ojos where there are beautiful underground caves. We had fun exploring and seeing God's beautiful creation! We also learned that the first Jurassic Park movie was filmed here.
Then we walked to the Old City (Zona Colonial) to shop and sight-see some more. We took a lot of selfies today! Yuri, Carlos, and Diana joined us for supper at 'Parking Burger'. Yuri told us how it went delivering the treats to her coworkers today. She explained that at first she counted and didn't think they'd have enough for all their coworkers. So they just decided to pass them out until they were gone. However, all their coworkers were able to have one and there was even one left for both Yuri and Gabriel to enjoy! The Lord provided! We were so excited to hear about this. Please pray that their coworkers were impacted by their love today, and that Yuri and Gabriel would continue to find ways to reach out to their coworkers.
Briana Pfadenhauer
