Wednesday- DR download day4

This morning we finished painting some things here at the mission house and continued to dreaming about the ministry here.
On the way to the capital, Santo Domingo, we stopped at an orphanage called Casa De Luz (house of light). This orphanage is for handicapped children who were at one time just left out on the street or abandoned somewhere. Needless to say, just knowing their story will wreck you. On top of that, the handicaps that many of these children have are very severe and keep most of them immobile.
I had a great time just pushing children around in their wheelchairs am talking to them. They had such beautiful smiles on their faces as we simply just loved on them. We stayed through lunch and we were able to help feed them, which is all together another demanding task.
This orphanage and the people there nearly pulled my heart out of my chest. This is yet another opportunity for u to come alongside a Pastor who is doing a great work and really has little to no funding and is doing a very remarkable ministry. This will be a place that we will continue to work with.
We then headed to the capital for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which sits right across the park from the first church of the Americas, and some quick shopping in the colonial zone. Of course, this task is nothing in comparison to what we were allowed to be a part of at Casa De Luz

Tuesday- DR download day3

Today we spent here at the mission house, painting and building shelves in the new bathroom. That may not sound exciting, but when I brought a team of 22 last December there were only two bathroom here. Trust me, the new bathroom helps tremendously.
The team from Richmond Road in Texarkana is great. It's such a joy to see Josh, Erica, Chris, Dayna, Bart, Penny, and David responding to the gospel call on their lives to help reach the "least of these". We also have had the privilege of having Karly with us this week. She is an awesome girl who has a beautiful heart for the gospel and missions.
After working on the mission house we headed to El Sueno in Juan Dolio for some pizza. Every time I bring a group to the DR, we eat here. Their pizza is great.
I continue to be amazed at what The Lord is doing here in the DR. I'm so thankful for Julio and Mercy and the partnership we have with them through http://chickenchurch.org and http://25project.org . They are great to work with and are amazing at what they do. They truly are the hands and feet of who we are here.
The work here at the mission house is never really done. We have a huge desire to see as many groups come through here as possible that are partnering with chickenchurch and 25. We need more beds, which we painted today. We need twin size mattresses for those bunk beds and we need to continue painting areas here and there. This house truly has been an answer to a prayer we started praying 2 years ago. HE is good!

Monday- DR download day2

We headed back out to Santa Alicia this morning to work on school benches and desks and to teach gospel stories to the children. The team did a great job singing, and presenting the story of the resurrection. I'm already looking forward to this team from Richmond Road in Texarkana coming back. They are great with the kids.
A couple of us worked on putting together desks and benches that are used in the little school, in this batey. It's always great watching the children become very appreciative of what we are able to do. You can tell that these kids love school and love their teacher. It is sad that many of them will never go to school past the 6th grade.
After working, we spent some time playing baseball with the boys and men while the ladies held babies and played with the Children. It is always fun to watch and participate in a game of Dominican batey baseball. These bateys are sometimes filled with athletes, that unfortunately may never have the opportunity to get out of the batey life.
We loaded up and left he batey this afternoon and I began to hear the very familiar words again. Every time a team leaves I hear,"I don't want to go. I want to take them with me". Once again the few days this team has spent in the batey, has forever changed their view and opinion on the "least of these" and the gospel mandated call to "go&do". They are forever changed

Sunday- DR download day1

This morning we headed out to Santa Alicia for worship. Josh, pastor of Richmond Road, shared with the people and introduced the team. He told them how excited he was to be there and how his church had been praying for the people here, since I shared the vision with him years ago.
I preached a message on Bartimaeus and Julio translated. I always enjoy sharing with the people here. Many of these people have a deep love for Jesus. Their worship is real and authentic - something we could learn from them! During my message this morning I talked about the fact that we must see that Jesus' ultimate purpose is to restore our broken relationship with God, not just to meet our physical needs. We must cry out, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me"
After the service, the team from Richmond Road did a lesson on "The Fall". I Always enjoy watching teams bust out the trusty old flannel graph to share gospel stories. They also had a great craft. The kids made red fruits, with a stem, and a green leaf. It also had a black pipe cleaner with eyes coming out of the fruit, which symbolized the serpent. They shared the story of how sin entered into the stream of humanity-"the fall".
We checked on the chicken projects here in Santa Alicia and even took a pic of one of the chickens laying an egg. Yeah, that may not be exciting as you read it, but it is truly exciting when it happens here because it means we are steps closer to sustaining life in this community and creating somewhat of an economy, and helping the Haitians become self sustaining people.
We also walked out to a place where they are in the beginning stages of a community garden. This is another thing we have talked about and it is great to see that they have taken their own initiative to start the process. These people live out biblical community with one another-yet something else we can learn from them. Awesome.
We ate lunch and spent time just relaxing before heading out again. We then went to a new batey called Dela Jagua in hopes of finding possibilities of service there.(-see earlier blog, titled, Dela Jagua.) After our time in that batey, we returned to the mission house and the team headed for the beach to spend some time relaxing. When they returned, Mercy made rice and beans, and I grilled up some pork and sausage. As usual, we had a great time sharing tonight about they. We even had a guest participant in our meeting the evening. My wife and daughter joined the meeting via FaceTime. I love technology! Thank you Natalie, for allowing me to chase after all that HE has put in front of me.
Now it's time to get some rest, we head back out to Santa Alicia in the morning.