Dominican Download

I have been home now from the Dominican Republic for about 10 days and I am already excited about our trip back in December. During our last visit we were able to visit with a lot of people and ministries around the area. My head is spinning about the possibilities that are in front of us in the Dominican. I would ask that you would join with me in praying for Pastor Manny and his work in the villages / bateys of Monte Largo and Dos Hermanos. Our school, Greenville Christian, has basically adopted the community of Monte Largo and look forward to our partnership in ministry with Pastor Manny, Julio and Mercy.

While there we were able to meet with Bob and Diane who are opening Josiah's House which is an orphanage for boys. We spent our time with them talking about our return trip in December and the possibility of doing some future ministry events together. They are great people and have great hearts. Please pray for Josiah's House and the work that is to be done there.

We traveled to Santo Domingo where we met with the headmaster of a christian school in town that educates close to 180 students from K-8th grade. This school reminds us a lot of GCS back home. They have learned to do a lot with a little. The headmaster is a man who loves the Lord and frequently told us that everything they do at this school is based on the gospel. The name of the school is Centro Educativo Buenos Nuevas (Good News)

We are already working on another trip in July of next year as well. We will be beginning putting together an opportunity to collect shoes for the people in the bateys there. Many of them do not have shoes, much less clothes and the basic needs of life. We are working towards helping them with purchasing a water tank for the batey as well. They do get water but only for a very short period of time during the day. If we could get a water tank, it could be filled during the day, when the water is on, and then it could serve the needs of the batey at all hours. We are also praying towards the installation of two faucets in the batey which would help distribute the water through the batey and allow the people to get the water when they needed it.

Pray for Manny, Julio, Mercy, Bob, and Dianne. Pray that the Lord would continue to grant them favor with all of those that they come in contact with. Pray for them as the model the gospel with their lives. Pray for an opportunity for you to go to the Dominican Republic and partner in ministry with us.

July 11, 2011~ Dominican Republic

We are headed home in the morning. We spent our last day here in the Dominican Republic down at Chez Irene conversing with Irene and letting her know we would be back in December. I am praying for her and praying for the relationship that has begun and will continue even while we are gone, through Julio and Mercy.

At breakfast this morning, we met Bob and Diane who are opening Josiah's House which is an orphanage for boys. We spent our time with them talking about our return trip in December and the possibility of doing some future ministry events together. They are great people and have great hearts. Please pray for Josiah's House and the work that is to be done there.

Pray for our friends Julio and Mercy, who are our friend and partners in ministry here in the DR. We have really enjoyed our week together and the dreams that have come out of it. I love spending time with people who have a heart for the gospel and long to model it with their lives.

Our flight leaves at 6:20 am so we will be getting up early and heading to the airport to get there 2 hours before time. With that knowledge, I will leave you with this and catch back up with you in the states.

July 10, 2011~ Dominican Republic

Our trip is winding down to the last few days. I will fly back home Tuesday morning. Today has been another day full of conversations about future ministry opportunities here in the Dominican Republic.

We started the day down at Chez Irene, as usual, to have breakfast. Irene has been a gracious host and has been joy to talk about life with. This morning we talked again about her growing up in the Pentecostal church and about the time she was married to her husband, who was a preacher. She still talks as though there is not anything one thing that is 100 percent true and that the Bible has a lot of great things we can do. I am continuing to pray for her and the relationship that Julio and Mercy are able to continue here in Juan Dolio.

We attended church this morning in Santo Domingo at Grace. The service was great. It is always refreshing to hear the manyu different languages that God's people sing in. As they were singing in Spanish, we were able to follow in English and sing together. We sing many of the same songs in our worship services back in the states. After talking to the worship leader for a little while about Chris Tomlin, Lincoln Brewster, Mercy Me, Jeremy Camp, Phil Wickham and Hillsong, he asked me if I could give him some other recommendations for worship. Needless to say, this was a fun conversation. The church service was very energetic and the pastor was great. After the service, Mercy basically highlighted the sermon for us in English, so we would have a better idea of what all was said. This is the church that has the faith project / Christian school in Santo Domingo also. We ate lunch with the pastor of the church and a few of the elders and had a great time talking about his vision for the school and what he felt like the Lord was leading him to.

You can find pictures of the school here

We finished up the evening back at La Movida, where the pizza is amazing and the gospel centered conversations with Steve, Julio and Mercy were even better.

July 9, 2011~ Dominican Republic

Today has been full of great things. We started off eating breakfast down at Chez Irene. We invited Julio and Mercy this morning so they could meet Irene and continue the relationship after we leave. They have already invited her to a local church they attend here in the area.

After breakfast we headed to Boca Chica to check out all the baseball games that were being played by the players who are at the baseball academies that are owned and operated by the big leagues. We were able to see the Reds, Diamondbacks, Orioles, Twins, Cubs, Marlins, Rangers and Mets organizations. You can see pictures here

When we left there, we headed to eat lunch with Vincent and his friend Max. Vincent is a close friend of Julio and Mercy. He is from Italy and comes here for business mostly but sometimes he visits just for pleasure. This trip is just for pleasure. Vincent is a great guy and his friend Max served as a representative for the Italians here in the Dominican for a while but he has ventured out on his own into some other areas of business, mainly helping people see what this country is all about. Did I tell you that Max speaks like 4 or 5 different languages? These two connections were great to make and we will be spending some time with both in the near future.

We left lunch and headed towards Monte Largo, where we were able to meet with Pastor Manny and discuss some ministry projects. We also had the privilege of being able to provide a meal for this community. For many of them, it was probably the only meal that they were able to eat all day. There are some pictures of the church and the people here

We ended the evening down the street at La Movida, where I had Hawaiian Pizza with fresh pineapple and ham on it. It was by far the best Hawaiian pizza I have ever had. We spent the night continuing conversations about our future ministry trips and ministry partnerships. I love these people

July 8, 2011~ Dominican Republic

Today has been a great day of amazing Gospel centered conversations. We went back down to Chez Irene for breakfast and continued our conversation with Irene, our new 75yr old friend from Sweden who runs Chez Irene out of the front of her house. She thinks the Bible has a lot of great things for us to think about but doesn't necessarily believe that there is anything that is 100 percent true. She loves and studies humanistic thinking, even though she was once married to a pastor and grew up in a pentecostal home.

After breakfast we headed to Santo Domingo where we met with the headmaster of a walked christian school in town that educates close to 180 students from K-8th grade. This school reminds us a lot of GCS back home. They have learned to do a lot with a little. The headmaster is a man who loves the Lord and frequently told us that everything they do at this school is based on the gospel. you can watch the video here



We then headed to Boca Chica where we ate lunch and talked with Julio and Mercy about all the the Lord is doing and dreamed about future ministry together. We then went to what they call the Boca Chica Baseball Complex. This is where many of the major league teams have some of their farm leagues. as we drove through a portion of the complex we saw the Cubs, Soxs, Twins, Reds, Orioles, and Diamondbacks field houses. They start games at 10am tomorrow, so after we go down and visit with Irene, we will head to Boca Chica to watch some baseball.

We ended the evening with dinner at BocaMarina which is awesome. There is a picture posted on my Facebook Page . I have always loved the Dominican Republic but I am falling more and more in love with it daily. I love the conversations we are having about the gospel and ministry opportunities that lie ahead of us in the near future.

Tomorrow, we will be heading out to see Pastor Manny and his church plant in Monte Largo. We are actually going to be able to provide a meal for the people there. I am excited about sitting down with Pastor Manny and talking about what all the Lord has done since our last visit in December. He has already expressed the need for shoes for the people of Monte Largo. This will be something we will be looking at in the very near future.

July 7, 2011~ Dominican Republic

I am back in the Dominican Republic. We will be bringing some students here in December and we are trying to put some final details together for that trip. I woke up this morning and was able to spend some time studying the scriptures as I gazed out over my balcony into God's beautiful creation.


I love spending time with Julio and Mercy, they are great friends and serve as amazing ministry contacts here in the Dominican Republic. We are praying for some very big God sized things to take place in the future.



We walked down the street this morning looking for some breakfast. I noticed a sign that said, "we speak English, Spanish and French". I walked up to the lady and asked her is they served breakfast. She replied, "what do you want? would you like eggs and ham and coffee?" Of course, I could not refuse so I tole her yes. We sat down and I watched her walk down the street to the market and come back with some eggs. Not too long later, I had fresh scrambled eggs, ham, bread and hot coffee sitting in front of me.

As we ate, we carried on a conversation with Irene. She is from Sweden and has lived her since 2000 when she moved here with her husband. After talking for a little bit, she told us that her husband had passed away in 2002 and she has been living here ever since running this bar cafe'/bar out of the front of her building. We asked her how often she makes lunch, since breakfast was so good. That is when we found out that she doesn't really serve food anymore, because she leases out the space next to her to the restaurant that wasn't open at that time during the morning. I have to be honest, I love the fact that she made us breakfast. The people here seem to be so real. Of course, lets be honest she knew we were not from here and knew she could make a few bucks. So after spending 3.00 on breakfast, we continued our conversation which led to her telling us that she was a retired teacher. We told her we were teachers and that I was a pastor and she began to tell us how she grew up in a pentecostal family.

After several minutes, she told me that she had studied religion but in the humanistic sense. She said she knew nothing was 100 percent true but she knew the Bible had a lot of great things in it to align our lives with. I plan of going and having breakfast a few more times this week, so I can continue my conversation with Irene. Will you pray for her? Will you pray for more gospel moments with her? Will you pray for more gospel centered conversations for us, while we are here?

We went to lunch with Julio and Mercy and then spend some time driving around looking at possible lodging for our mission teams. We will be looking at some other possible ministry sites as well. Pray for our time with the schools we will visit and our time in Monte Largo and Dos Hermanos.

Reflections From Sunday

This past Sunday at Gateway Fellowship, we discussed Altars and Monuments. If you missed the service you can catch it here at June5@GatewayTV . This week we looked at what it means to live our lives in such a fashion that we are SENT. We also reflected on all of the altars that have been built in our individual lives and the life of Gateway Fellowship Church. God has been good!! If you were not able to be here this past Sunday, you can catch the service here at June12@GatewayTV

We gave ourselves a challenge a couple weeks ago. We submitted ourselves to reading the book of Philippians as a way of reminding us about rejoicing and joy. The words "rejoice" or "joy" are used more than 15 times in this 4 chapter letter that Paul writes to the saints in Philippi.

Here is a link that you can use to read this letter this week::
Philippians

Here are a few ways to stay connected with our church::

Gateway Fellowship Facebook
Gateway Fellowship Twitter

Here are a few things coming up in the life of our church::

...Men's Breakfast, Saturday, June 18 @ 8am @GFchurch
...Jammies & Java, Saturday , June 25 @ 9am @ The Fonfara's
...Family Luncheon, Sunday, June 26 immediately following the service


ConnectGroup Schedule::

WedNite @ 7pm @ The Brown's
ThursNite @ 7pm @ The Snow's



I love our church
I love our people
I love our team
I love what He is doing in us
I love what He is doing to us
I love what He is doing through us