Dominican Republic Update!

Hello! Hola! Bonjour!

I have been in the Dominican Republic for the past four weeks and it has been full of so much goodness. I pray that this email finds you walking in faith and delighting in the Lord always. I have made a YouTube video update as well which you can find linked at the bottom!!

Ministry

We have been working with Mission of Hope at their new base in Jarabacoa. The base is surrounded by the beautiful Dominican mountains, and everyday I wake up I am reminded of the glory and majesty of the Lord!

Ministry here has looked a lot like helping out around the base by macheting large amounts of grass, cleaning out dorms to make room for more teams to come, painting, and helping babysit some of the long term missionaries kids!! Even in these seemingly mundane tasks I have learned to abide in the Lord more and more.

Because of the rising tension in Haiti, there has been a lot of Haitians coming to the DR for refuge. However, not everyone is the most welcoming towards them and they can often feel outcasted and discriminated against. One thing our squad was able to do was go into Santiago to teach English at a local Haitian school. Here we were able to love on the Haitian community and support them during this difficult time.

While in Santiago we got to evangelize, which Mission of Hope calls strategic ministry time or SMT. We had numerous conversations with both Dominicans and Haitians and encourage them with the word of God! One day during SMT, we were having a conversation with an older gentlemen named Daniel who was already a follower of Jesus and had 7 kids. Daniel spoke Creole, so praise the Lord for our translator or else we wouldn’t be able to speak to him. I read to him Psalm 1 and was talking about the importance of meditating on and delighting in the word of God. I then asked him if he had a Bible and he said no. This broke my heart and I could see he desired to know God and know His word. I was thinking about how easily accesible the word of God is for me, but for a lot of people around the world this isn’t their reality. I didn’t have a Creole Bible on hand and had no idea where to get one, but then our translator, Reggie, pulled out a Creole New Testament Bible and handed it to Daniel. Daniel’s face immediately lit up!!!! He now had his own copy of the words of his beloved savior! To hear and read the words of the One who has saved your life is an amazing gift, and now Daniel gets to read and meditate on these words and share them with his kids!!!!!

The last week at Mission of Hope I was given the opportunity from MOH staff to step into a leadership role and be an intern. As an intern I helped lead a short term church group named Pathway church from Indiana!!! Through this experience I felt unqualified and not equipped, however over and over again the Lord reminded me that His grace is sufficient for me and His power is made perfect in my weakness! We got to help a member of the local church rebuild her roof, package over 80 bags full of grocery’s for families in the community, and go out and evangelize! The people of Pathway church were such an encouragement to me and it was a joy to get to serve with them.

Our teams have split up to go to different ministries in the DR for the next three weeks! My team is at Hope Mountain which is near Puerto Plata. It was difficult to leave Mission of Hope because of all the amazing people I met there, but I am expectant for all the Lord will continue to do!!

Extras

One thing I have loved since being on the race has been experiencing different cultures worship! Hearing worship in Creole, which is the Haitian language, reminded me of the sound of heaven!!! With rejoicing, dancing, and drums it sounded like symphony of the redeemed, kids from all nations joining together to praise their Heavenly Father!!

Half of the girls on my squad got lice and we spent countless hours combing through our hair and shampooing more than ever before lol. I am grateful that our base had washers and dryers so we could wash our sheets and clothes!! In this is was a chance to consider it all joy 😉

My birthday was on January 29th and it was such a fun time to get to celebrate with my squad and praise God for another year of life!!

Encouragement

Recently I have been reminded to simply remain in the steadfastness of the Lord! Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Ministry will always look different where we go but in 2 Corinthians 5 Paul talks about how we have received the ministry of reconciliation because we have been reconciled with God!!! So no matter where we go or what we do we have been called to be Christ’s ambassadors here on earth and bring His good news to everyone around us.

Prayer requests

• Pray that I would continue to abide with the Lord and walk with His spirit (John 15 & Galatians 5:16-25).
• Pray that my squad would be armed with the full armor of God and that we would be able to preach the word with all boldness (Ephesians 6).
• Pray for Mission of Hope that the Lord would establish their ministry on His love and truth and that they would be His witness here in Jarabacoa to bring unity in the body of Christ.
• Pray that we would not grow tired in doing good but would remain steadfast in the love of God (Galatians 6:9).
• Pray for wisdom and discernment as I begin to decide what the Lord has in store for next year (Ephesians 1:15-22).

What’s next

On March 3rd my squad will be traveling to our last country, Eswatini!! In March our parents will be coming to do ministry with us for a week and my sweet momma is coming!!!!! After Eswatini we will be in Fort Myers, Florida for two weeks helping with relief from the hurricane in October. And then we will end the race with a final debrief in Gainesville, Georgia! As for after the race I am still praying about what the Lord would be leading me to do next. There are a lot of different opportunities and things I could do, however I know that He has simply asked me to seek first His kingdom and everything else with follow (Matthew 6:33).

Please let me know if there is anyway that I can be praying for you! Keep loving the Lord and loving your neighbor.

Video

Photos

Maranatha