Catching Up

Pastor Franklin & Mike Motley at Men's Bible study

FRIDAY: The construction team got the footer poured and it's ready for block tomorrow. They negotiated paying the workers by the block so we hope the project will come out less expensive. Sergio and Mike placed a Bible verse at the corner written in the cement. I asked if they had been drinking plenty of water and Zach said yes until Ken put the ice cold blue Powerade in the cement! Tori did her self defense class for about 20 kids - rather than teens, but they enjoyed it and wanted to ride with us in the van to the ball park but that wasn't possible.  They ran and beat us there anyway! Many kids were at the park today - too many to count. Jamie's ladies Bible study made barrettes with about 20 ladies. Suzanne's Bible study had 30+ ladies. This morning we went prayer walking around the park and prayed with many people. One lady we prayed with asked us to pray for her daughter who was having gallbladder surgery as we were praying. She was very worried about her daughter and grateful for our prayers. We prayed for jobs, health, and even a young woman who wanted to make a change in her life. She said that every time she prayed she got a headache. We told her that was Satan trying to keep her from praying and not to stop.  Mike M & Paul are at the men's Bible study tonight. Time to eat dinner, but I think we are the dinner for the mosquitoes!

SATURDAY: The construction guys and helpers laid 800 block today. It was a long hard day for them and they didn’t get to enjoy the beach in San Raphael, but they got a lot done. Ken gave his tennis shoes to one of the Haitian workers and told him not to sell them or he would be fired. So Mike washed the mans feet, and when Mike walked away as he was putting the shoes on, a couple of men came up and asked for his shoes and he gave them to him probably for a price. But…when Ken found out he told him to either go back and get his shoes or not come back. I think Ken got his shoes back. 

The rest of the group went to the beach with 45 young people from Barahona. Everyone seemed to have a great time. There were a lot of people at the beach, but it was beautiful. We also made a craft with them. Everyone had to pick up a rock from the beach and Sandi had wire and beads to wrap around the rock to make a photo holder. Even the guys wanted to do the craft as well as the jewelry salesman watching. He wrapped the wire around a piece of larimar!  Then we came back to the hotel and the worship team of the church and translators had dinner and fellowship with us. They are such fun people. Later, the worship team practiced the music they would be presenting Sunday morning.  We will be posting some videos when we get back. 

SUNDAY: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZANNE!!! We went to three church services today. We first went to the Haitian church at 9:00. A few people gave there testimonies at the end of the service. Fernando, the Haitian pastor shared his recent testimony about losing his job at the hotel. He is trusting God to provide at new one or he will have to return to his family in Haiti. Zach lead the children's story today, he spoke about David and Goliath. We then came back and had lunch at the hotel with the translators. We shared peanut butter and jelly, Dominican crackers, cashews, and bananas. We then went to the blind church at 2:30. We meet many of our old friends and shared lots of hugs. Some of the ladies even brought out the crowns that Suzanne had given them at a bible study last year. One of the church members named Ray is in the hospital at Santo Domingo with stomach cancer. Suzanne and Sandi took some special time to pray with his wife.  After that we rushed over to the "downtown" Church that we have been working with all week. We meet at the back of the property where Sergio (one of the church members) spent all day Saturday smoothing out and scraping down the dirt for Sunday's service. We had a shaded area to sit during the worship. The shade was provided by the center block wall the men had built last year. The music was both in Spanish and English. Mike and Page joined the local worship team and they also sang a duet. The last sermon was all in Spanish, but we were told there were a lot of visitors at the service tonight and Paul gave an evangelistic message. Scott was the most awesome Goliath tonight for the children's story. When the part of the story came when David hit Goliath with the stone Scott fell off of the half wall he was standing on (so he could be tall.) We all thought Scott had fallen down on accident and maybe even passed out, but we found out after checking on him that he was just a great actor. Most of the group went to the showing of the movie Courageous in Spanish tonight. Many lives were touched by the messages today including ours.  

Continued Sunday night *On a side note we just heard Suzanne scream out her room because she had a crab wanting to keep her company.

MONDAY: Monday morning the construction workers went to prepare the stage area for the concrete to be poured. They also worked on finishing the walls for the stage area. Suzanne went to the park to caricature and the rest of the group went to the local university to converse with the students in the morning classes. We helped them practice their English and we also had the opportunity to share our testimonies with them. Then everyone but the construction group came back to the hotel for a quick lunch and then was out again. In the afternoon all but the construction team went back to the university to converse with the afternoon classes. We did similar things with the students in the afternoon. We had two ladies Bibles studies again today, one lead by Susanne and the other by Sandi. The ladies groups were still large around 25-30 people. After that all the groups meet back at the hotel. Some of the group went to the beach that is close to the hotel. The construction men got to wash their dirt off in the salt water. We also had some local vendors come to sell larimar, paintings, coconut jewelry and various other souvenirs. We had a great time shopping and some of us picked up a few gifts for our family back home. For dinner we had some fish and rice, it reminded us of a New Orleans dish.

TUESDAY: Today the construction team is working on pouring the concrete for the stage. We went to the university again today and had a great time with the students helping them with their English conversation. It has been interesting to find out about their life in the Dominican Republic. Some were from other towns and had to ride their bikes into town or were staying with someone in town so they could attend classes. Some were married, but most were single. Most weren’t working so that they could spend most of their time learning English. Many of their parents didn’t want them working until they got out of school. Others were learning English to help them in their job. Occupations they were studying for were architecture, doctors/pediatricians, nurses, teachers, and others. They all wanted to know what Dominican food we had eaten while we were there. The students kept asking us if we had tried Mondongo, and I thought they were saying McDonalds! Mike Motley came home with the recipe. Hope Jackie likes it! They also told us about the “Dominican Flag” which is chicken, rice & beans. We gave each student a journal, bookmark, Christian tract, and a pen and they were so appreciative. We encouraged them to write their stories, thoughts, prayers, praises, etc. in these journals. One student who was serving in a church said she would write about what she had read in the Bible each morning. One student I met on Monday told me the story of how Jesus had completely changed his life two weeks prior to our coming. He had accepted Jesus as his savior and had given up a life of alcohol. He said his parents couldn’t trust him – they would give him money and he would waste it on alcohol or girls. Now he said they were able to trust him again. I encouraged him to continue to attend church and trust God to continue his transformation. Pray for this young man – can’t remember his name, but I can remember his face. There were others who shared their testimonies of belief in God as we shared our testimonies. Two young men from the US who are missionaries with an organization are staying with Pastor Franklin and are also working with these students. They said they are very open to talking about their faith or their lives without God and are asking many questions. We also gave one of our mission trip T-shirts to each teacher and we had two RoughRider baseball caps to give two of the teachers also. Following the morning and afternoon classes we went to the baseball field area again to work with children and ladies. Again many children enjoyed the Bible story and activities. Mike M finished giving out his Goldfish crackers so he wouldn’t have to go home with them – but they were given to the children who came and heard the story and participated in the activities. The ladies groups were full again with 25-40 ladies and again lots of hugs of appreciation. During their hugs you can feel our mutual love for Jesus passing through us. Not knowing the language gives you the opportunity to just look at each other and know that Jesus is speaking through your touch. LOVE these women! Following these activities we went to the church site and had a closing time with music, sharing, and goodbye hugs. While we were beginning the closing time the construction workers were pouring the last of the concrete for the slab and the cross in the window. They finished about halfway through and came as they were (very dirty and tired) to the praise of the people. The construction workers were church members, mission team members, Haitians, and neighbors. Franklin is encouraging the church to help do more work on the property through the year – there is much they can do – even without much money. Pray that they will accept that challenge. Back at the hotel we packed our bags, ate another delicious meal prepared by Robby the chef, and shared the day with each other. Ken will remain in Barahona through part of Saturday and will return to Dallas on Sunday.

Pray for Ken and all of the people we met. Pray also for the North Monroe group that is coming at the end of next week. They will continue working with the same people and will hopefully be installing bars and gates on the property.

Please know that your prayers were felt. We can testify to the power of your prayers for us during this trip. We had no serious injuries, on-time flights, strength to withstand the heat, money to do the project and stories to tell when we got back. Thank you!