We're Here!

We made it to the Hotel about 9:00 local time on Wednesday night, and have already started working hard.

The men's construction team (Ken, Mike W., Scott, Eric, Zach) built cages for the concrete foundation yesterday and used a machine to help them work quickly.

Suzanne did caricatures yesterday at the university and lead a local bible study for some of the local ladies. The ladies in Suzanne's group made Holy Spirit Beaded necklaces.

Sandi and Jamie had bible study at another house in the area. Sandi talked about seeing God and the ladies made fun sun glasses.

In the afternoon Mike M., Tori, Page, and Tricia had story time with the local children about Daniel and the lions den. They had about 100 children come to the park for story time and games.

Please pray for strength and patience for the day. Pray for Mike M's driving as he has been driving everyone around time to activities. We are all dragging a little this morning for a long day yesterday.

Must run but will try to keep everyone updated.

All the Way our Savior Leads Us

Mike W and Sandi leave at 5:45 am and Mike M, Paige, Tori, Tricia, Suzanne, Scott, Eric, Jamie, Zach & Ken leave at 7:30 am. We will meet up in Miami. If we stay on schedule we should arrive in Santo Domingo a little after 3:00 and then begin our journey in vans to Barahona. We should arrive at our hotel by 8:00. Please pray that all of us and our luggage arrive safely. We will try to keep you posted along the way. Which reminds me of the song, "All the Way my Savior Leads Me" and we're trusting him to do just that.

Arapaho Road Baptist Church is A Church that Loves the Whole World and we are participating with several other churches in spreading the love of Jesus Christ to the people living in and around Barahona, Dominican Republic this summer. From July 4-11, 2012 the Arapaho Road team needs your prayers as we work on the construction of a wall of the chapel, do Bible studies with adults and children, show the movie "Courageous" in Spanish, and converse with 80 English students at two universities in Barahona. Pray also for Pastor Franklin and retired missionary Paul Siebenmann as they prepare for our arrival. Pray for the machinery and all of the arrangements that need to be made in order for us to construction the wall of the chapel while we are there.



Watch this page and/or our facebook page at www.facebook.com/arapahoroadmissions to see what's happening! While you all are watching Fouth of July Fireworks, we will be traveling and preparing to share God's light in Barahona.

2011 Mission Trip

Postings from 2011 Mission Trip
July 14, 2011

Following a Bible lesson on the Kingdom of God, imagine this group saying the Lord's prayer in English, Creole & Spanish all at the same time, then holding their hands out to receive a blessing as we do each Sunday at ARBC. It was a blessing for Rhonda and Sandi to experience this with these wonderful people!

July 2011

Latest 2011 construction photos (7 photos) (See more on Facebook.com/ArapahoRoadMissions)

The side column by the tree will be done tomorrow and one of the sides column of the front door. and some pouring of concrete over the beams make of the blocks.

Thank you Ken for all you have done for us!
Lord Bless you !
Franklin

July 13, 2011

First thing this morning Paul got Steve and David off to the bus station for a bus ride to Santo Domingo to catch their 4:00 p.m. flight. Pastor Marthyn that we worked with in Santo Domingo was meeting them there to take them to the airport. They will arrive late tonight - continue to pray their safe travels. The kids played games in the park again and Suzanne did caricatures this morning. The games group taught the kids to play 4 square today - they are thinking about teaching them bowling with coke bottles tomorrow. Rhonda and Sandi took Johnny (the translator that speaks English, French, Spanish & Creole) and they went visiting in the area around the Haitian church. What we discovered was that many of the people around the church and attending the church are not only Haitian, but Dominican (Spanish-speaking) and are happily worshiping together - with a Haitian pastor. We met a sweet couple at one home. The wife was blind and you could tell they really loved each other. He was 83 years old, she looked a little younger, but when she came out, he walked over to kiss her and later wanted to kiss her in the photo below.

After lunch break the we had Bible studies at the Haitian church and the blind church. At the blind church they had about 6 adults waiting on their arrival and eventually had about 11 adults. Also, about 15 kids participated in the children's Bible study. Sandi & Rhonda had about 15 adults at their Bible study at the Haitian church. For some reason it takes the people a long time to get there - so Johnny went out to round them up. We realized that they may not have clocks in their homes or maybe time just isn't as important to them as it is to us. There were about 40 kids at the kids Bible study there and it was led by the Glovers. Both groups are expecting more tomorrow!

The construction crew just got back and the photo below is of the curved wall on the front right corner. We have the right hand wall halfway up and the back wall is complete. Mike has the rebar ready to go for the motor entry columns. The front wall is under construction and will be halfway completed tomorrow. Mike Motley - Ken is sorry but he replaced you with Mike Whisenant as his rebar bender. Hey Steve, Ken had to hire 3 Haitians to replace you! We miss you!

July 10, 2011

Payton, Tori & Tricia singing with the kids when we were prayer walking.

 

Please pray for the following 21 people who will be serving on the Dominican Republic mission team July 8-16: Suzanne Berry, A.C. Blair, Ken Bownds, Rhonda Bownds, Bobby Bownds, Scott Everett, Caidon George, Kathy Glover, Steve Glover, Jeremy Glover, Andre Glover, Patrick Pryor, Miriam Rivera, David Rogers, Steve Runnels, Payton Runnels, Paul Siebenmann, Tricia Simmons, Tori Turner, Mike Whisenant & Sandi Whisenant. There will be a special prayer time for the team during the worship service on July 3.

Our schedule includes David preaching at Sunday services to a Haitian church, a blind church, and the church that meets on the property we purchased for them last year. David will also be sharing his testimony at a men's Bible study, the prison in Barahona, and the fire station. We will also cook breakfast for the firmen, have afternoon bible studies for women and children; play games with kids each morning; work side-by-side with Dominicans and Haitians constructing a concrete block wall on the church property; visit and pray with families in the neighborhood of the church and pray with teachers in the local school and present them with some Spanish language children's books; have a movie night at the ball field; do caricatures at the local park and fire station; meet with teens to follow up with their promise from last year's purity discussion groups; meet with men and women to help them with their budgets; identify those that we can help with physical needs and encourage and enable church members to meet those needs; and whatever else God calls us to do that week.

If the wi-fi connection allows us to we will update this blog as we can.

Barahona Here We Come!