HEY YALL! Here’s an overview of the past couple of months! Team Revel split up, went to an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua called Ometepe, and did ministry at a school/orphanage called CIRCEN. Squad L reunited for Christmas and New Year’s. We finished up ministry at REAP and went to Jaco, Costa Rica for a midpoint debrief! Debrief was a week of rest and lots of time at the beach. After debrief we flew to the…
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC!!
We are working with a ministry called Mission of Hope. Their main focus is relational ministry and getting community members connected to local churches. Mission of Hope recently moved to a new campus so part of our ministry is helping them start up this campus. This looks like cleaning up the grounds and organizing things in storage. The other part of ministry is going into a city called Santiago and working at a school teaching Spanish and English to kids in grades Pre-K to 5th grade. We also do something called SMT which is Strategic Ministry Time. This looks like us partnering with local pastors and going and talking to community members, and encouraging them to get plugged into a local church. SMT is a spiritually heavy experience. The DR has a lot of Haitian refugees who came looking for a better life. It’s hard for them to find what they are looking for because there is so much strife between Haitians and Dominicans. Haiti is HEAVILY influenced by voodoo which leaves a mark on the Haitian people. When we go out, we are mainly reaching Haitians.
Our first week here has definitely been full! We split our squad into two groups; one group stays on campus and the other group goes into the city. This past week I was in the group that went to Santiago. On Monday and Tuesday, we taught at the school till lunch then went out to do SMT. On Wednesday and Thursday, we did full days of SMT. While doing SMT, we always ask if they know Jesus, have a relationship with Jesus, and if they go to church. Common answers we hear are “Yes. I know Jesus.” My relationship with him isn’t very good right now.” “I don’t go to church because I don’t have nice clothes but I want to start going.” You can always tell who is serious about having a relationship with Jesus and who is just saying because they don’t really want to hear what we have to say. There was one girl we met who was so joyful and very receptive to all we had to say. She is planning on meeting with the pastor and connecting with his church! There was another girl who was not receptive to us at all. She said she was a Christian who accepted Christ a year ago. Our group could tell that she was just saying that because she didn’t want to hear what we had to say. She didn’t even make eye contact with us. These are the two common types of Haitians we encounter.
Some fun things about being in the DR
- The base is in a mountain so it gets COLD at night… like sleep in a sleeping bag cold
- Most people here speak creole, Spanish, and sometimes French too. The kids at the school we teach at speak Creole, are learning French, and we are teaching them Spanish and English. Lots of different languages around here
- We attend Haitian church!! We get to listen to worship and a message in Creole. It’s pretty cool!
- There is a church on our base. Our very own space to do squad worship and personal devotion time!!
Prayer requests
- open and receptive hearts of those we are ministering to
- Continual strength and energy for daily ministry
- Blessings over Mission of Hope as they start up a new base and continue to reach community members.
Love y’all
Kate
