Day 4

Hey,
Greetings from the DR! I wanted to start off by thanking you for your prayers! They are much appreciated. God is doing some great things in each of our lives and we will not leave this trip the same.

Last night, my friend and local Pastor, Mike Williams, asked our Pastor if he’d like to join him in visiting one of the local Pastors here in town. The local Pastor is actually one of the ones that we donated clothes for. His son just had surgery and they were going to see how he was doing. I know Pastor will share more with you in the upcoming weeks, but I know he was asked to share from the Word and pray with the family.

Today was a great day. We went to the village of Bombista , where New Missions holds church services and has a School. Before we went, Mike Williams, lead the whole team in a devotional. After he spoke, a few of us made decisions to start sponsoring a child. The cool part is, we were all able to meet them today because they were all in the village of Bombista !

The students today were a little easier to work with because they were better behaved and used to the school setting. Yesterday’s kids were tough, but it made us realize how much they need to see the love of Christ. They aren’t used to church and being in that setting because it isn’t readily available to them. Somehow these kids in Bombista who meet in a tent and have dogs running around are blessed. Yesterday’s kids need to see more of the love of Christ and we thank God that New Missions is bringing it to them.

On a personal note, I got to meet my new sponsored child, Lisandro. He was very shy, but the interpreter explained to him that I would be doing (sending letters, money, pictures) he started to smile. At the end of the day when we all loaded on the truck, I looked out and he was staring at me. When we made eye contact he got a huge smile and started waiving good-bye. It was awesome! I will be seeing him on Friday at the organized game day. His mother works, but they are trying to see if they can get her to come, so I can meet her as well.

This afternoon was our free time. Pastor, Jen, Gail, and Jess went up a mountain in Puerto Plata. I don’t know much of what happened, but I do know they got stuck up there during a heavy rain storm and then had to ride a cable car down in heavy wind and rain. I wish I could’ve been there.

Myself, Alex, Austin, and Mike went snorkeling with a group from Orlando . It was great. They took us to 2 spots, one place where the reef was deeper below us, and another where we literally were able to swim through the reef. We also were able to get a wonderful nasal cleansing with salt water. I also invited our guide to come to church with us later that night and he came! We think he may somehow be related to the family of the girl Pastor is sponsoring.

Finally, we went to a Spanish Church service back in Bombista. By no means is there worship high tech or refined by any means, but their hearts are beautiful and I know that God is more then pleased! There were many distractions, sound issues (and somehow I became the sound guy who fixed them), kids running around (including on to the stage), a torrential down pour, and even a dog coming in and looking for pets (which I gave and I hope he didn’t give me anything in return!), and a woman even challenged the Pastor in the middle of his sermon because she didn’t believe the Bible said what he was preaching! In the midst of all this, the Gospel was preached, and God was glorified.

Keep tomorrow in your prayers because it will be a pinnacle day on our trip. In VBS there will be an invitation to Salvation. Then in the afternoon, we will be heading to Redemption village. From what I hear it is where the poorest of the poor are. We will be meeting families, going into homes and praying. Thanks again for your support.

PS- Check out this video of something we’ve been doing in our spare time. We even got a random hotel guest to join us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgcrV3w19LM

Dave