Hey everyone! I am in the Dominican Republic for the next couple months to finish out the race! I have been here for about a weeks time now. I first off want to thank you all for your continued prayers, support, and encouraging words. I want all of you at home to know you have made an impact on my journey! 

This week in the Dominican has been interesting to say the least. We got to live alongside two different groups from the states who were on week-long mission trips. What a blessing that was! During worship that first day, I felt an overwhelming amount of joy for the time that we were going to have with them. It was a big blessing to us and them! 

Ministry: 

What does our ministry look like? Let me tell you! It has been so exciting. We go out from around 8:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon, simply walking around the communities, seeing if others would be willing to talk with us. Building relationships with local communities. The first day, when we met our translator, he asked if we knew what was going on because he didn’t. We thought at first they had specific homes for us to go to, but it ended up that we just walked around asking those we saw to talk. Unexpected… Uncomfortable… but man has it been fruitful already.

First day:

The first person we talked to was a mechanic. He was working on a car and was willing to stop what he was doing to talk with us. We got to know him a bit, encourage him, and pray for him. Second, we went down this little, stone community and met these three guys. The older man was a Christian who met Jesus while he was in jail. He got into some trouble at the jail, and when he was sent to the hospital, the lady that took care of him told him about Jesus. Crazy! The other two guys were younger and they work construction. One of them was a Christian, and the other guy was not. After long conversation, sitting down with them all for a couple hours, we got to pray for the young man who wasn’t a believer to accept Jesus into his heart. What a blessing to be God’s hands and feet! That we had the opportunity to be a part of that!

At lunch time, I got to talk a lot with our bus driver. He is such a sweet man. Fruitful relationships have already began to manifest and I am so thankful for that!

In the afternoon, we talked to a man who believed in a very energy-oriented higher power. He believed in God, but he also believed energy was higher than God and that God had to take some energy to make the world as a light in the darkness. We talked with him the whole afternoon and got to learn a lot about what he believed. We hope to go back and continue to talk with him again.

Second day:

All morning we played basketball with guys at a park. We hopped in with them, bonding together over basketball. We talked to them at the end, sharing some testimonies and we hope to play with them again. It was such a cool way God used the time. After that we talked to a young couple with a baby on the way. It was so clear that God had a purpose for us to talk with them. They invited Jesus back into their lives at the end of our conversation! Then we prayed for an older lady and gave her a lot of encouragement amidst the pain she was going through.

So far we have only had two days of ministry, but in only two days, God has worked in such big ways! I am excited to see how He continues to move and use us in this time. This place holds something big, and I’m very expectant for what is to come!