Ministry in the Dominican Republic!

Ministry here in the DR has been so so sweet! I thought I would share with you guys a little bit about what it looks like and some of the fruit that’s come out of it!

Strategic Ministry Time (SMT)  usually looks like partnering with a pastor, often over the course of a week, and going out into the community around their church. Pastors will direct us to specific villages, and we go door to door evangelizing. Evangelism doesn’t have to look like verbally sharing the gospel, while it’s something we do every frequently. Often times, it looks like just being a listening ear, showing the character of christ through the way we carry ourselves, bringing joy and love to places of pain and loneliness, offering prayer, and more. Each team (5 to 6 people) has a translator, who guides the team as to where to go, introduces us, and asks if we can talk with them. If the person says yes, we usually start off asking basic questions to get to know the person a little more, such as whether or not they are married and have kids, how long they’ve lived there, where they’re from, etc. I love getting to know people’s stories, and I like to ask them if they are willing to share. Once we feel we know the person a little better, we ask them questions about what their relationship with the Lord looks like. We try to gage if there are any misconceptions, fears, or things keeping them from the Lord, and share truth over those things. We pray and ask the Lord if there is anything he wants to say to that specific person. We ask if there are any specific prayer requests, and close out our time in prayer. 

We’ve seen the Lord move so much during SMT already. There have been multiple salvations, people have received healing, freedom from addiction, had spaces to bring pain to the light, and so much more. 

On Sundays, we go to a Haitian church and do a Bible study with young adults afterwards. The Lord has blessed Gap D immensely in having the opportunity to be a part of the community here. We’ve gotten to start forming relationships with those in the church, and experience how they pursue the Lord. While we can’t understand the words being spoken (we don’t have a translator during the service,) we can feel the spirit moving so much, we can see that it is literally heaven on earth. The people are hungry for the Lord and so freely worship him with their everything. Despite material poverty, these people are rich in spirit and clearly fulfilled by the Lord. 

I wanted to leave you all with a story from ministry! Last week, I had been praying for more boldness in ministry, that the Lord would use me to speak to the people we were ministering to. We split up into our groups and went out for the day. Our translator knocked on a half open gate, to find a woman and her children doing laundry. We asked if we could talk, and she said yes. We asked her about her home, her kids, work, and more. Eventually we asked the question: “Do you go to church?” She responded with “No.” We asked her if she wanted to go to church, and she said yes, but that she wasn’t ready. We asked her why she wasn’t ready, and she explained that she had to pay sacrifices to Satan in order to be clean first. My team found ourselves turning to each other in confusion. Our translator explained how it is a Haitian voodoo tradition practiced by many. I got to share scripture with her (Hosea 6:6) and my teammates did the same. We explained the true gospel and how she could accept Jesus right then and there, that she didn’t need to perform any sacrifice because of His. She said she wanted to accept Jesus, so we prayed with her to accept Christ! We got her contact information so she could get plugged into the local church we were working with. This is just one of the many stories I’ll treasure from our time here- I will do my best to share more! 

Prayer requests:

• That we would press into our last few weeks of the race in every way possible!

• I am fundraising for CGA! Please pray the Lord would bring donors and ask him if he’s calling you to be a part of my journey! I am doing $20 on the 20th and have a goal of $1,000, so please be praying the Lord would move big and give if you’re able!! Please reach out with any questions!!

• Health and rest! Our squad has had a lot of sickness and injury lately, and our ministry can be very exhausting physically, mentally, and spiritually. We want to be filled up so we can pour out!

Thanks for reading 🙂