Day 4: Spreading God’s Word and Building Relationships

It’s was a beautiful, hot day in the Dominican Republic with no clouds or rain like the two previous days. We went on a short ride to another community where HMM has a children’s church. We handed out the rest of the rice and beans that we packed to families in the community.

We stopped at a store with many children out front. We gave them salvation bracelets and explained the gospel through the colors. One of the little girls has a 14 year old sister in the hospital. She is pregnant and had some sort of accident that hurt the baby. The family is very concerned she will have a miscarriage. We prayed for her and the baby’s health with both the sister and then went next door to pray with her mother.

We met two young women with three children each. They had Christian music playing in their house very loudly, their children were well kept, and they had beautiful curtains in their home. They were very nice and welcomed our conversation.

The next house had two women sitting outside. They are Haitian women so one only spoke Creole, and we weren’t able the communicate with her. She is 8 months pregnant with her first child, a little girl. The other women spoke Spanish. She told us that she does not know Jesus so we shared the gospel through the salvation bracelet. I felt like I could have asked more questions or stayed longer to tell her more about Jesus. But I reminded myself that sometimes God sends us to plant seeds, others to water them, and then only God can save them. Romans 10:15 says “And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”” We obey God when we share his love and son, Jesus Christ, with others. We are obedient to bring the good news of the Gospel, and God takes care of the rest. The woman only had a Spanish bible which she is unable to read so Stacey took her several bible tracks in Creole. Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” She definitely heard the word about Christ and now has a way to read it as well. We are looking for a Creole bible to take back to her. I am praying for her salvation in Jesus Christ and while I may never see her again on this earth, I pray I see her beautiful smile one day in Heaven.

Isn’t that an amazing thought? That one day in Heaven we may see and recognize all of the people we planted seeds with on earth. We will all walk hand in hand, praising the Lord, that he allowed our earthly paths to cross.

One of our teams had three people who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Praise the Lord for saving us from ourselves.

This afternoon we had children’s church again but in a different community. I don’t think these children have as many groups come to see them as the people around the HMM compound so they were very excited. Around HMM they tell the children that church is at 2pm so they actually show up at 3pm when church really starts! In the new community, we pulled down the street at 2pm and all the children were already waiting for us. They screamed with excitement and anticipation for the church doors to open. We had a wonderful time telling the story of Noah’s ark and making turtle crafts out of popsicle sticks and colored yarn.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. We are traveling into the mountains to a community called Santa Elena. The people do not leave the community often because it is so difficult to get down the mountain. It will take us one hour to get there and I hear the ride is a rough one.

A lady named Linda, from the women’s bible study that largely supported my effort to raise money for my trip, entrusted me with “seed money” to provide to orphans or widows here in the DR. We went to the supermarket tonight, and I bought a grocery basket full of food including rice, pasta, beans, peas, corn meal, tomato paste, meat, milk, eggs, sugar, and salt. Looking forward to what God will do as we provide much needed help!

Tonight was a relaxing evening in the streets with people in the community. The children raced with our guys, painted fingernails and braided hair with our girls, and jumped rope with the “fit mamas” (not me 😜). The best part of this trip is getting to really know the people here by spending time with them!

Update on Dariel and the Tootsie Rolls: I figure if I am going to give him the candy he loves so much I can get him to repeat “Jesus Cristo me ama” so he at least knows that Jesus loves him when his teeth rot from all the sugar!

A few more photos from today…

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