More from the Dominican Republic
Saludos! (Salutations!!)
Out of all of the hundreds of miles of area surrounding Santiago (the second largest city in the Dominican Republic) the "Methodist" church of Santiago has chosen Los Cocos (where we are staying) as an area of outreach!!
A man from Los Cocos built them a fence for their new church in Santiago and thus a relationship started with his community. I know his wife and several other members from when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in this community. No coincidence there!! God has been planning St. Peter's relationship with Los Cocos for some time!!
A friend just emailed me the verse from Ephesians 2:18 that says, "All you do is in the mighty plans of God." That says it in a nut shell!!
Tonight (Friday, 2/22) Lydia, Luke and I were asked to share at the children's meeting and they have asked us to lead the children's group each Friday night. We are excited for this "missionary" opportunity. Because I was the only American here from 1990-92, much of the community knows me and trusts me; therefore, this will be a perfect opportunity to invite them to church and to witness to them. This outreach is in the infant stage; therefore, please pray for them. I hope to do some training with them so that they can lead the children's group as our stay here is relatively short and my old Peace Corps motto was "To work yourself out of a job!!"
This past week a Missions Team from the US was here working with the church to help build a school, deliver bibles and provide resources for the continued construction of their new church in Santiago. They also poured a concrete floor for the meeting place in Los Cocos as it is a small room which previously had a dirt floor. We worshipped with all of them in the city this past Sunday and it was a very exciting service with the team from the US, a choir from Haiti, a Korean visiting pastor and the Dominican congregation. It was a little taste of heaven with the four countries represented and worshipping together. The church is called The Dominican Evangelical Church and was started by a combined effort of Methodist, Presbyterian, and Moravian missionaries about 60 years ago. The service was contemporary with a praise band leading worship in song with many of the songs that we sing at the 8:45 service; however, in Spanish. The Pastor asked me to translate and help lead the worship in English. As I was singing worship songs in Spanish up at the altar and not even knowing these people, I felt the Holy Spirit say, "this is exactly where I want you!" Lydia and Luke would tell you that one huge difference between our contemporary service is that their service lasted over 2 hours!!
The day before Lydia, Luke and I had a fun and relaxing day by the river behind Mario and Nina's house (the family with whom we are staying). I sat in a resurrected lounge chair that we found in the yard that Lydia, Luke and all of their neighborhood friends washed in the river. Luke and some buddies caught small fish in the river after they built a dam and Lydia led the rest of the neighborhood in a "Care Takers of the Earth" campaign to clean up the yard and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, there is trash everywhere. Later that day we worshipped at Mario and Nina's church up the street and presented them with the gift from the children from Atlantic Christian School so that they can have a generator to ensure that there is always "light" at their church! The congregation was so appreciative and excited and we are so thankful for the generosity of the students at ACS.
We had an awesome weekend followed by distress. Oh, the ups and downs of life in the DR. Ants attacked our medicine supply, blasting music from a near-by fiesta kept us awake for hours and Lydia woke up in the middle of the night with terrible chills and then spiked a fever which wouldn't go down for days. When she broke out in a rash and everyone here was saying that it looked like the measles, we finally had blood work drawn. Praise God it was just strep throat with a bizarre rash! She is a new little girl since she started the antibiotic. Luke was injured several times with sticks and stones, literally, during this time. We had a difficult week and each of us at one point or another wanted to head home; however, as I said earlier, I know this is where God wants us and we are trusting him to carry us through the ups and downs in the DR as he does in the US.
The morning that Lydia broke out in her rash I read the title of my devotion and it was "Just Believe". That is all I got to read before the lights went out; therefore, I took that as my message from God!! We continue to thank God and praise Him for all of you and especially for your prayers for Lydia and Luke. We are claiming God's covenant of protection from Psalm 91 for ourselves, the Lukens girls that will be arriving on March 8th (International Day of the Woman) and the Missions Team!!! Nos vemos! Con carino, La Familia Dice