If you learn one thing from reading all of our blogs, let it be this; don’t ever doubt that God will answer your prayers in abundance when you pray in faith and in accordance with God’s will. I wish we could articulate all the wild ways that God has answered specific prayers this week. Having specific prayers answered is really an anchor for our souls to cling to when it’s hard to believe that God is listening and replying to our prayers. We had a very busy day today preparing for the party and meeting people who we had contacted before. God gave us a lot of grace yesterday to get everything done and meet with people that we had met before.
Allie, Matt, and Kari met up with some of Allie and Matt’s friends from the day before. Allie and Matt got to share the gospel with a guy who spoke a little bit of English. Kari learned the merengue. We made friends and plan to meet up with them the next day for lunch. We passed out books explaining that we need to put our complete trust in Jesus to have a relationship with God and be assure of our salvation. We stopped by to see Jesúss and his friends and remind them of the party. After that, we went back to the hostel to help make food and prepare for the party.
Adam and Mandy had an opportunity to meet up with Oscar again and have an extended conversation. He seemed very willing to talk about his life and wants to keep in contact with the two of us. He was very disappointed that he could not make it to the party, but was very glad that we were doing another bonfire the next day. Mandy also had a pretty good conversation with a guy at the library while we were waiting to meet with the other people in our group.
At the party, Rosemary, a woman from the San Pedro church affiliated with GCC, was ready and available to both translate and talk to people (along with many other people from the San Pedro church. Rosemary just happened to be the first one I met). When some girls that Allie and I got to share with the other day got to the party, I asked Rosemary to come and meet them in case they wanted to be involved in a Bible study. Instead of talking about their Bible study, Rosemary shared with Elisa in Spanish, so I didn’t understand much. Elisa later prayed to receive Christ and they will meet together every week to go through God’s word together. I got a chance to talk with Luisia because she speaks nearly perfect English. She understood/agreed that she is sinful and in need of the saving blood of Jesus Christ. She said that she used to follow Jesus but has turned her back on God for the past few years. At the end of our conversation, after talking about counting the cost of following Christ, she said that she wants to follow Christ with her whole life from now on. Praise God! In all, at the party, we were able to write note in and give away 3 Spanish Bibles to new believers. Pray that the devil and the world would not pluck out their faith or cause them to be unfruitful. Pray for Elisa, Luisia, and Jesúss that they would truly be new creations in Christ who become laborers for His kingdom and start to multiply their lives! God was so gracious last night. Thank Him for His faithfulness in answering our prayers to meet up with people again and to see people saved.
At the party, there were 8 people that were there who we had met before. Pray for the people who came and got to hear the Gospel again (Luisia, Elisa, Mabel, Oli, Lena, Rosa, Denny, and Jesúss). Two of these people put their faith and trust in Christ at the party, and another one a day or two ago. Be praying that God would work in their hearts to convict them of sin, plug them in to a body, and keep them glued to His word. God really blessed the conversation during that time and we were able to clarify the gospel and answer questions that people have had. Keep praying for our time in Santo Domingo and for our flights home. We will be sharing the Gospel with many people on the flights so pray for those people to have ears to hear and eyes to see. Thank you for all your prayers and please know that we have seen God move through the power of prayer like crazy on this trip! Keep Pressin’!
Groupo de Preguntas (Josh, Julia, Kaden, Kassie, Ky, Lauren, Liz)
Today was a day in which we very much saw the truth of the Proverb that says, “a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Several members of our group had plans to meet up with different people we had met throughout the week. However, having only one cell phone for our whole group, not speaking Spanish, and the Dominicans having a different understanding of time than us proves to make that a rather complicated process.
Ky and Lauren were able to meet up with a local named Isaiah who they met the first day. He is a Christian who is only 16 years old, but seems to have an incredible heart for the Lord. He translated the gospel message some for them and then also told them of his desire to be a part of the ministry starting on the campus. Pray that he would really be faithful with this and would continue to grow and spread the good news to those around him.
Another encouraging story involves a man named Steve. He is a Dominican Christian who has been helping translate for different members of our group over the last several days. Previously though he had been very nervous to approach people with the gospel. However, yesterday I walked by to see him translating for Kaden to a group of about 5 guys! Praise the Lord for his help and pray for his continued boldness and growth in the Lord.
An example of the Lord directing our plans involves a time when Josh was going to meet with a guy named Angel. He had said that he would be at a spot from 2–2:30. Due to some other commitments, Josh arrived at 2:29. However, Angel had already gone. By God’s grace though that ended up being the way in which Lauren and Josh met a guy named Fernando. He claimed to believe in what we were sharing but said that he was only 50/50 he was going to heaven because of his sin. After we talked about the assurance we can have in Christ he was very grateful and excited. He even introduced us to several of his friends and began to ask them questions about where they would spend eternity!
To cap off yesterday we had a big fiesta at our hostel. There were probably 50 or more Dominicans that came! Many of them got to hear the gospel or reaffirm what had been discussed with them, and many others just got to see the love of Christ lived out among us. Pray for tomorrow as we will spend more time on the campus during the day and finish out the week with a bonfire and meal there tomorrow night.
Tom and Sam shared with six students at the university today. It was a great day because they were able to see God working in wonderful ways. The three girls, Roberitza, Maria Alejandra and Fransheska attend the same church close to the university and they were very interested in attending Bible study and getting involved in ministry. They also met Carlos and Luis Miguel. Sam and Tom’s last conversation was with a student named Christian. They really saw God working in this conversation because after asking basic questions about believing in God, Jesus, Heaven and Hell Sam gave him a “Do you know for certain” tract and he actually sat there and read each page carefully. You could really see his expression change as he read the tract. When he was finished, he said that it was a wonderful gift, but he was still thinking about it. Please pray for each of these students would truly have an intimate relationship with the Lord.
Jon and Sara had a jam-packed day for St. Patty’s Day. They met up with Yoel (Joel) again in the AM and had a really great conversation. They got to directly address some issues that were keeping him from giving his life to Christ. He had really great questions and was really sobered by the Word and the impact it can have on the Dominican Republic as a country. We are so thankful he is counting the cost of what it means to be a Christian and we trust the Lord to continue to draw him to himself. Please be praying that he will give his life to Christ and serve the Lord wholeheartedly the rest of his life. We had a bit of a change in plans after meeting with Joel and were looking for a special gift for Saskia (Evelyn’s daughter) and it ended up taking a few hours and in the end we didn’t even find what we were looking for! The funny part is that halfway through the adventure, we were speedwalking to the next store and who do we see down the street looking at us confusedly…of all the millions of people in the entire city of Santo Domingo, (and we know about 3 natives by name mind you), but Saskia herself! Lol it was too funny. And we didn’t even find what we were looking for! It was a little frustrating, but the Lord knew what he was doing because we ended up getting back to the UASD (university campus) quite a bit later than we had planned and as a result got to share the gospel with one of the students who was there just watching the game. Most likely if we would have arrived on time, Jon would have been playing and we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to talk with him. His name was Angel but he was really soft to the gospel and after talking for a little while he understood his sin and God’s perfect standard and understood what it means to be born again. He said he wanted to be born again so that was encouraging. We’re planning on meeting up with him again tomorrow evening so you could be praying that Angel would come to saving faith in Christ and we’d be able to direct him and guide him to other Christians who will be able to help him grow in a relationship with the Lord if he decides to give his life to Him.
Tracy and Ben were together today to go sharing and were able to hand out many tracts and speak with a few people. God blessed them to meet four more people they had already talked with earlier in the week, which is amazing on a campus of more than 100,000 students. Tracy and Ben were on their way to talk to two girls and as Tracy was walking over towards the girls a guy named George started talking to Ben. Ben was able to go through the gospel with him. Tracy did her best to share with the two girls, but they knew no English. They also talked to a couple named Camelo and Annie. Camelo only spoke a little English, which helped us to share the gospel with him and he said he would tell Annie after. Tracy gave Annie “More Than a Carpenter” to her in Spanish and she was excited to receive it. Please be praying for George to be able to understand that good words do not save us and for Camelo to see God’s love and his heart to be softened.
So today is our final day here in Santo Domingo. Today will be a normal day with a fiesta on campus tonight. Supposedly, it is tradition to have a fire on campus so tonight there will be a fire to be able to invite our friends to. Then we will be heading to the airport.
Pray that we would be able to have good conversations with the people we meet today, and be able to invite them to the fire. Also, that our friends we have already met would be able to come and hangout with us one last time.
Yesterday was a great day. Eliska and Katelyn were able to meet up with Andie. She came to campus just to talk with us more about the gospel. She very well could have accepted Christ. She understood that she was separated from God and needed him for a personal savior. Pray that she would be able to get in contact with the people from the Bible study and the Lord would grow and change her into a disciple of Christ.
Jess also got to meet a girl who has a really crazy story. Her parents died when she was little and was raised by her grandma. She and Jess have very similar interests. Both enjoy art and both have 17 year old brothers. Jess was able talk with her for over an hour and share the gospel with her. She said her grandma was an evangelical and that she had talked with her before about Jesus. We are so thankful for divine appointments! Pray that God would continue to water the seed in Pamela’s heart and one day she would know Jesus personally.
Thank you again for interceding on behalf of us and the people in Santo Domingo. You could also be praying for continued grace and strength today. Even though it’s the last day, we still need to be working for God and not ourselves (Colossians 3:23). Also, I (katelyn) am not feeling super great today. If you could pray for continued good health for everyone here that would be really wonderful!
This most likely be the last update (at least from our team). We look forward to seeing all of you from Des Moines stateside and thank you to our brothers and sisters from around America praying this week for us. You will never know how thankful we are here! Praise the Lord for the saints!
Today we spent a great deal of time with Walbin and Rafael. Both came to the hang out at the hostel. Rafael said he accepted Christ yestetday. He has been reading his Bible the past two months. He is a music major and a rapper “delax Latino .” He has expressed interest in rappping for the Lord. Rafael exchanged contact with leaders from the San Pedro church.
We are not sure if Walbin is saved, but spent a great deal of time with him and have a strong relationship with him. Pray for our bonfire on campus tomorrow and grace loving Rafael and Walbin. Also please pray for endurance-we’re all tired…yep that’s it for now. Time to sleep. One last day Friday. It wil be difficult to say good bye.
–Cake in a Cup
Kodee, Leah, Matt, Michaeline, Loren, Paul