We arrived safely back in Santa Marta last Tuesday evening the 26th around midnight after two weeks abroad in the Dominican Republic! We are grateful for the experience and also to have been used by the Lord to minister in this beautiful island nation! One thing that really impacted us was the strong, tangible presence of God as soon as we arrived in the country until the day we left! We spent the most of our time in the capital of Santo Domingo. See the highlights below!
Evangelism Trainings at Kids' Camp
Our primary ministry was to participate in a two-day kids' camp leading evangelism sessions with six church groups! We got to share the Gospel using the evangecube and also encourage them to fulfill the Great Commission. We were able to give out evangelism cards as well so they can share Jesus with their families, friends and communities!
On the third camp day, we led an evangelism session with teachers and pastors and also participated in dance and puppet sessions!
Santiago de los Caballeros
On our day off, we were able to go visit Maria's twin sister in Santiago de los Caballeros, a city about two and a half hours away, where she has been serving this year. We were able to bless and encourage her and our visit was a complete surprise to her!
During our second week, a lot of our plans fell through, so for one of our "free" days we decided to visit the tourist places of the downtown area. After stopping at each site, we split up and shared the Gospel with the people in each area! God did awesome things that day and led us to those who really needed a word/touch from God!
As we were walking in the streets and looking at trinkets, the Holy Spirit told me to pray for the man in the picture. He had been out of the church and not following God for many years, but now wants to return to the Lord! Maria was sharing the Gospel with a man by the water who asked how can we know God exists. Maria responded by saying we can feel Him even though we can't see Him. The man was skeptical (most likely an atheist or agnostic), but when Maria began to pray for him, he got the Holy Spirit chills up and down his arms. He was astonished and had his first encounter with God! In another situation, Maria felt a huge burden when talking to two women in the park. One of the women said she was burdened and had many medical problems. Maria declared healing over her. We didn't see her healing in the moment, but we have faith that it happened! |
Park evangelism
The day after going to downtown Santo Domingo, we decided to dedicate our morning to evangelism in a local park. We arrived expecting there to be many persons there, but there was NO ONE was there when we arrived except a few workers. As we prayed and decided if we should stay or not, about 80 students arrived. We asked if we could share the Gospel with them in groups and the teachers said "YES." In the first 10 minutes of our time there, we had already shared with about 75 teens! In the picture below, Maria is talking with a group of girls later on that day.
Haitian and Dominican kids' group
We had a great time leading a kids event in a poor neighborhood with a fairly large population of Haitian kids!
Kids' service and adult evangelistic service
On our last full day in the Dominican Republic, we had the privilege of working with the kids and adults in a local community. One young man came up to us during the prayer after the sermon and wanted to be prayed for! Several others came out of their houses to hear what was going on!
Our time in the Dominican Republic was full of unplanned schedule changes, but we made the decision to go win souls to Christ. God used us in powerful ways, even though those ways seemed to us seemingly insignificant. We do have a good feeling we will be back one day and we are looking forward to the next nation assignment God has for us!