Grateful Goodbyes

Grateful Goodbyes

Juan Ovalle was grateful for the books donated to the school.  The school has no picture books for  kids to look at.
He was jubilent for the second camera donated because he had been praying a second for his ministry work in the community, with Haiti trips and for his work as an assistant to a Pastor.  Then I walked in with one for him!  God is good!  Thanks Runnymede!
Luckny now has a bookshelf and donated books...but we still pray for a library/ESL building for him.

A special ring for a special person.  Jaysee will be the village Wedding Helper by making wedding cakes/treats, and providing some wedding veils to lend etc.  

Which do you think Lorena was absolutely jubilent over?  The 'Suitcase Tienda' store full of products that she can sell for food .......or this Creole bible we gave her?  

At the first Alpha, this woman, Venize wanted to be baptized and thus began  my understanding of the local church, and the relationship between baptism and weddings.  It also began months of work with wedding rings, donated dresses, providing food for guests and costs of birth/wedding certificates(1400pesos-$35dollars). She is now married, and she gets baptized in the river this Saturday June1.  How fun to be the official photographer and provide the special treat of photos to the family!

Maria was thrilled to receive a mac laptop computer to play Spanish Alpha DVD's so she(a Haitian woman) can minister to the Dominicans in her village.  

Donated laptops also went for the village library/ESL shop, a local pastor, and Ascension village medical clinic to start organizing medical records.

Mateo, the village chief, and I have been working to get seeds for the community garden.  He gave us this watermelon as a gift to us from the garden(yes grown here since we planted in March) and appropriately asked for the seeds back to replant more!

Thanks for those who pray specifically for us as we do pray ministry for those desperately needing a touch of God.  Maria (a leader of Women Ministers) loves ministering with us and excitedly explains what new thing she has learned.  Here, she asked for some of Mike's consecrated anointing oil for ministering to others.  

Sew, sew good!  Look at  the sewing projects that are proudly being  shown!  Thanks Runnymede for materials sent!

Grateful Goodbyes to our friends.  It's been tremendous fun to be with these amazing people who live here in DR working for year round for God and the people.  We've been blessed with their support and friendship---there's many more too who left the goodbye party before photos! We'll miss our village friends and our partners in ministry.

From all of us to all of you, we say thanks!

Wrapping up with Gratitude

Wrapping up with Gratitude
Wrapping up is hard to do.  It means saying Goodbye.  There are many people back home that we are grateful to without whom we never would have been able to half the things we put our hand to.  Here's what we've been up to.

Hayley says goodbye to Because I am a Girl Club (Porque Soy Una Chica).  Hopefully, they had fun with crafts and will use the thought provoking topics to make good decisions in their lives.  Two of them are now helping Lorena lead a Saturday morning Kids club teaching the younger girls the crafts we did with them!  Thanks Hayley & Helena for your leadership.

Thanks to people who donated medicine and  money for the medical clinic in Esperanza.  Rob and Tina work with Dr.Lambert to provide medical care to needy people. 

Maria is thrilled with Deliverance Ministry resources.  She says it is needed so much especially amongst Haitians.  Pray the Christians here will be adequately equipped to minister to those who suffer.

Can you see the joy in Anise's face?   She asked for prayer and God released her from the spiritual oppression she experienced, and now the joy she exudes every time we see each other sends us both into fits of laughter and gratitude.  Thanks for all who prayed for Anise.  Please pray for Nicole this Tuesday who asked for prayer for similar reasons.

Claire took us to a CristoTransforma Drug Rehab clinic (Christ transforms) where this one pastor ministers to a group of  30 men who struggle with addiction.  They all care for each other, and help each other manage their difficulties.  They all call on God as the source of their strength and healing, and God is hearing and healing them.  The name of the clinic describes what is happening there.  They sing with absolute passion and shared testimonies of what God is doing for them.  They receive no funding, have no professional counsellors except each other and a complete dependence on God.  How amazing to be at a place where God is!

Pastor's Lunch-how wonderful to be able to treat these pastors from the 10 villages of the Samaritan Foundation to a lunch.  Mike spoke on unity and they all prayed and ministered to each other in Jesus' Name.  This is the fulfillment of an idea expressed by Elio a long time ago.  Pray these Dominican and Haitian Pastors will continue to support each other in their ministries.

Mike preached at Ascension Village on Sunday morning .  

Thanks to those who donated items to the Sew Good sewing group.

Roosevelt translated the Alpha talks into Creole and this book is the first time ever Alpha can be taught in Creole!  There were 70 people each night and all day Saturday at the Alpha conference who will now be able to teach others!  Praise God!

A pastor in Montellano invited us to come to his church to pray for his Ministry.

ESL students - Thanks to all who donated books for these youth, Luckny's library and the school.

Thanks to those who donated rings so women can get married.  Yesterday, i attended the wedding of a woman and man wearing one of your rings!!

Women, Woodworking, waves and word games!

Women, Woodworking, Waves and Word games!

We've spent a lot of time with all these women walking with them in their daily lives.The women and men in Esperanza now run their own Alpha discussions.  Maria didn't even translate for me so I have become redundant...exactly as it should be...Haitians teaching Haitians! Pray God's guidance and the Word as their guide

Byrvens and I bought tools for the men in the village to learn woodworking skills.
Pray Byrvens from the Paraiso woodworking shop will be able to find time to teach them some more simple projects.

Waves and Tidal pools at Perla Marina  uninhabited beach.

Nicholas teaches verbs to our TESL class.

Ben plays word games to teach English vocabulary.

Alpha conference May 6-11, 2013

Alpha Conference Dominican Republic, 2013

Miguel habla mucho mucho!

Pam teaches about prayer ministry.

Rachel and Marie teaching

Each church makes plans for running their own Alpha Course.

Alpha conference church and wanna be participant (Yes, I did step in a cow paddy!)

Playing chicken with a cow when running conference errands.   We knew there would be  blockages and  roadblocks but didn't know it what form they would come!  Rescued by a moto driver.

Our Esperanza people receive their Alpha Leaders certificates.

These people travelled from Ascension village each week to take the Alpha course up in Esperanza and now they've completed the leadership training.

Course participants received 18 hours of teaching and can now run their own Alpha courses in their villages.

Mike and Bill commissioning participants and sending them out to share the gospel.  Thanks be to God  for these faithful servants of God.  Anoint and Equip them Lord for your service!

Roosevelt our translator leaves the conference with his family(Yes, there's 5 on his moto!)

Alpha Conference begins May 6-11

Alpha Conference Mon. May 6-11.

60 Pastors/ church leaders every night 7-9pm.

I spoke Tues May 7th (amidst blackout) on the Essential Elements of Alpha.  Roosevelt is our translator.  He works for Bill Stevenson and the Discipleship School. Pray for Roosevelt to finish the translation of Alpha material before Saturday!

Pastor Joel giving a testimony about how Alpha has impacted his church in Esperanza.

Small group discussions.  This is a culturally different experience where they are used to being taught/preached to without much opportunity for their own opinions/thoughts  to be expressed.

We have lots of positive feedback about the impact of Alpha, from the students, and especially from Pastor Jonny and Maria.  

Prayer Items

Pray that Roosevelt gets translation done on time ready to be printed and handed out on Saturday.

Pray for feeding 60 people on Saturday(rice, beans and chicken).  

Pray they will have confidence to take this teaching and material back to their communities to run their own Alpha courses. 

Praise for such a good turn out and for hungry hearts and minds!