Let me start with a brief re-cap. For the past five years, I have been traveling to the Dominican Republic on short-term mission trips with Woodridge church and partnering with Iglesia Centro Cristiano Shalom in Hato Mayor. This summer especially we focused on leadership development - encouraging, empowering and equipping leaders from Pastor Carlos' church. When the team left on August 9th, I stayed on to continue working with the youth.
As I've described in great detail in previous blog entries, the youth and I met together often (at least 4 times a week!) for prayer and Bible study, to do ministry in the community (hospital visits, home visits, children, teenagers, elderly, and more), to learn more about what it means to be the church and growing as leaders in the church and to do outreach in the communities giving people all over Hato Mayor opportunities to hear the gospel and join us in our service to the Lord. What an incredible and wonderful experience!!! I am so thankful to God, thankful to Pastor Carlos, thankful to the church of Centro Cristiano Shalom and thankful to the youth whom I love so much. I have such a desire to see the youth and this church continue to grow more and more in love with the Jesus, with each other and with those who are unsaved. I earnestly pray that they would come to know and understand more of God's love for them, that they would see His plans for their lives, and that this love would compel them to surrender their lives completely to the Lord. I pray that they would not be distracted by cares and concerns of this world, but that they would commit themselves fully to the work God has for us - to love, to serve, to teach, to preach, to pray, to wait, to be still, to praise, to learn.
King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, who studied and studied and studied the meaning of life and our purpose here on earth says that "everything under the sun is meaningless (1:2)." Wise King Solomon explains throughout the book of Ecclesiastes that EVERYTHING we strive for here on earth (hard work, great intellect, comfort, wealth, etc.) is meaningless. We are all going to die, and there's no pattern to it. We don't know when or why or how. King Solomon explains that sometimes bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Even the wisest man cannot predict when hard times will come. King Solomon cautions us to think carefully about the things for which we are striving. He begins and ends the book of Ecclesiastes by saying "Meaningless! Meaningless!..."(Eccl. 12:8). Solomon's final conclusion is "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (Eccl 12:9). Solomon got it right!
If you are interested in hearing more about this topic go to www.northpoint.org/messages and listen to Andy Stanley's message called "Under the Sun" in the "Time of Your Life Series." It's phenomenal!
Anyway, I am praying for the church in Hato Mayor and around the world that we would all be filled with passion and compassion for the things that matter to God and that we would MOVE, that we would ACT, that we would DO SOMETHING to help in regards to the poverty, the injustice, the lost and the imprisoned all around us.
Okay, back to the story. On October 14th, I left Hato Mayor to stay with Dr. David "Chappy" Walden and his wonderful wife Sandee. Pastor Carlos and his family left for Puerto Rico, and Pastor Greg from Woodridge Church informed Pastor Carlos that they would not be bringing teams this summer.
At first the fact that Woodridge is stepping back might sound unusual, but I really see God's hands all over this. We've been working to develop leaders in the church in Hato Mayor. They are ready. Heck, they've been ready for a while. Now, with Woodridge leaving, it's as if God is saying, "You know what you need to do. You know how to do it. Now, get to work!"
Before I came in August, I was reminded how much of a gift it is to get to walk so closely with God, to hear His voice, to love and serve others, and to see God work in other people's lives. Walking with God and being used by God to help others grow in their faith is the best gift in the world (apart from my own salvation!) The point I'm trying to make is that GOD WANTS THE DOMINICANS TO GET TO EXPERIENCE THIS GIFT, TOO!
The required reading for the Bethel Seminary Course "Facilitating Community Development" in the Global and Contextual Studies program that I assisted with October 23-27 was "Walking with the Poor." The author describes the spiritual aspect of poverty. He says "the human search for meaning and purpose is a universal and never-ending quest. It is only the nature of the struggle that is different." He goes on to explain "the poor believe they have no meaningful vocation other than serving the powerful, and the non-poor are tempted to play god and believe what they have in terms of money, knowledge and position is the result of their own cleverness." He says "We all need to recover our true identities and our true vocations as children of God." He says "The transformational development journey belongs to God and to those who are on it - not to experts, donors or volunteers. We must let the poor discover their own way just as we have done!"
Wow! From my experiences, I believe this is absolutely true. I can't wait to see what God is going to do as more and more Dominicans grab hold of this...their true identity as children of God, created and loved dearly by Him, created and equipped to do good works, and commanded to be salt and light - shining brightly for the glory of God and to point people to the Savior - Jesus Christ!
Before I left Hato Mayor on October 14th, I invited some of the top leaders in the church to attend a conference for Dominican pastors and leaders put on by Bethel Seminary Professors and Students covering the topics of hermeneutics, homiletics and loyal leadership. I invited them, paid for their attendance and lodging, (thanks Pastor Greg and the August team from Woodridge for supporting this), and I challenged them to share with others what they have learned. Seven of the youth responded to the challenge. They are now meeting and preparing to share what they learned with a minimum of two other churches or groups of people.
The pictures below are pictures of the pastors conference, October 28-30th.
Dr. Arnell Motz was the keynote speaker. Dr. Motz has done long term mission work in several countries. His longest terms were spent in Belize, Uganda and in Ethiopa. Dr. Motz serves as the head of the Global and Contextual Studies Department at Bethel Seminary in San Diego, California.
A group of 7 seminary students traveled with their professors to be both students and teachers. They were students the first part of the week in the class mentioned above "Facilitating Community Development." I was fortunate to be able to join them as we were introduced to many different ministries and aspects of ministry. We met with government officials as we discussed the importance of the church working together with the government for a complete transformation of body, mind and spirit.
Later in the week the students acted as teachers or facilitators of small groups as they shared what they've been learning in seminary about hermanuetics (studying the Bible), homiletics (public teaching or preaching the Word of God) and loyal leadership (learning from the example of Jesus). This was a three-day conference, and over 100 local pastors and leaders were in attendance.
The pastors and leaders who attended this conference simply ate it up! Like me, they are hungry for basic Bible teaching and desparately want to learn more about God. They also want to accurately share with their churches what God is speaking for us today through words that were written thousands of years ago. Many pastors and leaders here do not have the opportunity to attend seminary or other Bible schools, so this was truly a gift for them!
Each day we started in the lecture hall with a general teaching and overview of the main ideas. Pastor Felipe Mendoza, an educated man with a thriving ministry of his own in Santo Domingo taught one day about loyal leadership.
Pastor Felipe Mendoza (right) and Pastor Lidio Puente (left) are pictured here. Dr. Walden "Chappy" works closely with Pastor Lidio in the prision ministry. Pastor Lidio is the president of Isias 61 and oversees the work done in La Victoria prison. I have a lot of respect for both of these pastors.
Dr. David Diener from the Global and Contextual Studies program of Bethel Seminary in San Diego, California acted as a guide, facilitator and teacher all week as we searched together to answer the question: What is the role of the non-poor in promoting growth and transformational development of our neighbors in 3rd world countries?
The Bethel students were well-received by the local pastors. After working together for three days they got to know each other and the local pastors chipped in to buy gifts for their small group facilitators. A few of the Bethel students spoke spanish, and that was a tremendous help!
Dr. David "Chappy" Walden is the man speaking here. He put in SO much work before the Bethel team arrived promoting this conference and pulling all the details together. What people back home can't understand is that putting on a conference of this caliber is so much work ESPECIALLY IN A 3RD WORLD COUNTRY! Everything takes so much longer and is such a challenge. It can't simply be done over the phone or via email. Dr. Walden worked very hard to make this happen, and with God's help it was a wonderful success! Praise the Lord!
After a week or two away, I was so happy to see the leaders I had been working with in Hato Mayor. I can't even describe the joy I felt seeing them there. They are so eager to learn, study, grow in the Lord and work hard serving Him. I am so proud of them, and I can't wait to hear about how they are sharing the things they learned at this conference with people back home. (Pastor Carlos, I know you are reading this, you can tell them I expect a full report!)
Each pastors and leader was presented with a certificate of completion (a very big deal for them) and a copy of the book and workbook "Lead Like Jesus" by Ken Blanchard. These are pictures of the Hato Mayor students receiving their certificates.
This is Belkis Gomez. She has served as president of the youth for two years and has done a wonderful job. Her term as president is up this month and she cannot run again. We can be praying for the next president of the youth to carry on and make even more improvements - calling the youth to act on their faith.
"Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car." - Billy Sunday
Our translators for the conference: Alex, Johnny and Karlene.
Over 100 pastors and leaders attended. The impact leadership conferences like this can have is enormous when you consider the number of people who are influenced by the pastors and leaders represented here.
Praise God! I am so thankful for this experience, and I pray for more high-quality learning opportunities for pastors and leaders here in the Dominican Republic.
More to come:
*Prison Ministry - ministering to the REAL "Pirates of the Caribbean."
*SCORE international and ministry opportunities there - orphanages, medical, sugarcane fields, church planting, leadership development, sports outreach, prostitution ministry, and more...
*challenges of living in Boca Chica,
*Hato Mayor Nov. 23-Dec.1
