On the plane!

Phew!  We just got on the plane.  Got things sorted out for the rental car.  Had to get a police report.  More later!

Mad Dash

We landed in MIA on time.  Cleared customs.  Just made it to our gate.  Boarding now.  Cutting it really close!  Thanks for praying.  See you soon!

On our way!

Greetings!

We are en route to the airport.  It was a bitter-sweet last morning in the Dominican Republic.

We enjoyed one last awesome time of worship with the Holts and spent a little bit of down time experiencing this beautiful country!  Matthew M. scheduled flex time for this last day, just for us to: finish up any loose ends, have time to pack and clean up and say good-bye, and to play :).

Our “play” destination was Salto de Socoa, a breathtaking waterfall!  This was just a great time for our team to unwind from the jam packed schedule of the last couple of days and to enjoy each other and God’s amazing beauty of this land.  We will get some pictures posted as soon as possible!

As you pray us home.  Please remember:

• Car rental – with the rental truck having some damages, please pray that there won’t be any delays in turning in the car.
• Immigration – we would clear immigration quickly and uneventfully in Miami.
• Connecting Flight – we are taking the last flight out of Miami.  Pray that we won’t have any delays that would cause us not to be able to make the connecting flight back to LAX
• Sleep/rest – That we will all be able to get some rest on the plane.  Most of us are going back to school tomorrow morning.
• Health – some of us are not feeling completely well.  Pray that we will not be completely miserable as we travel (or get everyone else sick!).

Sending our love from the Dominican Republic.  See you soon!

Sin Palabras – Speechless

After church, we had the afternoon at camp to prepare for Sin Palabras (Speechless).

For those of you that are not familiar with Speechless, it is a presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ using about 10+ dramas, set to music, and interwoven with narrations.  Click here for more information about Speechless and to see samples of past presentations.  It is really a fresh and creative way to clearly present the truth of God!

This is an event that is near and dear to our hearts.  We have spent countless hours in prayer, in practice, and in preparing props and costumes for this program.  We are all filled with excited anticipation of who God is going to bring and how He is going to use this program for His glroy!

The program started promptly at 7:30pm this evening.  The church was completelyPACKED OUT!  There were people standing and sitting every where!!!  We were so excited that so many come to see this presentation and that the Gospel was being proclaimed to all that were present!  The whole production went well overall.  It was a little messy at parts, but we always expect “a little messy” when we are in an area where we cannot count on having consistent electricity and are using flashlights and other creative light sources for spotlights and little portable speakers to run the sound for the program ;-).  We recruited 4 Dominican guys to read the narration between the drama vignettes live.  These guys were super enthusiastic about being a part of the program.  They told us that they wanted to “go on the road” with us :-).  All in all, the Gospel was clearly preached.  The seeds have been sown, now we wait for the Lord to provide water and growth.  It will be up to the church to follow up with those that have come.  We pray that we will one day in heaven, meet everyone that was impacted and converted by this event tonight!  Thank you for interceding before His throne in prayer for us, specifically for Speechless.  The Lord heard and was please to answer!

A couple of other items that are worth mentioning:

1.  A couple of the girls are not feeling 100% today, but seem to be doing better tonight.  They are troopers though and toughed it out and fulfilled all of their “responsibilities”!  Pray that they will feel better with a good night’s rest and be all better for the trip home tomorrow.

2.  Dan was in 2 different incidents with the rental truck.  No on was hurt (except for the truck).  Yesterday, a tree jumped out from nowhere at camp and busted the tail light and back bumper of the truck!  Today, someone backed into the truck in the middle of the street and took out the front end :-/.  Please pray that we are able to get things sorted out easily with the rental car company and that there will not be delayed when we return the vehicle tomorrow at the airport.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!  One more day until we get home.  Miss you all and can’t wait to tell you more about our trip!

Worship at Templo Biblico

We pray that you had a great day of worship at home with our GCO family!  While we missed being at our home church and listening to Pastor Mike preach, we had an awesome time with the Templo Biblico family!

We woke up bright and early for a final practice run of the songs and speech choir.  After the girls donned on head coverings, we headed out to church at 8am.

We had the privilege of leading in song for the worship service (in Spanish!) and presented a Romans 8 speech choir (also in Spanish).  Matthew H. preached on Romans 8.  Can you tell that this is an important passage for our group? ;-).

This was a blessed time for us to share our heart and talents with these saints in the Dominican Republic.  There are many cultural differences with the Dominican church (i.e. – the baptized/church members sit separately from the non-members and the women are expected to wear head coverings), but because we share the same passion about the same God, we were able to worship wholeheartedly together as one body!

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to share this time of corporate worship with saints that we will spend eternity with.  We pray that our message in song, words, and deed have been an encouragement to them.  Help us all to grow more and more in love with You and Your Word.  Thank you for causing our hearts to be soft toward You and toward them.  It has been a treat to work alongside this church family these last few days.

Quick note…

Good morning!  We are busy at work with the CMP kids’ progam.  Just got WiFi so I uploaded a few pictures from yesterday at the batey.  Please scroll back through the previous posts from time to time.  Pictures will be added to the appropriate day as technology becomes available!

Successful Day

Kiersten spending a little Quiet Time by the Rio – calm before the storm 🙂

Today was split into 3 main events:

Kids’ Program at CMP

We had a fun collaborative kids’ program at CMP this morning.  Matthew M. led in song.  Alyssa directed the pantomime/skit that presented the Gospel to the group.  Samuel (CMP youth) explained the Gospel in Spanish.  Abby A. led games with help from Solanji (CMP youth).  Christine led the craft time (prepared by Susan) and instructed the kids with help from multiple CMP kids.

Sin Palabras flyer distribution

With the help with the kids from church, we passed out flyers for Sin Palabras (Speechless) in the neighborhood.  Among the chaos, we somehow left the van keys locked in the van :-/.  But fear not, the church mechanic, Rei, rescued us!  Talk about how each of us received a special gift, we are sure thankful that Rei employed his in serving us!!!

Date Night 

Since it is Valentine’s Day, we conveniently used this opportunity to treat the married couples of Templo Biblico to a “date night”.  The goal of this event is two fold: to bless the couples with a special time to celebrate their marriage relationship and to discuss how marriage can be used as an evangelism tool.

We had a great time with the couples tonight!  The ladies did a beautiful job at making the camp’s main meeting area look magical.  Scott made some amazing gourmet enchiladas.  All our practice in singing in Spanish paid off… we sounded pretty good and were reasonably understandable :-).  But the Star of the Night was the rousing game of “Four on the Couch” by the Dominican couples!

We finished off the night with a Speechless (or shall we say, Sin Palabras) practice.  Heading off to bed now, early lights-out day, 11:45.  As we say, “Sunday starts the night before.”  Thank you for faithfully praying for us.  We are all healthy, tired, but healthy.  Ari is doing great!  She is a trooper and is being very careful with her arm.  Please pray for us as we share in the church service tomorrow morning and present Speechless to the community tomorrow night.

Night – night!
Santiago and Alyssa

Romans 8 Shower

One of our main objectives in coming to the Dominican Republic was to encourage and refresh the missionary that we’ve sent out from our church body, the Holts.  James and Rebekah are the directors of the Casa Monte Plata orphanage.  To learn more about their ministry and story, please see their blog here.

Through different conversations that we’ve had with the Holts before we came, it was clear that they were most hungry for some solid English worship time.  We have been praying through the logistics of blocking out some time to creatively immerse them in English worship — through music, the Word, and other avenues.

Tonight, after Youth Group, was one of the worship sessions.  We all joined in singing some old familiar song and taught them “new” songs.  We also surrounded them with the 30 minute Youth Sunday Romans 8 program, where we did a full dramatic reading of the chapter, interspersed with choruses and songs in various portions for emphasis.  Here is the recording, if you would like to hear it again.

James and Rebekah were thoroughly blessed by the time.  Rebekah sent this message to her sister:

Just got back from the “Romans 8 Shower”.  Feeling pretty overwhelmed right now.  So good to be showered in God’s truth, having it sung over us, shouted at us, quietly whispered to us.  Words cannot describe how good that was for our souls.  Praising God for Matthew, for the whole team, and most of all, for God’s incredible sacrificial love that saved, holds, and protects us, and that gives us hope for eternity and great joy today.

Amen, Sister!  So grateful that our God used us to bless you and James as you have blessed so many in the States, and now in the DR.

It is 12:45am.  Lights out.  Good night all!  We will be getting up soon.  Thank you all for praying with us.  We covet each one!

DR Friday Night Youth Group

After a full day of working and playing at the batey, we were able to get back to the camp for a little over an hour to work on Speechless for a little bit before dinner.

Shortly after dinner, we went over to Templo Biblico for Youth Group.  We had the privilege to lead Youth Group tonight… including games, music worship (in Spanish!), and Matthew H. shared a message from Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 (also in Spanish).

It is amazing the instant bond that we have with these brothers and sisters!  What a sweet time for us to share in worship as a family of God.  We pray that this group of teens were as blessed as we were this evening!  May they be encouraged and challenged to excel still more and continually seek Christ as the ultimate treasure, this day and beyond.

A Few Pictures – the River and at the Batey :-)

Our “Rio”!  See the dirt road, that is our way home 🙂

Tessa loving the little girls.
Holly… working on her Spanish??

Abby A. getting a make-over 🙂

Open field for games and general running around!!!