Update #4

6-29-11: The last few days I have been fortunate to get a wireless
signal early in the morning at our guest house so I am able to update
you on what is going on. Today was another good day of ministry. Our
VBS went well, we had 45 kids there and are making some good connections
with the kids. It is neat to see them come back day after day. Tim
and Addy did a good job with the lesson and Matt did a good job tell the
Bible story of Noah. The Dominicans have a different way of playing
dodgeball that is pretty cool so we will have to play it some time. It
was a good morning of ministry. Then in the afternoon we spent some
time playing and asking God what He wanted us to do in the afternoon.
After prayer we felt Him leading us in two directions, to go back to the
countryside and visit the people and have more faith conversations and
to go to the stadium (park) we walk by every day and do sports ministry.
The small group that went with Neil and Dana had some good
opportunities to pray with people, share the gospel, and follow up on
some people we met on other days. They visited Anthony who trusted
Christ yesterday and gave him a Bible with some favorite verse
highlighted. He again was asking questions about living as a Christian
so they were able to encourage him and Pastor Joes Juan was able to
handle some cultural questions on what believers here in the DR do or
don’t do. Anthony took them to his friends Alexis house who is in a
wheelchair and they shared the gospel with him and he rededicated his
life to Christ. Dana had been talking with three older girls in the
country who flat out told her they liked to drink and dance. She wanted
to visit them again and only two were their but her and the Maggie our
female translator were able to share the gospel with them but they told
her only older people followed Christ. The large group that went with
Pastor Jon and me to the stadium had a great afternoon at the stadium.
We showed up and not to many people were their but as soon as we stepped
onto the soccer field people came out of nowhere including our older
VBS kids who we told we would be at the stadium. We played soccer for a
while and then the girls and I went to get coke for everyone. We had
something to drink and a few guys took a translator and talked with the
guys about where we were from and why we were in the DR. While they
were doing that Pastor Jon and I got to play a basketball game with some
older guys. The team went to play whiffle ball with the kids and I
stayed and talked to Leo and Eddie with a translator. They told me they
played on a basketball team and had lots of Christian teammates. I
asked them if they had faith and Leo. I had a chance to pray with them
and then joined the team. The team took a break from whiffleball and
Pastor Jon shared the gospel with the kids and prayed with them. Then
played some more soccer. The girls also had a chance to play some
volleyball with an older girl and spend some time with her. I was real
proud of our girls, it was mostly a guy crowd but they played along and
were not uncomfortable being around the guys. Then the other team met
us at the park and we walked to the guest house only to go on another
adventure…eating out at the taco stand. We walked and walked and got
to the taco stand and had a nice meal. We got to see some more of San
Juan and stopped and talked to some older guys getting ready to play
baseball who wanted us to stay and watch but we had to come back. One
more day of ministry, hard to believe our time is flying by. Our
students seem disappointed we will be leaving soon, this has been a good
experience for them. Thanks again for your prayers, I know God is at
work hear in the DR and in our teams lives.
PJ