DR so far (Yey that rhymes!)

Hola from the Dominican Republic!

2 weeks have passed since we crossed the crazy border from Haiti and drove into Santo Domingo, the capital. We've been staying at the Work and Witness house here, and been led by Eliezel Soto, the Work and Witness coordinator for DR. And you know what, I've had an amazing time so far! It's been busy and forever changing, but God is just so good to me.

We've had two main goals for our time in the DR. The first is evangelistic ministry with the new churches here. The Church of the Nazarene is growing rapidly here, and there are so many church plants. So we have been to many of them to do an evangelistic service, an the awesome part is we've done all of these services on the street! Most times, we would start the afternoon doing a children's program called Remi. We would walk around the community and invite all the children and their parents to our activity. Remi is so much fun! It's about a boy called Remi, who is a young missionary, traveling the world. We would sing songs with the children, do a puppet show and learn a Bible verse with them. I'm pretty sure I enjoy it as much as the kids do, especially learning and singing songs in Spanish! Then after that, we would have a service and invite people to Jesus. And wow these services are so different to what I'm used to! Many times we've had cars, buses and people walking past, but even with distractions God still moved in the hearts of people. It was great to meet all of the amazing pastors and their families who have given their life to growing God's kingdom, what blessings they were to us!

The second part of our ministry was speaking to the church in Dominican Republic about Missions!  At many of the churches, we encouraged the members of the churches to respond to the call of God in their life. In our presentations, we gave everyone practical steps that they can take to be involved in Missions as part of the Church of the Nazarene.We all were able to share our testimonies about how God placed a missionary heart in each one of us and called us specifically to 12:7 Serve. It was also very special for me to preach last Sunday morning about the call of God, and how it's time to say yes. 

Something exciting that's happening this weekend is the COM that is happening in the DR. In English, COM means a cross-cultural missions orientation. Over the past two weeks we have been inviting youth all around Dominican Republic to this event. They will learn about themselves, God's call, and about what it means to be a missionary. Will you pray with me for this event? For many of our team members, their first COM was an important part of their missionary call. I will update you all next week about how this event went!

But for now, Dios te bendiga!

On the journey,

Dani

Haiti (Part 2)

Hi again! 

I’m keen to share with you about the other 3 districts that the 12:7 Team served in during our remaining time in Haiti. :)

Lower Artibonite was a special district for one of us in particular – it was Absolu’s district! It was awesome to be in St Marc, the city that Absolu lives in when he studies. We stayed with the district superintendent, Pastor Pierre Antoine. Big guy, big family, big heart. :) During our time in Lower Artibonite, we got to be part of church services (which involved lots of dancing!) and it was great as well to work with members of the church to do evangelism. We also presented Sex, Lies and the Truth to the youth there, and I think it was our best presentation yet! Anther great moment in this district was one night when we had a time of worship with Pastor Pierre and his family. It was amazing to be singing songs to God in 3 different languages – English, Spanish and Creole. We were very blessed by our time with Pastor Pierre and his family in Lower Artibonite!

Our next district was South district. Again, we presented Seven Practices of Effect Ministry, Maximum Mission Sex, Lies and the truth here. We’ve realised that SLT is actually a really important presentation for Haitian youth. Unlike we were always taught in school, many of them never went to high school and were never taught about the consequences of not waiting until marriage. So our message about abstinence is almost a controversial one. Something awesome about our time in South district was that Gary Hartke, the global NYI director, came and spent time with us! It was really fun to have him there, and he gave us many words of wisdom. What an honour, thank you Gary!

Also in South district we were able to do Project GOL, which is a ministry where you use soccer to build relationships with youth, and also tell them about Jesus. Here is a picture of AJ telling a group of youth about Jesus using the colours on the Project GOL ball!

Our final district in Haiti was South East! What a busy two days it was. We worked with lovely Philome, who was the NYI for that district, and her father Pastor Samarite. We were able to spend Easter Sunday with the church in Bleck, which was special for us. :) We joined with the church to do evangelism one afternoon, and we also did a workshop on discipleship, which was really appreciated by the members. It was also fun to spend time with the children and youth there, there were so many of them, and so full of energy! The church services in Haiti are so lively, with many guest choirs and special songs - for example, a 70 person choir sang on Sunday morning! Another great time we had was one morning where we went and painted the town square and did a cleanup. This was definitely a great way to serve the community and also make the church known in Bleck. We were blessed by Pastor Samarite and his family during our time in South East District. 

The awesome choir!

The town square after we did the clean up!

With church family from South East District :)

So there you have it, our time in Haiti complete! Like I said in my previous post, I’m still trying to process what I have seen in Haiti. The people of Haiti are so beautiful and joyful! Although they have gone through devastation and loss, their hope is in the Lord. This is something that we need to live by – no matter the circumstances, our God is faithful.

Some thankyous that I need to make:

Colson, our amazing driver! You are more than just a driver. I was so blessed by your joy and enthusiasm for whatever we were doing. Pastor Ornan, for looking after our whole schedule during our time in Haiti, and being our support. Amanda and Steve, for giving us valuable advice and always being there if we needed anything. Elysie and Asnaf, for making amazing food when we were at the seminary! And to each district leader, for serving us with all of your hearts.

Me and Pastor Ornan

Me and Colson our amazing driver!

So au revoir Haiti! I will never forget you. Bondye ben ou, que Dieu vous benisse, God bless you.

See you all in Dominican Republic!

On the journey, 

Dani