What a journey...

The past nine months have gone by so fast. Thank you so much for your love, support and most of all, your prayer. I give thanks to our loving Savior that throughout the time leading up to my arrival in Dominican Republic, through the excitement, the hard work, the joy and the sorrow of this past year He gave me hope and vision to continue in His discipline and towards the role He has prepared for me in His glorious story. Each step I have taken towards a future as a missionary in the DR He has bought people in my life to teach and counsel me, opportunities and experiences to develop my skills and talents to better serve here in the DR and to equip me to better understand the mission and strategies of North Point Ministries, and most of all patience and confidence in God for His timing in all things. That perspective, to me, is vital in order to serve His purpose rather than our own. It is my hope that I continue on this path, please pray and for those of you in my confidence please keep me accountable! All of this would not be possible without you; I cannot thank you enough…

I have only been here a few days and already I feel as if I am at home. My first night here we had a meeting with a group of leaders of a nearby church in Yuma. They are excited this year to be a part of our VBS camps. They will come and observe the first trip so they can better understand what we do and so they can equip their leaders for their camp later in June. It was an honor to be invited to sit in on this meeting to observe and learn how the Biblical Community continues to reach out to neighboring churches.

Sunday was a lazy day; I woke up late; nearly the time everyone else was returning from children’s church (which they have in the mornings in several of the churches here). Zoila and I took a taxi to the Centro to a restaurant for lunch…true Dominican food! (Not as good as Zoilas cooking…if any of you get the opportunity to eat dinner at Pastors house, you are in for a treat!) We then sat in the park and walked some. I cannot wait to explore the city more! At the evening service I saw many old friends and met many new ones. I recognized many of the worship songs so I was able to sing along. The presence of God is so powerful here, I have only attended service here 3 times but each time I am overwhelmed by the love of the people and the peace that fills me.

The speaker, a visiting pastor, was finishing a 3-part series on evangelism. Preaching from Isaiah 6:1-8 he encouraged us to draw near to God for the following reasons: Drawing near to God gives us a clear vision and majesty of Him, a recognition of our need of forgiveness and a strong calling from God for evangelism. The sermon really spoke to me but as I found out in the meeting last night, although the preaching was well done and we know that the Holy Spirit will fall on people when the word is spoken, the leaders of the Biblical Community in Higuey desired the series to speak more to seekers vs. believers. Pastor communicated to his leaders that although the desired outcome is not alway realized when visiting pastors come to preach but it is vital to the mission of the church to invite and invest in surrounding churches.

Monday I spent the whole day in the house, and let me tell you, I got pretty restless!!! In the morning, Israel (Pastor and Zoilas younger son), Omar (a friend) and Elias (the youth pastor) watched Happy Feet in Spanish, very entertaining. Then Israel and I worked on translating worship songs and singing together. I have been practicing my guitar and learning how to play Holy is the Lord, its great to have so many musicians around me. Israel and I translated Holy is the Lord and it looks like I may be singing with them next Sunday…hopefully it will go well!
Last night the leaders of the church had a meeting to begin evaluating their ministries. Pastor led the meeting, which has become a rarity but he wanted to make sure everyone understood why they were evaluating the ministries. He explained that the purpose of the evaluation was not to criticize their work but to determine the purpose and goals so that they focus, eliminate the unnecessary and better the ministry. I was very impressed with the process. Next week the individual ministries will meet with their supervising pastor to discuss their evaluation where they will specifically discuss the goals for the ministry from June-December 2007 including a short description, the abilities necessary to run and assist and a clear mission statement.

We also celebrated the 8 baptisms that took place on Saturday, the day I arrived, with 200 people attending to share in the celebration. ¡Gloria Dios!

I was encouraged to hear Pastor say over and over again that they are in a learning stage in all that they do and that evaluation is essential so they can continue learning and growing in their ministry.

Closing the meeting we discussed the upcoming Ministry Fair that will be held on July 22 to give the congregation an opportunity to meet the leaders and current volunteers of all the ministries and to become aware of the various opportunities to volunteer. What a great idea, I cannot wait to see what will transpire from this event.
Their goal is to have 60% of their congregation involved with a ministry at the church.

Today I woke up early, 7am! My friend Francisco was gracious enough to pick me up and bring me to the Basilica to run…YEAH! There were several people running and walking which helped me to feel very comfortable. The track is probably just under a mile and surrounded by palm trees. On my third time around two young men joined me and we finished our run together. Manuel and Felix are both baseball players and run every day the Basilica. We talked about several things; I hope to invite them to church next week…maybe this will be another opportunity to invest in others. I hope to meet more people tomorrow; Francisco said he’d be willing to bring me there every morning. Well off to my next adventure… I hope you are all doing well; please email me or drop me a message here!

Love,

Eliana

indescribable...