Recruiting Missionaries for La Vega School

La Vega Christian School is celebrating 13 years of giving instruction, from pre-school through high school.  Today nearly 500 students are enrolled in our program.  From humble beginnings in a four bedroom house to a three story structure with 32 classrooms and a staff of 75, the school continues to expand.    This is the first year that Debbie has left the directorship (her new director is Ada

La Vega Christian School

Santana), while she concentrates on the Ruthie Martinez Children's Fund (RMCF).  RMCF is a program that provides aid and education scholarships to needy children. 

But I am getting sidetracked.  The purpose of this entry today is to recruit US volunteers to come and help us with our English program.  

Below is a video that is great to show anyone who is praying about working overseas as a missionary. 

Our school year is from August through early June. We offer a daily class of English for all grades, and intensive English classes in the afternoons.  One of the keys to making a good English program is to have missionary volunteers teaching these classes.  A key to good language learning is to hear the language spoken by a native speaker.  Every year the Lord touches someone's heart to

A Touch of Loneliness

The Cost of Missionary life (Some thoughts after Christmas)

A Winter Sunset in Texas

We attended a Caribbean missionary retreat (see earlier blog on the holidays) being held in Texas this past year.  It was nice being in the US for the Christmas holidays.  One day as I prepared to return to the DR I found myself in a meditative mood and jotted downs some thoughts about that very short visit, and the week with family.  I found myself wrestling with a little melancholy, and tried to be positive about it.     

The Plus side of the visit:

The best was to see our children and our four grandkids.  We just don’t seem to see enough of them. Pictures are just not quite

Current News Updates from La Vega

The United For Him youth event ended the last weekend of February with over 2000 young people in attendance and 30 young people publicly asking Jesus to take control of their lives.  Every weekend was outstanding.  The Christian artists and musicians all shared testimonies and encouragement from their hearts.  It was amazing how many had come from very poor beginnings, and tremendously adverse situations.  They were truly a testimony of what Jesus can do with a life that is given to him.

Romy Ram, Nestor Ortega, and Ironman, three Urban musicians that ministered from the heart!

 On hand for that last night was the Calvary Academy Senior class from Lakewood, New Jersey.  They performed some exciting dramas, and their team leader David Murphy shared a challenging spiritual message.  They were with us for a week and ministered in different churches and public

Update on Unidos Por El Youth Event

Excitement continues to build at the "Unidos Por El" youth event ( see last years video about the event at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqIokjOqdjI&list=UU5wtXYwH2S5-GWx0RtJGx2g&index=3&feature=plcp ). Coming up is the fourth and final week of concerts.  Our thanks to those who have responded to our appeal for financial help.  We are now only $3,400.00 shy of meeting all event expenses.  This last Sunday we had 2000 young people out for the concerts.  The 

February - Reaching the Youth of La Vega

Please pray for this weekend and the next three weekends in February for the "United For Him" event.  We are asking the Lord for great weather, and a wonderful move of His Spirit among the young people attending. Please pray that all financial needs for the event will be met.

Elias Castillo

"Unidos Por El" (United For Him), is the youth event that your missionaries have been very involved with for the past four years.  In fact it is Mitch Martinez and Elias Castillo who are the executive producers of this faith venture.  It is a series of Youth Concerts every weekend in February, which have been organized to create a Christian alternative to the wild Carnival Festival which seems to envelope like a dark cloud the city of La Vega every year. . The spirit of partying, and promiscuity is promoted all weekend long.  Violence and vehicle accidents are par for this event.  Concerned that even children were being drawn into this event, we networked with area youth pastors and began coming together for a clean, spiritual, counterbalance for young people. From a couple of hundred young people, we have grown to over two thousand in these four years.  From Contemporary Christian music, to Christian Rap and Rock, there is something for every one in the family.  I am attaching a link to a video made at

Can a Missionary spend time at the Beach?

I hate to say it, but sometimes there are stereotypes about missionaries that don't match reality? The question of should a missionary enjoy a trip to the beach of course doesn't apply to missionaries working in landlocked countries (of course lakes and rivers have beaches too).  I hate to admit this to those of you who don't know where the Dominican Republic is, but yes we live on a beautiful Caribbean island.  The island was originally dubbed Hispaniola (Espanola) by Christopher Columbus, and was

discovered on his very first journey.  The Taino indians that inhabited this island, called it Quisqueya.  Today the island is split between two very different nations; French-speaking Haiti, and Spanish-speaking
Dominican Republic. The DR is the larger in land mass of the two.  Four fifths of this nation is

Holiday Visits

It was difficult to stretch two weeks in the states into our schedule, but it had to be done.  Difficult because there was so much happening in La Vega, and so many things that had to be put on hold.  We are coordinating the construction of the addition for the Rieles Church, and also in the process of setting up for the 8 day "Unidos Por El Youth Eventl"  in February (this is a Carnaval Alternative for Youth).
We are also applying for a Christian TV channel in La Vega. In December, Debbie was following up the process of obtaining water pumps from the government for the wells we had dug in the Rieles.  We now have three pumps in place thanks to Elias Castillo's help last week.  She has also been gathering toys and gifts for poor children in the Rieles area to be distributed for Three Kings Day celebration (Observed January the 9th this year).  A
wonderful partnering church in Boca Grande (UMC) shipped us 400 lbs of gifts.

 It was wonderful to have an opportunity to be with our children and grandchildren during the Christmas season.  Every three years our mission strongly encourages us to