Ministry in the New Rieles Church Addition

The Rieles Project (Iglesia Centro De Vida A/D / Center of Life Church), is moving forward.  The new addition is almost complete.  The floors are finished, the kitchen is only missing the doors for the floor counters.  The counter tops are tiled, and beautiful custom made cabinets are in place above them.  The bathrooms are finished, toilets and sinks, and showers are in place and functioning.  The shower and bathroom walls are tiled and look great.  The water holding tank is on the roof for when there is no water, or electricity.  The water system for the kitchen and the bathrooms is finished, and we even have a faucet for a hose outside.  All the windows, doors,  and protective bars are in place for this addition.  The four classrooms are finished and freshly painted.  Just in time as the pastor of the Haitian church group that uses this building, has decided to start a day school here for Haitian children.  Classes have already started and more than 40 children are attending. This is in addition to the 70 or so children that are part of the after-school remedial program that have also moved into the new addition.  Chairs and tables for the classrooms are desperately needed, but for now the floor will do.

No chairs, but that doesn;t stop ministry from happening in the new classrooms.

Last week, Pastor Enrique Santiago from Hollywood, Florida and his team conducted the first Vacation Bible School in the new facility.  Over two hundred children attended.  It was a five day program that 

Elections in the Dominican Republic

So why are elections so heated in Latin America?  Yesterday was election day here in the Dominican Republic.  There were a number of candidates for president on the ballot. Like the U.S., the term for a president is 4 years, with a possibility of serving an additional four years if re-elected. Among these candidates was Danilo Medina, who is a member of the party which has been in power in this country the

Headline reads: Who will be the President?

last eight years (currently with President Leonel Fernandez). Danilo Medina was announced this morning as the winner, and new president, with 51.2 % of the votes.  His strongest opponent was former president Hipolito Mejia who represented the previous party that had been in power (who garnered 46.9% of the vote).  He served as president here in this nation (2004-2008). A great place to keep up with news in English about the Dominican Republic is http://www.dr1.com/news.php#1

Back to the question of why elections are so heated here.  Many government positions are appointed.  That is not uncommon in the US, however, here the appointments may go down even to affecting who runs individual public schools, fire

Rains Continue as the Church nears Completion

Floor is in, but kitchen still needs some work!

We want to thank the many that have sent funds to help with the relief efforts and with the construction of the church addition.  We believe that within a month or two this project will be done and we will be in condition to give proper care to any flood affected families.  We will have a fully functioning soup kitchen, a dining area that can accommodate about 150 people, we will have two

New Flooding in the Rieles

Video UPDATE! Flooding continues to affect the Rieles Community:

The call came in this morning, the Rieles community area was flooding again.  Pastor Gemuel was calling to let us know that between four and five this morning many families awoke to two feet of water in their homes.  The waters were now receding and people were busy trying to salvage their belongings, and cleaning their

Flooding and Frustration

The Rieles area has flooded again.  How much frustration can you put up with?  How much frustration can families in Los Rieles put up with?  It has been 5 years since tropical storms Olga and Noel hit this community.  See this link where our media team (Elias Castillo and myself) posted a video of the event. It is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IklcwXCef2E These families should have moved elsewhere.  They didn't because they couldn't afford anything else.  Only a very few moved away to a better area.

Yesterday at about 10PM we became aware that because of torrential rains, some of the church kids from the Rieles area had decided to spend the night in the new sanctuary.  However, after our van waded through hubcap deep waters to get to the church.   We had brought with us seven mattresses, some sheets and blankets, and some clothing.  We discovered that there were actually 21 families spending the night on the floor in the church.  Our Sunday school addition has not been finished yet and so there are still no bathrooms  working in the facility. No floors down yet either in the new kitchen and dining area, or for that matter in the four classrooms.  For a lack of $8000.00 US, we were not ready for this emergency. That was a little frustrating.  I had hoped that by now the project would be finished. The need was

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