The Rose of Sharon Education Center

The first plot of land in 2011

The school under construction

About a week after I arrived in the Dominican Republic (Aug. 2011), I was invited to go see a piece of land. A pastor had a school and had to change locations. He was talking to Mitch Martinez (view his blog here) about the idea of building a school on the small piece of land so that his students could continue their education. At that time I didn't understand Spanish very well and I didn't understand the need for a Haitian school in La Vega. The good thing is that Mitch understood the need and agreed to help the pastor. A missions team came at the end of August and we started the construction. After just a few weeks and a few donations, a school was built, and the students started the year.


The finished school in 2011

The first school year went well, and while I was home over the summer I received a phone call about trying to find sponsors for the students. Many of the families could not afford the $9/month tuition and the uniforms. God continued to provide and each child's tuition was paid, including the teacher! Since support for 26 of the students and the teacher was going through Transition Ministry, I became much more involved in the school. We planned a wonderful Christmas party for the students in December that was paid for by supporters (read my blog about the event titled "A True Blessing").


God continued to do wonderful things at this school. A missionary came and gave water filters to the 26 families and the school. My parents came down and my dad held a dental clinic for all of the students. Two Dominican dentists joined and we were able to see all of the students at the school. The students that had urgent needs were then able to go to the dentist's office for further work. I took my afternoon English class from LVCS on a missions trip to the school. My 6th-8th graders shared a devotion, a dance, and gave food to each student. It really opened the eyes of some of my students about the lives of other children in our same town. We have also had many other missions teams from the U.S. visit this school.



The new land that we just purchased

However, we knew that we didn't want to just stop with what we had. We had the desire to one day buy the land around the school and build a nicer and bigger structure. There were problems with the owner of the other property, and we had to look for other options. That is when the pastor found this plot of land. We talked to the owner on a Monday and decided to buy the property that Friday. We were trusting in God to provide the finances since we only had $15,000 of the $28,000 that we needed. On Tuesday there was nothing, but God started to answer our prayers and the prayers of many. We received a check on Wednesday from a generous donor for $2,000. That left us $11,000 to go with just two days before we were planning to close on the land. The time to meet with the lawyer was 5pm on Friday. After hearing nothing all day Thursday, exactly $11,000 showed up at 4pm, Friday. God answered our prayers just one hour before the deadline!! We were blown away by the response and how God worked for us to buy this land.

Now begins the next stage of this journey. An architect has drawn up the plans for a wonderful structure which will be named, The Rose of Sharon Education Center. It will be made of concrete block and able to have two stories. We will begin with a fence around the property and the first level which will have four classrooms, school offices, a large eating area, and a room for a person to sleep and watch the property. The lunch area will be large enough to hold church services and chapels. The plan is to have the Haitian school, a Dominican after school homework session, and a church using the facility. If the school or church begins to grow, the second story will be added for more classrooms or a large sanctuary. The price for this building is estimated at $48,000. There is the goal of having short-term missions teams to come down and do some of the construction. This will help keep the costs lower. I believe that God wants this building built and a lot sooner than we think. Two donations totaling $15,000 have already come without us even making an appeal!! When I received those phone calls I began to yell and shout praises to God. There are not even words to express how grateful I am for the generosity of people in the U.S. There is no way that we would be able to accomplish these goals without faithful supporters who are answering God's call to help. There is still much help that is needed, but we know God has a great plan. Please keep this project in your thoughts and prayers. God is SO good and we are trusting in him to provide. We know He will because these Haitian and Dominican children are His beloved children.


Here is a short youtube video that I filmed at the new property. Thank you to the people that donated to make this happen!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFBeI_5NBYE

At the new land with Pastor Juan

Social Trends

I have grown up most of my life questioning things. I don't like to accept an answer because you say it is correct, but I want to analyze it and see if it is even logical. This has been a problem at times because I will defend a small point that doesn't matter. However, I think it is a good quality to have. I learned in school that there are four types of people: 1) The person that won't listen to new ideas and won't change his beliefs. 2) The person that listens to new ideas but won't change his beliefs. 3) The person that listens to new ideas and thinks critically before changing his beliefs. 4) The person that listens to new ideas and will change his beliefs without thinking.

I believe that the best one is #3. We are not always correct, and we don't know everything. It is so important to learn to listen to other people, but also not just accept it because they say so. There are so many rumors going around on the internet that people believe, and defend, without even knowing the facts. Many of them come out to be false! We need to learn to think critically. This has been a long introduction into the thing that I have been thinking about recently. I have been thinking critically about our culture, and why we do the things we do. What is it that excites the youth today?

If you look at twitter, Lebron James has 7.5 million followers, Justin Bieber has 35.5 million, and Ashton Kutcher has 13.8 million. That is a small example from secular sports, music, and movies (the first three names that came to my mind). If you look at famous Christian athletes, musicians, and pastors it is very different. Matt Redman has 171,000, Josh Hamilton has 217,424, Rick Warren has 908,000, and Doug Fields has 22,000. I understand that the whole world is looking at people like Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher, but only the Christians are following the pastors. That is why the numbers are lower, but it still makes me ask the question why? Why does the Gangnam style youtube video have over 1 billion views?? Why are there over 10,000 versions of the Harlem Shake?? This is all coming from a culture that wants to be unique and different. People get piercings, tattoos, clothes, and color their hair all different colors so that they are unique, but at the same time we are following trends like crazy!! We follow the fashion and the trending topics on the internet like there is no other option.

I have seen posts that criticize Christians for doing their own version of the harlem shake. I am not doing that, and that is not why I am writing this post. I don't want to sound like the critical Christian that thinks we should only focus on Jesus (no youtube, facebook, twitter, etc.) and have no part of this world, because that is not how I think. There is the scripture that says that we should not conform to the patterns of this world, and people take that to mean that Christians need to separate completely. I do not agree completely. I have a two facebook accounts, a blog, and two twitter accounts. That is the best way that I have to share about my ministry and what God is doing in this country. They allow me to show pictures, videos, and ask for prayer support. They can be used to do so much good! I even hashtag stuff!

My question and reason for writing this is; what can we do to make good things trend? Can the popular people and trending topics be Christian? Why do 300,000 people go to Carnival and 2,000 go to United for Him? It isn't just about the style of music or if your youth group has lights and smoke. It interests me that youth want to be unique, yet join every trend that comes along. We have a desire to be a part of something and to fit in. Can we make the church that place? Do we open up for the drunks and the drug addicts, or do we only hope for our Christian students to invite an unsaved friend? Are we going into the streets to minister, or just saying that we should? What are you doing? What are we as Christians doing? Am I crazy and out of my mind for thinking this way? Please comment respond. I would love to get your feedback. God bless!