My Carnival Experience

Today after church I was taking a nap when Paul, Mitch and Debbie's son, came in the room and told me I was going to carnival with him. He is here for the week doing some video stuff and wanted some footage of carnival. It is a dangerous place with pick-pocketers and other stuff, so he wanted another person with him for safety. I agreed to go since I have been wanting to see what this town has been doing the last month. I have heard many stories but that is never the same as experiencing it for yourself.

When you arrive at carnival you have to walk through what they call "caves" in order to get to the main streets. The caves are filled with people to the point where you can barely walk through. There is a picture of one of the many caved throughout the town.  Carnival takes up almost the entire downtown area. Most of the side streets that enter downtown have a cave blocking the street.

Once you exit the cave you are on the main streets where there are many people dressed up in demon costumes. They parade around in different groups where they are all dressed alike. There were around 5 or 8 demons in each group. Each one of the demons has a foam stuffed ball connected to a rope. You can see the black ball that this one is holding. They are made of foam, but they are packed so tight that it becomes hard. As they walk down the street they will find people that are not watching and hit them as hard as they can. They pretty much march around the streets beating people with these things. I got hit a couple times, but one time left my backside hurting for about five minutes. The rest of my time there I was constantly checking behind me.

The craziest thing about carnival was the feeling. All month I was at Unidos por El where there was a feeling of love and peace. You could feel the presence of God in that place. As soon as I arrived at carnival I felt hate, confusion, and a presence of the Devil. It was one of the weirdest feelings I have ever felt. I became sick to my stomach for about an hour after. I don't think I have ever prayed so hard in my life. It was the constant feeling that I was going to be hit, hurt, or get something stolen.

This experience has showed me even more clearly that God is a loving God. He desires that we live a life of love and peace with others. When we are living a life like Christ we are not out to hurt other people but the complete opposite. He came to heal and forgive! We serve such an amazing God and I pray that he breaks Satan's hold over this city. This month was one that I will never forget.

Thank you all for the prayers and support while I have been here. If it wasn't for many of you I would not be having the opportunity to minister and serve Christ in this town. I want to thank you all so so much for this opportunity. God bless you all!!

United for Him!

The month of February is a busy time here in La Vega. All of the people are celebrating Carnival; which is a time of drinking, drugs, sex, violence, and demons. Every weekend in the month of February they dress up in demon costumes and parade around the town, and every night they have concerts and parties. There are many streets throughout the city that have been completely blocked off for different stages and clubs to meet.

Mitch Martinez has been working alongside some other Christian brothers here in La Vega the past few years to create a Christian alternative. We are having the event Unidos Por El (United for Him). Last year there were a couple thousand youth that came to the event and this year we hope it is bigger. The event will be held every Saturday and Sunday in the month of February. There are around 30 Christian artists that will be coming to perform. The event will be broadcasted on national TV and on the internet at latinmedia.org. The 4th video shows a little bit of carnival and United for Him. It will begin at 6pm EST on Saturdays and 3:30 EST on sundays. Here are some videos showing last years event. http://vimeo.com/35863310

I know that God is going to do some amazing things at this event, but we need your prayers throughout the month. We have Biblica Publishing donating 6,000 Bibles, but still need to raise the shipping cost. We are praying that these Bibles can make it here before the event is over. We also hope to reach as many youth in the city as possible. If they are at United for Him then they will not be at the other parties. Pray that God will move in this city and that lives would be touched. Prayer is also needed for the safety of everyone involved. I had to visit the hospital yesterday to receive over 30 stitches in my leg from a speaker that fell. Pray that no one else gets hurt this month. The last thing to pray for is that this event is very expensive. We have raised about 1/4 of the cost. Showing the event on live national TV, building the stage, buying speakers, paying artists, and other costs is very expensive. Pray that God will continue to provide for us. I will keep you all updated.

Be sure not to miss it live at latinmedia.org

My First 6 Months

I just wanted to thank everyone for the support over the last six months. I know you have been praying for me and that means so much. It has been nice to be back in Colorado the last two weeks and be with my family for the holidays. I am so excited to return to the Dominican Republic for another six months in just one week. There are many events coming up in the next stretch and I am so excited to share with you as they happen.

So much happened in my first six months it is hard to share it all. I have created a short video which I posted on youtube that shows a little bit of what has been happening in the Dominican Republic. Here is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xJKHT46soI&context=C3917e81ADOEgsToPDskKP3l4B2Ep6gDJ2s0dY0OXC

Here are some of the highlights from the video:

1. With the help from people in the US we were able to construct a Haitian school where about 30 kids are now able to receive and education.

2. There is a new section under construction on the Rails church where they will have classrooms for Sunday school and an after-school program. There will also be a kitchen where they can cook for the kids.

3. Centro Manantial de Vida (Springs of Life Center) church was started and average 50 people each Sunday. I have had the opportunity to preach there once and the pastor wants me to preach again.

4. At La Vega Christian School I have helped teach English to 5th-10th graders. 

5. One Way Ministries is the youth group I started with two friends. We have about 15-30 youth that show up each Friday night. One of the nights we had 12 youth accept Christ! I have been able to preach here twice in Spanish!

6. There was a group from Unlimited Potential Ministries that put on a baseball camp. Over 400 kids came out that day and 72 accepted Christ! In January we are starting a ministry for those kids.

It has been so exciting to see God working the last six months, and I am excited to see what God has planned for the next six months. Thank you all again for your support and prayers. I hope your Christmas season has been blessed and that you have a blessed new year!

Things that may only happen in the Dominican Republic

So I have been thinking about some interesting stuff that I have only seen happen since coming to the Dominican Republic. There are some obvious things that people expect when going to another country with culture changes, but these are things someone that only comes for a week may not realize. The first thing that pops into my mind is the need to look both ways before crossing a one way street. If it is faster to go the wrong way down a street instead of driving around the block, people will do it. You never know where cars or scooters will be coming from. The second thing is slowing down when you come to a green light. There are so many people that run red lights that you actually have to be careful when approaching a green light. There have been times I have had to stop in an intersection so a car could run the light. (Be careful when driving).

One of the funniest things has to do with phone calls. Here in the DR you pay for a certain number of minutes like in the states. However, you only get charged for minutes when you make a phone call, but you don't get charged for receiving one. Many people have cell phones but never put minutes on them. They use other people's phones to make calls but can still receive calls on their phone. One common thing is to call and immediately hang up. The first few times I didn't know what was going on!! When someone does that it means that I don't have any minutes and you need to call me back. (But what if I don't want to use my minutes to call you? haha). There are times where I will call and other times where I don't. Most of the time it is from an unknown number so I'm not fast to call back. For example, I only have 60 minutes a month and most months I don't even use all of that. I usually use 30 minutes. This is because the phone calls are very short. You don't want to use up minutes with normal talk. Phone calls are only to pass information, and that only, nothing more!! Many times there is not even a hello or how are you? Your phone call is answered with "tell me." I respond, "Hello, how are you?" In response, "tell me." That isn't important information and neither is a goodbye. Once I called to order a pizza. They said, "Hello?" (No name of the restaurant or anything). I responded, "Is this Las Palmas?" "Yes, what would you like?" they responded. "I would like to order a pizza," I said. The responded, "Yes I know, what would you like?" There is no small talk and once the information is given you hang up. Many times I haven't even gotten to share my opinion about the information.

Now I find myself doing the same thing. It is interesting how we change with the culture we are living in. No, I have not made a phone call and immediately hung up, but sometimes I do end the call very soon. Now when I call the pizza place, after they say hello, I respond, "I want a medium cheese pizza, no drink, and delivered to this address. I will pay with cash." End call.

October Update

Well here is a quick update since I have had a hard time writing on here each week.  We have now had four weeks with One Way Youth Ministries. Tonight was our fourth meeting and we had 25 students. We have increased every week and are encouraged with how fast it is growing.  Next week we are having a BBQ and I am planning to preach my first message in Spanish. Please keep that in your prayers. I am pretty nervous just thinking about it.  Work at the school has been getting better each week.  I am really seeing some improvement in some of the students and it is encouraging.

This week I started with a new ministry.  Mitch had heard about a team practicing at the local stadium and mentioned how we needed to meet the coach.  So last Saturday we went by the field and were able to meet the coach.  We found out that he doesn't have a team, but that he runs a baseball school.  In the morning he does hitting and defense, and in the afternoon he does pitching.  It just so happened that I get out of school at 3pm and he begins his pitching workouts at 4pm.  This week I was able to go over to the field after school and help him with his pitcher workouts.  He even wants me to start working with some of the pitchers and giving my opinion.  It has been so nice being on a baseball field again.

This week I got as sick as I have been in a long time.  I tried to go to work Wednesday morning after being up since 2am with stomach problems, but I only lasted an hour at work.  I spent the whole day at home feeling absolutely terrible and sleeping.  At times it was so bad that I could barely stand up for a period of time.  God has really come through though and I am feeling almost 100% just two days later.  For those of you that are praying for me here are a few requests.  You can pray for continued health, One Way Ministries and my message next week, and the ability to reach the ball players at the stadium.  Thank you all for your prayers and support.  It really does mean a lot to me.

My adventures.

Today turned out to be quite an interesting and eventful day. Yesterday (Sunday) I had to go all over town on my scooter and was starting to get low on gas. I realized this morning when I was leaving for school that my gas was pretty low but I figured I could get to school then to a gas station after. The second I pulled into the school parking lot my scooter died, I had run out of gas. I parked it and went on to teach the rest of the day. After school I began looking for some friends to see if someone could take me to get some gas, but they had all gone home. I walked a little less than a mile down the road to where some people were sitting on the sidewalk. They were selling gas in soda bottles for $0.75, then I walked back to the school. I filled put the gas in my scooter and began driving to the gas station.

So I was on my way to the gas station and this plastic thing that connects to the carburetor decided to fall off. My scooter got all crazy and I realized that this piece was just hanging there. I ended up pushing my scooter for about 3 blocks and happened to find a car repair shop. They put a screw in the thing for no charge and I was on my way. I finally got the the gas station and filled up my tank. A feeling of relief came over me, I could finally go home, but wait. I had that feeling just a bit too soon. I pulled out of the gas station and started home. The light turned green and I started to drive away when I heard, "Your scooter! Your scooter!" I looked down and gas was flooding out from somewhere near the engine all over the ground. I quick pulled off to the side of the road and there happened to be some motorcycle taxi's nearby. One ran over and quickly began to help me. Another kid pulled up on his scooter, grabbed a butter knife, and began to undo screws. He took the siding off my scooter and found the gas line had come off from the gas take. He fixed that, again for no charge, and I started on my way home again. While on my way home I was just waiting for something else to happen and then it did... I got home. That is my afternoon so far. I hope you had a good time reading and enjoying my frustrating afternoon. Haha

God is working here!

Here it is almost a month since my last update and God has done some incredible things.  I am not going to be able to inform you of all that is happening but I will try.  So the last post talked about the Haitian school as well as students at the school that needed support.  The money for the Haitian school came in as well as some students received uniforms.  The floor is down in the school, most of the walls are up and they have begun to have classes.  God has really been been answering prayers and needs here.

On Sunday, September 24th Centro Manantial de Vida (Springs of Live Center) had their first church service.  They are meeting in the cafeteria area at the school, and there were about 150 people at the service including about 10 other pastors from the town showing their support.  The pastor really wants to reach the youth and get a ministry started soon.  I am working alongside his three sons and another friend to start that ministry.  Tomorrow we are having our first planning meeting and hopefully start within a couple weeks.  Please keep the whole process in your prayers.  It is very difficult for me at times considering I am trying to organize so much yet am still struggling with Spanish.  However, I am learning Spanish quickly and am able to have decent conversations with people.

Work at the school has been getting better.  The mornings are going very well and my afternoon class is better.  I am really starting to see some students responding to my teaching.  I am also starting to build relationships with some of the students.  That is the best part of the job!  I love having students call out my name around town or at the park and run up to me to say hi.  It is such a good feeling.  It has helped me to get used to living in this country.  It is also a lot easier to live here now that my scooter is running well.

I thank all of you for praying for me back home.  It is so encouraging knowing that I have people that are praying for me.  I ask now that you would pray for this new church along with the youth ministry.  We are trying to start it soon and really need God's hand guiding us in the process.  Pray also for safety and health.  Thanks to God, I haven't really gotten sick yet (or not too bad).  I also have a mailing address now so if anyone would like to send me a package just email me for more information. rpauly2006@yahoo.com.  Thank you all so much for your support and may God bless you all.