An Attitude of Thanksgiving

Do you ever stop and think about where God has taken you? Have you given Him something in your life and seen what He did with it? I am in amazement right now looking back over the last 4 months. These 4 months have been completely different than anything I could have imagined. I started Transition Ministry in July with a plan in mind, and God blew that plan away. He has taken it and gone further than I could have ever dreamed. I am sitting here right now in amazement and thankful for so many different things. God truly does something special when we put our lives, goals, and dreams in His hands.

We just got done celebrating Thanksgiving here in the Dominican Republic. This country does not celebrate Thanksgiving, but we get together with some of the American missionaries around the country to celebrate. This year we had about 20-25 people. We also have a special Thanksgiving chapel with the afternoon English students and a Thanksgiving dinner with the families of the teachers. I was asked to preach at the Chapel this year and it was a great privilege. Eating with the missionaries was an incredible time to share with others in ministry and give God the thanks for what he deserves. I thank God for every day that I have here in this country. I thank God for each one of you that supports me and my ministry. I would not be here if it wasn't for the support and prayers of each one of you. I cannot thank you all enough. It is truly a blessing and an honor.

However, Thanksgiving is not just a holiday or one day a year to give thanks to God. We should be living a daily lifestyle of thanksgiving. Scripture tells us to rejoice in the Lord and come before him in thanksgiving. It says to be thankful in all things and in all circumstances. Paul teaches to be thankful in the good and the bad. It is so easy to be thankful for what we have when things are good, but very hard when we are going through a difficult time. I try to teach my students that we can find something to be thankful for no matter what we are going through. Living with a lifestyle of thanksgiving allows us to see the positive in life and helps us to treat others with respect. Try waking up each morning with an attitude of thanksgiving and see how it changes your day. It won't only change your life, but it could change the lives of the people you come into contact with. God bless!!

Preparing For A New Year

About one year ago I sat down to write my first blog as a missionary. I only wanted to be a missionary for about four months. That quickly turned into one year, and now I am about to start my second year. One year ago today I could not have imagined that I would be in this place. I am now ready to leave after a very busy summer. I am so excited to be working in the place that God has called me. There is no better feeling.

I had two months in Colorado to plan for another year on the missions field. This summer I was able to preach at Fishers Peak Community Church in Trinidad, Colorado. That is the church that I attended for two years while at Trinidad State Junior College. While in Fort Collins, I attended Timberline Church and Mill City Church. It was so amazing to be involved in those places. I was ordained by The Missionary Church International, and started my own ministry; Transition Ministry. It was amazing to see how God provided in all of the work that I accomplished and to raise funds for the next yaer.

I am now packed and ready to return to the Dominican Republic. I will continue to teach at La Vega Christian School, work with youth, and have a baseball ministry. I am very excited to announce that I have been working to sponsor 50 Haitian students at a school that I helped build last August. We have 28 students sponsored so far and am looking to sponsor the rest. It is only $9/month to give a Haitian child an education. I am so excited to see what else God has planned in the next year and how He wants to use me in ministry. I just want to thank everyone that has supported me and prayed for me over the last year. That means so much to me.

If you want more information or want to receive updates while I am in the Dominican Republic, please look at my website www.transitionministry.com. I have a ministry facebook and twitter account which you can find on the website. Send an email to ryan.pauly@transitionministry.com if you want to receive newsletters and prayer requests. God bless you all!!

Ways that you can pray:
1) Safe travel tomorrow, August 9th.
2) Health as my body adapts to the food again.
3) That God would provide sponsors for the other 22 students.
4) That I would transition smoothly and be able to find good friends to spend time with.

Preparing For A New Year

This summer has been different from any other before. I have spent the last month in the U.S. preparing to go back to the Dominican Republic. It is so exciting to know that I will be spending another year in the mission field. The work and ministry will be the same as last year, but there are many new and exciting changes. I have spend the last month starting my own non-profit organization. It is called Transition Ministry. The goal of the organization is to work with youth in the Dominican republic through teaching English, baseball and youth ministry, short-term missions teams, and construction.

When I arrived in the U.S. I began to apply to get my non-profit status. I went through an organization called The Missionary Church International. They provided me with a 501 c 3. This gives me the ability to provide exempt status to anyone that donates. After this application was completed, I applied to the state of Colorado to be a non-profit organization. I received this approval on July 10th. It is so exciting to have everything completed and starting a new chapter in my life. The website was also completed for my ministry with information on what I will be doing and how you can be involved. You can see this at www.transitionministry.com.

The only thing left to complete before leaving is my fundraising. I have been talking to local churches, family, and friends to complete my budget. It is also my dream to have people be involved with certain events and needs in the Dominican Republic. During my first year I had supporters give towards putting a floor in a Haitian school and paying for a little girl to have surgery to remove a growth on her face. I would love to see more people get involved in the future. During the next year there will be many more opportunities to help people in the Dominican Republic. If you would like to receive information on how to help, or receive prayer requests, send an email to ryan.pauly@transtionministry.com.

I encourage you to look at www.transitionministry.com. It is a great place to follow what is happening in the Dominican Republic and donate to the ministry. You can like the Transition Ministry facebook page at facebook.com/transitionmin to see pictures and videos. You can also follow me on twitter @transition_min for frequent updates. Please email me and check out the new website if you have any questions. I know that God is going to do amazing things in the next year, and you can have a part at making a difference in somones life. You don't have to be a missionary to change a life in another country. There are many opportunities, so I encourage you to get involved in what God is doing. There will be many more updates after I arrive in the Dominican Republic on August 9th. God bless you all.

Reflecting on the Dominican Republic

The time has gone by so fast. Here I am, sitting here, for my last night in the Dominican Republic. I have moved out of my house, and I'm staying with the missionaries for my last night. When I first felt God call me to come to this country I thought it was for maybe five months at the most. When I was told that it had to be 10 months I was nervous. I had never spent 10 months out of the US. Maybe a one week mission trip, but 10 months?? That is so long!! Can I be away from my family that long? I will miss the entire summer! All of these things plus more made me question the call to missions. After much prayer I finally made the commitment. I spent five weeks in Guatemala learning Spanish, then another ten months here in the DR.

I couldn't have been more blessed with my time here. I was paired up with the most amazing missionaries, Mitch and Debbie Martinez. I learned so much from them, and they felt like parents away from home. I had two great American friends. They are both English teaches at the school with me and are also missionary volunteers, Rayven and Jerry. I also made many other friends, and I can't list them all. I was also blessed to be a part in many ministry events. We held sports camps, worship services, United for Him, painting, constructing schools, giving out Bibles, helping flood victims, and much more. I started a baseball ministry and youth ministry. All of these things are what I did on the side. I spent 40 hours a week teaching English to 5th-10th graders. I had five classes every morning and one English intensive in the afternoon. Keeping busy is what made the time fly by so fast.

While I am home in the US I am really going to miss it here. However, I have made another 10 month commitment for next year. Yes! I am coming back to the Dominican Republic! Many things are going to be changing in my next year here. I will not be returning with the Assemblies of God World Mission. I am in the process of forming my own non-profit. I have created Transition Ministry. It will be a ministry where people can donate, as well as send funds to help with different projects. My main project for my next year will be to grow the baseball ministry. Right now I am helping coach a small group of kids. When I return in August my goal will be to begin Bible studies each week with the players. I will still be teaching English at La Vega Christian School, helping with short term teams, and trying to grow a youth group.

During these next few months I want to ask you for prayer. There is so much that I am trying to get done in a very short amount of time. I have to fundraise for another 10 months overseas. I am building a website and setting up my non-profit ministry. I am trying to make contacts in the US. I will be preaching at churches, meeting with pastors, youth, and spending time with family. I will also be trying to organize a short-term missions team for people to come down to the DR from Ft. Collins. If you would like to donate, or would like more information please email me. My new email is ryan.pauly@transitionministry.com. Go to my Transition Ministry facebook page for pictures and updates. That page is facebook.com/paulymissions. Thank you for the love, support, and prayer. God bless you all.

The Blessing of God's Word

Back in November I was presented with the opportunity to receive New Testaments. Biblica Publishing and Group Publishing had begun a project to send Spanish New Testaments all over Latin and South America.  We were going to receive a few thousand for Unidos por El. Unidos por El is the Christian event where we had artists come every weekend in February. We wanted New Testaments to give to the people that received Christ at the event. There were thousands of people that came each weekend. However, we had shipping problems and were not able to receive the New Testaments until March. God still had a plan.

There were many different problems in the shipping process. At first, we were not able to find an address where the Bibles could be shipped to. Next, they took too long in the shipping process and arrived in the Dominican Republic after the event. When they arrived in port, the customs agents decided to tax the backpacks that were sent with the Bibles. These backpacks were colored by children in the United States to give along with the Bibles. The customs agents said that they were done too professionally and said we had to come up with $2,000 in two weeks. The money was provided and we received the Bibles a few days later. I have to say thank you to so many people that had a hand in this process.

We finally received the Sports New Testaments and now we have the job of handing them out to people that need God's Word. That process has started as we have given away over 1,000 of the 6,000 that we received. The first group to receive Bibles were about 30 students from the Haitian school that we built. Since then, we have given Bibles to Christian business owners, drug rehabilitation programs (Teen Challenge), pastors, medical clinics, an orphanage, and other ministries. I will be giving 200-300 to a ministry that does evangelism in the worst park in Santiago for drug users and prostitution. The most memorable to me is when we had a week of sports camps. We gave backpacks and New Testaments to 200 kids at different sports camps in the Rails. We were also able to share testimonies and give New Testaments to about 75 baseball players at the local stadium. Some of these kids are the players that I work with in the afternoon.

I am still receiving phone calls from pastors and ministry leaders who want Bibles and backpacks. Many of them work with youth and some even do sports stuff. This couldn't have been possible without the help of many people. I have to specifically thank Rich Blanco from Biblica Publishing for giving us the Bibles. Rose Pauly for coordinating things inside the US. Mitch Martinez for the many phone calls here in the Dominican Republic. Timberline Church for allowing a place for people to donate money for the shipping costs. I also want to thank every person who gave towards getting the Bibles in this country. I know that many of you have been praying and will continue to pray that these Bibles get into the right hands, and that lives will be changed. If you would like to see more pictures please visit http://www.facebook.com/paulymissions. You can like and follow the page to get more updates on what is happening in the Dominican Republic. If you would like more information on how to get involved in this project, or projects like this, please email dominicanmissions@yahoo.com. Thank you for everything. God bless!

The Love Experiment

Tonight as I was doing my laundry I began to think about the ways that Christians evangelize to the world. I see groups come down here for short-term missions trips to do construction and programs. They preach to adults, children, and hand out tracks. Then I began to think about evangelism in the United States. We have churches that people come to, and people invite their friends. College ministries give rides to drunk people and feed the homeless. Each of those things is sharing the love of God with other people. I then began to think of the people that stand in Denver or around the bars and tell people they are going to hell because they are drunk. The people that stand with signs and say that God hates sinners and how they are going to hell. There is no love in that message. The Gospel of Christ is filled with love. I then decided to try and experiment.

When people are standing in downtown Ft. Collins telling the college students they are going to hell for drinking most of the people walk by them. I decided to see what would happen if you just told people that Jesus loves them. Many times the world gets a hateful message and not one filled with love. I entered a website and began to ask the people one question. I asked, "Do you want someone to love you unconditionally?" Most people are looking for the love of parents, a spouse, or friends. We are lonely without love. I figured that this question would get some responses, and responses I did get. Some people said I was weird, others said yes and asked why, others stated that they already had that love. Some said how it would be so nice but they don't believe in an unconditional love.

I responded to each one of these people by saying something like this, "This unconditional love is the love of God. He loves you so very much and all we have to do is accept it." The responses blew me away. Very few said that they have already accepted God. Some replied that they were happy the way they were and that they didn't need any more love. They only need the love of their family and that is all this life is about. What surprised me the most was the hate that came from some people. One girl said that she was an Atheist. She claimed that I was being hateful and shoving crazy, uneducated beliefs down her throat. How am I being hateful when I am saying something so good? That is the best news!! It is His love for us that saves us! It is also God that teaches us how to truly love one another. Without accepting God's love it can be hard to love other people.

Some people have hardened their heart so much that they get angry when you talk about love; especially the love of God. How is it that we can best show the love of God to this world? Is it standing on a street corner telling people that Jesus loves them? Is it going on a website and sharing with people? Is it through church services and missions work? Or does God use each one of these ways to bring people to him? Maybe what I said to one person will plant a seed in them. I don't know what will happen. One thing I do know is that without God this life is worthless. Acts 20:24 tells us that we need to testify the good news of God's grace to the world. The Holy Spirit will touch the lives of the people. That is not our job.

New Adventures

Over the last few weeks a few new adventures and ministries have come up.  About two weeks ago we received a shipment of 6,000 Bibles and 4,000 backpacks from Biblica Publishing.  4,000 of the Bibles are sports New Testaments with testimonies from different athletes.  Albert Pujols, first baseman for the Angels, is probably the biggest baseball player to come out of the Dominican Republic. He is on the cover and his testimony inside. Now we have the task of distributing these Bibles to different churches and at different events.  Within the last few weeks we have added two more short-term teams from the US that will be coming this month.  We have a team from Florida that will be coming and doing sports camps! What a perfect way to reach children and give out sports Bibles and backpacks.  I am actually going to talk with Mitch (the missionary I am working with) right now to figure out ways we can distribute these Bibles.  Our main goal is to get God's Word into the hands of the people that need Him!

The second thing that has come up is that I have been asked to work with some kids and do baseball every Saturday.  My church has a children's ministry at an apartment complex.  They have something planned for them each weekend and now we will be starting baseball.  One of the kids came up to me yesterday and said, "Are you going to be practicing with us?" I responded, "Yes." He said, "Well what is our team name going to be?"  He ended up walking away and giving me a huge high five!  The kids here love baseball and that is such an awesome way to show the love of God.

Prayer requests are:
1) Pray for the travel and ministries of each team that is coming down this month.
2) Pray that these Bibles get into the hands of people that need God's Word.
3) Pray for strength and guidance as God continues to work in my life here and as I look toward the future.
4) Pray for this new baseball ministry that I have agreed to take in my already busy schedule.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. It means so much to me. God bless.