Friendship

As a missionary working in the Dominican Republic, it seems like everyone I interact with is either a coworker or a student/teacher in a ministry. There are many other missionaries that I live by and hang out with. It sometimes feels that every time I am with them we are discussing ministry and work issues. Those times of discussion have been an incredible help for me since one couple has been here over 20 years and has helped me grow so much. I am very grateful for their friendship and mentorship in this way, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Our schedules are all so different that at times it feels like I'm either with people at work, or I'm home alone. This isn't true, but it can feel that way at times.

From time to time there is a group movie night or chili night were we can just come together and be friends; not coworkers. Yesterday was one of those days, it was Labor Day here in the DR. I woke up and began to make a big brunch for everyone. It was breakfast burritos, a family favorite. I had 8 people over to my house where we hung out, ate, and laughed together. In the evening we planned a BBQ with even more people. Each person brought food over to my house and we had a U.S. style BBQ. There were 13 people having a good time with shish cabobs, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, and even smores!

As I stood there at the BBQ cooking everything, I thought about friendship. There are some people that we only hangout with at church, others that we only see at work, and some that we get together with to have fun.  There are friends we call when we are bored and others we call when we are in trouble. There may be some people that are in more than one category, but it is so important to have people in each of these places. Life can feel so lonely if we don't have the friends who are just friends. It is good to have people to talk to at work, church, and wherever else you go. These friendships are great, but often end when you switch jobs or move to another town. Who are your friends that will be by your side no matter what changes in your life. Who are the friends that you want to be with just to laugh and have a good time. Cherish these friendships and when times are tough, have a BBQ!

Lesson Learned

I think that one of the main ways that God teaches us is through life experiences. Romans talks about how trials produce perseverance and perseverance produces character. We grow and learn through each experience in our lives. The frustrating part is that I feel like I never fully learn the lesson. I go through an experience and God comes through in an incredible way, but a few months down the road I have forgotten and He has to teach me again. This is exactly what happened to me today.

Almost two weeks ago my laptop crashed. I realized that I had not backed up some of the information in about six months, the more important information was backed up about a month ago. I was going to loose pictures and important ministry information that I had spent hours working on. I immediately took this problem into my hands to fix it. I tried everything I could to get the computer to turn on again, even taking out the hard drive and putting it into another laptop. The second laptop could not boot anything off of the hard drive; it was completely dead. Every day for almost two weeks I would open up the computer and push the power button hoping that it would turn on, but it didn't. It was done.

Family members and friends said that they were praying for my laptop and I was very thankful for that. I knew that God could fix it, but for some reason I never prayed for Him to fix it. After I exhausted every option that I knew of and concluded that there was no hope, I realized that I should pray for my computer. So after two weeks of doing everything I could do, I started to pray. I would turn it on and nothing would happen. I prayed again and turned it on. Again, nothing. I did this for maybe an hour until finally the laptop turned on. Everything opened correctly and I was able to pull everything off of the hard drive. I called my parents to share what God had done. My mom asked when it had finally turned on and I said about 5 minutes before. She said that 5 minutes before I called, she was praying for me with my dad and a friend of theirs. I was completely blown away! God heard our prayers about a laptop and answered in an incredible way!

It seems like many times God waits untill the absolute last moment when we give up all hope before he decides to act. It is almost his way of showing us that we didn't do it, but it was all Him. This has happened so many times in my life. Every time I have a problem I always try to fix it first, and when my way doesn't work I start to pray. I hope that I do not need to be taught this lesson again in the future, but that I will turn to God in prayer as my first solution and not my last. He not only cares about me, but he also cares about the little things like my laptop. How cool is that?!

Change

It has now been two weeks since I left the United States for another stretch of time in the Dominican Republic. The ministry here has continued in many of the same areas, but it has also changed so much as well. Instead of being a full time teacher at La Vega Christian School where I worked 40-50 hours a week the last two years, I am now helping out part time with the SWAT program, chapels and a substitute for English classes. The SWAT and chapels are only on Fridays which has cleared up so much of the week to work in other areas. On Monday, I was able to substitute for an afternoon English class and this coming Friday I will help teach the freshman Bible class. The biggest change I have seen is my work with my new missionary interns.

Much of the first two weeks was spent introducing them to as many different areas of work as possible. Instead of giving them a schedule, I hoped that they would find areas that they are passionate about and get plugged in. After two weeks of learning and adjusting, that is finally starting to happen. They spend two mornings a week teaching English with another missionary at a Haitian school and three mornings a week at La Vega Christian School helping with P.E., English, Chapels and SWAT. Friday afternoons are spent doing a chapel and English classes at the Rose of Sharon. It has been exciting to see them find other areas of work that they are passionate about that I wasn't doing before. Jon is helping the P.E. teacher coach the school basketball team a few days a week and Jayne is doing so much with photography.

What I have learned and tried to apply is that we all have different spiritual gifts that can be used in very different ways. That is something that everyone knows and isn't a new concept. The hard part is actually applying it to my ministry and finding the best way to use the gifts God has given us. They things that I love to do won't necessarily be what my interns love to do. They can provide a huge benefit for the ministry if I allow them to use what God has given them to reach a different group of people, or the same group in a different way instead of hindering them and putting them in a "box" of what I was doing before. My job is to encourage them and help put them in places where they will be most effective. The worst thing would be for them to go back to the U.S. in 6 months still completely "full" and feeling like they weren't able to be used in the way that they could be most effective. Pouring out into the next generation and teaching them is the key, and I am working to find the best way to do that. The last few weeks have been quite the journey as I have seen so much change in my ministry, but if the change means reaching more people for Jesus and affecting more kids, then I will do what it takes to make those changes.

Christmas Love

Every Wednesday morning I attend a Bible study for men. This morning we covered 1 Corinthians 13 which talks about love. It gives a description of what love is and what it isn't. The man who led the study shared a Christmas version of 1 Corinthians 13, and I wanted to share it with you. As you read this I want you to think about how you will act this Christmas and how you will show love to those around you.

Christmas Love
1 Corinthians 13

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautiful adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the Child.

Love sets aside the decorating the kiss the spouse.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

-Author Unknown

What are you thankful for?

Reflecting over my 25 years of Thanksgivings, it is so interesting to see how it has changed and all the things for which I can be thankful. While growing up, Thanksgiving was always spent with my family. My first two years of college I was away from home but was still able to travel back home and spend time with my family.  I was so thankful to spend the time with then, but I never knew what it would be like away from them. Then came my time in California. I was not able to fly home to be with my family, but I realized how thankful I was for close friends who invited me to spend the holiday with their family. After college it was on to the Dominican Republic. I had an amazing missionary family during my first two years that got together and celebrated. I could have been sad or disappointed that it wasn't with my family, but we got together like a family would and celebrated.

I am now spending my first thanksgiving in Colorado with my family since 2007, and I am more thankful than ever. Over the years I have seen that there are many things for which to be thankful. I am not only blessed by an incredible family, but I have also had incredible friends and my missionary family. There is always something that we can be thankful for. It may look different every year and even sometimes it may not seem like much, but it is important to find that thing.

Every year at Thanksgiving we go around the table and share the best part of the last year and what we are looking forward to in the next year. I always had a plan on what the next year would be like, but I never knew that God would use me in this way. As I look over the last year I am blown away by what God has done in the Dominican Republic. He has made himself present many times and answered so many prayers. I am now I looking forward to the next year. I don't know what God has planned, but that is so exciting. I know that it will be spent in the DR serving Him with an incredible group of people and I couldn't be more excited!

I am thankful for my family, friends, and fellow missionaries. I am thankful for all of my supporters, churches, and ministry partners. I am healthy and living out the call God has for me. God has put me exactly where he wants me and I could ask for anything else. There are hard times and difficult things, but I am thankful that God is next to me, helping me through everything. I trust in Him to get me through the hard times and praise Him for the good times. That is something to be thankful for. What can you thank God for in your life?

Volunteer Missionaries

There is so much that I could write about after a few months without any update on here, but something special happened this evening. 

When I felt the call to ministry, I really felt called to work with young adults. My life was shaped by older adults, and I knew that God was calling me to do the same in other young adult's lives. After studying youth leadership at Vanguard University, I felt called to missions and work with the youth in the Dominican Republic. In February of 2012, I knew that I wasn't only supposed to work with youth in the Dominican Republic but also youth from the United States. I started to dream of an internship program where students could come to the DR for an extended period of time and gain ministry/missions experience. This dream started to take shape as I worked with one student who came to the DR for 7 weeks in the summer of 2013. This student didn't go through Transition Ministry, but it helped to create a framework for the program. I returned to the United States in July to share about what was happening in the DR and to share about this new program.

Students began to be interested in this opportunity and two young adults applied for the position. After meeting with them and receiving all of their materials, I am so excited to say that Transition Ministry has its first missionary volunteers!! They will be traveling back to the Dominican Republic with me in January and will assist in the ministry for 6 months. It is so exciting to see two young adults accept God's call in their lives to serve Him overseas. I pray that this program can continue to grow and send new missionaries around the world. There is still so much to learn, but it is so cool to see young adults serving God. What started as a dream over a year ago has now became reality. I am blown away! 

Check out www.transitionministry.org for more information. 

Transition Ministry Anniversary

In the spring of 2010, I took a class on Christian organizations at Vanguard University. We learned about churches, non-profit organizations, and even created our own fake organization for a project. At that time I figured that I would graduate from Vanguard and become a youth pastor at a church. The thought never occurred to me that I was preparing for the future in a different way. Little did I know that just a little over two years later I would found a non-profit organization.

On July 3, 2012, I founded Transition Ministry. The vision and the budget were simple. I had the idea that the ministry would provide a covering for my work as a missionary in the Dominican Republic, cover expenses, and provide $100/month for ministry giving. The budget was $12,000 to stay and work in the DR for 11 months. Not only was that budget reached, but God completely blew all the plans I had out of the water! Just a few weeks after Transition Ministry was founded, I was presented with the idea of doing student sponsorships for a Haitian school that we helped build in August of 2011. Soon, $384/month was being given to the Haitian
school to sponsor 26 students and their teacher, but it didn't stop there. A donation was given to build a kitchen at the school, and now with the new construction project, the Rose of Sharon Educational Center, over $31,000 has been donated for the land and school building! This building will provide four classrooms for the Haitian School, serve as a Dominican afterschool program, and host a church. There are future plans for a second level that will serve as a vocational training center for adults.


The Rose of Sharon Educational Center

8th grade students at LVCS

Over the course of the year, I was able to work with about 150 students (grades 6th-12th) at La Vega Christian School through teaching English, Bible, and leadership. In January we began with the S.W.A.T. program (Spiritual Worship and Training) where students were broken up into small groups to put there leadership skills into practice. I was also able to take on the 9th grade Bible class for the last two months of the school year. It was incredible to see these students grow over the course of they year. At times they would come into my class room to talk or hear about the recent book I was reading. The people who had the biggest impact in my life were teachers at my school. I would go into their classrooms to talk and spend my free time. I never thought that I would be serving in a similar role. There is nothing better than to see how God can change our plans from something I never wanted to do to something that I now have a passion and heart doing. I was also able to work in the local church as I was able to lead worship, preach, and serve as a youth leader.
 

The Initiative team in January, 2013

I also had the incredible privilege to work with eight different short-term missions teams from the United States. They ministered in different ways including: children's ministry, dramas, puppets, preaching, TV shows, dental clinics, eye clinics, construction, painting, a revival, vacation Bible school, and much more. These people gave up a week of their lives to be a blessing to the people of the Dominican Republic. Through these teams we were able to see churches made new with paint and doors, people saved, others healed, many more learn the Gospel message, restore blurry sight with classes, and provide medical treatment.

The last two years, and especially the last year with Transition Ministry has been quite the journey. It is something that I never expected or though about before I graduated. It is truly incredible when we seek God's plan for our lives and follow in the way that He has called us. However, it doesn't stop there after one year. I believe that God has even bigger plans in the future. Plans to continue to working with the Haitians, plans for La Vega Christian School, and plans for a new missions internship program for university students. God has not only put the youth of the Dominican Republic on my heart, but He has also put the youth of the U.S. on my heart, especially those that have felt the call to be missionaries. I want to provide a way for university students to receive missions training so that they can one day go out and work for the Lord in other countries.

So what is happening now? I am currently in the U.S. for six months to meet with pastors, speak in churches, schools, and universities to share what God is doing. The plans are to minister in Colorado, Florida, South Carolina, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Ohio, and hopefully California. I believe that God has great plans in the future, and it can only be accomplished with the help from all of you. So what is your part? Can you put myself and Transition Ministry on your prayer list? Can you contribute financially to the work in the Dominican Republic? Will you sponsor a child? Or will you come yourself on a short-term trip or as a missions intern? Together, we are making an impact.

Vacation Bible School

Please visit www.transitionministry.org for more information. God bless you all and thank you for making the last year so fruitful! Let's continue together in the next year!

Links:
Transition Ministry Promo Video
Transition Ministry Facebook
Transition Ministry Twitter