There are so many things we love about the Dominican Republic. It's a beautiful place with beautiful people. It's hard to narrow it down to five, but here are the top five things each of us loves about the DR. As you'll see, we are unanimous in our overall favorite!
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Why Hands & Feet?
We are operating with the simplest of mission statements: SERVE.
As we thought about what our service might look like, we kept coming back to the idea of simply being available in whatever capacity was most beneficial to those we're serving. In that sense, we want to have willing HANDS and ready FEET.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Called to Serve
SERVE.
That’s our simple mission.
We have been blessed to spend time in the Dominican Republic each of the last three summers and God has made it very clear He intends for us to spend a year serving the Dominican people.
After our first trip to the Dominican Republic we knew speaking Spanish was in our future but didn’t know how or when. After our second trip we felt sure we would return to the country for more than a short-term trip. Finally, last summer during our third trip to the Dominican Republic, God confirmed His plan for our lives.
We have been called to spend a year serving Pastor Quina Ovalles and the churches she started and leads.
Pastor Quina has started, and still leads, four Christian and Missionary Alliance churches in towns outside the city of Moca. She has worked tirelessly for more than 30 years to serve the people in these towns and in the city of Moca.
Last summer she admitted to us she needs help. This was not an easy admission for such a driven, smart, hard-working and compassionate woman. Nevertheless, her statement only confirmed what we suspected God was calling us to do.
HOW?
Dave Engbrecht, our pastor at Nappanee Missionary Church, often says, “When God calls, God provides.” We can testify to the truth of that statement.
Each of our trips to the Dominican Republic have been made possible, in part, by the generosity of others.
God continues to provide as we have entered a partnership with Nappanee Missionary Church (NMC) and together we are embarking on a new venture.
NMC will serve as our sending agency, which means it will provide oversight, accountability, encouragement and a non-profit financial structure under which to operate.
We are thrilled with the opportunity to build a team to accompany us. More than anything, we need a team of faithful prayer partners. There are many unknown and unforseeable things we will encounter, but with much prayer support we know God will prepare a clear path for us.
We also trust God already has a plan for our financial support during this year. If you feel led by God to help with our financial support, please look at the budget to the right in the Support Us section. There are one-time and monthly giving opportunities.
WHEN?
We believe God is calling us to make the move to the Dominican Republic soon. We don’t have an exact date in mind, but our goal is to start our year of service before the 2014-15 school year starts.
In our hearts, we are ready to go now! However, we trust God’s timing and are waiting on His provision of the necessary means for us to serve for a year in the Dominican Republic.
Thank you very much for considering what part you may play in God’s plan for our lives and the lives of our friends in the Dominican Republic.
ABOUT OUR BUDGET
(Our budget is available in the Support Us section to the right)
We have worked hard and drawn on the experience of NMC to keep our budget as simple as possible. We want to be as clear as possible with how we use support money. We don’t take this responsibility lightly and we will always be open to questions.
If anything in our budget raises questions in your mind, feel free to call or email us anytime!
One of the items that may be confusing is U.S. Home Costs. We plan to rent our house to a tenant, but in case that doesn’t work out we must have a way to pay our mortgage and basic utilities. If a tenant covers those costs, the support money we get will be used to support Pastor Quina’s ministry after our year of service is over.
We intend to use any support money left at the end of our year to support Pastor Quina’s churches.
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES
We don’t expect there to be too many “typical” days during our time in the Dominican Republic, but there are some tasks we expect to be a regular part of our lives.
Children’s Ministry - Pastor Quina has already let us know she’d like us to work with the children (and there are many) in her churches. We’re excited for this chance for our whole family to be involved in ministry together.
Discipleship - We already have relationships with many people in Pastor Quina’s churches. We expect to enter into discipling relationships with them, both as disciples and disciple-makers.
Work Projects - There are four facilities to maintain, not to mention the possibility of helping people in the community. Working with our hands is fully expected.
Hosting Missionaries - Pastor Quina’s churches receive teams of missionaries on a regular basis. There is a lot of work involved with hosting and we are excited about helping in this area.
Other Opportunities - On our previous visits to the Moca area we have found several opportunities for further ministry, including feeding the poor, sports ministry and door-to-door evangelism.
We are excited to see if God opens a door to any of these opportunities.
That’s our simple mission.
We have been blessed to spend time in the Dominican Republic each of the last three summers and God has made it very clear He intends for us to spend a year serving the Dominican people.
After our first trip to the Dominican Republic we knew speaking Spanish was in our future but didn’t know how or when. After our second trip we felt sure we would return to the country for more than a short-term trip. Finally, last summer during our third trip to the Dominican Republic, God confirmed His plan for our lives.
 |
Pastor Quina Ovalles, of Moca, has started and
leads four Christian and Missionary Alliance
churches in towns outside her city. She has worked
tirelessly for more than 30 years.
|
Pastor Quina has started, and still leads, four Christian and Missionary Alliance churches in towns outside the city of Moca. She has worked tirelessly for more than 30 years to serve the people in these towns and in the city of Moca.
Last summer she admitted to us she needs help. This was not an easy admission for such a driven, smart, hard-working and compassionate woman. Nevertheless, her statement only confirmed what we suspected God was calling us to do.
HOW?
Dave Engbrecht, our pastor at Nappanee Missionary Church, often says, “When God calls, God provides.” We can testify to the truth of that statement.
Each of our trips to the Dominican Republic have been made possible, in part, by the generosity of others.
God continues to provide as we have entered a partnership with Nappanee Missionary Church (NMC) and together we are embarking on a new venture.
NMC will serve as our sending agency, which means it will provide oversight, accountability, encouragement and a non-profit financial structure under which to operate.
We are thrilled with the opportunity to build a team to accompany us. More than anything, we need a team of faithful prayer partners. There are many unknown and unforseeable things we will encounter, but with much prayer support we know God will prepare a clear path for us.
We also trust God already has a plan for our financial support during this year. If you feel led by God to help with our financial support, please look at the budget to the right in the Support Us section. There are one-time and monthly giving opportunities.
 |
| God has blessed us with many new friends in the Dominican Republic and we're excited to offer ourselves as servants to them. |
We believe God is calling us to make the move to the Dominican Republic soon. We don’t have an exact date in mind, but our goal is to start our year of service before the 2014-15 school year starts.
In our hearts, we are ready to go now! However, we trust God’s timing and are waiting on His provision of the necessary means for us to serve for a year in the Dominican Republic.
Thank you very much for considering what part you may play in God’s plan for our lives and the lives of our friends in the Dominican Republic.
ABOUT OUR BUDGET
(Our budget is available in the Support Us section to the right)
We have worked hard and drawn on the experience of NMC to keep our budget as simple as possible. We want to be as clear as possible with how we use support money. We don’t take this responsibility lightly and we will always be open to questions.
If anything in our budget raises questions in your mind, feel free to call or email us anytime!
One of the items that may be confusing is U.S. Home Costs. We plan to rent our house to a tenant, but in case that doesn’t work out we must have a way to pay our mortgage and basic utilities. If a tenant covers those costs, the support money we get will be used to support Pastor Quina’s ministry after our year of service is over.
We intend to use any support money left at the end of our year to support Pastor Quina’s churches.
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES
We don’t expect there to be too many “typical” days during our time in the Dominican Republic, but there are some tasks we expect to be a regular part of our lives.
Children’s Ministry - Pastor Quina has already let us know she’d like us to work with the children (and there are many) in her churches. We’re excited for this chance for our whole family to be involved in ministry together.
Discipleship - We already have relationships with many people in Pastor Quina’s churches. We expect to enter into discipling relationships with them, both as disciples and disciple-makers.
Work Projects - There are four facilities to maintain, not to mention the possibility of helping people in the community. Working with our hands is fully expected.
Hosting Missionaries - Pastor Quina’s churches receive teams of missionaries on a regular basis. There is a lot of work involved with hosting and we are excited about helping in this area.
Other Opportunities - On our previous visits to the Moca area we have found several opportunities for further ministry, including feeding the poor, sports ministry and door-to-door evangelism.
We are excited to see if God opens a door to any of these opportunities.
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