Words From Those Who Have Been There, pt. 2

This is part 2 of a series of posts with testimonials from people who have been to the Dominican Republic to work with Pastor Quina Ovalles. We are currently in the process of raising support to spend a year with Quina near the city of Moca to work alongside her as she leads four Christian & Missionary Alliance churches.

Kristy Mikel has been to the
Dominican Republic twice as a leader
of Nappanee Missionary Church
student mission trips.

KRISTY MIKEL
Kristy has been a leader of two Nappanee Missionary Church (NMC) student teams to the Dominican Republic - in 2006 and in 2013. She is a former Missionary Volunteer with World Gospel Mission, having spent a year in Kenya. She has led several other NMC student missions trips, served as a summer camp leader, small group leader and is currently on staff full-time in NMC Student Ministries.

We had the privilege of leading alongside Kristy on the 2013 NMC student IMPACT team. Here's what she had to say about her experience:

First of all, working alongside Quina is an absolute blessing! She makes doing ministry in the DR so easy because what she’s invested over the years has been a ton of time, a ton of relationships built and an incredible partnership with amazing churches! Yet one of the greatest needs I see being met is how Quina continues to take others under her wing to “train them up and send them out.” Whether that is taking a young girl in a rough situation into her home and teaching her how to cook, take care of a household and providing so many valuable life skills, while also teaching her about Jesus or whether it’s raising up leaders in the local church who can carry on the vision, Quina has truly brought God glory on earth by building His Kingdom in Moca and the surrounding area! There is a community there who loves her and is learning more and more how to love Jesus because of the good work she is doing!

Words From Those Who Have Been There, pt. 1

The relationship between Nappanee Missionary Church (NMC) and Pastor Quina Ovalles of Moca, Dominican Republic, goes back to the summer of 2006 when NMC sent a team of high school students to work with Quina for a week.

Since that first team in 2006, NMC has sent three more teams of students, called IMPACT teams. The relationship also established a connection between Quina and Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind. Two teams of basketball players associated with Bethel College have spent time working with Quina each of the past two summers.

For us, the Weiss family, our first experience with Quina was in the summer of 2011 as Dan and Katie served as leaders for an NMC student team. We returned the following summer with our children. Finally, we helped lead another NMC team in the summer of 2013 and spent extra time in the Dominican Republic as a whole family.

All this is to say that the relationship between NMC and Pastor Quina is approaching 10 years and has given many people a chance to get to know this amazing woman of God and the ministry of her churches.

We would love to let some of those who know Quina tell you about her and about their experiences in the Dominican Republic.

When Will You Leave?

We are excited to get back to the Dominican
Republic so we can see our friends who live
there! In the picture above from last summer
our friend Gueddy is styling David's hair
after he had been outside playing in the rain.

This is the question we hear most often when talking with people about our year of service in the Dominican Republic. People understandable want to know what our timeline looks like.

Unfortunately, we don't have a good answer for their question!

Our timeline will be based on several factors, but the main one is financial support. Nappanee Missionary Church, our sending agency, requires us to have all of our start-up costs (see complete BUDGET here) in cash and all of our monthly expenses in cash + pledges.

Why Hands & Feet?

As you read about our call to serve in the Dominican Republic you may be wondering why we're using the phrase Hands & Feet. It's a fair question.

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.

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.

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.

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.

God has blessed us with many new friends in the
Dominican Republic and we're excited to offer ourselves
as servants to them.

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.