Stoplight Shopping

One of the unique facets of driving in Santiago is all the activity that goes on when you are in your car at the stoplight. When you stop, the first thing you watch for is the batallion of guys that want to wash your windshield. Sometimes it is hard to see them coming since they throw their sponge from several feet away!





Next come the newspapers. You can get updates on the news with morning and afternoon editions.




After that comes the food: fruit, water, juice, crackers, cookies, popsicles, cheese, etc.
Not far behind come the hats, cellular accessories, windshield wipers, toys, jewelry, sunglasses, etc...











So, come to Santiago to enjoy our Stoplight Shopping. You can make your purchases from the comfort of your car. It's easy on the feet and you get new choices at each stoplight. Come to Santiago where we shop at each stop!

A Fleeting Vapor

This past week we had news of the death of a young woman we had known from the time she was one year old. As an infant she had been adopted by a young couple in the congregation where we were serving. Her parents brought her to church where she took instruction classes and became a confirmed member of the congregation. This past week her time of grace came to and end.

We all hope for a long and full life, but when we look at the world around us we see that this is not always the case. Our lives are truly not our own, and when as believers we realize the price at which we were bought, it fills our lives with joy and thankfulness and gives us purpose in all we do.

How faithful and generous God was to this young girl, using her parents to bring her to the Word so she could know her Savior. Every day our Savior puts people in our path, souls to be witnessed to and given the opportunity to hear about Jesus' life of fulfilling the Law for us and giving His life in exchange for us to enjoy eternity in heaven.

This is what motivates us to witness to all those who live around us. Sometimes our actions and words seem like they have little or no effect, but we trust that God is working. He is continually holding His arms out to a lost and fallen world. What an amazing task the Lord has committed to us. (Amazing that in spite of our sinfulness he would even consider us to handle his precious gospel). We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

God used these parents to bring his gospel to the heart of their adopted daughter. May he also use us to witness to many others, to make his appeal - through us - to a fallen world.

Thirty Years

This past week we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. When we told people how many years we have been married, their jaws would drop! They are not used to people staying together for that many years.


In this society it is common for a man and woman to begin a family, but after a number of years, the man (usually) leaves this family unit and joins together with another woman. They begin a new family. This cycle just continues and repeats itself. After some time, the abandoned woman may find a new man and begin a second family with him. Families become a very entangled web. So, when you ask someone about their family they have to think about it for a moment. The most common response is to tell you how many siblings they have with the same mother and then rattle off how many half-brothers and sisters they have through subsequent parental unions.


Did you ever think that simply staying married could be a way to witness to the world? Being faithful to your spouse is a reflection of God's faithfulness to us and to to his promises. With God's help and blessing, every Dominican couple that is confirmed in the Lutheran church becomes a witness to their family and to the people around them of God's faithfulness to us and of the faithfulness that he desires from us toward our spouse.

The concept of faithfulness is not very strong here, so it is a struggle for many to not give up and take the easy way out and follow the example that society gives them. It is not easy for them because they have not seen faithfulness in action, and it is not easy for us because sin and pride get in the way. But together, we are all asking God to increase our faith and trust in His faithfulness and help us be faithful to Him so we can be his witnesses to the world. We want to give thanks and praise to Him who shows us his faithfulness every day.

New Members

On Sunday, July 5, Pastor Juan Tavarez and several members of the congregation "Soldiers of Christ" were received into fellowship with the WELS congregations in the Dominican Republic. In a joyful service these new members confessed their faith in Jesus alone and expressed gratitude to their Savior for this gift of faith and to their teachers for sharing the truth of salvation with them.

After confessing their faith, we joined together at the Lord's table to celebrate our common faith. As one family we gathered before the Savior to receive forgiveness and to have faith strengthened in the sacrament.

After the service, there was a time of fellowship to welcome the new members. It was a very special day of great joy and happiness for all the members, as we see the Holy Spirit working in hearts and bringing more souls into his kingdom. Some members were not able to attend so we are expecting more confirmations in the coming weeks.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His mercy endures forever.

A Busy Week

This week started off with another hospital visit. Freddy, one of our students, was not feeling well and needed to see a doctor. We went to see him and also helped him with some of the paperwork. He was able to get all his tests done and is now back home and feeling much better.

We also had a chance to see the progress on the building in Moca. The roof is on now and on the day we went they were pouring the floor. It is starting to look very, very nice and everyone is excited for the work to be done. There are still some "details" that need to be finished but people are already starting to plan for the future inauguration.

On our way out to Moca, we ran into some protests. This area of town that we had to drive through had been without electricity for 48 hours. That means food in the refrigerator had spoiled, no laundry is getting done, no television, and no fans for sleeping with 80 degree temperatures overnight. There were burning tires in the road and in other areas broken bottles covered the highway. We were able to get past but had to take an alternate route to get back home.

Thursday we had wedding rehearsal which turned out to be the "no" rehearsal. Some extra planning was done but they never really practiced! It was a bilingual wedding so the two pastors were able to compare notes to make the sure service went smoothly, making the transitions from English to Spanish in an orderly way. Many of the bride's family members do not speak Spanish and the groom is Dominican so his family heard the service in Spanish. Even so, there were some last minute changes to the service right before the ceremony!

Friday was the wedding, and it was gorgeous. All the decorations were expertly done and the bride was very, very beautiful. Both of the pastors gave a short message, one in Spanish for the groom's family and another is English for the bride's family. Vows were also exchanged in both languages.

Whew, this was a very busy week. This week began with a hospital visit and ended with a wedding celebration. It was a week in which the Lord gave us many opportunities to show His love, to comfort and help others, to witness to new people. The special opportunity given at the wedding was the message which was a law and gospel witness Philip was able to preach to many who are not believers. We also saw how he watched over us and kept us safe. We had a great week, filled with blessings and opportunities. Thank you, dear Savior.