Handing out "The Promise"

Below is a short video clip (one minute, fifteen seconds) from an evangelism event in San Pedro de Macoris. A group of members from Santiago and Moca travelled to SPM to participate. We handed out copies of "The Promise", a colorful 14 page magazine which summarizes the Gospel story in seven lessons: (1) God's creation, (2) The fall into sin and God's promise of a Savior, (3) The Savior's birth, (4) The Savior's death and resurrection, (5) We are declared not guilty, (6) The Holy Spirit gives us peace, and (7) The promise of eternal life. [Check out the website for Multi-Language Publications located in the "Recommended Links" section to the right if you would like more info on this excellent evangelism tool available in many languages.]

As we handed out "The Promise" we also invited people to a special service in the afternoon. God blessed us with a full house. We thank God for the fellowship the members from the four congregations were able to enjoy, and for the opportunity to share in San Pedro the Gospel Promise of forgiveness of sins and life eternal through Jesus Christ.

In the video, Pastor Alex from Moca hands out "The Promise" in a few colmados (small grocery stores) with typical Dominican music playing in the background.

[Thank you to Missionary Phil Strackbein for submitting the video.]

The Lord bless you with his peace,

NW

Pentecost Party

This post dates back to May 3rd. Sorry for the delay -- I'm trying to catch up :-)


At the end of each 6 week English class session, we provide an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) party for our students. This is an opportunity to get to know our students better, meet their family members, and share God’s Word with them.

This session, the party began with fellowship teamed with playing cards and dominoes. Snacks consisted of apples, crackers, ham and cheese, cookies, peanuts, raisins, and the popular homemade “rice crispy bars”.

Volunteers and craft projects welcomed the students’ children. Coloring sheets, crossword puzzles, and crafts kept the little ones busy the entire afternoon.

The English teachers hosted an activity similar to the popular game show “Jeopardy” focusing on things the students learned in class. Topics included “numbers”, “verbs”, “animals” “weather”, etc…. There were even two topics labeled “Helena” and “Julia” to see how well the students knew their teachers. The final bonus round featured the topic “Pentecost”, highlighting the theme of the occasion.

The event concluded with a Bible study led by Pastor Shiloh Monday. A blessed opportunity to share the coming of the Holy Spirit and message of the Savior with all!

[Thank you, Julie, for writing this post. We thank God for both Julie and Polly for their volunteer service as English teachers this last year.]

The Lord bless you with His peace,
NW

Robbed again

As you can see from the title of this post, our church in downtown Santiago was broken into again. I can't go into too many details right now, but here’s a quick summary:

(1) Thursday night/Friday morn (May 22/23) – thieves bent back a zinc (tin) roofing sheet and came down through the ceiling tile in the back third of the church (only front two thirds has cement roof). They took the CPU of a computer and a DVD player (I hope they watch the Communicating Christ DVD that was in it.) On Friday, we filed police report and cleaned up the broken ceiling tiles, replaced tin sheet and secured it as best we could.

(2) Saturday night/Sunday morn (May 24/25) – thieves broke in again, this time they completely removed the burglar bars at the women’s bathroom (we see now they were poorly installed) and forced open the louvre window. This time they cleaned us out: 29” TV, water cooler, the rest of the computer (monitor, speakers, etc), window a/c unit, wall fans, Missionary Monday’s tool set, even a 3 liter bottle of communion wine! By God’s grace we had removed the congregation’s cash on hand lock box after the Friday morning break in, so they didn't get that.

After a delayed Haitian service on Sunday, I attempted to file a police report, but was told to come back on Monday. Obed, one of our Haitian seminary students, and I replaced the burglar bars (temporarily) with cement, and cleaned up except for four items that had obvious fingerprints. Following EFL classes and the Spanish service in the afternoon we removed anything we thought the thieves might come back for (used batteries, three fans that remained, etc).

Mon morning we planned for a “work day” at church to improve security, only to arrive and find out that during the night they had broken into the veterinary office below us and took their computer and some equipment! Within a few minutes after we got there, news people started arriving. Freddy and I were interviewed. I even got to speak live on the radio with Jose Gutierrez, a well known news and commentary program here in Santiago with a large audience.

The police “CSI” team arrived and after they finished taking fingerprints, we cleaned, fixed the roof better and cut back tree branches to open up visibility. Still in the morning I went to file our police report from Sunday, only to be told to come back in the afternoon. I went back in the afternoon (an hour before they told me to return), and after waiting two hours, was told to come back the next morning!

So on Tuesday I went early to file the police report that we couldn’t finish Sunday or Monday because their computers were down. After close to three hours of paperwork and waiting in lines, the case was put on a list to be assigned an investigator. I finally went to church, hoping to get in at least an hour of seminary classes. Immediately when I arrived at church, however, some of the neighbor businessmen came over and said they knew where our stuff was.

Since our case was still waiting for an officer to be assigned to it, we had to return to the police station personally to inform them. They “immediately” assigned us an officer who took his time waiting for a partner – then he told me that they didn’t have a vehicle!!! “Can you drive us?” they asked. “What if you take someone into custody?" I responded. “Well, we’ll put him in the cargo area...” (I have a jeep-style vehicle.) Next thing I knew, Freddy (one of our sem students) and I were driving around these two officers to do their investigation. So much for teaching any seminary classes...

After asking around and driving to different places looking for information, we are 99% sure that the next door neighbors to the church either are responsible for the break-ins or at least bought the stolen merchandise from the thieves, to resell it later. But we have no confidence that the police will do anything about it--unless we decide to "wet their hand" (mojar la mano), give the police a cash incentive to act. (What we take for granted in the US!)

But God is good. We wait to see what the Lord has in store for us. Your prayers are requested!
Believe it or not, that is the *SHORT* version!

With you, declaring God’s praises!
NW

[By the way, in the third and fourth pictures above, you're supposed to notice what *isn't* there -- no TV on the TV cart, no air conditioner unit in the window...]