Ministry in The Dominican Republic
Dan has been serving in the
Dominican Republic with UFM International, in the area of church planting and
church development. He served as a
co-pastor at the Cienfuegos church since October 1999 and will continue serving
there when we return. During that time
he was involved in leading evangelistic and discipleship Bible studies,
training the leadership in the young adults group, teaching homiletics, leading
cell group Bible studies, leading a youth puppet ministry, preaching, teaching,
and serving the Lord in many other areas.
Our desire, Lord willing,
is to return to the Dominican Republic by October of 2003 in order to continue
working with the Cienfuego’s church.
Our goal is to help strengthen the leadership in this church, and at the
same time help them reach out to other areas of Santiago with the gospel. We would like to start a church in a new
housing development in which there are no churches or ministries present, with
the help of the Cienfuegos believers.
UFM’s goal for the
Dominican Republic is to equip the already existing churches and believers to
reach their own country for Christ. In
order for them to do that, they not only need Bible training, but they also
need someone to work along side them and teach them how to do it. We have committed ourselves to train and
encourage the Dominican believers in fulfilling the great commission in their
own country.
A burden God has also laid
on Barbara’s heart is to reach out to young ladies who are either considering
or have had abortions in the past.
Though abortions are a reality in the country, it is a subject that is
never talked about or discussed. These
young ladies are forced to deal with their sorrow and pain on their own. This gives us, as believers, a great open
door to share God’s love and forgiveness with them. They need to know, that there is still hope for their lives, and
that God loves them despite mistakes they have made in the past. We hope to train Dominicans to help meet the
needs of these women, and men who are affected by unplanned pregnancies and
abortion. This is one more way we can
meet their physical and emotional needs, in order to have the opportunity to
talk to them about their spiritual needs.
Current Ministry in Pennsylvania
Due to complications with
Barbara’s second pregnancy, we have decided to stay in the U.S. until after the
baby is born. We are currently living
and serving at our home church, High Point Baptist Chapel, in Geigertown, PA. Dan is serving on the pastoral staff of the
church and we are also attending and serving at Bethany Baptist Church in
Reading, PA. Bethany is a bilingual
church with services in both Spanish and English. This has been a unique ministry experience and a good way for
Barbara to keep up her Spanish.
This summer we will both be
helping out at High Point Camp, a ministry of High Point Baptist Chapel. This will be an exciting opportunity for us
and we believe we will learn many things that will be useful in our ministry in
the D.R.
We are also visiting churches
and trying to raise the support we are still lacking to return to the mission
field.