Ed's Note: as I write, I am still in the Dominican Republic with my son Joshua, on the last day of our week long missions trip. Rick and Tammie Romano (check out their website) serve as long time missionaries here. This is a brief trip log. Check back later and I continue to edit this page and will add pictures as time permits.
~St. Mark
Website: MissionTwentyFive35 ~ Rick and Tammie Romano Family
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Saturday -Arrived Santiago apx 445pm & Tammie + Rick showed us our room and brought us to a chicken restaurant.
Sunday- I took some videos of some of the singing at a nearby Catholic Church. We all got in the bus and drove for 45mins + had a Beach devotional near Peurto Plata on Matthew 25. We all had a nice rice/beans/chicken dinner, then spent a couple hours lying on the beach + drove back to Santiago. Josh and I watched a nearby baseball game.
Monday- AM:. Rick Romero got us to study James Chapter 1 for our morning devotional and we had group prayer.
We visited Bandera (45min drive) to distribute food to 5 needy families & pray with them with pastor Franklin + Saul (Sol) + Emanuel
- doctor in a motorcycle accident/pregnant lady/sick elderly woman/ another sick lady / another lady sick as well as asking prayer for Salvation for family members. At each place we left about $20 of food behind. Each of the 5 families were chosen by the local pastor who accompanied us. This is to encourage these people and hopefully in time they will become part of that local church. We all prayed for a family and handed them a food bag- Joshua prayed for the pregnant lady.
- doctor in a motorcycle accident/pregnant lady/sick elderly woman/ another sick lady / another lady sick as well as asking prayer for Salvation for family members. At each place we left about $20 of food behind. Each of the 5 families were chosen by the local pastor who accompanied us. This is to encourage these people and hopefully in time they will become part of that local church. We all prayed for a family and handed them a food bag- Joshua prayed for the pregnant lady.
PM: Drive to the farm ; before we started work, Rick gave us an overview of all the ongoing projects. ...1000 young chickens (only 2 were male); they are the beginning of laying hens for egg production. Toured goats pens, including two just born yesterday.They will be sold; We toured the yucca field, as well as the squash field. Then toured the hydroponics-greenhouse operation. Basically the fish (tilapia) are raised in large tanks with oxygenated water. (2000+ fish so far), and the water from the fish tanks are circulated through the greenhouse and back, to water the plants growing there. The greenhouses are still being constructed and should grow tomatoes, peppers, cilantro etc.. The plants should do well in the soil because of the rich water containing the fish excrement, which acts as fertilizer.
Josh & I (Team Ontario) were assigned wheelbarrow-shovel duty- we moved a heavy pile of loam (soil) into a greenhouse being constructed. Rick wants Josh to take his drone to the farm to get some promotion material footage from the air.
Team Ohio painted buildings and collected the squash from the front field. This has to be picked as tomorrow a farmer is coming to till this field. The farm is near the town of Villa Tapia.
Tuesday- Again we met at the Ministry Center for coffee and breakfast. Just before breakfast, we studied James 2 and Rick encouraged us to meditate on the passage throughout the day.
In the AM we all (10 of us) went to a private institution for mentally and physically challenged kids from ages 3 to 18. Some of them were terribly mal-formed; many of them were just left on the street by their bewildered parents who simply didn't know what to do, so they were abandoned. I played my borrowed guitar and we sang songs (This little light of mine/He's got the whole world in his hands/ At the Cross/Nothing but the Blood of Jesus)with them; hugged them and we brought a big cake to eat with them. There was alot of chaos as the kids were so excited to see us; some of the kids plucked the guitar as i tried to play, but it was OK. The kids really had fun. I let a few of the older boys wear my watch and they really got a kick out of that. We went back to the Ministry Center for lunch.
PM - In the afternoon we drove in the bus to the farm. There was lots of rain today and slowed our work down some. We worked again on wheelbarrow and shovel to move lots of soil into the greenhouse area. Rick Romano really wanted drone shots of the project so Josh took lots of drone pictures. Another team mixed concrete today. We had supper at the Romero's condo.
Wednesday - We continued studying James, today in Chapter 3, on the damage a loose tongue can do.
After morning prayer, we had breakfast (cereal, yoghurt, fruit, eggs, pancakes, granola bars). We are planning to do the garbage dump Ministry today, but because of all the recent rain, we are not sure that the road in to the dump area will be passable. Rick will go ahead in a truck, so we transferred from the bus to the truck for the final leg. Before we left, the Ministry Center we made a lunch for 50 people ( plus our team) to hand out. (Sandwiches, chips, cookies drinks). The people working at the dump are poor, and their job is to sort & separate the various recycling material entering the dump. Their ages ranged from early 20's to 50's, and they make less than $6. Per day for their recycling effort. Offering a lunch once a week is another way to make a relationship with them and look for ways to present the Gospel story. To date, many relationships have been made among these 50 people and 5 have come to faith in Jesus Christ . This is the power of the Gospel!
Rick asked Joshua to get drone pictures to be used in a Ministry promotional video.
We visited Pastor Luis in the town of Salcedo. In his living room. His is the story of a church-planter who started from literally nothing and no people to growing into a thriving church. In 3 years his current church has grown to up to 60 people in 3 years. He explained that it was very difficult to start and run an evangelical church in a predominantly Catholic area. Luis's recipe for guiding a new church is lots of prayer mixed with finding ways to love needy people.
Rick asked Joshua to get drone pictures to be used in a Ministry promotional video.
We visited Pastor Luis in the town of Salcedo. In his living room. His is the story of a church-planter who started from literally nothing and no people to growing into a thriving church. In 3 years his current church has grown to up to 60 people in 3 years. He explained that it was very difficult to start and run an evangelical church in a predominantly Catholic area. Luis's recipe for guiding a new church is lots of prayer mixed with finding ways to love needy people.
After a successful church plant, Luis agreed to move to another town, Salcedo to plant another Church when the District Superintendent called on him. He was hesitant initially because it meant uprooting his family from schools and friendships. Luis's children are now 16, 14 and 12 years old, admittedly difficult ages to move a family, but faithfully and obediently Luis followed God's new direction for his family. There were no people attending the church for months, so they began to call on God as a family to ask God for a congregation. They enlarged their prayer circle, and asked other district churches to join them in fervant prayer. When God's people behind to call on his name, things quickly began to happen. Luis' confident smile was warming as the story emerged.
A young man from an isolated area became aquainted with them. His community villiage consisted of seven families, but was isolated because to get to the church, they had to pass through a neighbor's property. The property owner refused to allow them access across his property, and then blocked them out. A protest to local authorities fell on deaf ears. They continued to pray about the situation.
As time went on, Rick Romano and his ministry heard of Luis' problem. If they could find a way to get access to this community, the seven families could join them. As they continued to study the problem, they began to realize that if they built a bridge across the river it would grant the people a way to cross. During much of the year it rains very hard, causing the river to be up to 3 feet deep. When the bridge was built by the Ministry team, the church really began to grow as these families with the new access through the new bridge vegan to attend.
Ironically, a large tree fell on one of their houses during a bad storm and 3 people from this community were trajically killed. Pastor Luis continued to bless these needy people.
The government said the villiage would have to be abandoned as other trees were at risk of falling as well. The Dominican government stepped in to offer these families temporary residences in a local apartment block. As well, the government has decided build these people free NEW houses as a replacements for the houses they condemned! Meanwhile, Pastor Luis now has a congregation and God has provided new houses for them! Praise the Lord for his ways and faithfulness! Our team spent time touring the new homes under construction.
We stopped by a church that Rick's Romano's Ministry built, in the town of Bonagua over the past number of years. It is colocated with a program called "One Child Matters", which is an after-shcool feeding program that takes 280 children and helps with schoolwork.
Los Chicos is the site of another project associated with one of Rick's Ministries. This is another "One Child Matters" organization colocated with an Alliance Church and serves 200 children between the ages of 3 and 16.
We had our supper again at the Romano's condo and will be off soon for a mid-week local church service later tonight.
Thursday - James 4 for our devotional this morning. James reminds us to live & act humbly and to make sure we don't criticize each other. God opposes proud people.
After breakfast we bagged some cookies to take with us to the La Vega Detention Center. This is a facility that houses juvenile delinquent youth ages 13 to 18 years old. They are here because a judge has handed them a prison sentence from between 1 month and 8 years for a whole range of offences from theft to assault to murder. The Facility Director said that there are no rehabilitation programs once they enter the facility. Only ocassionally are visitors allowed, usually family. The only thing they have to pass the time behind bars is a few sports games like basketball. There are teachers on staff who teach them their school lessons however. It is a sobering thing to see these young lives behind the bars in primitive conditions in this developing country.
We were not allowed to take pictures in this facility. In fact the permission that was given to permit the Twentyfive35 Ministry to even enter the facility was approved at the country's capital. This was an all-time first as it has not ever been approved before. In fact OFFICIALLY no one or no group is ever allowed to enter the facility. Somehow God has found his way to show favor to this Ministry to allow them through the iron bars.
Elisaul introduced each of our team members and we each told a few things about ourselves. Joshua told them he was taking computer-programming and was 18 years old. Kay, Haley, Ritch and Jerry all gave the approximately 65 young inmates that came to hear us a little glimpse into our lives in North America. The Director told us their facility currently housed 82 inmates. I volunteered to give a testimony of what God had done in my life. Elisaul Reyes, was the interpreter, so as I spoke a few lines in English, he translated it into Spanish. I decided that I would base my testimony on the word "decisions" because likely most of the boys were here because of bad decisions that they made.
Briefly, I told them...
I used to teach in an aviation college. I used to teach students how to become pilots. My job now is to fly a cargo plane. My college students were about the same age as you are. So I know from working with young adults that when you are young is the time to make a decision for God. This is the age in life that it is very important to make GOOD decisions.
I said when I was young I made decisions to do things that weren't always good. I told them that when I was young my dad, a pastor helped me make a decision to follow Jesus. I clapped my hands loudly, not only to hold their attention, but to emphasize that a big change then began to happen inside my heart. The Bible says you MUST be born again! When I accepted Jesus, I became a new creation. The Holy Spirit began to reside in my heart. I then saw things differently, and when I made bad decisions, the Holy Spirit began to guide me to another direction and another path.
I pointed to Joshua, and said that when Josh was 6 years old he crawled up onto my lap and asked me to pray for him, and he then asked Jesus in his heart. I again clapped my hands loudly and said that just like that, Jesus came into Joshua's heart and he became a new creation. When you accept Jesus your life changes. I would speak a few words and Elisaul would translate into Spanish. It was easy to see they were tracking with me as I spoke as they all remained wide-eyed.
I asked them to close their eyes to pray and invite Jesus into their hearts. He will come if you have faith to believe him for Salvation. I noticed that at least 10 or more of them were seriously praying and following along.
They all clapped enthusiastically as I concluded. Then I got out the (borrowed) guitar and we sang a few songs (Open the eyes of my heart Lord/This Little Light Of Mine). Manuel led them in singing. Our team handed out cookies and soda and we chatted with them and said our goodbyes. In a number of ways we felt very warmly received by the inmates who were so glad we came to visit and speak with them about Jesus.
We then drove out to the farm and did more shovel-wheelbarrow work moving soil for a few hours.
Rick and Tammie took us out to a pizza restaurant called Brixx, reputed to be Santiago's Best pizza. We talked over what the week together had meant to us. Rick commented, "If this week hasn't changed you in some way then it was a waste of time and money". I'd felt that the week spent on this Ministry had shown me that we are the hands & feet of the church. I'd also felt that each of the Ministries we'd done this past was creative in that someone had noticed a creative way to serve people. I remarked that this would encourage me to be alert to unique mission opportunities and be creative in witnessing.
We stopped by a church that Rick's Romano's Ministry built, in the town of Bonagua over the past number of years. It is colocated with a program called "One Child Matters", which is an after-shcool feeding program that takes 280 children and helps with schoolwork.
Los Chicos is the site of another project associated with one of Rick's Ministries. This is another "One Child Matters" organization colocated with an Alliance Church and serves 200 children between the ages of 3 and 16.
We had our supper again at the Romano's condo and will be off soon for a mid-week local church service later tonight.
Thursday - James 4 for our devotional this morning. James reminds us to live & act humbly and to make sure we don't criticize each other. God opposes proud people.
After breakfast we bagged some cookies to take with us to the La Vega Detention Center. This is a facility that houses juvenile delinquent youth ages 13 to 18 years old. They are here because a judge has handed them a prison sentence from between 1 month and 8 years for a whole range of offences from theft to assault to murder. The Facility Director said that there are no rehabilitation programs once they enter the facility. Only ocassionally are visitors allowed, usually family. The only thing they have to pass the time behind bars is a few sports games like basketball. There are teachers on staff who teach them their school lessons however. It is a sobering thing to see these young lives behind the bars in primitive conditions in this developing country.
We were not allowed to take pictures in this facility. In fact the permission that was given to permit the Twentyfive35 Ministry to even enter the facility was approved at the country's capital. This was an all-time first as it has not ever been approved before. In fact OFFICIALLY no one or no group is ever allowed to enter the facility. Somehow God has found his way to show favor to this Ministry to allow them through the iron bars.
Elisaul introduced each of our team members and we each told a few things about ourselves. Joshua told them he was taking computer-programming and was 18 years old. Kay, Haley, Ritch and Jerry all gave the approximately 65 young inmates that came to hear us a little glimpse into our lives in North America. The Director told us their facility currently housed 82 inmates. I volunteered to give a testimony of what God had done in my life. Elisaul Reyes, was the interpreter, so as I spoke a few lines in English, he translated it into Spanish. I decided that I would base my testimony on the word "decisions" because likely most of the boys were here because of bad decisions that they made.
Briefly, I told them...
I used to teach in an aviation college. I used to teach students how to become pilots. My job now is to fly a cargo plane. My college students were about the same age as you are. So I know from working with young adults that when you are young is the time to make a decision for God. This is the age in life that it is very important to make GOOD decisions.
I said when I was young I made decisions to do things that weren't always good. I told them that when I was young my dad, a pastor helped me make a decision to follow Jesus. I clapped my hands loudly, not only to hold their attention, but to emphasize that a big change then began to happen inside my heart. The Bible says you MUST be born again! When I accepted Jesus, I became a new creation. The Holy Spirit began to reside in my heart. I then saw things differently, and when I made bad decisions, the Holy Spirit began to guide me to another direction and another path.
I pointed to Joshua, and said that when Josh was 6 years old he crawled up onto my lap and asked me to pray for him, and he then asked Jesus in his heart. I again clapped my hands loudly and said that just like that, Jesus came into Joshua's heart and he became a new creation. When you accept Jesus your life changes. I would speak a few words and Elisaul would translate into Spanish. It was easy to see they were tracking with me as I spoke as they all remained wide-eyed.
I asked them to close their eyes to pray and invite Jesus into their hearts. He will come if you have faith to believe him for Salvation. I noticed that at least 10 or more of them were seriously praying and following along.
They all clapped enthusiastically as I concluded. Then I got out the (borrowed) guitar and we sang a few songs (Open the eyes of my heart Lord/This Little Light Of Mine). Manuel led them in singing. Our team handed out cookies and soda and we chatted with them and said our goodbyes. In a number of ways we felt very warmly received by the inmates who were so glad we came to visit and speak with them about Jesus.
We then drove out to the farm and did more shovel-wheelbarrow work moving soil for a few hours.
Rick and Tammie took us out to a pizza restaurant called Brixx, reputed to be Santiago's Best pizza. We talked over what the week together had meant to us. Rick commented, "If this week hasn't changed you in some way then it was a waste of time and money". I'd felt that the week spent on this Ministry had shown me that we are the hands & feet of the church. I'd also felt that each of the Ministries we'd done this past was creative in that someone had noticed a creative way to serve people. I remarked that this would encourage me to be alert to unique mission opportunities and be creative in witnessing.
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