| | I'm home. After a few weeks away at different retreats, conferences, and an amazing week on a short-term mission trip to the Dominican Republic, I am settling back into the swing of things at home and as Sarah puts it, "returning to Planet Earth". Some highlights from the past few weeks:
1. Attending the Forward Student Conference right here in Duluth at the Gwinnett Arena. On the final evening of the conference, Hillsong United led praise and it was such a powerful and captivating experience to sing the songs of God with such conviction, passion, and desire. Not only are they the best, but they invite people to taste, see, hear, and experience just how awesome and great our one true God is in worship.
2. Going to our South Atlantic Synod Youth Retreat in Saint Simon Island, Georgia. I took a group of five youth students and a college student who served as a retreat counselor and we had a great time traveling together in my church's minivan. In addition to the privilege of being used by God to preach His Word, I really enjoyed getting to know and befriend other young adult professionals and pastors who are investing their lives working with young people.
3. "Hallows, not Horcruxes.." Reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Loved just about everything about the book and how J.K. Rowling weaved and brought everything together in the Harry Potter series. I won't say more because I don't want to be a spoiler to those who have not yet finished the book. I had a very limited time frame to read the book, so I started it on a Sunday evening two weeks ago around 7:00 pm and finished it that same night around 4:00 am. I think I took two quick breaks: one dessert break for a piece of key lime pie and a cup of hot chocolate and one bathroom break to wash up, brush my teeth, and you know, use the toilet.
4. This was my second time traveling to the Dominican Republic with my church’s summer mission team. Looking back at our time in the Dominican Republic this summer, the best way to describe it was like a dream come true. While we're only there for a week, I love that we do our best to pack our schedule and make the most of every minute. We visit villages, run medical centers during the day, host VBS programs for multitudes of children, have evening revivals, sing, dance, laugh, pray, and serve from the moment we rise at 5:00 am until we get ready for bed at 11:00 pm. It's absolutely heartbreaking to witness firsthand such abject poverty in villages only 90 minutes outside of the lavish resorts of Santo Domingo. But it is also so hopeful and moving when we meet and befriend people who may have little in the eyes of the world, but are rich in God’s love as they celebrate God's faithfulness in their lives and accept Jesus Christ to be their Savior.
My specific task on our mission team is to preach the Gospel in the morning, afternoon, and evening. I am blessed and entrusted with opportunities to preach at the church to local Dominican believers, in the villages to children during our afternoon program, and in these same villages for evening revival meetings. Before and after every one of my sermons, I fell to my knees, looking back and remembering the bright-eyed and fearful twenty-year-old college student I was with this huge dream of preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And it was on the mission field in the Dominican Republic where I can testify about a faithful God who makes even the biggest and seemingly most improbable of dreams come true.
As great as this mission trip is, it is not for the faint of heart. Our days are long, the weather is hot, the conditions are third-world hard, but there's just too much joy in losing yourself to the service of God alongside local Dominican church members at Canaan Evangelica Iglesia and a mission team who share the same heart and yearning for others to hear and believe the good news of the Gospel. When we were out in our village, the local Dominican church pastor at Canaan, a wonderfully gifted and passionate man named Rafael, told us to tell all the children and adults to “mate de mango”, which means to “meet under the mango tree”. We had set up our children’s programs and medical center underneath this rather large mango tree in the center of the village.
As the praise music began, our team would joyfully go out all around the village and literally run as they brought all the beautiful Dominican children to sing and learn about Jesus under the mango tree. I wish you could have been there to see it; it was like witnessing a small piece of heaven on earth as we all gathered in the saving name of Jesus Christ under this mango tree in a remote village of the Dominican Republic. The vision statement of Canaan Evangelica Iglesia is among the best I’ve ever come across: “Hoy Para Republica Dominicana, Manana Para El Mundo”, which means “Today for the Dominican Republic, Tomorrow for the World.” For our mission team, it’s an honor to be a part of God’s kingdom work and experience His heart for not only the Dominican Republic, but the world as God sees it.
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| | Posted 8/3/2007 1:51 PM - 39 Views - 6 eProps - 3 comments
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