Update from San Juan de la Manguana

God blessed us with travel mercies, smooth entry through customs, and time to catch up on sleep. Being reunited with friends and meeting new team members has been nice. The fellowship of sharing how God has been working in our lives has been so encouraging and a blessing.

The route we take from Santo Domingo to San Juan de la Manguana

The view from the restaurant balcony at our hotel.

We arrived at the Solid Rock Guest House on Sunday. It was awesome to be greeted by Hector with a huge hug. After a few hours of orientation, we emptied suitcases, sorted donations and medicine, and counted medications. One exciting thing is the emphasis placed on prayer, being respectful, thinking about why we want to take a picture, and ensuring we take time to build relationships with our Ministry Assistants and those we contact. They have started a prayer journal at the guest house for us to pray for entries, write prayer requests and/or praises, or our prayers. This is only a couple of months old,, and they shared that the staff also prays through it. 

On Monday, we had our barrio clinic in Carpinten (Saboneto), which had a beautiful view of the dam (pictured below). We saw 101 patients, but most importantly, two people placed their faith in Jesus: one during a home visit in the morning and another during a house call in the afternoon!

This photo is of the San Juan Valley from the dam. The government opened this dam without warning following Hurricane George in 1996. Many, many people died, and this valley was destroyed, creating a new, higher flood zone. 

Today, Tuesday, we visited the local market and hosted our barrio clinic in Magueyal, about 15 minutes away. We saw 123 patients. Before we started our day, Michael and Pastor Enol beautifully presented the gospel. In the morning, we made some home visits and shared the gospel. The home visit team visited at family that Pastor Enol has shared the gospel with the last nine years, this year the entire family decided to place their faith in Jesus and we are praying for others to come alongside them and love them to life in Christ. This barrio had a lot of Haitians, and it was explained that the Dominicans went into the city for high-income jobs, and the Haitians did the farming. 

The view from behind the school we were at today. 

Our construction team has been busy painting the interior and exterior of Pastor Enol's church. This church began with home visits. A few years ago, when some of the people he had visited placed their faith in Jesus, he asked if he could come back to follow up and conduct Bible study. More people came, and it grew from a home visit to a small group Bible study to a house church to a church. How amazing our God is that we can witness those seeds planted and grow. 

1 Corinthians 12:12-14: "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many."

We are so thankful for the Spirit, who has united us as one and made us sensitive to the needs of others above our own. Please pray for continued unity, protection, and boldness to share what God has placed in our hearts.