Harry De Jonge of London, Ontario has served on teams in the Dominican Republic several times. He shares here how even with a small team of just 2 people, they were so blessed to serve and be served by God’s people in the DR.
Although the team was limited to 2 people this year we were able to serve on several projects at the mission centre in Santo Domingo. The highlight of the trip was when we returned to the project site of the 2007 team in the batey of Cojobal. The pastor and his wife immediately recognized us. The couple could not thank us enough as she expressed her gratitude through tears – which brought tears of joy from us. She called me her “Padre” which is Spanish for father. My reply was that we have only one father, who is our Heavenly Father. The pastor and his wife took great pride in showing us their new home. What an improvement from the inadequate housing they lived in for many years. To express our thanks as a group we had a communal prayer together. During communal prayer the custom is to hold hands in a circle and everyone pray out loud as the Spirit moves the heart. What a blessing to know that God hears all prayers in all languages and that we are brothers and sisters in the Lord. Before we left, a group hug was in order.
We also went to the batey “Cierra de Agua” which was the site chosen for the team from London to help the community in building a new church in 2008. However a team could not be assembled for the project. We were very warmly welcomed and then we shared communion with the congregation. My heart goes out to this community when we observed the “church building” that this community uses – one of the last remaining all wood structures used as a church. This building is unsafe to be in. Every effort will be made – with the Lord’s blessing – to ensure that this community worships in a new church building in the near future.
Dios tu bendiga - God bless you.
In His Service,
Harry De Jonge
If your church would be interested in a service and learning team opportunity, please contact the ServiceLink office today at volunteer@crcna.ca (for Canada) or servicelearning@crcna.org (for the USA).
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