January 2009

One of the things I love most about the Dominican Republic is all the tropical plants. The greenness reminds me of Oregon, but warmer. So I get the best of both worlds.

One plant that grows here has two names. Its official name is "Christ's Thorns" because of the strong sharp thorns that grow on each branch. But people refer to the plant as "You and Me" because the flowers always grow in pairs.

Go ministry functions through partnerships. In January I was blessed to help host the first team of the year.

Real Life in California is one of the partners for Felix and Yeni Abreu who pastor the church in the Hole. Real life came along side Pastor Felix, his family and his work in a remarkable way.

They took an interest in the community by doing some spontaneous evangelism and playing basketball with the teenagers, Construction on the sanctuary that will be on the second floor, and more.

For the past seven years the 120 children that participate in the Nutrition program have eaten on a few benches and the rest on the floor. Real Life wanted to change that and they bought 12 tables on the spot for the Nutrition Center. I think this blessed Felix more than anything.

They also joined us in taking all of those kids out to ice cream where all of the kids went down the slide for over an hour. There aren't any slides down in the Hole, so this was a real treat.

It was really neat to see this partnership develop. Even Felix's five year old son, Nathanael understood this to be an important friendship. While we were at the beach at the end of the week eating lunch, Nathanael said "Now this is living". He was right. Being in the company of friends, breaking bread together and just fellowshipping. You see it makes us strong for the struggle. It gives fuel to our faith. It puts the passion in our compassion.

I have been spending allot more time in Hato del Yaque lately. I have been trying to get to know Pastor Aristides and his heart and the heart of all the community there.

Pastor Aristides is driven to see change. He longs to have the dreams realized for the people's sake.

Our hearts ache together as we all dream of the nutrition center in action, work for more families, for sports programs and a playground. For people to know Jesus and have their hearts enlightened to all that God has for them.

Psalm 142 was written by David while he was hiding in the cave from his enemies. He cries out in desperation to God to hear him and deliver him. But the last sentence stood out to me when I read it this time."Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me."Because of God's goodness our friends and family in Christ support us and gather around us.

Without each other we can not make it. Christ is our foundation, but we are each other's support.

It reminds me of that plant. The branches with its thorns represent Christ as our foundation supporting the flowers that only bloom in pairs.

Thank you for all of your encouragment and support. It goes a long way.