The Timothy Project

Jesus said we would always have the poor among us. The Bible also indicates that the poor have a special place in God’s heart. It has been my priviledge to work with the urban poor here in Santiago; it is hard, frustrating and at the same time a great joy. 

Poverty is one of the barriers we face in reaching the younger generation for Christ. Those who do not have an education (which most in the poor barrios do not) do not have many options for making a comfortable living, except of course work which is not in keeping with a Christian lifestyle- bars, gambling, prostitution, drugs, etc.  As I prayed about this and talked with my supervisors, I was introduced to a Christian foundation here in the DR called Esperanza International, founded by a former MLB player.  They have developed an effective methodology for enabling communities to rise out of poverty. We have been talking back and forth for several months, we have done a formal survey of three of the communities where I work, and are ready now to launch an Esperanza Project here in Santiago. We have limited funds at this point, but Levi Strauss, a significant employer here in the DR, is talking about a Santiago project as well and may have funds that will be able to help us.

We have a meeting Monday, June 6 (7pm) to introduce the project to community leaders. I covet your prayers this week as we work on the details, look for possible office space and begin thinking about candidates to work full-time in this endeavor.  It is an exciting adventure and one that promises long-lasting fruit. 

Here are some odds and ends of news from here in the Cibao Valley:

The leadership seminar started well in San Francisco. We had about ten and I think we got off to a good start. Pray for an awakening to the spiritual needs - that will be the spark that will bring effective leaders to the forefront. I was able to get some pictures for the website for the group coming in July from North Carolina. 

This is Mother’s Day weekend here. And Mother’s Day is BIG- kind of like our Thanksgiving. Everyone goes home to see their mother.  We won’t be having services tomorrow because of that. (La Joya and Los Ciruelitos will). 

Today the seminary starts back- I will be teaching a class on Missions (3:30pm-5). This is the last trimester for about 7 students as they will graduate in August.  I have found that teaching them has taught me a lot and have found ways to apply what we have learned to my own work and ministry. I hope it will be so again!

For literally years we have prayed for a spirit of community and unity in Los Santos. I have been meeting with the Junta de Vecinos and community at large the past two Sundays to this end and all of a sudden, they are coming together! They have filled the church three times this past week with various meetings and last night had a wonderful activity for Mother’s Day with the children doing a drama, singing, and special prizes. Let us give thanks for this development and continue to pray that they will also come together around God’s throne to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth!

Take a look through the photo albums. As I have opportunity I am adding pictures to all the areas so you can see what you read about!

Finally my new digital camera has arrived! You can see new pictures in Los Santos and The Hole photo albums.

This photo is of the bridge in Los Santos. With all the rain, the bridge we built back in November has suffered some damage- it has been moved off the foundations. There isn’t much we can do with rain falling every day, but hopefully no further damage will occur and when it is dry we can fix things up. It is so helpful to the people to be able to cross the river on this bridge- it saves them over a $1/day in transportation costs. Thankfully, even with the damage, it is still passable.

There are several projects you can pray about this week:

1) For the preparation of my seminary class, Missions. We begin next Saturday and I need to develop my syllabus!

2) For the youth event June 5th- we will be promoting this event among the youth groups this week and next, as well as finalizing plans for the afternoon activity. In particular, please pray for the worship time, that it will be a meaningful encounter with God for all involved. If you didn’t see an earlier article, we are planning a recreation day at a local Olympic park between several of the youth groups. There could be as many as 100 youth- many of whom are not yet Christians! We plan on having sports competitions, a drug prevention seminar led by Victor and his colleagues, and a worship/preaching time.  I plan on getting the ladies group to help with feeding the multidude! As you can see, it is quite an undertaking!

3) For the volunteer project with Cool Spring Baptist Church June 25-July 6. I need to finalize arrangements with the buses, the hotels, and more importantly, prepare the ministry teams here to work alongside them. It is a challenge for new and not yet Christians to work in this capacity and yet it is a part of the helping develop them as leaders and establishing their identity as church.

4) This Wednesday in San Francisco I begin a 4 week leadership development seminar and begin preparations with them for the volunteer team from Memorial Baptist Church, Buies Creek, NC. July 9-16.  I finished up the preparations for the first seminar this morning- pray for our time together Wednesday night, my travel after dark, and for the preparations for the next three seminars. Our desired outcome is that a strong ministry leadership team will emerge to help the pastor in growing a healthy church that impacts its community.

As you can see, there is a lot going on. I am thankful for good rest, for health, and for your prayers and encouragement. Thanks for working alongside me here in the Cibao Valley!

We have had tremendous rain this weekend and unfortunately that means major problems for our friends in Los Santos and El Hoyo. In Los Santos, the river rose so high that even the church was underwater! Just imagine how it was for the houses behind the church, closer to the river! It is so discouraging for me to see the people suffer when there is nothing we can do about it. The bridge that Mill Creek built this past November has been damaged with all the rain. Thankfully it is still passable and as soon as it dries out some we will see what we can do to reinforce it. (I should get my digital camera today and will begin posting pictures ASAP!)

Victor also had a tough weekend- his whole house was flooded with muddy, contaminated river water. Fortunately they didn’t lose but some clothes- the rest they were able to get up high enough to avoid damage. This past weekend was the worst he had seen- the river rose higher and flooded more homes than he has ever seen- it seems every time it rains hard he says the same things.

Sunday I went to Los Santos in the morning for a neighborhood meeting which went well. I think last night they were to elect a new council to represent the community. Please pray for these new leaders and for a good relationship with the church so that we may work together for the benefit of all. 

In the afternoon instead of my normal schedule I went to Cotui- about two hours away- with Ramon and Jose to help one of our Dominican missionary couples. We had a great experience sharing with them in worship. It is so neat to see how different “church” can be- this church met in a home, about 18 of us in all.  We were going to do some door to door evangelism in a new area where they plan to move and begin ministering, but it rained so much we couldn’t. We also planned to show a movie, but that too had to be postponed. But all in all, it was a blessing to see them and encourage them with our presence. 

I visited some of my seminary students in Bonao today. For those of you who don’t know, Bonao is a small city about an hour from Santiago, where I live. I feel relieved to have already graded their finals and projects and given them back!!

We made some neat plans for the upcoming youth volunteer team from VA- I will say  more about that later, but please remember to pray for the summer ministries. Here’s a new one to add: Youth Camp.  I will be helping out at the youth camp in August- doing video stuff and taking pictures (tough job, huh?) And we are talking about doing a workshop to build youth leadership among our churches. Pray for me as I prepare for that!

I drove through an incredible downpour on the way back- it got black as night, and I could hardly see. Thankfully I arrived safely and on time for the bible study in Los Santos- we had a big turn out- I was pleased to see new people there. I think our Sunday meeting motivated some people to join in on hearing God’s word.

On a sad note, services were cancelled at my church in Los Ciruelitos. Infortunately, the “tigeres” (young men, sort of deliquents) were holding a protest over the bad conditions of the roads and the police shot and killed one young man.  The violence didn’t stop until around 8 pm. I could hear the gun shots from Los Santos. Pray for God’s peace to reign and for the family who lost a loved one. 

To my surprise, I met the vice president of the Junta de Vecinos (community group) as I was driving in to Los Santos for a meeting of the community. He was leaving and he was to lead the meeting! The prospect for a good outcome looked bleak, but I continued on to the church and found about 20 people already gathered- on time!  We had over 30 in all. We met in an effort to get the community working together to improve their neighborhood. In particular, the bridge that Mill Creek Baptist built needs to be reinforced at the base.  This community has been very difficult to cooperate with projects, partly because the first president was a thief and terrorized people, even threatening to kill people. He stole some equipment from me while we were building the church and putting in water several years ago. Now people use his “regime” when the gave money for projects that were never completed and the money ended up in his pocket as a reason for not giving toward new projects. I think yesterday we turned a corner. At one point when they were getting into a heated discussion about the past, I reminded them that I too had been robbed, but I was willing to keep on working with them, and asked them to follow my lead. That seemed to calm them down and one lady who had been really angry was actually laughing and smiling with us by the time we finished.

I sensed a new spirit of cooperation among them. Please pray for them as they seek to work together for the common good, and for the role of the church there to be a beacon of hope, peace, and unity.  We talked about forming a new youth group there and several men expressed interest in leading it. They want a worship service on Sunday’s which will stretch me but what a blessing it will be- especially since our core bible study group will be the main leaders!!

In Villa de Yaque, we had 14 gathered for worship. It was a quiet day- several people felt sick and I could tell the constant rain had taken its toll on people’s spirits. But I was pleased with the sense of community and friendship and several of the wives of our main participants came for the first time. 

I went to a wonderful service of “despidida” (going away) for a Brazilian family. They have been here four years and are moving on to Chile. They had a great ministry here and it was moving to hear testimony from those whose lives they had touched.  And that is what ministry is all about- touching the lives of people around us with the love of Christ! May God bless you as minister to your community, and thanks for your prayers for us as we minister here in the communities of the DR.

Here is an itinerary of the summer volunteer schedule. Please be in prayer for each church and the team leaders as they prepare.

June 25-July 6  Cool Spring Baptist Church led by Dwight Hedges, Youth Pastor, Approx 40 youth and adults

They will be working in Santiago and Bonao, leading Backyard Bible Clubs in the morning, prayer walking, light construction, and Youth Discipleship in the afternoon and evenings.

July 9-16 Memorial Baptist Church, Buies Creek, NC, led by Tom Collins, 12 people

They will be leading Backyard Bible Clubs in San Francisco de Macoris and general evangelism and praise and worship ministry in the evenings. They will work in Santiago some days too. The goal is to establish two new cell groups in San Francisco and develop three praise and worship teams in the new churches in Santiago.

August 13-20 First Baptist Church, Griffin, GA, led by Robin Bohn

They will be conducting a medical clinic sponsored by the Apocalypsis Baptist Church here in Santiago, pastored by IMB volunteer Jose Nochea.  They were here last year and treated over 800 patients in 4 days of ministry!

I had the joy of driving in my Chevy Tracker (a vehicle provided to me by the IMB with Lottie Moon Christmas Offering gifts) to San Francisco de Macoris, a provincial capital (similar to a county seat) about an hour from my apartment.  There is a growing church there under the leadership of Pastor Gabriel Favian. He has been here two years, and the church has nearly doubled and done some extensive remodeling to the building. He has asked me to help develop a ministry team.  This church is made up of middle class professionals and has the potential to make an incredible impact of this small city.  I begin next Wednesday, May 18 and will continue going every Wednesday until June 15th, leading a leadership development focus. I am excited about the possibilities because the pastor has a strong vision and sense of purpose, and is leading his church well. Pray for him and for me as we work together to develop a solid team of leaders who will impact their church and community through various ministries. Pray for me this week as I prepare the overall schedule of training, and particulary prepare for the first session.

Also, be praying for Memorial Baptist Church, Buies Creek, NC as they will be here July 9-16 to work with us in San Francisco. We hope to begin two new cell bible studies in distinct areas of the city as a result of their Backyard Bible Club ministry.  Pray for Tom Collins as he leads and prepares this group of 12. 

And thanks for your support of the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which allows me to travel in a safe, reliable vehicle! God bless SBC churches!

Victor and I met with the Sub-Secretary for Sports- he sitting in his “jeep” and us looking in the window, standing in the rain.  (He had to hurry to another meeting so we were pleased to at least get to talk to him.)  We had gone to ask permission to use the local sports park for a get together between the three youth groups of La Joya, El Hoyo (The Hole) and Los Ciruelitos.  We want to have a day of sports and recreation, allowing the three groups to enjoy a friendly competition among themselves.  Victor is going to invite his colleagues to give a conference on saying NO to drugs, and we will prepare a special time of worship and celebration as well.

The Sub-secretary gave us permission, and we have set the date for June 5th.  Please join us in praying for this to be a healthy time for these young people. All three groups come from a pretty tough community where the path to drugs and deliquency is far easier than the path to righteousness. Pray for Victor, for Ramón Ortíz, and for Francisco, as they lead and mentor these youth groups. 

I hope to be able to use this event to prepare the way for the ministry of Cool Spring Baptist Church (Mechanicsville, VA) as they will be coming June 25-July 6th.  Be in pray for them as well, as we are praying they will be a vital part of discipling these youth and their leaders! Their very talented youth pastor is Dwight Hedges, and I would really appreciate your prayers for him as he works to prepare his group of 40 youth and adults.