The Timothy Project

Hope you all are enjoying the memories of Christmas and looking forward to greeting a new year. I enjoyed a University of South Florida basketball game last night- they lost but the atmosphere was fun. 

I have been really touched by my Dominican friends- someone has called me almost every day since I have been home! That makes me feel good, and keeps me talking a little Spanish!  They ask about all of you- they think we all live in one city.  You have blessed us by your presence and your prayers this past year and we pray that God will bless you in a special way this coming year. And of course, we look forward to seeing many of you who will be returning this year and meeting and sharing with new friends and partners in the Kingdom’s work.

Remember, I don’t have consistent access to the internet during this visit so I may not get a chance to add anything more. I return to Santiago Monday the 2nd and am looking forward to getting back into things. 

January brings an important training session- the Philip Project. Please pray with me that at least 15 will be trained and begin to evangelize 5 people each.  That happens January 11th so let’s lift that date and the leaders from Villa de Yaque, Los Santos and The Hole in our prayers.

I am in Tampa, Florida tonight at my sister’s, enjoying seeing her family after 2 and a half years! We worshipped tonight at Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, a church I visited during my last Stateside Assignment, It was SO NICE to worship in English, singing the Christmas carols! 

I wish all of you a wonderful day tomorrow.  What a treat that this year we celebrate Christ’s birth on Sunday! Merry Christmas!

As I am getting ready to head out the door for the airport, I am thinking of all of you who faithfully check to see what is happening here in the DR and how you can pray for me, for our Dominican friends, and for the ministry of planting churches and training leaders. How can I say thanks? For the encouragement, the friendship, the support, the gifts, the time you come to work shoulder to shoulder with us? It is too much!  And then to top all of that off, to consider the support we receive from the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon! 

From the bottom of my heart, I give thanks to God for each of you! I hope this coming year will bring many blessings to you and your family, and to our ministry here in the DR. 

I may not be updating this site as frequently until January 2 when I return- it all depends on access to the internet.  But please know you will be in my prayers!

Unfortunately, I discovered last night in one of our bible studies that many of our families will not be having “Christmas” as we think of it- with presents and a special dinner. Financial pressures just won’t allow for it.  Yet we rejoiced as we studied the Christmas story and realized that the greatest gift has come and it is for all of us!

Thanks to some special gifts from special friends, we will be able to give the children some new underwear for the new year!  King’s Day (January 8th) is a traditional gift giving day here so we will do it then which will allow me time to go to the Haitian market and get a better buy. Special thanks to the folks at Lexington Baptist that are making this possible,

Also, another special friend sent some Christmas money and asked me to do something special for Pilar and Mecho. Well, Pilar has a birthday Christmas day so tomorrow I am cooking a turkey dinner with all the fixings for her and her family, as a surprise. It will be fun, no doubt! Thanks for the gift that helped me get the turkey!

Today was the long awaited “commitment dinner.” We have been planning for it for several weeks and there were about 38 people “committed’ to come. Only 24 were here and I must admit I was a little disappointed. But I have to remind myself that we have made great strides in many respects and it will take time to build a solid team of committed believers. I know various leaders in different missions were disappointed too.

HOWEVER, we did have a very good time with those who were here, and in looking over their commitment forms, they made some significant decisions. Several spouses who are not yet believers came and made commitments to pray daily or read their bible daily.  Please keep these folks and their commitments in prayer, that we may grow stronger and deeper in our walk with the Lord.

“I really have nothing to hope in or hold on to.” It broke my heart to hear a young woman share this with me this afternoon. She is a Christian who has strayed from her faith and doesn’t have a church family.  She has been sick and is recuperating at her mother’s (the woman whose granddaugher drowned this summer).  She is unemployed, seperated from her husband without much hope of restoring any satisfying relationship with him, and basically lost. How many people are there like her in our world? Too many I am afraid!

Let us lift her up to our Father in prayer, asking Him to lead her through this wilderness experience. I hope she will come Sunday to our Christmas dinner and be inspired to make some new commitments to the Lord- pray with me that this will be so! We can remember her as M to protect her identity.

Saturday I arrived in Los Santos for the youth meeting and found Gabriel waiting. He is a young man of about 16 who started coming to the youth meetings the first week we started them and hasn’t missed once! He was baptized the day we initiated Sunday services and hasn’t missed a Sunday yet.

Unfortunately, he was the only waiting! usually we have 30 or so young people but with the holiday spirits in full swing (lots of partying!) our crowd was pretty slim. I didn’t want to be discouraged so we talked about maybe not having any more services until the new year. But by the time we got through talking about all that, we had three or four youth so I suggested we at least work with the group we had. It grew to 15 and we had a great time learning about the books of the Bible, how to look up passages, and doing a Bible drill. I felt really good about the progress they are making learning how to look up verses. Let’s pray that this will help lead them into a healthy spiritual disciple of reading God’s word daily.

Sunday our services were a little slim, but I felt God’s presence and was so pleased to see how the leaders have grown in their confidence.  Please continue to pray for this Sunday as we celebrate our Christmas dinner and make our New Year’s Resolutions as new churches and individuals.

My new BBQ out back got another opportunity tonight with the Seminary Christmas dinner.  As always, our porkchops and casabe were a big hit! It was a wonderful time of fellowship among the faculty and students.  I would appreciate your prayers for these students (most of whom just graduated) as well as for the prospective group of new students.

Specifically, I have asked you to pray for at least 2 from each mission to study and it looks like there are three from Los Santos, possibly two from Villa de Yaque and maybe one from the Hole. Please continue to pray for God to touch the hearts of those He has chosen to be future leaders, that they may begin to prepare themselves for a lifetime of service.

Wow, I spent this morning with Reina- she is beside herself with grief, and guilt. It seems little Carlos (just 6 years old November 24th) has been pretty sick lately and she told her daughter to take him to the hospital. He didn’t want to go but she encouraged him. It seems the doctor discovered that the tumors were just eating up his organs and were about to cause the kidney to explode, which is exactly what happened. They opened him up in surgery yesterday to try to take out the tumor but the kidney exploded as they did the procedure. 

Please be in prayer for Reina and her family. I just let her cry today and hope in a few days to have a chance to talk to her and help her begin to heal. It is so difficult when a child dies!

I got a call just now from the folks in Villa de Yaque. It seems little Carlos, grandson of one of the ladies there, who has suffered from cancer died yesterday during an operation. I don’t know all the details, but I do know they are in the grip of grief. Please pray for all of us to be the presence of our Loving God to them in this time of difficulty!

I know the Big Pine Key group and maybe the Mill Creek group had special times of prayer for him while they were working in the community.  I thought you would want to know so you could pray for the family during this time of loss.