The Timothy Project

I talked with the Liga Biblia yesterday (Bible League) about doing some training for our groups. They have an evangelism/discpleship program called the Phillip Project which seems to be very well grounded in the Bible and effective among Dominicans. Basically, our folks will be trained to be “Philips”- receiving a two hour training session and then for 5 weeks work out that training evangelizing 5 people. So 5 people trained will result in 25 people (or more) being evangelized. It then moves to a discipleship phase and the last phase is toward church membership.  I presented this idea to the folks in Villa de Yaque and they were really excited and I trust that Los Santos and The Hole will be equally excited. Please pray for our folks now as they begin to pray for God to show them the 5 people he has for them to share the Good News in the coming year.

Pray also for the staff at the Bible League as we finalize the date for the training. I shared the news with my colleagues in Nagua and they are interested in doing it as well with their groups. Pray for 2006 to result in many new “philips” reaching many Ethiopians!

It has been another rainy week!  Which is great for my yard and flower gardens, but not so good for ministry!  Too  much mud, and now with winter upon us, the rain combined with the cold really keep people away. 

Belan is doing better after his accident last week and eager to learn how to study the bible. Please pray that this experience with call him to a deeper walk with the Lord. He has been involved in some conflicts with the community which isn’t a good testimony to the Living Saviour who lives within him.  I am going out to Villa de Yaque in just a little while to see how things are progressing. 

Plans are being finalized for our seminary dinner next Monday- please pray for it to be a refreshing time for the students, a time to renew and deepen their call to ministry. 

I had an enjoyable day this week (Tuesday) with Carolina and Milagros (from Villa de Yaque)- they were helping me plant one of my garden areas.  Please continue to pray for their spirital growth and maturity and for Milagro’s husband to come to accept her new faith. 

Jessica, Ortiz’ and Ingrid’s oldest daughter was hospitalized with pneumonia this week.  She should be coming home today. All of them have been fighting off the “gripe” (flu). Please continue to remember them in your prayers! This weather really takes its toll on people.

These are just some odds and ends of info and prayer concerns. Thanks for your faithful support! Blessings,

December is a busy month and it is not a good time to get a lot done. I am thankful for the opportunity to spend Christmas with my family in Florida. I leave the 22nd and return the 1st. Before I leave, there is a lot I want to see happen. Please be in prayer for the following events:

December 12: The Seminary Christmas Dinner will be held at my house. Pray for a good time of fellowship and encouragement among the faculty and students and for the ministries represented.

December 18th: Special Worship Time and Commitment for the New Year among our three new churches.  It will be a time to make a commitment in respect to spiritual habits such as bible reading, bible study, titheing, prayer time, and service to the community. It will also be a time for each church to establish some goals to work toward in the coming year. Please keep this time in your prayers; pray for each heart to be sincere as commitments are made and for wisdom on my part and others who will be helping to facilitate this experience.

I want to have one more training event or music rehearsal before I leave but with the Christmas season and all it brings to people’s schedules I am not sure it wil happen. Please ask God to guide us in this and to open the door for something to happen.

Today has been a good day- we had a good crowd in both Los Santos and The Hole; I was pleased with both groups- they are showing signs of maturation.  One of the members from the Apocalysis church preached this morning and did a great job. I was really impressed to see the quality of our lay leaders! 

I visited the hospital twice today. Yesterday Belan and another man from Villa del Yaque had a serious accident. They were riding their motorcycle on the highway and a car backed out from a car wash directly in front of them! The car took off and left them there in the road. Thankfully, some bystanders got them to the hospital which then transferred them to the hospital here in Santiago.  They called me about 4 in the afternoon- they had been unconscious most of the morning!

It is hard for me to believe, but we had to wheel both men out of the emergency room across the street to have a head x-ray done! Both vomited significant amounts of blood in the course of moving which greatly upset the family.  When we got them back to the ER, we had to take them to another area to have a sonogram done to find out what caused them to vomit blood. (Of course we had to go to yet another place to pay for this service!)  Anyways, so much for the medical care here in the DR. Both men suffered a fractured orbital bone. I am so thankful their injuries were not more severe!  They were sent home this afternoon.

I was really impressed with how the church community there came together to help these two men. One didn’t have any family present at all- they arrived from the capital this morning.  Thursday we had several who mentioned they wanted to accept Christ so I had already planned on some extensive time visiting there tomorrow afternoon. Now with this accident I imagine there will be some great opportunities to share with people the need to reconcile with the Lord. Please continue to pray for Belan and Manuel and their families. As far as I know, Manuel is not a believer.

It is always a blessing to receive guests from the US, and this week was no exception. John and Chris were a blessing to us, and I think they were blessed as well. They shared in The Hole and Villa de Yaque Wednesday and Thursday and spent some time with Pastor Ramon as well. Last night we had our now famous cook-out with 15 people representing different ministries and it was a delightful time. I continue to give thanks for my new house and the opportunity it gives me to have groups of people together to share. Everyone went home with their hearts filled with joy after spending time together as the family of faith. 

We left early for the capital BECAUSE Chris’ luggage never arrived and we thought they might send it to my house in Santiago today as we were driving to the capital, but thankfully Chris’ dad was able to talk some sense into someone at Spirit Airlines and the bag was held for him at the ticket counter. They arrived Tuesday minus his bag with the gaurantee it would arrive at my house the next day- well, as I said, he got it just in time to check it back in for the flight home. To top it off, the phone numbers they gave to call for information were not answered- they asked us to leave a message and then said the line couldn’t take messages! It was an unpleasant experience to say the least and I would think long and hard before flying Spirit Air in the future.  But Chris made the best of the situation and we managed to go on with our plans just fine. 

I have just gotten home from the drive back- the guys are in the air, halfway to Ft. Lauderdale- please keep them in your prayers today and tomorrow as they head back to South Carolina.