The Timothy Project

I am leaving shortly to attend our AGM in Juan Dolio, DR. I am looking forward to a time of spiritual renewal as we hear from our leadership team and to the fellowship with my colleagues from the Carribbean and Suriname and Guyana.  Please keep us all in your prayers. Many families will be traveling today- the DR missionaries by car (always an adventure) and the others by plane.  I will be  back home either next Friday night or Saturday morning.

In an emergency, I can be reached on my cell phone 809.258.6353. 

At 4pm, once again it got really dark and windy so we cancelled, anticipating the rain that would follow. It did rain hard and hasn’t stopped yet (it is now 6:15pm) but not like yesterday, thank goodness!  And the good news is the work we did today worked- there was no flooding out front! And further, all the clean up efforts of today (the yard and the storage shed) were not in vain as I didn’t get the water rushing through my yard like yesterday.  The only bad part is we didn’t do the training but we will reschedule it for soon.

I will be away next week at our Annual General Meeting with our leadership team and other missionaries from our region. I am hopeful our folks will go ahead with the training even in my absence. 

Our new churches are really taking some big strides forward. They have invited Morena (many of you know her from one of our established churches) to lead them in basic training for SS teachers. We have 7 or more who will participate. I am excited to see them integrate and draw on the resources of our established church family. That brings a sense of belonging, stability and motivation to become stronger and bigger.

We are scheduled for 5pm.  I just finished talking with some of the neighbors about our water problems. (We are going to try to open up a drain to help alleviate the flooding.)  They are convinced it will rain again today, and earlier than yesterday. If that is the case, our SS training will be a no-go.  Obviously, I will be disappointed not to be able to do it because we really wanted some training done before the volunteers arrive so we would be ready to go as soon as they leave.

However, we have a saying here,  “Uno propone, y Dios dispone.”  Basically, it means we make plans but it is God who decides what will happen and when!  I am more concerned about the safety of our people and their well-being (in this type of rain, someone can lose what possessions they have. Beds get wet, clothes get all muddy, etc.) than whether or not we do our training. I saw in the headlines that people were killed here in our area yesterday in the waters. Please pray for safety and a gentle rain if it rains at all!

5 You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness,
       O God our Savior,
       the hope of all the ends of the earth
       and of the farthest seas,

 6 who formed the mountains by your power,
       having armed yourself with strength,

 7 who stilled the roaring of the seas,
       the roaring of their waves,
       and the turmoil of the nations.

 8 Those living far away fear your wonders;
       where morning dawns and evening fades
       you call forth songs of joy.

I have long believed that God has built better amusement parks than any man, His creation holds such wonder and enjoyment.  Yesterday the streets of Santiago looked like a water park, with the raging rivers that flooded the streets.  It amazes me how people can not fear the Lord when they consider that He is the creator of all of nature.

It was a beautiful day, didn’t look like rain to me but then around 3:30pm it began to get as dark as if it was 7:30pm.  And then came the rain, and did it ever rain. When I finally got home, my front gate area was flooded- I waded through water up to my knees to open it. And all through my driveway there was a river of 5.6 inches of water. Poor Oreo- she was beside herself with fear and as wet as could be! 

My Christmas tree is drying out in my driveway as I write- my storage shed (also Oreo’s dog house) was completely flooded! (I am going to have to make other plans for the dog, obviously!) 

I went over to the Hole last night to check on their situation and talked to Sol and Hector by phone to see how they all fared the storm. Thankfully there was no injury to anyone. Two houses were completely lost in the Hole but no one was in them, thankfully. 

After more than a month in the hospital, Doña Rosa is finally at home.  She has such a positive attitude. Her first night home she was playing with her grandchildren, showing them her empty pant leg where they had amputated her leg, making a joke out of it! her attitude is a relief to her loved ones. 

Continue to pray for her and her family as they make the necesary adjustments.  I am hopeful she can start some exercises to get her strength back.

I want to ask you to pray for an opportunity this summer. Cool Spring is here from July 5-17 and I am hopeful to have a summer missionary come in right after they leave to continue to work toward discipling the teenagers of our communities. 

He is a dynamic young (bi-lingual) man from the New England area. I believe he would be a wonderful assest to our work in following up with the young people in our communities.  He would be working with our young people, following up on the evangelism and discipleship activities of Cool Spring. Sometimes there is a let down after a large group is here and I would love to be able to follow their work with some one-on-one efforts.  He is very energetic and would be a great help in developing a discipleship ministry around the basketball court we are building in the Hole. (I am hopeful that we may be able to build one in Los Santos too!).

He is trying to raise his support to come- he needs his airfare which is the most costly part of the plan and I have told him I will cover his expenses here in Santiago. If anyone feels led to help us fund him for these two weeks (last two weeks of July) please send me an email @ davidson@drmission.com. I believe he is a worthy investment and his ministry here will pay eternal rewards!

I finally was able to meet with the engineer from the City Recreation Department. He gave us the go ahead on the area we have and gave us some ideas for construction.  I was so thankful for his comments. All of us forgot the measuring tape (and I have about 4!) so as soon as we get back to measure the area, he will help us with the list of materials needed.  It looks like this afternoon the young people in the Hole will begin clearing the land and digging out the foundation and we will get underway tomorrow!

Last night we met with our new folks in Navarette.  The community is actually called “El Golfo” de Ponton, Navarette. I am beginning a discipleship process with Mercedes who is our main contact there. She is a Christian and seems to have a good understanding of the Chrsitians. We are going to go through a discipleship book written by one of our Dominican pastors to help identify Baptist doctrine and be sure we are well grounded with basic faith principles from the Bible. 

Yesterday afternoon a group from Villa de Yaque and I went to “Sebo de Janico” (too difficult to actually explain how it is pronounced but it was a beautiful area and a great ride in the country!).  We met with one of the owners of a house in Villa de Yaque to ask permission to use her house for our church meetings. She agreed to let us do so in exchange for keeping the grounds cleaned. We are thrilled. I think there is a great chance we could actually be able to buy the house for about $900. Victor and I are going to investigate this with the govenerment agency in charge of this project first.  Please be in prayer for this possibility.  For now we are thrilled at having the house to call our “home!”

We had a good weekend. Seminary went well, we are learning and growing all the time!  Sunday services were well attended. Our special service in Navarrette was rained out but we made contact with three people who are really interested in knowing more about the Bible. We started them on the study of John and will get back to them again this week.

The basketball court project in Los Santos has fallen through- the owner of the property wants over $1300 for the lot! I talked to the community leaders and encouraged them to push for a court with the mayor in a different location where there is more room. Obviously as a church we are still very much interested in getting a court there for the young people- the ministry potential is awesome!

So, now what? We are close to geting started on construction of a court in The Hole. Tomorrow at 10am the engineer for the city recreation department will give us an on-site inspection of the land Victor has found to build on. (The owner only wants $120!)  We are still hopeful we can get the materials donated but even if we can’t, we should be able to push forward to get construction underway by Wednesday.  Continue to pray for this project in its new location!

Tonight, the grill makes a comeback! I haven’t had a “parillada” for a while but Sol’s family is coming for dinner. I got to know her brothers and sisters during the illness and death of her father. They are such a nice family that I am hoping and praying they will all come to know and serve the Lord. Pray for them tonight as we share and invite them to study God’s word. Her three brothers and their wives are coming, her sister and of course Sol and her husband, plus the kids!

Today is seminary day. They are looking at their personality types; we will be talking about how to allow the Lord to work in us through our personalities, how to recognize our strengths and weaknesses and build upon our strengths while allowing the Spirit to take control of our weaknesses. Pray for these ladies as they develop as Christian leaders.

Sol is working on getting together a training program for new SS teaches- pray for her as she works through the details!

Also, the meeting last night in Los Santos didn’t happen for lack of attendance. I don’t think the owner of the land showed up either so we will have to go find him. The good news is the Civil Defense is sending a letter to him confirming that he is not allowed to build a residence on the property. keep praying because time is running short as we prepare for the Cool Spring team!