The Timothy Project

Well, 2007 is underway! Things here are still quiet. This Saturday is King’s Day; in some parts of the country this is the big celebration when the children receive their presents, etc. Not so in Santiago but still we are on holiday. The kids don’t go back to school until next Monday, the free zone factories are closed which means a significant portion of the population is on vacation still. So, we are off and running in the new year, but still at half power so to speak!

My nephews left this morning. It was a great time to see them and do some exploring. The motorcycle trip New Year’s Day was really something- we went way out in the campos, where I had never been before. The scenery was fabulous. Those of you who have been here can imagine the driving conditions. The bikes we rented were not in the best of condition- the brakes were a little shaky as were the clutches but it just added to the flavor of the event.  Needless to say, I was very much relieved when we arrived home with no injuries!

My mom got out of the hospital New Year’s Day for which we are thankful. I think she is still not feeling 100% but thrilled to be home at least. Thanks for praying for her.

So, now it is time to get to work on all those New Year’s Resolutions! I haven’t quite finished my list so I will be working on that in the next few days. I hope all of you have taken some time to reflect on God’s goodness and His plan for your lives, and will take whatever action you need to in order to make your hopes and dreams a reality in this coming year.

Well, things are heating up for the big celebration… fireworks are being sold at every street corner, grapes and apples are also for sale, and the pigs are roasting! We will have our worship services tomorrow morning, all at 9 or 10am. I plan on visiting all of our 5 locations to visit and wish our folks a happy New Year, and allow them all to meet my nephews.

Thursday we had a great day going to the 27 waterfalls- they climbed to the top and made the big jump- it is about a 50 or 60 foot drop into a pool of water about the size of your car. They thought it was great, I wouldn’t do it for all the tea in China. Today we went to Jarabacoa in hopes of doing some 4 wheeling in the moutains but we didn’t exactly find what we were looking for (prices too high, no guide, etc. and not availabe today) but we did enjoy a hike into the waterfalls. Victor has arranged for us to rent 3 motorcycles for Monday and we will do some backroading up around the small villages that surround Santiago.  That should actually be better than the 4 wheeling, giving them a chance to see the real DR.  I am pretty excited about it.

Pilar and Mecho were here tonight to cook dinner. We are all stuffed as those of you who have been here know from experience. We went for a little exploration trip as we took them home, finding some spots where they are roasting pigs. Tomorrow is a big pig day so they are getting them over the fire and will stay with them all night! 

We have good news about my mom- she is feeling better and may even be released tomorrow from the hospital and for now they haven’t mentioned any surgery. She had a low sodium level which was part of the reason she was so weak but she has been on IVs for a while and is getting stronger. Thanks for your prayers for her. 

I wish you all a safe new years celebration and will pray with you for an exciting and fufilling 2007! May God grant you the desires of your heart!

This week and next are quiet weeks here in the DR. The schools don’t reopen until January 8th and neither do the “free zone” factories. Many others also take their vacation during this time.  So the roads are relatively quiet.  New Year’s Eve promises to be a pretty LOUD celebration. Christmas eve sounded like we were at war with all the fireworks going off so I can just imagine what New Year’s will bring.

Our Bible studies so far this week have gone well.  Attendance is down a little bit but that is not surprising for this time of year.

My big news is my nephews, Russell and Marshall, arrive this afternoon for a brief visit. We plan of climbing the waterfalls, going to the beach, and doing some 4 wheeling in the mountains, along with visiting our ministry sites and families.  I am always excited to have family come for a visit and it is especially nice to have them during the holidays.

I will keep updating the blog and sharing some of our upcoming plans!

It has been a great Christmas- yesterday we had three simultaneous worship celebrations (at the three churches) with over 300 people participating. Most were children yet we had at least 80 adults come to share in the celebrations.

Saturday’s celebration went great in Navarette with over 100 people. Again, mostly children but there were quite a few adults present.

One experience this Christmas I hope I won’t soon forget was my trip to visit a lady in Guayacanal. Victor and I were giving food baskets to our regular attenders. I hadn’t been to this home before.  She has two little shacks of tin, neither one bigger than my office.  She was cooking outside over sticks when we arrived. And she is raising 5 children! When Victor and I got back in the car to leave, neither of us knew what to say.  I was back yesterday to give some gifts to folks I hadn’t found earlier and stopped by her place again to give the children Christmas toys.  The whole experience made me appreciate once again the blessings I have enjoyed in my life but left me wondering why I have been so blessed and others have such a struggle.  I also have come to appreciate the humble loving act of God when he sent his Son to be born in a stable, among the animals. We have our Bible study beside the cow stable so I have become familar with the smells!  This coming year, I hope I can grow in humility and love as I serve here among the urban poor. 

Yesterday, our services were very simple: a time of praise followed by the reading of the Christmas story with the children acting out the events as shared in Luke’s gospel.  What struck me this year was the fact that there was no room for Jesus to be born so he wound up being born in a barn.  Unfortunately, I still sense that there is no room for Jesus to be born in the hearts of too many people. Pray for those who heard the invitation yesterday to make room for Him, that this coming year more and more people will commit to study God’s word and put it into practice.

I am thankful for all of you who pray for us here in the DR and from the bottom of my heart, I wish you the very happiest and joyful Christmas! May God bless you in a great way this coming year!

The celebration in the Hole went well yesterday. I didn’t get to participate because it was my turn to work the Agape flight. Victor says they kids were pleased; he was able to share the Christmas story and had the kids pray with him as they reflected on the story of Christ’s birth.

The Llambes’ were able to leave for Colombia; I hadn’t shared an update but when Lili and Bianca got well enough to go home, Charlie got sick and had to be admitted! When it rains, it pours! But thankfully they were healthy enough to make the trip. Continue to pray for them, that this would be a wonderful time with family and friends.

Tuesday night we had another big turnout in Navarette. Please keep this Saturday (4pm) in your prayers as we celebrate Christmas with hopefully the whole community.

Update on the fire: Pastor Ortiz called me yesterday to let me know that the immediate needs (food, clothing, etc.) were being met by the family and community with local business’ chipping in. I have told him that several of you have responded with offers of help and he is helping to determine how that can be best used- probably in the near future as they get into the issue of rebuilding. Thanks for praying for this family!

We had a wonderful evening with almost 50 in attendance for the Christmas service/dinner.  We had some time to reflect on all the “logros” or achievements of the past year which were many. One thing stood out: we have more than tripled this past year and we didn’t even invite the folks from our missions! I had their commitment forms from last year but there were only about 12! 

“Los Logros”

• Each church has a core group of leaders that carry on with or with out my presence.
• This past year our church leaders and membership worked with all the volunteer projects, basically without help from our exisiting church members. What this represents is a maturity of commitment and development of giftedness. We appreciate and love our exisiting church members for they are our friends and encouragers, yet it is healthy for our new church members to assume responsibilty and develop their own ministries.
• Three of our folks are studying in the seminary- nearly half-way through the 2 year program.
• Each church has their own building for the ministry of the church. In Villa de Yaque the house is on loan, but we don’t have to pay rent! The other two have their own facilities.
• In Los Santos, we were able to build the front wall with hopes to finish the sides this coming year.
• The Hole now has its own house to use for the church instead of the community center and they also have a new basketball court for community use!
• The Hole has hosted two basketball tournaments, giving us an opportunity to share the Good News with a large group of young men.
• Hector is now confident to pray in public! This was a huge struggle for him but last night he had the opening prayer before a large gathering!
• Our leaders have opened up two new mission sites in Guayacanal and Navarette with the help of our mission volunteers.
• Each church is equipped to begin Sunday School in the next few weeks. A group of leaders from each church participated in various workshops with Morena to prepare themselves.
• We participated in two of the three Project Phillip workshops with the Bible League which helped our members begin to lead others to study the Bible.

So you can see we have a lot to be thankful for! And yet we have a long way to go! One area that discourages me is the slow pace of numerical growth in our churches. I was encouraged last night when I realized we have actually grown more than I realized but our church membership still is a tiny fraction of the population.  This coming year I want to focus on equipping our membership to share their faith effectively and leading others to saving faith.  We will give renewed focus to the Phillip Project as well as work on leadership training.

You might be able to think of other “logros”- please share them!  We thank you for your prayers and your help in our ministry!

I was so thankful yesterday as I reflected on what our ministry is all about: evangelism, discipleship and leadership development. Once again, the Red Blazer left me stranded on the road! As I waited for the tow truck, Sol and Victor went on ahead with all the stuff and led the program. The kids had a blast, they did a wonderful job enacting the Christmas story, enjoyed their juice and cookies.  Victor said he had never heard a group of kids sing so enthusiastically. I finally got there around 6:30 in my own car.  They waited for me to get there to give the presents so during their wait, things got a little chaotic, but still, it was a real treat to see the kids get their presents. So many parents were there and pleased with the whole afternoon.  I was so thankful for leaders who could go on ahead and carry out the ministry without me!  Please continue to pray for more and more leaders to emerge.

Today is our “culto unido,” joint service, here at my house followed by our porkchop cookout. This is our time to be together for Christmas, to reflect on the past year and make some commitments regarding the coming year. I hope you will keep us in prayer!

I have shared with you from time to time the need to try to help our leaders and members find economic stability. Some of you have responded by making special gifts to help those small enterprises get started. We are in the process of getting one started!

Ricardo works here in my neighborhood. he earns $120/month for cleaning an apartment building. He makes some extra money washing our cars and doing odd jobs.  In talking with some folks, we decided to get him started selling the 5 gallon water jugs that we all use in our homes. There are 8 apartment buildings right here on the end of the street plus a few houses. All of the families have to consume at least one a day, and some may consume more.  He will make a profit of 5 pesos per bottle which isn’t a lot but I would guess that he will probably be able to make about $100/month which will nearly double his fixed income!  I have offered my front area for the water rack to be placed and we can chain it to my front fence.  I am excited to see how this will work! He is a great person, recently baptized. I gave him a CD stereo that one of the volunteer groups left behind and some CDs with Bible stories and he keeps his house full of people listening to the Bible!  I am praying that this coming year we can work to develop his spiritual leadership in his community and beyond.

My car troubles continued into Monday. I won’t bore you with the details, suffice it to say that Pilar, Mecho, Sol, Victor and myself all piled into a 92 Camry (a low rider!) and went in search of gifts for the children. I was sceptical that we could find something decent for 500 kids given our budget. BUT, I was proven wrong. Each girl is going to get a Barbie doll (not the real thing but close enough) and the boys will get a car. We also got some trumpets that make noise (good thing I don’t live near them!) and water guns as a boy or girl gift just in case they are not evenly divided.  We have them packed with the underwear and other goodies we had from our volunteer teams. We had a blast- just imagine how fun it will be to give them to the kids! Victor pushed hard for a toy because he said the majority of the kids will not receive anything for Christmas.

We start this Saturday in Guayacanal. Sol and I talked last night on our way to Navarette and we are going to have the kids act out the Christmas story. She is working on getting the props and costumes together. We are going to see if we can get some baby goats to play the part of the flock the shepherds were watching! Please pray for the whole activity- that it won’t be just giving toys to the kids although I think Jesus would be pretty pleased to see these little ones with a new toy. I also believe it will make a great impact on their parents and the community. But more than the toys, I am praying that we can lead people to really think about the love that brought about the 1st Christmas! And I pray that people would make room for Jesus in their hearts, that they may be born anew.

Last night in Navarette we had a really good Bible study. We had more adults than we have had. It is so neat there- we were outside near a cow pasture, with no electricity.  They are going to invite the entire community to our Christmas program on Saturday December 23rd. They seemed excited about it and I am praying that it will be a chance for us to impact the whole community (75 families) and that they will make Bible study a priority for 2007.

This morning Victor and I were honored guests of the yearly celebration of the Civil Defense. There were more than 150 volunteers present.  The director gave out 10 awards to various people for different accomplishments. We were able to also award a Bible to each of these outstanding volunteers. Pray with me that the Bible will be read and bear the fruit of faithful obedience in the lives of those it reaches.

Some of you may not know that I was a volunteer EMT during my later years at Mill Creek Baptist Church. It was something I really enjoyed and am sorry I had to give up so working now with the CD is really special. They aren’t exactly like our EMS system but sort of. 

Beginning in January, we have a commitment now to bring a 10 minute Scripture message each Sunday to the gathering of volunteers! Each Sunday they have about 150 volunteers assembled for training.  If you remember, this opportunity was my prayer going into the nurses project. I didn’t even have to ask- he invited us! Pray for this time, for wisdom in preparing these messages and for people to quickly emerge from among these volunteers who are called by God to bring the Good News to their communities.  Often I have come across people like Cornelius, people who fear God and want to do His will but just need someone to guide them into a fuller understanding of God’s plan of salvation.  I feel sure there are many such people among this group of volunteers: pray that we can help guide them to saving faith and obedience.  We have the opportunity here to touch literally 100’s of communities and the surrounding municipalities through this encounter.  Please keep us in your prayers as we fine tune our plans!

And pray for the Civil Defense folks- they will be working around the clock during the Christmas holidays to keep everyone safe. There are a lot of accidents during this time, traffic and otherwise. They will be very visible trying to keep every one safe on the roads. Those of you who have been here know that is pretty tough on an ordinary day, but combine that will extra high alcohol consumption and these days of celebration are high risk. Pray for all those who will be volunteering for their safety and for the safety of our Dominican population.