On a Sunday this past March we celebrated Ella’s 1st birthday. Family, friends and friends from the neighborhood gathered to celebrate her birth. We were blessed by the diversity of this group, people from so many walks of life, one of them, a former drug dealer and pimp. That’s right, at Ella’s first birthday party you’d be hard pressed to find a clown but you could find a former pimp/drug dealer. And he was only there because of the power of the Gospel! We introduced you to Jonesy back in September of 2010 (if you’re catching up read about that here) who changed his name to Al as a means of turning over a new leaf and signifying the beginning of turning away from the path of destruction (read about that here).
We reported in “Paying a Dealer’s Debt: Part II” that a friend and supporter of ours asked, “Would that expense and effort really amount to anything?” And we confessed that we didn’t know but we hoped so.
We had asked you to pray the following:
“Please pray for “Al” and his recovery, for his friendships in the shelter, for those from the community group that will be going to visit him on a regular basis. Pray that “Al” finds a job and sticks with it. Pray that through all of the efforts to serve him and love him that he encounters Jesus and falls in love with him.”
Today we are pleased, blessed and excited to report that Al's debts are paid in full! Expense and effort expressed in Jesus’ name amounts to everything! Please take a moment to hear Al’s testimony read by Brooks Ritter (the man who hosted us in his home the night Al’s dog got shot) and witness his baptism at Sojourn (done by Jeremiah Taylor).
Thank you for your prayers and your partnership in the Gospel!
Please continue to pray for Al’s journey of faith!
Grace & Peace,
The Rogers
Batey 9 Update
Jeff recently led an exploratory trip to in the Dominican and took the leaders he was working with to visit Pastor William Decena, a local leader G.O. has worked in partnership with for years. William was born a sugar cane cutter in the Southwestern part of the Dominican Republic and grew up practicing Vodou, his culture’s typical religious expression. A visiting pastor convinced William of his need of the Gospel. Becoming a Christian led William’s immediate family to disown him. William became a leader in the church and later planted a church in Batey 9. As the church has grown he has raised up and sent out two Timothys, each having planted new churches in two more Bateys.
A Batey (sugar cane community) is an arm pit. It’s very existence is the bitter fruit of racism, nationalism and classism working in tandem to oppress a people and impoverish them on purpose. 15 years ago most children that you saw were naked and malnourished and the houses they lived in were made of sticks and mud. Today malnutrition persists but less so thanks to William’s nutrition center where he feeds 80 to 100 children daily. The kids mostly have clothes. Most of the homes are block. There is a school (pre-k to 4th grade) a public park, a basketball court, a baseball field (doubles as a soccer field), a latrine to every two to four houses, curbs and sidewalks, access to well water throughout the community, a water tower to serve as a water back-up, a library with a computer lab (brand new) and a water purification system that has recently been installed. All of this has been accomplished through William’s advocacy on behalf of his community in Jesus’ name. It is a powerful picture of renewal and what a combined Christian effort can do to bring about redemption, renewal and restoration.
Check out Jeff’s brief video tour of the library in Batey 9.
Your prayer support and financial partnership with us aids us in empowering and advocating on behalf of local leaders like William. Thank you!
A Batey (sugar cane community) is an arm pit. It’s very existence is the bitter fruit of racism, nationalism and classism working in tandem to oppress a people and impoverish them on purpose. 15 years ago most children that you saw were naked and malnourished and the houses they lived in were made of sticks and mud. Today malnutrition persists but less so thanks to William’s nutrition center where he feeds 80 to 100 children daily. The kids mostly have clothes. Most of the homes are block. There is a school (pre-k to 4th grade) a public park, a basketball court, a baseball field (doubles as a soccer field), a latrine to every two to four houses, curbs and sidewalks, access to well water throughout the community, a water tower to serve as a water back-up, a library with a computer lab (brand new) and a water purification system that has recently been installed. All of this has been accomplished through William’s advocacy on behalf of his community in Jesus’ name. It is a powerful picture of renewal and what a combined Christian effort can do to bring about redemption, renewal and restoration.
Check out Jeff’s brief video tour of the library in Batey 9.
Your prayer support and financial partnership with us aids us in empowering and advocating on behalf of local leaders like William. Thank you!
Hope for Daadli, The fruit of Partnership
Crosspoint Community Church in Nashville, TN are fantastic partners! It was our pleasure to connect them with Pastor Moise, a Haitian pastor in the Dominican Republic serving the Haitian migrant working population there in Santiago. This partnership in the Gospel has been filled with many blessings and many joint ventures. We just wanted a moment to share a recent victory with you that was unexpected and glorious! Crosspoint has partnered with G.O. for years and just this past year completed the church and nutrition center in Brisas on behalf of the Haitian church. In March of 2011 they began funding the nutrition center for the children of Brisas in need. Crosspoint sent a team down who helped with the grand opening. They met Daadli, the little girl pictured above, and were filled with compassion. Erika and Lisa of Crosspoint really connected with Daadli. In an effort to report on their trip and garner support to help Daadli, Lisa, wrote the following:
“What do you do when community is all you have but your community wants nothing to do with you? That’s a question I faced recently on my trip to the Dominican Republic with Cross Point and G.O. Ministries. As a part of our mission work, our team made daily visits to the feeding center at Brisas Church, Cross Point’s sister church in the Dominican Republic. It was there I met this sweet little girl, Daadli.
Daadli is three and as you can already see, was born with a severe cleft palate. It restricts her from being able to talk and eating is extremely challenging for her. What is also a challenge is her opportunity to interact with the other children.
Imagine living every day where children point at you and run away. They look into your eyes with fear and confusion, wondering what is wrong with you and as a result, you are completely alienated from your community.
In the world these beautiful children live in, community is everything. There are no video games and not a lot of toys. So children gather outside of their homes from dusk to dawn and play together. During my entire stay in the Dominican, I never saw a single child playing alone. Except for Daadli. I always found her sitting in a corner, staring into space with no one to play with.
At Cross Point, so many of us have been impacted by the power of community. It’s a large part of how we grow in our walk with Christ. Many of us gather weekly in each other’s homes within our community groups. We strive to serve our outside community on Serving Saturdays. And whenever a misfortune strikes another, we rally together to lift them up and restore them as best we can.
Community has been such a blessing in my life and the lives of others at Cross Point. Now, I desire nothing more than to help Daadli experience the joy of community in her own.
Community has been such a blessing in my life and the lives of others at Cross Point. Now, I desire nothing more than to help Daadli experience the joy of community in her own.
Cleft palate surgery is a remarkably common procedure, performed by dozens of medical missionaries each year in underdeveloped nations. Members of our mission team were so impacted by Daadli that we are now on a “mission” back here in the States to help her. With prayer and persistence, we are hoping to fund corrective surgery for Daddli that could dramatically change the appearance of her cleft palate and the quality of her life.
We all know what it’s like to have backs turned against us. We also know the feeling that occurs when our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ invite us with arms wide open into their community. I’m hoping we can do that very same thing for Daadli.
1 Samuel 2:8 ‘He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.’”
Since that March trip and a couple of young ladies' willingness to start a conversation on behalf of this sweet child, G.O. Ministries has connected with Operation Smile that has a headquarters in Santo Domingo, the capitol. They have agreed to treat Daadli for free. In fact, they treat all poor children for free and have requested that we keep an eye out (we work in 34 different communities on the island) and send any children we find their way! What an awesome new Partnership!
So we are grateful for the Partnership in the Gospel that we share with Crosspoint and Moise that started long before Daadli was even born. Before Daadli was born the Lord was already weaving together a network around her that would ultimately offer her hope and healing. We’re just blessed to be a part of such a network!
So we are grateful for the Partnership in the Gospel that we share with Crosspoint and Moise that started long before Daadli was even born. Before Daadli was born the Lord was already weaving together a network around her that would ultimately offer her hope and healing. We’re just blessed to be a part of such a network!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)