The Dominican Republic: Mission of Hope

It’s been way too long since I posted an update! My squad has been in the Dominican Republic (DR) for a little over a month now and it has been amazing to see the Lord working!

Our time in the DR is split between two ministries, and I am going to share about the first one, Mission of Hope in this blog!

We were at Mission of Hope (MOH) for about one month. The organization originally started in Haiti and has started reaching into the DR in the last few years. They mainly work with the Haitian community in the DR.

Our work with MOH was a mix of manual labor, teaching at a school, and house evangelism!

MOH recently opened a campus in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. Since they just moved they needed lots of help with on campus projects. Our squad had the opportunity to help them with organization projects, landscaping projects (like using machetes to cut tall grass, raking, mowing, etc…), and we helped them paint the outside of the main building on campus.

The school we helped teach English and Spanish at was for Haitian kids. It was held at a church. The pastor started the school because many Haitians are illegal immigrants into the Dominican Republic. Haiti is currently very unsafe to live in. The country is practically being run by violent gangs. But the DR is not welcoming to the Haitians fleeing for safety. Now, Haitian kids are being born in the DR, but because the DR won’t give them citizenship the kids are not citizens anywhere. They have no citizenship in the DR or Haiti, this means they can’t even go to school.

This is why we helped at the school, to give the teachers a break and help teach the kids. It was a heartbreaking situation, but also so fun to hang out with the kids and see the joy they hold even through difficult circumstances!

When we did evangelism, a pastor from the community would take us to homes and ask to talk with the people. MOH is all about quality over quantity, which was amazing, because sometimes we would only go to one house in a day, but it would be a beautiful conversation.

Some people we visited were already Christians and we would get to encourage them, even though I think they encouraged me more than we encouraged them sometimes. Sometimes people didn’t know the Lord, some we saw come to the Lord and some we didn’t, but even when they weren’t ready to accept the Lord, I was encouraged knowing that the Word of the Lord never returns void.

I remember visiting one woman who had been escaping Haiti and had raised enough money to move to Brazil for a chance for safety and a better life. The person helping her make the move stole all her money and left her (a young single 20ish year old) alone in the DR, left to try to support herself in a poor village. Yet even through this circumstance, I was encouraged by her obvious faith and the beautiful smile she wore on her face.

We met another woman who did not know the Lord, and was scared to go to church because she didn’t have enough money for nice clothes for church. She continued to say she was waiting till she had enough money for nice clothes, then she would become a Christian. We were getting ready to leave, but one of my friends felt the Spirit telling her to ask the woman one more time if she wanted to accept the Lord that day. To all our surprise the woman said, “yes!” My friend was able to share the full gospel with her and lead her in a salvation prayer! It is always amazing to welcome a new sister into the kingdom!! God is so good!

The DR is a beautiful country and the Lord is working here! Please keep praying for MOH and their work in the DR!

Something I personally have been learning is to live in the present. The Lord says not to worry about tomorrow because each day has enough troubles of it’s own. The Lord helped me surrender my future to him, and has been teaching me day by day how to live in the present, eyes focused on Him.

He has also been teaching me to live with a heavenly perspective, working focused on the Lord and not on man. Spending time with Him, and finding my joy and energy from that and not from other things.

I also had the opportunity to get baptized in the ocean when my squad had a 5 day debrief in Costa Rica! I felt refreshed, renewed, and revived! Ready to begin the work the Lord had set out for me.

It has been a crazy month and I have been encouraged by the Lord. There have been some very hard days in the last month, hard enough for me to want to come home, but learning to find joy and energy in the Lord has helped me through each one. The Lord is good!!

I pray the Lord keeps working in each and every one of you back home. You are all a blessing to me. Thank you for praying for me and caring about me! Be blessed!

<3 Mandie