Ministry In The D.R.

By Kent Jones Jul 17, 2013 3 Min Read

This past week a few team members from 25 took a vision trip to evaluate ministry opportunities in the Dominican Republic (DR).  We have come back fired up about the opportunities that we believe God has put in our path.  The prayers of many who lifted us up and asked for God’s wisdom and clarity was evident!

 

We spent time in a number of bateys, which in simple terms is basically a poor village of Haitian immigrants.  A quick search of Wikipedia about Bateys will give you a good picture of what kind of lives the Haitian people lead in the DR.  For the most part, it’s a very difficult life, with little hope for anything better for most Haitians.

 

So, what did we learn and how will the 25 Project be involved?  We are still praying through all of it now, but it is our desire to begin with a ministry to sponsor children in at least one of the bateys.  Our desire is to provide holistic care for these children, and so that means caring for the educational, medical, nutritional, and certainly most importantly, caring for the spiritual needs of the kids.  Many details are yet to be ironed out with this, but we are trusting God as details and specifics of this needed ministry to Haitian children is arranged.  We will most definitely have more details soon.

 

  After this first step of involvement in the DR, there are other opportunities to be involved in microfinance (which 25 team member, Trent Brown has already led out with some of this through his church).  On a bigger scale, there is a dream that a ministry center could be constructed where children from the bateys could come for extended time periods to further their education and invest deeply in their spiritual development.
As mentioned earlier, there is much excitement over what we feel is God’s hand in expanding the work of the 25 Project.  The opportunities among the least of these in the DR almost seems endless, but our prayer is that Christ will be made much of through it all.  Keep checking back on how you can be involved through 25…we’d love to have you join us in serving the precious people of the DR.