The Lord's House

Our Sunday worship was split between a couple of churches this morning. Mr. Farmer and three of the students attended “Iglesia Bautista del Nuevo Pacto” (New Covenant Baptist Church.) The rest of the team attended with Mrs. Henkel and myself at “Iglesia Biblica del Senor Jesucristo” (Bible Church of Jesus Christ). This church (also known as IBSJ) is connected with Logos Christian School. (Click on the following link to see the website for IBSJ (http://www.ibsj.org/) Words can’t explain how neat it is being in church with brothers and sisters in Christ in another country, using another language…yet all worshipping the same Lord!! At these churches, translation into English is provided for our team by way of individual headsets so that we can understand what is being said. One of the coolest things is to sing together songs that we recognize in Spanish because we know them in English. How awesome that our God knows all languages and hears us all praising and worshipping Him at the same time!

At the beginning of the service today, one of the men of the church, Eric Michelen, addressed the situation that is going on currently in Haiti. As you can imagine, Dominicans are greatly affected on an emotional level by the disastrous events that have happened this past week in Haiti. Since Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island, it’s amazing that the DR did not have any damage from the earthquake. Many have said that is it only by the grace and mercy of God that the DR was not physically affected like their Haitian neighbors. It was said this morning that pretty much every Haitian family has suffered in some way, either by loss of loved ones or loss of their homes, or both. Three churches that we know here in the Santo Domingo area are uniting together to help meet some of the needs in Haiti. Both of the churches that we attended today, “Iglesia Biblica del Senor Jesucristo” & “Iglesia Bautista del Nuevo Pacto”, along with another church called “Iglesia Biblica de la Trinidad” (Bible Church of the Trinity, where one of the Logos leaders, Dante, is a pastor) are asking their congregations to bring food, medical supplies, clothing and economic aid so that they can make kits for Haitian families that will help meet their some of their needs. They already have 1,000 kits made and plan to make as many more as they can. They are also organizing groups of young people and adults who will be a part of reconstruction teams to go into Haiti and help with housing and such. Several pastors from these churches will be going to Haiti this week to take supplies, including the bag of medical supplies that our team brought with us to donate. It’s such an incredible thing to see the Dominican people come together to help their Haitian neighbors during such a tremendously difficult time, especially since there has been a tension between the two countries for many, many years. Pastor Sugel Michelen at Iglesia Biblica del Senor Jesucristo titled his sermon this morning “El Terremoto de Haiti: Una Perspectiva Biblica” (“The Earthquake of Haiti: A Biblical Perspective.”) In his sermon Pastor Sugel said, “The fact that the Dominican Republic was not affected is a sign that God wants us [the Dominican people] to get out of our comfort zones and help the country of Haiti. The Dominican Republic being a bridge of help to Haiti is evidence of the grace of God.”

Please continue to pray for the country of Haiti. Pray obviously for the tremendous, indescribable need. Pray for the many who are now orphans, widows and widowers that they will find their comfort and refuge under the wings of the mighty hand of God. Pray also for the ministry of Kids Alive International who will be receiving 50 Haitian orphans in the coming weeks into the seven different childrens homes that they have here in the DR, one of which we will be working at (“El Arca” aka “The Ark”) this Monday through Saturday.