Lights, camera, action! Each day when the thirty-four students on my team from Charis Bible College took to the stage in the Dominican Republic, this is what we did. Using a truck that had been converted into a mobile theater stage with lights, curtains, and music, our hosts Tim and Trena Johnson took us to many different locations throughout their city of Santiago including several schools, a prison, and simply on the street corner – anywhere we could share the message of Jesus. Since there is absolute freedom of religion in the Dominican Republic, we could park the truck on a street in essentially any neighborhood, set up chairs, and hold an 
open-air crusade. Whether it was day or night didn’t really matter because the lifestyle of the people on this Caribbean island is that the people spend a lot of time outside and are very social. As soon as our puppets, dramas, clowns, and preaching started, our hundred-plus chairs were quickly filled with an overflow crowd standing in the shade of nearby buildings. Each time I saw the people gathering, I though of the biblical passage, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” After we were done with all the lights, cameras, and actions, we 
watched with hearts overflowing with joy as the Lord drew most of the audience up to the front for prayer. At every crusade, there were salvations and instantaneous healings. We also had many others ask for prayer concerning family problems and finances – which we believe were resolved as the team members prayed with them. Since most of us didn’t speak Spanish and we had a shortage of translators, the team didn’t always know how the Lord touched the individuals they were praying for, but all the tears and smiles on the faces of the people as they walked away let us know the Lord had indeed heard our prayers. In addition to our open-air crusades, we had opportunities to minister in several churches and at a local feeding center.
On this particular team, I had a number of students who had never prayed for people or organized and participated in a skit. It was such a thrill to see them “come alive.” In fact, they got so excited about how Jesus was using them that they were witnessing even on our “free day” at the beach. I was thrilled to watch as one of the students baptized 
a Dominican man in the ocean. The student had shared the plan of salvation with him, and he had accepted the Lord and wanted to prove his genuine faith through baptism.
It was refreshing to see a country hungry for the gospel. Truly the harvest is ripe there, and we helped supply laborers for the Johnsons to bring in a harvest of souls.
