“I don’t want to go home. I’m just dismissing the service because I know that the people need to leave.” That’s how the pastor at one of the churches in the Dominican Republic addressed the congregation as he took the microphone after the mission team concluded their presentation. Delron’s team of nineteen Bible college students spent just over a week ministering in churches, schools, and open-air settings in and around the city of Santiago – a one-million-population intellectual, educational, cultural center, and industrial center of the Caribbean nation.
Their first experience of the week was the open-air ministry in the city park where passersby stopped to watch the skits and listen to the testimonies that the students shared. At the conclusion of the presentation, one Mexican team member stepped forward to give the final gospel message and extend an invitation for salvation and healing in Spanish. Almost every one of the crowd that had gathered responded and prayed the sinner’s prayer with him; most of them also asked the team members to pray with them for healing. After a quick stop at the mission base to regroup and package food bags, the team headed to a church in one of the needy areas of town for a food distribution and an evangelistic service. Clowns and puppets intrigued the children while the skits and testimonies captivated the adults. Again, the majority of those present responded to the altar call and prayed that their lives would truly be altered. As the guests left the church, we handed each person a free bag of food and each child a fistful of candy.
The morning of the second day of our mission to the Dominican people was focused on a children’s outreach that was held at the La Casa Grande – the mission base of our hosts, Tim and Trena Johnson. The Johnsons, Delron and Peggy’s long-time friends, have lived in the Dominican Republic for twenty-two years and have seen thousands of lives changed, scores of churches launched, and twenty-three church buildings erected as a result of their ministry there. One of their approaches has been to reach children with the gospel by inviting them to their compound on Saturdays for a time of fun and games followed by a presentation of the gospel. Many of the youngsters they have reached over the years are serving as pastors and in other roles of leadership in the community today. Our children’s outreach this time was one more opportunity to plant seeds of destiny in the hearts of the future leaders of the nation as they listened to the testimonies and teaching and politely accepted the bags of candy as they exited the compound. That evening, our team visited another area of town where we began by canvassing the neighborhood inviting the children to our meeting. Like the Pied Piper, we returned to the little church followed by a parade of the neighborhood children. Songs, dances, games, puppets, clowns, skits, and testimonies held the attention of not only the children but also the adults who crowded into the building. When we offered them an opportunity to receive Christ, hands went up all over the sanctuary. Again, the front of the church was filled with those who responded to the invitation for personal prayer and healing.
The dawning of Sunday morning found the team splitting into two groups so that we could minister in two different churches at the same time. Both teams came back to the compound with wonderful testimonies of how the people had eagerly responded to their ministry. However, the real highlight of the day was the afternoon outreach in a squatters’ village where several hundred families had erected make-shift houses along the riverbank. Since they were occupying a dangerous floodplain, they had suffered multiple floods that had washed away their homes and left them with nothing except the clothes – rags – on their backs. However, their most recent devastation was not from the floods, but from fire. When a fire broke out, the fire department was unable to get into the area because there were no streets – only foot paths. Additionally, the location on a steep bank leading down to the river would have prohibited the fire engine from maneuvering even if there had been a road. The result was that the flames engulfed one tinderbox home after the other, leaving behind only ashes and nightmares. The pastor who ministers in this shantytown walked us through the cinders to show us the house where he holds Bible studies and prayer meeting for the people – the house next door to where the fire erupted. Miraculously, that house was not burned; in fact, it was not even filled with smoke! The people in the neighborhood gathered in a little clearing just next to the ruins of what were once peoples’ homes to watch our skits and listen to our stories. Hands went up all through the crowd as the invitation was given, and many stepped forward for personal prayer. Afterward, we distributed food and clothes to those who had lost their homes and what little they had been able to accumulate in life. After making our way out of the hovels, the pastor reminded us that no one – especially no foreigners – ever came into this area and that the fact that we had made the effort to find them and visit them was a demonstration of love that they will never forget.
Monday was dedicated to a pastors’ conference which drew church leaders from every part of the island and from all denominational backgrounds. Although we had not been able to schedule the meeting on a Saturday when the pastors are free from the secular jobs that most of them have to maintain in order to support themselves, the attendance was exceptional with close to three hundred present. They were all totally engaged as a couple of the students shared the viewpoint of the pew – explaining their positive and negative experiences in their years as church members. Delron then ministered from I Thessalonians 1:5, explaining Paul’s strategy for church planting – apparently, an effective technique in that he was only in Thessalonica for three weeks (Acts 17:2) yet the church that was birthed out of that short ministry gained a reputation through all of Christendom (I Thessalonians 1:7-8). One nationally recognized leader commented on the day’s ministry with a Spanish equivalent to the American expression, “You hit the nail on the head!”
Our last day of ministry on the island began as an operation in the “number one rule for mission work” – flexibility. We began the day early in order to visit a gym where we were to minister to a large group of junior high school students that were to be bussed in from a local school. After arriving and setting up for the skits, only a handful of students showed up. The guys on the mission team found a basketball and challenged the students to a shoot-out to fill in the time 
while we waited for the bus to arrive. When we eventually received a message that the bus had broken down and that the rest of the students would not be coming, we shifted to “Plan B” by sending the few students who were present to run through the neighborhood and invite the community to the meeting. Before long, the residents of the neighborhood began to fill the gymnasium, and we gave them the full presentation that we had intended for the junior high students. It was no surprise when we saw hands raised all over the gym when the invitation was extended and when a number stayed behind for personal prayer. In fact, we found it difficult to load the bus when it was time for us to leave because the team members were still praying for and ministering to the people who had come from the surrounding homes.
We concluded our week of ministry with a healing service at one of the local churches. One special part of the service was when our team sang in Spanish. Although they had been working on the song for several weeks before leaving the States and all during the trip, it wasn’t until the last day in the Dominican Republic that they felt confident enough to take the stage. The attempt at singing in their language instantly bonded the hearts of everyone present with our team. After several testimonies of healings and some basic scriptural teaching on the topic, we invited those who wanted prayer to come forward. A number of on-the-spot healings were recorded including one lady who was not able to find any of the lumps in her breast that had been diagnosed as cancerous and a man who was able to hear out of his previously deaf ear.
Having experienced such a dramatic move of God and having felt the deep love of the Dominican people, it was difficult for the team to say, “Goodbye,” and head for the airport to return to their studies and jobs.
