TAN Mission Report May 2026 – Dominican Republic

Teach All Nations has had a long and well-established relationship with the churches and believers in the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic.  Working with Tim and Trena Johnson, a missionary family that we have known since we were all members of Dr. Lester Sumrall’s church in 1980, we have been to their ministry compound more than a dozen times with mission teams, for pastors’ conferences, and as a base for outreaches into churches, schools, and rehab centers.

 This year’s visit was prompted by a request from the local pastors that we come to teach them some in-depth principles on prayer; so, the conference and the ministry in the churches were all focused on scriptural lessons about prayer.  The conference theme proclaimed that prayer can change the world – which certainly seemed to be more than a coincidence with the fact that we were able to introduce a special guest to the pastors at the conference.  Just a few weeks before we were invited to come to the Dominican Republic, Delron became aware that Every Home for Christ had a desire to open an office in the city where the conference was to be held.  He was able to arrange for the national director of the ministry to come to the conference to share his vision for their city.  As part of his presentation, he gave each delegate a world map and a prayer manual entitled “Change the World Prayer Guide.”

At the one-day conference, Delron shared a message based on the clever play on words – prayer without action is lazy, but action without prayer is crazy.  Although all the teaching had to be translated into Spanish, the audience soon caught on to the similarity between the words and were repeating the theme as easily as if English was their native tongue.

On Sunday morning, Peggy and Delron practiced one of their customary missionary strategies – divide and conquer – by going to different churches to minister.  In both churches, the focus was on prayer with Delron ministering on praying for others rather than about them while Peggy preached on waiting on the Lord for the answer after presenting your petitions in prayer.

The following couple of days were dedicated to ministering in rehab centers for recovering drug and alcohol addicts.  One unusual request at all three facilities where we ministered was that the residents be permitted to ask questions about the Bible that they found perplexing.  Although some of the questions might have seemed pointless to outsiders, it was important to the men that they could have a chance to get clarity and have it reaffirmed to them that the Bible is indeed accurate, sensible, and reliable.  Additionally, the fact that they could return to reading the Bible with these puzzling matters settled gave them a new confidence when they opened their Bibles the time.  After sharing messages of hope and assurance, we prayed individually with each of the men and reminded them that God has a plan for their success and restoration with their families.

Each evening, we visited churches to continue teaching on prayer.  In one particular service, the emphasis was on incorporating biblical promises in prayer – a message which the pastor felt to be especially timely for the intercessors of the church.  So much so that he called all the intercessors to the altar for a special impartation to move into an even more focused ministry of prayer.

Since one aspect of the Johnsons’ ministry is open-air evangelism in the city park, we scheduled a time to present music, testimonies, and a gospel message one morning.  When we arrived, a park representative questioned if we had a permit to hold a meeting on the grounds.  Of course, Tim had a permit and also explained that he had been doing outreaches there at the personal request of the chief of police who had noticed a drop in the crime rate after he had begun to preach in the park.  The official immediately okayed the event and mentioned that the president of all the municipal parks was in town for a meeting that day.  Shortly afterward, the president stopped by to see what was going on.  After observing for a while, he approached Tim and asked if we could come to a different park the following day, saying that there is a serious drug problem in that area and that he felt that the message we were sharing would be effective there.  He then promised a permit to preach in any park in the city at any time!

As soon as the altar call was given, a shoeshine boy (well, he wasn’t exactly a boy; it turned out that he was forty-five years old) came forward to receive the Lord.  After Delron prayed for him, he shared that he had once been a shoeshine boy and reached out to shake the gentleman’s hand.  When Delron took the man’s hand, he saw that it was paralyzed.  The man explained that it had been that way since he was stuck by a sister (apparently a nun) at church (probably for misbehaving) when he was two years old.  Delron and the interpreter began to pray for him, and the fingers began to uncurl, and he was able to open and close the hand.  Although he did not receive a total restoration, it was a remarkable beginning.

The next morning, as we were setting up for an outreach at the other park where we had been invited by the park director, we were surprised to see Nelson (the shoeshine boy) show up.  Since he is homeless and lives under a bridge near the other park on the other side of town, we asked how he wound up at this park.  He explained that he had walked there because he had heard that we would be at the other park the following morning.  He actually agreed to come forward and tell the story of what had happened in both his heart and his hand the previous day.  There was one lady who was especially touched by his story – actually the only person who stayed from the beginning to the end of the outreach.  She was especially impacted because she also had a disability.  She had been born lame with legs so twisted that one foot was literally turned backwards.  Although she was physically disabled, she was a born-again believer with the radiant joy of the Lord in her countenance.  Seated in a wooden cart that she peddled with a hand crank, she latched onto every word that was shared during the day and propelled herself to the front of the stage as soon as the call for prayer was given.  As Peggy and Delron prayed for her, she said that she could sense that something was happening in her back and that one leg which had been totally numb was beginning to gain feeling.  She was also able to move her other leg, which had been paralyzed.  Additionally, the pain in that leg had disappeared.  Again, the healing wasn’t complete, but it was wonderful start.

Interestingly, the reason we had been invited to the park was to minister to the drug abusers who frequent the area, but the two men who came to the Lord during the outreach were not local addicts but the policemen who patrol the area!