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| Our mission is to reach the whole person, whole family and whole community with the transforming power of God’s love. A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! 2025 has been a year of many changes for our ministry in the Dominican Republic. Perhaps the most significant was moving a little more than a half mile down the road to the slightly over two acres of titled land that we purchased three years ago. Our new site is between our two target communities of Cercadillo and Vietnan. The more centralized location has resulted in an explosion of attendance in all our activities. 86 children came to our first Sunday afternoon Kids’ Club in the new building on Sept 21!  We are very thankful for our 40’x70’ open-air building, the shipping container converted to bathrooms and storage and the hand pump. Three teams from New England (QUEST, Hope Chapel, Church in the Pines) and two from Colorado (Monument Hill, Hope for Israel) worked alongside locals during the winter and spring of 2025. We are so very grateful for all who have given of their time, their resources and prayers to help us get to this point. With some recent gifts we are planning to cement in the floor of the building and to do some work on the grounds around the building in early January.  Construction in the DR is not for the faint of heart. Delays meant we could not use our new site for our two weeks of summer camps in July and August. Although this was a great disappointment and required a mountain of last-minute logistical changes, God provided a wonderful facility for us to use and a bus service to transport the campers. Our visiting teams from Gateway Community Church (VA) and Church in the Pines (MA) along with four translators and six leaders from our communities rolled along with all the changes to help provide our 84, 7–12-year-olds with two weeks of great fun and learning. A very special camp activity was building and painting benches. Each campers’ handprint was placed on one of the benches. We are waiting for our cement floor to use these.   Again this year Church in the Pines and Christian Fellowship Center brought black school shoes for the campers and Gateway brought school supplies. The families are deeply thankful for these gifts that enable their children to attend school.    53 families are registered in Salud Familiar (Family Health Program). Once a month they can receive hygiene products at extremely reduced prices as well as health education.  Salud Familiar Christmas PartyWe celebrated Christmas with two children’s parties and one helper’s parties.   Since moving to the new building there has been an increased involvement of youth. Please pray for these young people who face unbelievable challenges. Pray for wisdom and for more leaders to interact with them.  Our Youth with their Bibles2025 has been an exciting, busy, challenging year. Thank you so much for being on the journey with us! DREAMS FOR 2026 CONSTRUCTION GOALS FOR 2026, as money becomes available. – Pouring the concrete floor, front steps and platform area in our open-air building. ($ has been given for this!) – Conditioning the area directly around our building with road pack and gravel to alleviate the abundance of mud when it rains. (Money has been given for this!) – Paint the building, especially the front wall to serve as a large projection screen. – Developing a way to pump water from our well up to a holding tank on the roof of the bathrooms for gravity-fed flushing and hand washing. We currently use buckets of water from our hand pump and are thankful for the bathrooms we have. Some creative solutions are being explored. (Estimates for electricity to be brought to our property are approximately $20,000! YIKES!). – Bringing in our 40-foot shipping container of donated school furniture and supplies that has been waiting for us in St. Louis for the past six years. (Money has been pledged for this!) The container will be used for additional storage at the site. A simple foundation will need to be built before the placement of the container. – Purchasing a local shipping container to become a very basic kitchen. Again, a simple foundation will need to be made before the placement. – Repairing the water leakage on upstairs patio of the mission base. – Putting a chain link security fence around the perimeter of our vacant lot adjacent to the mission base. – Continuing development of plans for block school building. MINISTRY GOALS FOR 2026 – Tutoring – We are currently evaluating students for tutoring in 2026 – Ongoing Kids’ Club on Sundays – Women’s Bible studies and activities/Parental training – Salud Familiar – health training events – Community gardening workshops – Gardens in the unused parts of our land – Summer Camps – More youth activities – possible youth camp? – Continued Leadership development – Adding to the leadership team! – Informal preschool beginning in the fall??? – Outreach to neighboring community of La Cueva We are so grateful for everyone’s support this past year. We have many more exciting adventures ahead which will not be possible without your prayers and financial support. Thank you in advance for your partnership in 2026. Don’t Miss Our Latest Stories And UpdatesFollow us on social media: Support The Ministry Donate Now And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:9-10 |
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