Friday, July 18, 2008

Developing A Harvest Plan

Have you ever thought about developing a harvest plan? Jesus tells us in Matthew 9:37 that the harvest is abundant. He did not say it was little, small, or lacking. Within the context of teaching, preaching the good news, and healing, Jesus declares this truth to his disciples. His compassionate heart led him to see all people as sheep without a shepherd. His compassion leads us to see harvest potential wherever we live.
Lisa and I, and the kids have arrived to the USA for a year to find not a land filled with righteousness, but a land in need of harvesting. We will have the blessing of living in a mission home provided by one of our Southern Baptist churches in North Carolina. There on the same lot of where will be living is a trailer park with a good number of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Already we are praying how we will share the gospel and start a bible study with these families.
I use this as an example to say to you this day: The harvest is abundant! We do not have to doubt that truth of Christ! We only have to do one thing; pray for the Lord of the Harvest, the owner of the harvest, God our Father, to call out, raise up, and send out more workers into the fields of harvest. I have been home for two days and the Lord is showing me two harvest fields waiting for workers. More on the second one later. Where is your harvest today? Will you pray for God to show you? Will you pray for the Lord to send forth workers into your harvest? Let me warn you, if you pray this way, be prepared. The first worker may be you!
Blessings this day!
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Sunday, July 13, 2008

I am back!
It has been way too long since my last update.  We are heading to the States for some months of Stateside Assignment.  We will be leaving mid-July.  As soon as things settle I will update what is going on among Dominicans and Haitians in the island of Hispaniola!
Blessings, Keith
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Continued Harvest in Medina!

God continues to bless in the small town of Medina.  In the last two weeks 10 people were baptized and another 4 adults surrendered to Christ.  There is now a total of 26 baptized believers, with another baptism planned in two weeks.  The gospel seems to be running through a pretty large family in the community.  The exciting thing is to watch the people be involved in evangelizing their own family members and friends.  Our continued partnership with the San Cristobal church is going well as their members are really excited about what God is doing.  They are working so hard to disciple and grow the new believers.
Will you pray that God will continue to pour out His Spirit in Medina?  Will you also pray that God will raise up local leaders to be trained?

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Friday, March 21, 2008

Easter Harvest in Medina!

When God unleashes His salvation in a community, the beauty of transformation is realized and the glory of Christ is manifested. As we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus this weekend, I am reminded that the very meaning of the name of Jesus means, the one who saves. Jesus has come to save the lost and bring the hope of eternal life to the world. I am so grateful that He has allowed us to see some Easter here in the DR, and especially in the community of Medina, just west of Santo Domingo.
We have been wonderfully surprised at what God is doing through the ministry of Medina Baptist Church. People are being saved from lives of sin and separation and into the grace and hope of Christ. As of right now we have 28 new believers, 16 of whom have been baptized and the other 12 will be baptized in two weeks. Men are being saved! Women are being saved! Youth and children are being saved! It seems that weekly more and more are coming to Christ. 60 are attending weekly worship and bible study, including weekly spontaneous gathering times for prayer and worship. The exciting thing is that the local believers are doing their own evangelism during the week by visiting homes, sharing the gospel, and witnessing their neighbors and families coming to Christ!

This ministry has been an amazing partnership between IMB missionaries, new local believers in Medina, a local Baptist convention church in San Cristobal, and Baptist churches from Michigan, Missouri, and North Carolina. This synergy of cooperation has been a joy to watch.

Will you pray for the following?

  • For God to continue to pour out His Spirit in Medina
  • For our partnership Baptist church in San Cristobal who is helping to disciple new believers and train new leaders
  • That God would empower German and Milagro to become great leaders in their church and community

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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

From Despair to Hope!

The advent of March Madness, in which more than 60 teams will compete for the NCAA college basketball championship, reminds me of an ancient, indigenous culture in Mexico in which athletes competed in perhaps what could be considered the predecessor of hoop games. I took this picture below during my recent trip to the anthropolgy museum in Mexico City.

This ancient game was played with a hard rubber ball that acutally had a surprising bounce. The goal was to hit the ball with your hip and pass it through the donut hoop. In modern basketball, the winner receives a trophy and perhaps a future career in the sport. In this ancient game, the winner was sacrificed to a god. Gulp, talk about lack of motivation! However, to win and be sacrificed was considered a high honor thus offering your life and giving glory to the ancient gods. Those days and ancient cultures were filled with darkness and superstition. Sadly, those hopeless realities still exist in cultures today all across Middle America and the Caribbean islands. One of our new believers we work with was recently invited by her mother-in-law to take her sick baby to a witch for healing. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me (John 14:6).” And yet today there are still so many following misguided paths, false teachings, and demonic darkness that blind the heart from the purity of Jesus and eternal life.
As ancient cultures of the Americas were engaged in battle with European conquerers, the Europeans brought with them a rather twisted version of the cross.

Long before Martin Luther and the Reformers, old Catholicism brought to the new world a forced religion with the powerful symbol of the cross, placed on the top of many Latin American cathedrals like the one above. This “cross” religion had been diluted to the violent conquering of ancient cultures. Instead of bringing the hope of the cross, they brought the sword. What was left were cultures all across our region filled with a syncretized religion that mixed the worship of ancient gods, the adored saints, maryology, and comlicated ritual all in the name of the church. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” To be his disciple means an exlusive obedience to Him alone. Jesus is the way to God because He is indeed God. Jesus is the truth of the God because He reveals our sin and depraved nature in light of the perfect Father. He is the truth because he died and shed his blood and became the perfect atoning sacrifice in order to break the chains of darkness, sin, and separation we live out. Jesus is the author of life! He gave us life at birth, “through him all things were created…” He gives us life and purpose while we live for the glory of God. And he gives us eternal life! It is for this reason alone that missionaries and all believers are called out into the thousands of cultures of the world. We are called to bring hope, hope like my dear friends below now live out!

Socio and Celeste have eight children whom you see above. Two years ago they were falling apart as a family. Socio spent his waking hours in a world of drunkeness, gambling, and foul living. His wife and kids suffered greatly. One night he had come to the end. He fell on the ground and cried out to the living God for deliverance from a life of despair. He also prayed that night as a last resort and crisis of belief. “God, if you really exist, deliver me from my drunkeness and if you really exist, send someone to my house to teach me the truth.”
The next week, with a jeep full of new believers, we showed up in their community and stopped directly in front of Socio and Celeste’s house. There we began a bible study which is now a church, preaching the truth of God’s Word. There is hope! All the hours of prayer, hours of preaching and teaching, and hours of going to community after community seeking the lost, is worth it all when you see entire families come to Christ!
There is hope!

There is hope alone in Jesus Christ our Lord! May all the generations to come know this great hope!

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Monday, February 25, 2008

We Are Back!

Wow!  What an exciting several weeks!  I am so sorry for not making it to the blog to update with prayer requests during this time.  It has been an amazing time.  Here are some highlights:

  • We had a weeklong field meeting where all the IMB missionaries from the DR and Haiti got together for prayer, vision-sharing, and for some restructuring.

  • I have been a part of several different meetings during these weeks with the leadership of our Dominican Baptist Convention.  We are seeking to create a vision together to reach Dominicans and Haitians.  God is teaching me so much through this process.

  • God continues to bless the new church in Medina and our partnership with a sister Baptist church in San Cristobal.  We now have 16 baptized believers including several new baptisms in Medina.  The church’s pastor and worship team recently held a 3 day evangelistic revival with 70 in attendance each night.  The San Cristobal wants to adopt the Medina work and plans are underway to their fuller involvement.  Several came to Christ in the revival and will be preparing for baptism.  Members of the Medina church built the framework for a new worship facility and covered it with a tarp.  I am so proud of their sacrifice for Christ and His church.

  • God is continuing to bless in Santo Domingo East through the ministry of Carlos and Lily Llambes.  They have had several new people come to Christ and God continues to open up opportunities with more Haitian immigrants who want to see new churches started.

  • I had the opportunity to spend a week in Mexico City with over 50 missionaries from all over the world.  It was amazing and I learned so much from the experiences of others.  We were at a conference designed to explore better ways to reach the megacities of the world for Christ.

  • God continues to bless the work in San Juan de la Maguana as people continue to come to Christ, be baptized, and become a part of the work there.

  • We are so excited about the ministry of national church planters from our national Baptist convention.  They are planting new Baptist churches.  We are excited as an IMB missionary team about becoming a part of Dominican Baptist church planting teams in the future and exploring how we can partner together for the Kingdom.

  • Two volunteer teams from Michigan and Missouri will be joining us next week to help us in the Rincon community and church.  Much planning has taken place and we know God will use these folks in a great way.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Victory!

Yesterday evening during our training and bible study time in Medina we experienced a great victory as Bello surrendered his life to Christ!  Bello is an older guy who has been faithful to attend our worship services and bible studies for more than 3 months.  He never misses a meeting.  Yesterday after the bible study, we talked.  He was so ready to give all to Jesus.  He did and will be baptized this coming Sunday afternoon.  Will you pray for his faithfulness as a new believer?  Pray also that he will have a great influence on other men in his community.  We believe God is so close to unleashing an amazing harvest in Medina.  Please pray for one of our sister Baptist churches and pastor Salvador who is helping us in the work.  They are planning a three-day evangelistic event in February.
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Monday, January 28, 2008

Celebrations!

What a weekend!  Saturday begin with a midday birthday celebration of the youngest precious baby girl of Socio and Celeste.  We celebrated with cake and a praise and worship service, with preaching and everything.  Socio and Celeste have eight children and each of them are coming to Christ as they understand the call of the gospel.
Speaking of coming to Christ, early Sunday morning at 6:30 am, Micah, our youngest son, awoke early and went into our room to talk with his mother. He began talking about baptism and what it means to be a Christian.  I did not know this conversation was taking place.  As it so happened I was in the den praying for a harvest in our country.  In a few moments, Lisa and Micah walked in to announce Micah’s desire to surrender his life to Christ!  He did and we have been celebrating since.
At 7 am of the same morning, I left to celebrate the baptism of new believers at the church at Ochocienta.  It was a joy!
Celebrations of this magnitude make the missionary life more than worth it all.

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Annual Dominican Baptist Convention

This past weekend we had an exciting assembly of the Dominican Baptist Convention. Here are some quick highlights of what happened:

  • 54 national church planters presented and prayed for!
  • 30 (estimate) new churches planted this past year!
  • 14 new churches presented as full members of convention!
  • 125 churches now connected to the convention!
  • 54 affliated member churches!
  • 21 out of 31 provinces now with Baptist presence!
  • New vision of cooperation between various Baptist entities in the DR!
  • Great vision growing for church planting!
  • Church planting conference planned with goal of 400 in attendance!

Will you pray today for Manolo Martinez (photo below)? He is a key Dominican leader in the Baptist Convention who has a heart for the Lord and a vision to reach his country for the Lord Jesus.

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Monday, January 14, 2008

Confronting With Biblical Truth

Yesterday we had a truth encounter in Medina.
For some time we have had several folks, who have yet to surrender their lives to Christ, come to our Sunday evening worship service at the new Baptist church in the community.  The believers who have accepted Christ are living out the faith in a great way.  The changes unbelievers see in their lives continue to draw interest to know more.
Yesterday we told the story of Lazarus.  His death and resurrection led us to a discussion of eternal proportions.  I know that in these days of jello theology and not wanting to offend anyone with biblical truth, my presentation yesterday evening of the realities of life, death, heaven, and hell would probably make many Americans, even a number of Christians feel uncomfortable.  One mention of the possibility of someone spending all eternitiy in a place of suffering freaks a lot of people out.  But on the other hand the gospel should freak us out!  When was the last time you heard a sermon on the biblical realities of heaven and hell?  Well, it didn’t freak out my Dominican lost friends.  The rawness and harshness of these truths are consistent with the hard, difficult lifes they live.  I simply shared with them in a calm but direct way the biblical truth that those who belieive in Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, would spend all eternity in His presence in heaven after they die.  Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ condemn themselves by their unbelief and thus upon their death will spend all eternity separated from God’s love in hell, a place of eternal suffering, and yes unending flames.  There I said it.
This past week, two young men in Medina, ages 19 and 20, died in a motorcycle wreck.  They hit a truck and were killed instantly.  No chance for even a prayer or thought of eternity.  Dead, just that quick.  I ask if the boys knew Christ.  The answer was no.  Last night we had about 6 unbelievers in the service.  They all listened to the truth and to the warning that time is short.  None of us know the last hour of our lives here on earth.  Are you prepared for eternal life?  No one responded last night to surrender their lives to Christ, but they are thinking hard on the matter.  Some are very close to full surrender to Jesus.  I just pray it will not be too late.  If I did not believe in the biblical realities of heaven and hell, I would pack it up and come home from the mission field.  By faith in Jesus Christ, we move from sin to forgiveness, from death to life, from a path toward hell to the gates of heaven.  I want to see my friends in glory!
Will you pray today for my lost friends in Medina?  Will you pray for a harvest of souls in the community?  Will you pray for a harvest of souls in all of the Dominican Republic?
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