Thursday, November 29, 2007

Praise and Thanks!

Thank you so much for praying for Matthew, our son.  He came home from the hosptial last night and is doing much better.  He will be taking a series of medicines to help him recover from the bacterial infection and amoebas.
I want to also take the time to thank Southern Baptists for your ongoing support for our family on the field. Because you give faithfully through the Cooperative Program at your church and through the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, we are able to be on the field and fulfill God's call upon our lives.  Because you give and pray, people are able to hear the gospel! Because you give and pray, new beleivers are professing their faith in Christ through baptism!  Because you are faithful to support missions, new churches are being started for the glory of Christ!  Because you give, we are able to take care of medical needs of our children when they get sick.  Do you realize that you Southern Baptists paid for Matthew's hospital bill and his medicine?  A thousand thank you's and more!
When I was a kid I remember traveling with my parents from North Carolina to California as they raised their own missions support from churches and individuals from their denomination.  Month after month on the road was difficult.  For many missionary families, some of whom are friends of mine, it usually takes more than two years of hitting the road before they can raise enough support to go to the field.  God was with our family and I am grateful for the lessons of faith we learned.  But I am also thankful as a Southern Baptist missionary that we are provided for by your faifthful giving. I am humbled that God would call us.  I am humbled that you would give and pray for the expansion of the Kingdom.  I can remember as a Southern Baptist pastor what a joy it was to lead churches I served in missions giving, prayer, and support.  And now I am on this end of that support.  We love you and praise God for you!
Posted by Wagner family at 07:36:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Missionary Feature: Marsha Davidson / Prayer for Matthew Wagner

Good morning praying friends!
Our missionary feature today is Marsha Davidson.  Marsha works as a church planter and developer among the urban poor of Santiago, which is located more in the center of the Dominicna Republic.  The Santiago metro area and her surroundings has close to 1 million people.  God has used Marsha to plant a good number of churches, and develop leaders and pastors for those churches.  She is also working to establish a local foundation to help church planters, leaders, and pastors create a working career for themselves to sustain their families while also leading new churches.  She is also working on some long term clean water solutions for poor barrios in Santiago.  Bad drinking water is real problem for the poor.  Many are sick with a paracites and other water born diseases.  Beyond these responsibilities, Marsha serves as our field Orientation Coordinator for new missionaries coming to work with us.  Please pray for Marsha that God would strengthen her and that we would see a harvest among the poor of Santiago.  This coming December they have a baptismal service planned where 15 or so folks will give public testimony through obedience in baptism in a joint worship service with all the churches.  Should be exciting!
Also, would you pray for Matthew our 17 year old son?  Matthew became very sick yesterday with non-stop vomiting and dehydration.  He is spending two nights in the hospital getting a drip IV and antibiotics.  It was determined that he has a really bad bacterial infection and amoebas.  Please pray for his complete healing.
Posted by Wagner family at 07:45:56 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Faith in Medina!

This past weekend God poured out His blessings as folks continued to draw near to Christ in Medina.  Below is a photo of a 70 year old man who surrended his life to Christ and boldly proclaimed his faith through obedience in baptism!  Pray that he will be a great witness to two other older adults who are close to coming to Christ, and a great witness to a host of young people who desperately need the Savior.  Pray without ceasing for a harvest to continue in Medina.
Posted by Wagner family at 09:48:02 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Missionary Feature: Carlos and Lily Llambes

Please pray today for Carlos and Lily Llambes who serve as Southern Baptist missionaries in the eastside of Santo Domingo where over 750,000 people reside.  Carlos and Lily are planting both Dominican and Haitian churches.  They have seen three churches now planted for the glory of God and all three of these are starting new bible studies that will lead to church starts in the future.  Pray for their three children who are homeschooled.  All three are very active in the music program of the Ozama Baptist Church.  Pray for God to give mom and dad wisdom in the education of their great kids.  Pray especially for a harvest in Santo Domingo East.  It seems that God is moving toward an explosion of harvest growth, sweeping His Spirit across the East, and saving precious Dominicans and Haitians for His glory!
Posted by Wagner family at 07:18:25 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, November 19, 2007

Harvest in Medina Unfolding!

Would you intercede this day for the community of Medina?  God is beginning to unleash a harvest among the people of this community.  Because of the floods, for two weeks I was unable to get to worship on Sunday in Medina.  Last Sunday I was able to cross the bridge and over 60 people were waiting to hear God's Word!  Three surrendered their lives to Christ and are preparing for baptism.  Yesterday we had another great group.  Another person came to Christ!  Every week more and more lost people are coming to hear God's Word.  We will have a baptism service next week.  Please, please pray for God to pour out His Spirit upon Medina.  I know in my heart that we are headed toward a great harvest there.
Posted by Wagner family at 08:01:16 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Hello from Coral Springs, Florida! I am writing from our hotel room. Lisa and I are here for a regional training for leaders. Please pray for us to learn important skills to encourage and empower our DR and Haiti missionaries toward greatness.
I want to share with you this morning a miracle! Two weeks ago we had a medical/dental team here from North Carolina. They worked in Medina, a small community in the province of San Cristobal. The week after they left, Tropical Storm Noel hit and took out both access bridges that lead to Medina. I have not been able to get back into the people to follow up. We have all been praying and praying. Sunday afternoon, I was able to cross one of the bridges and get to the people. I did not know what to expect. When I arrived there, sixty people were waiting to here God's Word. We had a great worship service, and three people accepted Christ and are ready to be baptized! God is about to pour out His harvest in Medina! Please pray to this end!
Posted by Wagner family at 07:54:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Final Response and Entry for Tropical Storm Noel

We had a great training time with David Brown, our MAC Region Disaster Relief Coordinator. He was here in the DR for three days. During that time we saw some sights of the damage to gain a scope of the effects of the storm. We also researched and evaluated what response was being done by the government, non-profits, and international organizations. We also met with our Dominican Baptist Convention leaders to assess how we can work together to identify some specific needs and meet them. I am happy to report that some longer term needs of people who lost their homes are being met. Please pray for Carlos Llambes as he will be our missionary representative working along side of the national convention to meet these needs. Based on David's assessment, we agreed that many needs are being met in the country by a wide variety of sources. From this point we will be using the Hunger Relief and General Relief funds to fill in the gaps of needs we know that are not being met. After that we are working on developing a national response team through our Baptist Convention, training our national brothers to be prepared to respond more effectively when the next storm hits. They are excited about getting this set up. We are talking with folks in North Carolina about the possibility of this future training and helping to get the convention set up to respond for any disaster that would hit our island.
Continue to pray to those who are hurting. Pray for Carlos as he faithfully guides our funds and our coordination with the national convention to meet some needs of the hurting families both within our Baptist churches and among the lost.
Lisa and I will be traveling to Florida on Monday for a region wide leaders conference. Please pray that we will learn new skills that will help us be more effective supervisors and empowerers of missionaries.

Posted by Wagner family at 11:38:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Update on Relief Efforts

David Brown, who coordinates our Middle America and Caribbean Region disaster relief efforts, will be flying into the DR today to meet with IMB missionaries and our Dominican Baptist Convention leadership.  David will be able to help us identify how we can best meet some short term and long term needs.  Many of our Baptist churches as well as us personally as missionaries have already been helping those with immediate needs.
We also just received $5000.00 dollars in emergency relief funds.  Praise God!  These funds come from the hearts of Southern Baptists who give to the Hunger and Relief Funds through the International Mission Board.  We will also be requesting more funds for long term relief efforts in the areas of home reconstruction and recovery.  This fund helps in diasters like this one and hundreds of others.  Do you remember the Tsunami floods in Asia?  Thosands of dollars were used to help suffering people get back on their feet in India and other Asian countries.  You can give to this fund by going to the IMB website at:
www.imb.org
At the home page go to the "give" link at the top bar.  Look for the Hunger and General Relief Funds.  You can give online or through snail mail to the IMB.
Another way you can give to the cause is, if you would like help to go directly to help the victims of Noel, is to send funds directly to the IMB office in Richmond and earmark your funds to say, "Mercy Team, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - Noel Relief efforts."  Your gift would go directly to that project and could not be used in any other way.
Continue to pray for all the suffering people.  One of our convention Baptist churches, the Getsemani Baptist church housed over 160 people in their santuary and facilities for an entire week until the flood waters leveled back down.  How many of our churches would be willing to do that in the US?
Pray for David's safe arrival and for our important meeting tomorrow with convention leaders.  We want to be good stewards of these funds and we want to really help people get back on their feet toward recovery.
Posted by Wagner family at 07:28:01 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Latest Updates on Noel

The death toll continues to rise as a result of Tropical Storm Noel. Right now there are 85 confirmed deaths with another 48 people missing. There are currently over 66,000 people displaced from their homes. 16,642 homes have been damaged with 737 homes completely destroyed. Please pray for an important meeting we will be having this week with our Dominican Baptist Convention partners to decide the best way to make a long-term impact especially as it relates to home recovery for families who have lost everything. Thank you Southern Baptists who give faithfully to Hunger and Relief Funds through the International Mission Board. Because you are faithful we are able to get immediate emergency funds to begin the work! Praise God!
Below is a photo of some of the magnitude of the damage in the province of San Cristobal.
Posted by Wagner family at 13:39:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, November 02, 2007

Latest Effects of TS Noel

Here are the lastest statistics as of this morning for the damage done in the Dominican Republic by Tropical Storm Noel:
73 deaths
43 people missing
64,096 people evacuated from their homes and communities
62 communities completely cut off with no communication
16,024 homes badly damaged
686 homes completely destroyed
35 bridges and roads badly damaged
Please continue to pray for those who are suffering.  Many of you have asked about how you can help.  Immediate food, water, and basic needs response from the government, non-profit organizations, and churches has been excellent.  Even the US military has provided air support for evacuations.  What usually lacks is the long term help.  We are working to see how can specifically address long term home recovery for those who have lost their homes and their belongings. Praise God for Southern Baptists who have given to Hunger Relief Funds!  Because of these, we are able to obtain some emergency funds for phase one of our plan.  Along with our Baptist Partners, we are putting together home kits for people who lost everything.  The kits will have things like food items, blankets, pots and pans, utencils, towels, etc..  These kits will go to many families who lost everything.
If you would like to donate more beyond the emergency funds we are obtaining, please contact me ASAP at:
keith.wagner@macregion.org
The second phase of help is home repair and construction. This will be our long-term effort in which many of you will be asked to help as volunteers to get people back in their homes.  More on that later.  For those of you interested in helping medically, we would ask you to contact Dr. Mark Brown, one of our Great Commission Partners who runs a full time clinic in San Cristobal.  Mark can be contacted at:
missionsmark@gmail.com
Continue checking here for daily updates.


Posted by Wagner family at 07:25:15 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |
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