Back Again To Dominican Republic

October 21, 2009

Greetings from the Dominican Republic with all of its heat, no A/C, cold showers and great people!

Thanks to a couple of families with a burden for the nations, and their booking the flight I have returned to Dominican Republic to start four extensions of Covenant Life University or as stated in Spanish - Pacto De Vida Universidad.

There is always a surprise waiting on you when you venture into the other lands. On Monday the surprise this time was that my host would be out of town Tuesday and Wednesday in Haiti where he is in the process of building a building for a ministry to the children of the city. AND!!! (There can always be an “and”.)

If you remember the last time I was here, someone stole the power line to the house where I stayed. This time they must have stolen the water line to the bathroom. Why? No water in the bathroom at all! So it means that to shower you use a container and pour water over your body, then soap up and again pour water over you to rinse off. Sounds rough but in one way it was better than having the water shoot out from the pipe in the wall with all of it’s coldness. Why is it better? Well the water had been in the bucket over-night and so it had come to room temperature and therefore wasn’t so bad.

Well, since Pastor Chavez had to be out of town, I was placed in the home of a friend of his who speaks at the best, a little better English than I do Spanish. Oh, I did have an interpreter yesterday when we met with two pastors – well that is with the first one, although the pastor does speak English. Last night’s meeting was okay because the Pastor is fluent in English.

I knew these brothers from the Spanish Conference of the SonShine Network Ministries (International Pentecostal Holiness). They are great pastors. Johnnie Martinez has a church in a tent. Not just “a tent” but an air-conditioned tent seating 750+ with seats like those we have in Ft. Myers. Their attendance at this location is about 1,000. He has a TV ministry that is broadcast on satellite four times. They have two services on Sunday morning then he travels about one hour to his second location where they have another tent and about 400 in attendance. He has a great vision for ministering to his country and raising up workers for the kingdom both as Kings (professionals) and as Priests (Pastors). I believe I will hear from him again.

Tuesday evening I met with Freddy Perez who holds his services in the coliseum in the boxing arena. They currently have about 2,000 in attendance. They were having their midweek prayer service and he asked me to meet him before the service at 7:00 pm. I did and we adjourned about 7:45 to the service. It was very interesting as well as powerful. They have an emphasis on deliverance. Believe me there is a big need for it in this country. He is the preacher of the hour on Sunday and his wife is the preacher on Tuesdays. There is no doubt about it – she is good and knows how to communicate with the people.

During the service he requested that I meet with both him and his wife after the service. The result: I will meet with them on Monday evening to go into details about putting an extension in their Church. So from four the number is now five!

My guest house - or better the house where I am staying is a clean house and Moises and his sister - I think - maybe another relative and his brother. His father lives in New York.

Hold everything! He just came into my room and typed the following on my computer then translated it for me using Babelfish: voy a ir a comprar algo para la gripe y me quedare jugando un poco de domino,si me necesitas llamame al celular – I am going to go to buy something for the influenza and it will be playing a little I dominate to me, if you need call to me to the cellular phone!

Did you read that word: “influenza!” I DID! So keep me in your prayers!

Back to the house - at least it has running water even though it is cold – and I found it is better to dip and pour even here. I will be here tonight and then back to the “Chavez Pad”

Tomorrow I have an 11:00 appointment to train three pastors on how to operate an extension of Pacto De Vida. And hopefully to find out more about the schedule I face.

So until you read – and I am not sure when – because I have a great difficulty getting on-line at the “pad” .....

God Bless,

Dr D