The Barnabas Foundation...

It is hard to believe that 2008 is just around the corner. I plan on having some friends over for dinner tonight and then we will watch the fireworks display at the monument. It should be a wild experience!  I wish you all a great year end and a new year full of the abundant life God wants to give you in 2008.

This past year has been full of great experiences and accomplishments, and also has had its fair share of disappointments.  And sometimes, it is hard to know what I should consider a disappointment and what I should consider an accomplishment. Paul says that we should always build on a firm foundation, Jesus Christ being the only true foundation, and that what we each of us has built will be tested at the day of judgment and only that which is true and right will endure (I Corinthians 3:9-15).  I pray often that my "work" will endure, and yet sometimes people fail us and fall away.  Those I have led into the Kingdom turn back or fall into sin.  What do I do when that happens? 

These past few weeks have caused me to ponder greatly this Biblical principal. I discovered in the midst of TS Olga that one of my key leaders had been dishonest with me about his family life and I had to remove him from leadership- basically cutting off my own right hand! (There is something in the Bible about that too!)  Even more disappointing is that he has yet to be honest with me about the situation.  And then another man I counted on as a leader slipped back into alcohol- after over 10 years of sobriety! The church members share with me that when they see him drunk, it makes them cry.  So it has been a tough few weeks causing me to wonder about what I am building.  And yet, after the initial shock and disappointment, I began to see how God has been working in all of this. My prayer for years has been to see the Gospel penetrate the darkness of the barrios. Those of you who have been here and been in these "holes" know first hand that sin has free reign.  What I didn't realize is that because of the "law of the barrio" (basically covering over the sins of another) sin also had its place in the church! I realize now what an act of courage and what an important decision to speak the truth in love has taken place, as the church members themselves have finally told me the truth.  (When I have investigated various rumors previously, they all joined the guilty one in denying it- they were afraid to speak the truth and have a new enemy!)  And you know what? After wondering if I was going to have to close down the church, yesterday we had the church completely full, and Saturday we had 49 children present in SS!  That is despite the fact that one of the ladies affected by my decision has been actively campaining for people NOT to go to our church.  AND my friend and former right hand man was present in church Sunday! Please pray for a revival to break out in this community and for the Gospel to continue to break through the bondage of sin.  As hard as it was to look my friend in the face and tell him I couldn't accept his lie and remove him from leadership, I know it was the Biblical thing to do- and I am seeing how God is blessing that.  I am more sure of this: God's work has to be done God's way- we can't take shortcuts and we can't pick and choose what we will obey and what we will not, and we can't shrink back when it is hard.   I thought I would lose all I had worked for, but I have seen just the opposite- by finally removing this sinful practice from our leadership team, we are seeing growth.

One of our highlights this year was the constuction of a little church in Guayacanal- what I have loved about this project is every group that comes has had a hand in building it. We had a strong ministry going, with 8 adults accepting Christ and awaiting baptism. And then began the rains and our presence out there became sporadic due to the rain and mud.  We still have our core little group but I have been somewhat discouraged about its viability and future growth. And then we discovered that there is a new community leadership council (we have offered them use of our building for their meetings) and they have expressed interest in participating in our Bible studies. And then yesterday I learned that the government is in the process of buying up the land around this little community to relocate those who lost homes in TS Olga! And part of that will also involve relocating the Hole to an area out there (where we would receive two new lots because of our owning two lots in the Hole: the church and the BB court). All of a sudden, we find ourselves with a church building, a small nucleus of believers in an area that will see incredible growth!  Plus if they really do relocate the Hole out there, we will have a substancial little congregation to help evangelize and disciple these folks. 

As you can see, I have learned that sometimes disappointments can turn into good things (Romans 8:28).  As we close this year and begin 2008, I want to first thankyou for your prayers and support for our ministry. Please continue to pray for us in this new year as we move forward, pray for restoration, for a cleansing from sinful practices, for a softening of hearts to respond in faith to Jesus' invitation to the abundant life, for our churches to experience revival and be instruments God will use to penetrate the darkness of their respective communities. 

I don't know all that 2008 holds for us- I know we will launch the Barnabas Foundation, we will work in human needs development projects like water purification and disaster relief, I know at least 6 volunteer teams are coming this year to partner with us, and I know that just before Labor Day I will be back in the States for 5 months of stateside assignment.  What God will do in and through all these ministries only He knows- let's pray together we will be faithful and obedient and let Him do "His thing" through us.

Happy New Year!

I took a break from the computer the past few days.  I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas celebration wherever and with whomever you shared it!  It was a rather subdued Christmas celebration here in Santiago; it is hard to get too excited when there is so much destruction still around.  (While I am sorry for the storm's damage, I am thankful for the "quieter" Christmas!) 

Saturday was another busy day- we prepared the children's Christmas gifts (most of them got toy cell phones along with a new pair of undies, toothbrush and a 30 day supply of vitamins!)  Then we packed 50 food baskets.  That tool most of the day and then I had to rush over to the Hole for the Children's Christmas celebration- it was a good time for them. I was amazed at how many couldn't associate Christmas with Jesus' birth. Unfortunately, on Sunday in the adult service, I discovered they also didn't seem to be aware of the reason for the season!

Sunday was a whirlwind with 4 worship services! We gave out our food baskets (with a few left over for Monday).  I got home just in time to see the last half of the Patriots game- good outcome!  I was pleased with our worship experiences on Sunday.  It is always good to be together and remember and celebrate such important highlights of our faith. 

Monday I had plans to cook a turkey and have friends over. However, i woke up with an awful sore throat that was infected. I felt horrible and got started on some antibiotics which helped me feel well enough to deliver the rest of my food baskets that afternoon but that was it. Tuesday I was equally under the weather and spent the day on the couch!  The one good thing about being sick on Christmas is the fact I actually had the time to be sick!! I did enjoy the rest and today have been feeling a little better and have done some errands.

Tomorrow we will start back with Disaster relief plans- we hope to have 3 medical clinics and will buy as many beds and table top stoves as we can. I have a meeting at 9am with our pastors to finalize plans and hopefully by Saturday we will have finished up this phase of our disaster relief efforts.

I appreciate your prayers and your friendship- you make the difficult days of being a missionary a little easier!

Well, not really baskets, but bags. That is how many we prepared today in a matter of 4 hours- we had about 20 church members from 3 different churches working together.  It was really a fun experience.  Each bag contains:

10 pounds of rice
1 pound of beans
1 pound of sugar
1/2 pound garlic
1 pound spaghetti
1 can spaghetti sauce
1 can sardines
1 bottle oil
2 packs of coco mix
1 evangelistic tract written just for the occasion

That's right: we bought and packed 3500 pounds of rice, 375 pounds of sugar, 400 pounds of beans, and 100 pounds of garlic along with all the other goodies.  It was quite an effort.  Remember, these are Baptist Relief Funds at work.

Those bags will be distributed to families in need as a result of the storm damage. Each church is taking a sector of the city and bringing aid to that group of people- we want to help but we also want to share the message of God's love. 

We have made almost 120 sheets today and will make another 120-150 tomorrow. That is another whole enterprise!! We will be giving those to families as well.

Current death toll from storm: 33 (31 here in Santiago alone) and 48 still unaccounted for, there are 67,000 families out of homes, either in help centers or staying with friends and family.  As I have shared before, during times like these, there are a lot of people who look to take advantage of the situation. For instance, before the storm, one community had 300 families- now there are 600 who say they live there- they have come from other parts of the country!!  Pray that our aid will get to the people who need it most and they will feel the love with which we give it.

I FINALLY made it to Santo Domingo to get my passport in for renewal- I have been trying for weeks! It expires in January so I was getting nervous. We had a good day- visiting as we drove. I also got one of my Dominican documents replaced (one that was stolen when my car was broken into.)

Sunday's service went well- we had a group of young people from our 1st Baptist church singing, Pastor Ortiz spoke and prayed for his community, as did Pedro Juan. Rafael from Los Ciruelitos had the main message.  It was a collective effort! Today a church from the capital is coming with a truck load of stuff to give out to the people in La Joya so keep those efforts in your prayers.

Tomorrow we are hosting a medical clinic in an area called Rafey- it is one of the worst hit areas.  Pray for those efforts as well as later clinics. We won't be doing one in the Hole or Los Santos- yesterday they had a government mobile unit there all day! We will help those communities with different help- what a blessing!

Pilar and I are on our way to buy about $2500 worth of unprepared food- we will be organizing volunteers from our churches to get it packed into bags to distribute to families- I will let you know how many pounds of rice, etc later. I am sure the numbers will be staggering!

Yesterday we bought $500 worth of material and are in the process of making over 200 sheets for distribution. Sol and Mecho are heading up this effort. It was so fun last night when I told Mecho- she was so excited to be able to do something to help- my guess is she worked all night sewing!!

You can see your relief dollars hard at work!  Thanks for your support in so many different ways. I met a Calafornia guy Sunday at the service in La Joya- he is a member of a different denomination in the States but has been attending services at one of our churches here. His comment is "You Baptist have really stayed trued to evangelism and misions. it is impressive." Indeed it is. More later....

For once the sun was out almost all day. Our service went very well today- we had a great turnout from our 8 churches here in the city. The Timothy Project folks were there in good number- we had about 40.  I would guess from the churches we had 250ish or more. We served 700 plates of food- it was a great opportunity to share this with the community. Many people commented on how special it was to see the whole neighborhood eating! 

I will share another update later- tomorrow early I am heading to the capital to get my passport renewed. That will probably keep me busy most of the day. I have a carload of ladies going with me so it should be an interesting day. Several of our folks are really going through some tough times so a break from the routine will be good for all of us.

Thanks for your prayers today, and please pray for these next days as we continue to minister to our neighbors who have lost so much.

I thought of starting this off telling you about the weather conditions but since they haven't changed in days (rain with intermittent glimpses of the sun) I decided to leave that out.

Plans are formulating for our culto unido- all of our churches (or at least delegations from each church) will worship together in La Joya. I am hopeful that it will make a positive impact for the ministry of our church there as well as be a blessing for us to be together after such a tragedy.  Rather than cook for 700 people, we were able to negotiate a good price to buy the food already made. That relieves an enormous amount of stress and will permit us to focus on our reason for being together- to worship God and to share His love with a hurting community.  As you worship tomorrow, pray for our Baptist family that will gather together- (9:30am ET).

Things in Santiago are in recovery mode. As you can probably imagine, the process isn't always fair- some people get lots of help and some none. People who didn't even have effects from the storm manage to jump in and take some of the relief aid.  The thieves have been busy- during the hours before the storm, when people were heeding warnings to evacuate, the thieves were heading in to rob people and stores.  It is a mess in every way. 

One of our pastors wrote a brief message, We still celebrate Christmas, dealing with how to truly celebrate this amazing historical event despite living through difficult days.  It is being printed and will begin to be distributed next week.  It is an important message- pray for receptive hearts.

One additional little comment: I shared with you about the relief funds of the SBC. I should have reminded you that 100% of money given to that fund goes directly to either hunger and/or disaster relief. (I think you can decide which.) Administrative costs are handled from other budgets.  I think that if some big disaster arises, like the sunami, etc. you can designate the funds you give to go to a certain disaster or relief project.  In my particular case, I don't think you need to do that. I have had all the financial support I need.  The beauty of the cooperative spirit- working together, pooling our resources, trusting our leaders to administer it in a just and appropriate way, we have funds available for each emergency that arises. So, once again, thanks for your support as SBC churches, and keep on the faithful giving!

A word of congratulations to Mill Creek in Fincastle, VA- their children led the church to raise over $1000 for the world hunger offering last October.  Now you know a particular ministry that was helped by those gifts!!

I want to make you aware that as Southern Baptists, your support of the Cooperative Program, Lottie Moon and also Relief funds make a huge impact on our work. The relief efforts that I described in my earlier blog will be funded in great part by these disaster funds.  Thanks for your support of the Hunger Relief fund- they are making a difference!

I am close to having official approval for 2 seperate projects using these funds. One is the water purification systems- I have asked for enough funds to place 10 units around the country. And we already have some volunteer groups lined up to do the work!  Also, we are close to receiving approval for funding for the Barnabas Foundation and the whole microcredit endeavor. 

So as you can see, your giving through SBC channels makes a big impact not only here in the DR but in all areas of the world. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

The rain has let up significantly- we had some scattered rains but we also saw the sun for the first time in days.  Clean-up is underway- I can't begin to describe the mess in Santiago!  In Los Santos, Sol surveyed nearly 50 people who were flooded, and 13 in a nearby barrio, the Hole has probably at least 75 families affected, seeking refuge elsewhere. When I talked to Victor just now, he had just finished cleaning up the church- the mud was waist deep!

In La Joya, the church is now clean. They lost everything- sound system, generator, etc. The mud was up waist high as well.  The whole community is in clean-up phase- it looks a lot better than yesterday but they have a long way to go.

We had a meeting this afternoon with our pastors to make plans for disaster relief. It was a great meeting and I ask you to pray that this project will be the beginning of a renewal of working together to reach the city.  Each of us has assignments to do community assessments for the areas most affected and Sunday we will meet together to establish priorities and formalize a plan. 

This Sunday all of our churches are going to worship in La Joya and then serve food to the community. Pray for our kitchen crews as they prepare 700+ meals! More importantly, pray for our witness in the community during this time of crisis and frustration, that they will find real peace and lasting joy in Christ.

Below is the latest from AP on the disaster..

 

SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - Survivors of a devastating flood lashed out at authorities Thursday for not warning that a dam's floodgates were being opened during Tropical Storm Olga, unleashing a deadly wall of water that killed as many as 20 people.

President Leonel Fernandez, who promised aid while touring the area to view the destruction, did not comment on the decision to rapidly release the water. He blamed global warming for the rare December storm with torrential rains.

The death toll stood at 25 across the Caribbean, including two other deaths in the Dominican Republic, two in northern Haiti and one in Puerto Rico.

As Olga began lashing the Dominican Republic with rain Tuesday, officials slowly released water from the Tavera Dam into the Yaque River, Octavio Rodriguez, a member of the committee that oversees dams during emergencies, told The Associated Press.

(AP) A woman sits on the stairs of her home that was destroyed by floodwaters caused by Tropical Storm... Full Image

But fearing a dam failure that could kill thousands in Santiago, the country's second-largest city, the panel decided around 11 p.m. Tuesday to open all six floodgates an hour later, gushing 1.6 million gallons of water every second into the river.

The late-night decision gave authorities too little time to warn people living downriver - many of them already in bed.

Police and local officials took to the streets as midnight approached to warn that a devastating flood was on its way. But many people said they had just 15 minutes - or less - to flee before a wave of water 66-feet deep slammed into their homes.

"They warned us but there was no time ... everybody was sleeping," said 50-year-old Sonia Duran Maldonado, her voice shaking. "They must beg our forgiveness for what has happened."

On Thursday, dazed residents wandered through muddy wreckage that used to be a neighborhood.

(AP) A child sits in the rubble of his home that was destroyed by Tropical Storm Olga in Santiago de los... Full Image

A woman sat on the front steps to her house - stairs rising to emptiness where the structure had stood. On another street, the back of an SUV was snagged in a second-floor window of an apartment building after being tossed there by the raging water.

Orlando Franco, a senior engineering professor at Santiago's Pontifica Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra, said authorities released too much water and failed to have an effective alarm system in place.

"If there was a proper alarm system, this would not have happened. There would not have been a single death," Franco said.

Rodriguez, the dam committee member, said the panel was aware of the danger but was forced to release the water to avoid a collapse of the dam as rapidly accumulating water built up pressure behind it.

"We knew the damage we were going to cause below. We did not want to, but we had to," he said.

(AP) A man climbs through the rubble of his home that was destroyed by Tropical Storm Olga in Santiago... Full Image

Olga weakened to a tropical depression and began to break apart as it moved west toward Cuba on Thursday, continuing to drop rain from outer bands over that island and the Bahamas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported.

Dominican emergency authorities searched for the dead in Santiago province, where at least 20 fatalities were confirmed. Homes were filled with mud and people looted some residences looking for food or supplies.

The storm displaced more than 34,000 people and damaged more than 7,500 houses, Dominican officials reported.

An elderly woman and a 3-year-old boy were killed in northern Haiti, where poor infrastructure could delay reporting on the storm's aftermath for days, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of Haiti's civil protection department.

As you saw in my earlier blog, La Joya was one of four communties completely flooded. (The Hole was flooded too but they are used to it and were prepared.) La Joya doesn't usually get flooded, after all, they are pretty far from the river. But this was incredible.

I just talked to Ingrid, Pastor Ramon's wife, and found out that one of their elderly members was killed. Rafaela was swept away in the water in the middle of the night and her body was recovered miles away. (For those who have worked there, she is the older, wrinkly lady.) Her grandson is still missing. Please remember the people of La Joya and especially our church folks as all of them sustained significant loses, and especially as they grive the loss of their sister in Christ.  

The Hole is experiencing difficulties as well- please keep all of Santiago in your prayers. Pray for wisdom of our leaders as they make decisions abotu the dam. They are talking about opening it again- it is over capacity and they have to balance the need to keep it from breaking and protecting the folks downstream.  They are calling for rain on into Friday. We have had significant rain all day today which is hampering rescue efforts and clean-up.