The Barnabas Foundation...

"Planting churches and training leaders among the urban poor..." That is what you see at the top of this blog because that is what The Timothy Project is all about. Our IMB region states our purpose this way_: "We plant churches..." Why? Because I believe (and I guess I am not alone) that the church is God's chosen instrument to make Himself known among all the peoples.  The church is the bride of Christ, the body of Christ that puts feet and arms and tears and smiles to the message of God's love and salvation. (See previous blogs about what makes a church a church- March 10th or there abouts).

In Navarette, we have a very good Bible study going. People come regularly and are testifying that God is moving in them. However, our core group now are going to the Catholic church. It is a good thing that as they have been studying God's Word they have gone back to church.  They want to continue in our Bible study and their Catholic heritage which is fine, except we plant new Baptist churches. (Sol was frustrated with them because they are so reluctant to follow Christ in believer's baptism yet I reminded her I worked and waited patiently for 2 years with her!)  For now, it looks like our core group will not be those with whom we can plant a church. SO my prayer is that during this next week of community wide we will find people who are seeking the Lord, widening our core group, so we can continue working towards planting a new church.  And I also pray that God will guide us and give us His wisdom: my sense of timing may not be His.  I worked for 2 years with Sol; had I given up because she didn't come around sooner, what a tragedy it would have been!  And yet, we are about planting churches not just doing Bible studies BECAUSE the church is God's chosen agent of transformation. 

Please pray for this community and our core group and for new folks to become part of our core: those folks and that community are precious to us whether or not we ever plant a Baptist church there or not!

It has been another crazy day, complete with rain and mud for the 13th straight day!  There are always lots of details to work out just before a volunteer team arrives and this week is no exception. I am getting nervous about the construction project- the rain has been anything but friendly to our efforts! However, the guys that will benefit from the bridge waited to the last minute to get started so if we can't do it, maybe it will serve as a good lesson for them!  Victor is going to check on things in the morning but I can tell by the rain outside my window that we probably won't be able to work on the edge of the river! While I am a little anxious because our plans aren't set which means the materials aren't bought and ready for them to get a quick start on Monday, I also know there isn't much I can do about it so in that sense, I am at peace. I am confident whatever we do we will look back and know it was the best, better than what we had planned.

Today, we gave almost 100 hygiene kits to the Civil Defense volunteers along with 2000 Hall's cough drops (they serve as candy here!  Starting Thursday a large number of volunteers will be camping out in various places around the region to help keep people safe.  My prayer for them is for their safety and as we continue to relate and share with them that they will glimpse a larger purpose to their lives, the abundant life God has prepared for them.

The team from Lexington leaves tomorrow and will travel almost all day and night, arriving here at 3:30am Saturday morning.  Our ministry plans are coming together really well- they will be ministering in Navarrette, Guayacanal and The Hole and Los Santos, focusing on reaching teenagers.  They will work in four teams, one doing construction (which is up in the air due to the rain) and one will be doing sports evangelism in the Hole, and the other two will be prayer walking, visiting with teenagers and sharing what it means to follow Christ.  In the evenings, we will have special youth worship services.  Please continue to pray for them as they travel and as they minister here among our folks.

I met a young man in Los Santos this afternoon- he knew me from the church even though I didn't know him.  Something about our encounter has stayed with me- he was asking for assistance but not hte nroaml plea for money. He wanted me to walk with him to the little store and buy him some food for dinner which I did happily. But the encounter has stayed in my heart- partly that he knew me and our leaders as people of God and saw us as beacons of light (his own words) calling them to a different path, partly because I have been praying hard for the young people of that sector especially for the project this coming week, partly because of his earnestness. I reminded him that his purpose rests in knowing and serving God, and invited him to join us as he seeks God- pray with me for him, that he will remember this small act of kindness done in Jesus' name and seek him with his whole heart.

I am so thankful for many of you (including churches) who have so generously sent special gift monies to be used in our ministry. As I have shared many times, I do my best to make sure those dollars are used in such a way as to glorify God and expand His kingdom. Felix's (our woodworker) wife has been awaiting surgery for nearly a year. Somehow it escaped my attention but last week Victor told me she was really suffering and their economic situation is still so perilous. With special gift money, I was able to get her moving on having the surgery. When I went to see her today, it was going to be about $125 more than they had told me (her condition has worsened and quite a bit of time has past since the doctor gave her the price). She was embarrased to tell me about the additional cost and had scheduled the surgery for next Monday, hoping that money would appear somehow. I kind of freaked out because I didn't want her in the hospital when we had a group here, especially since we have two teams working in her sector! She had told me he had suggested tomorrow but she said no because she didn't know if she would have the extra money. So, I got right on the phone with her doctor and we got her scheduled for tomorrow morning at 7am. She was beaming when I left (not that she wants the surgery but better to just do it and not think about it until next Monday!).

Please keep Ramona in your prayers early tomorrow as she goes for her surgery. (I don't know the whole deal but it is some sort of female surgery.)  And continue to keep Felix in your prayers as he struggles to get his business producing more revenue. he is on the right track but it takes a lot of perseverance. And thanks to all of you for allowing me to serve as your missionary here in the DR, and being able to be a channel of grace to people in need.

It has been a wild sort of week. Monday was so frustrating- everything we tried to do took twice as long as we expected or we couldn't do it at all. The rain continues to complicate everything. To top things off on Monday, we were going to head out quickly to Guayacanal and get the papers to the new lot and make sure things had been done as promised, when one of my tires blew out. As frequently happens, people appeared quickly to help and we were able to get going- but not to Guayacanal.  I didn't dare drive those roads with no spare!  So we headed to PriceSmart to see if I could get another tire in time to drive to Santo Domingo Tuesday, but naturally they didn't have the size I needed.  So, from there it was to the bus station to get my ticket for the next day.

Tuesday I left early for Santo Domingo via the bus for a meeting with our regional leader.  Just last week we learned out field supervisor is leaving to take a new position in Miami (still with our region). It is a blow to lose your leader, and then yesterday we found out our business manager is leaving too! He is taking an exciting new position of working with latinos going to the 10/40 window.  We are excited for both of these families, but disappointed to be losing their leadership here in the DR.

We also got word that our recently departed missionaries, John and Barbara Randolph, have gotten the news that she has breast cancer.  They are such good and dear friends and we were so disappointed to hear what she is facing during her stateside assignment.  They will be in the states this year and then head to Barbados to begin a new minsitry there. Please keep them in your prayers!

Today has been another day of errand after errand. But, thankfully, unlike Monday, I was able to get more done than I had hoped!  The new bathrooms here at the house are nearly finished. Tomorrow morning they will mount the doors and that will complete the job.  Amidst all the other running around I did today, I managed to buy a new refridgerator for the "industrial kitchen" that feeds our groups.  That was fun!

We finally got the guys motivated in the Hole to get started on the bridge construction. I was so humbled today as I went down to visit and take a look to be called by name by so many different people. And many of the young men were asking when we were going to show the Passion Movie- we had started to show it one night and had technical difficulty and had to postpone it.  Like I said, it really made me humble to realize that we have impacted their lives in Christ's name. I am praying for the day they will follow Christ!

I am working on a bad cold- I have been pumping all kinds of medicines and immune system boosters to avoid it. With our rainy and cool weather, everyone is getting sick but please pray with me that I won't be one of them- there is too much going on!

Remember, Lexington Baptist Church arrives this Saturday morning at 3:30am and will minister all week in our various ministry sites. One of their projects is building the bridge in the upper section of the Hole. Mill Creek folks- they are working on getting the truck chassis we used when you were here and bringing it down river to try again!

It may not sound like much to some of you, but we had an incredible rain storm yesterday. It just poured and poured and poured- usually a rain like that lasts about 30 minutes at the most but yesterday it lasted well over an hour. I watched the lake form at my driveway and just imagined what was happening in The Hole.

I heard that the water penetrated all the way to the club, getting in the church as well. They will be busy cleaning up this morning! I got a call at 11:30pm from José Luis in the Hole- he was cleaning the mud out of his home, thanking God he stilled had one!  He lives very close to the river on the back side; he called last night because he felt God had protected him during the storm and he wanted to let me know he was going to be in church today. (He has missed several SUndays due to work.) Pray this experience will help him establish his priorities in a healthy manner.

I shared at the Civil Defense this morning- they will have a busy few weeks ahead as they prepare for Easter Break. I am trying to find a way to minister to them as they serve their community- pray God will open our eyes to what we can do!

The days are counting down to the arrival of Lexington Baptist Church and as usual I am very excited and expectant, and also getting nervous! Pray for guidance today and tomorrow as we finalize our ministry plans/sites, and pray for John and Jenny Swindler and Chris Butler as they finalize plans on their end.

It has been a week full of rain! And with the rain comes lots and lots of mud! We weren't able to have our two bible studies in the missions (Guayacanal and Navarette) because we meet outside and the rain and mud were pretty big deterents. However, I still went and visited with various people in both places. I am concerned with several issues: one, our "principal" participants" have some very dififcult family issues to contend with, two, there is still quite a bit of fuzziness on their part as to what it means to put your faith in Jesus Christ and follow Him, three, for those that seem to grasp the Biblical invitation to salvation, there is a hesitancy to follow through with baptism. 

I am encouraged by the time to talk one on one with our folks, encouraged to get a clearer picture of where they are spiritually and emotionally, and at the same time, I am feeling pretty overwhelmed at how to help them sort all these issues out!  Thankfully, I have a clear understanding that it is God's Holy Spirit that will resolve these issues and not me which gives me peace of mind, and yet I know that God uses us as instruments in the lives of others to help them come to saving faith. Please pray for both the folks in Navarette and Guayacanal as they move toward the critical point of being baptized and beginning to form themselves into a church.

Several weeks back I was sure we were going to be able to purchase a lot out in Guayacanal for a modest sum- and then all of a sudden every available lot was over $1000. So then I thought that it wasn't meant to be- I continued to pray and ask God to direct the process. All of a sudden, today a lot presented itself on the main road, a good size, and for the amount we hoped to buy at (thus meeting all our criteria)! So tomorrow we have a meeting at 10:30am to finalize the deal! Please pray for all the parties involved that things would happen according to God's will.

Also, please continue to pray for several of our leaders who are dealing with very difficult and painful family issues.  It is painful to stand beside loved ones when they suffer and yet I thank God for the priviledge of being here with these folks and walking with them! Thanks for your support- through your emails and prayers!

The weekend was a blessing- the conference Saturday went well and we had a large participation.  It is encouraging to see people want to learn more about God's Word and how to be better ministers.  Not long after the group left Saturday, we had a tremendous downpour of rain- I was thankful for the rain because my yard was really needing it, and also so thankful for the TIMING of it- AFTER the 50 people left! 

Sunday was a fun day- I had the opportunity to share the message in one of our established churches in La Vega. It had been a while since I was there so it was fun to see old friends.  Also, the message of Esther seems to have hit them just where they needed it. 

In the afternoon, I was with our churches and it was also a good experience. I came home with a heavy heart, knowing the difficulties many of our members are facing at home.  It is a constant battle as you are all aware. Please keep our families here in your prayers, for peaceful homes and hearts.

Today, we are under construction here at the house. I have been given approval to build two bathrooms outside. This will be a tremendous help with our volunteer teams and also the many conferences hosted here. I found a good spot on the side of the house that shouldn't affect the yard much or change the look of the house- they will be tucked away in a little corner.  Let's hope the rain has passed so we can get this done this week! 

 Thanks for praying for our colleagues! here is what they reported this morning... 

Good afternoon! I am writing to tell you that I awoke this morning to three of our children telling me “We have a full tank!”, meaning overnight our tinaco filled with water. We needless to say were rejuvenated and happy to see the water. It is only at occasional trickles now but we are filling 5 gallon bottles with what does come out. We do thank you for your prayers on our behalf! We were encouraged and uplifted just to know so many were praying for us in our situation. Please pray that the water will continue to come.

Love in Christ,

All of the Flooks J