Parents! Our third ministry day was eventful, exciting, and kinda crazy! Here is how our day went:

We woke up in the morning for breakfast, and it was POURING rain. Your prayers worked, though, and the rain stopped almost immediately after breakfast… praise God! Something about the Dominican Republic, though, is that its roads are mainly dirt and gravel, and the rain really messes up transportation. With that being said, many of our sites could not accommodate our buses, and many of the schools were closed due to rain! (It is funny — many of us now understand how northerners feel when schools get canceled in Georgia during a light dusting of “snow” — Ha!)

Your students were joyfully flexible. That is what we have been saying all week. They took on the challenge ahead and really adapted well to their new circumstances. Many of them had to step outside of their comfort zone in these new places because we all had no idea what to expect from some of these new ministry sites! You would be so proud of how they handled the situation. They pivoted, and many performed skits and elements of their VBS at their new sites. At one sports site, many of your students recruited some Dominican teenagers to play basketball with them in order to build relationships. It was so sweet to see that after the game (which the Dominicans won in a landslide), the teenagers were really engaged with the Gospel presentation and sharing of testimonies. We hear story after story in the leader meetings each night of students who share the Gospel and their testimony for the first time. Praise God! He is moving their hearts toward Him, and their view of God’s mission has expanded tenfold.

We ended the evening with a powerful night of worship. Dylan challenged the students with this question: “What has a hold of your heart?” The students wrote down on notecards their answer and held it in their hands for the entire message. They really felt the weight of what was keeping them from fully giving their hearts to Jesus. Then, Dylan called those who wanted to make Christ the center of their lives for the first time the opportunity to nail that notecard to the cross. Praise God, 8 students surrendered completely to the Lord and gave their lives to Christ! Then, one by one, each student nailed their idols to the cross. It was a powerful moment, and I wish you could have been there to hear the hammering for 20 minutes straight. We have chills even now remembering the finality of the nails going into the cross. “It is finished,” says our Christ!

Join us in prayer tonight as our students unpack their final ministry day and prepare to come home changed and on fire for the Lord!