Every Sunday, seven of our Dominican Rising team load into a yellow taxi van and make the hour long trip to Cativo. The road winds through rice fields and brushes up against the foothills of the Cordillera Central, and everywhere is green. Cativo is the last town on this particular road and to go farther into the mountains means you leave your vehicle behind and use your feet to cross rivers and climb the steep hills. There are homes and families back there on those dirt paths that lead to the heart of the mountain range, but this Sunday we stay in town and visit new and old friends.
There is a festival happening, and many people are attending. Drums beat eerily in the background and somewhere down the road people worship saints and spirits, but at Maura's house we circle tight and read the Word and sing to Him who created all the beauty around us. There are new faces in the circle today. Two men who are fathers of children in the nutrition program have come, and they smile and listen and share. We pray for a young mother of two who has decided to pursue the Lord and read farming parables because these people are farmers and Jesus spoke their language.
A pot of rice steams over a fire and we serve food to hungry children and thankful adults. We eat and laugh, and I play airplane with my spoon and feed an enormous amount of rice, beans, and pork to two sweet girls who often share one plate of food with their five brothers and sisters. Today they eat their fill and all of us are fed, body and spirit.
After a long day of cooking, visiting, kids club, and cell group, I wash layers of mud off my oldest daughter and our team starts the trip back to San Juan. We watch the countryside roll by, talk about the day, laugh at all the funny things the kids were doing, and banter about which seven of the twelve of us will get to squeeze into the taxi and return next Sunday.
During the week our team prays. Ronnie talks with a local doctor who agrees to make the long trip just to see one little girl who has many medical needs, Miguel communicates with families in the States who have great love for the people of Cativo, Amilca ponders ways to help the kids with their reading skills, and I fill prescriptions at the pharmacy for blood pressure meds and parasite treatments.
Next Sunday we will load back into the taxi and make our way to what is becoming a second home to many of us. We would love your prayers for the ministry in Cativo and are so thankful to those of you who have taken a special interest in this town. Please continue to pray and we will continue to update all the great things happening there. Blessings and love to all.
If you haven't seen it yet, the Dominican Rising team just posted their major report on their time in Cuba. More personal stories to come, but it's a great overview with some great pictures. Check it out at http://dominicanrising.myadventures.org/
As many of you know
already, our life and ministry is 100% dependent on our partnerships with
churches, families, and individuals who believe in what GOD has placed in our
hearts. We are blessed to work under
Adventures In Missions, who has given us the space and covering to carry out
our passions. And we are blessed to have
such a faithful group of supporters. Honestly, it's humbling to recognize the calling laid on our lives -
that HE would entrust us to be a part of HIS Kingdom work is just astounding. I have been on the field full time since
April of 2003. That's getting dangerously close to 10 years, which makes me
feel uncomfortably aged... Many of our current supporters starting off back when I was a boy named Mike Shaul. During all of
those years, I can testify to HIS great faithfulness. Our needs to keep the family fed, our
ministries to many communities, have always been provided for by the
FATHER. At times, at the very last
minute and through unexpected sources, but nevertheless, HE has never, not come
through. It's an understood concept, but
we have seen HIS unwavering
faithfulnes
In August of this
year, my family took a month to reconnect with family and engage in a little
support raising. At that point, our
needs were consistently more than $1,000 short per month. More so, the ministry continued to grow. More communities, further away,
necessitates extra funding to reach them in a consistent maner. As the expenses were increasing, our funding
was decreasing. It looked like another
opportunity to see GOD's glory shine through...and it has!
As of last week, we
are all but there! In a little over
a month, GOD has moved in people's hearts to join in the work here. We have felt a wave of encouragement as
person after person tells us how the SPIRIT stirred up in them to be a part of
the movement. With an increase of only
$200 monthly, we will be at 100%! Once
again, we are humbled by how much HE believes in us - through you believing in
us.
If you are one of the
new members to our ministry, welcome on board! We are blessed to have you on the team, and look forward to how the LORD
is going to use both of us to advance HIS Kingdom here in the Dominican and
beyond. We are truly living in an
exciting time! If you are not currently
a part of the team and feel GOD nudging your heart, please let us know. What might GOD have in store for you?
To all of you who read
the blog, pray for our family, and fight alongside us for the Kingdom of Light
to fill this land - thank you! We see
GOD stirring up greatness in this little island nation. And it wouldn't be possible without your open
and obedient hearts. It's a pleasure chasing
HIS glory with you.
Just a quick update for those of you who have been following and praying for the Cuba team, they arrived back in San Juan safely and in good spirits. We are excited for a month long (if not longer) tour mobilizing more missionaries and casting the Dominican Rising vision to numerous churches around the island. There is a momentum that we want run with. And despite a long hard month, are team is ready to roll! For all of you praying for this group and their work in Cuba, we can't tell you enough how valuable you have been. There are so many stories to share. For the most part, those are going to be posted over on the dominican rising blog. Please check it out, and drop a comment to encourage the team. Most everyone speaks english by now, so no worries about the language. Thanks everyone!
I just got off the
phone with Ronnie, who arrived safely and without incident to Cuba. He is now together with the team and
strategizing on the best way to get them back home. Also, he is to connect with the pastor we have been
working with. Since the restrictions
were put in place, the team has not been able to find out how the church is
doing. But since those restrictions were
not applied to him... we hope Ronnie can
find that out for us. In the meantime, I
am told the team is doing extremely well. They remain encouraged, in high spirits, and informally ministering near
their hostel. I believe the stretching
has cultivated a fertile ground in which to each has grown personally. There has not been any further pressure from
the government.
As they team arrives
back in the Dominican, they will have a several-day debrief with us before
settling back in. I've learned you need
to digest the goods before you get back into the routine of life. And beginning next week, we'll be launching a
month long vision-casting tour around the country speaking at many different
churches. This trip to Cuba is a great
platform in which to call the church to get more involved in reaching the
nations. I'm excited for more prayers,
givers, and goers!
Please pray for the
following:
opportunity for Ronnie
to connect with the pastors and church leadership in Cuba
safe departure for the
Cuba team
in every area the
matured , that irremovable roots would be established
wisdom, favor, and
open doors to clearly community the Dominican Rising vision to the national
church
I'd love to count on
you guys in praying with us for the team in Cuba right now. Up until today,
the team has had a solid and uninterrupted time sharing the gospel in the different
communities. But I just got word that
they were contacted by the government and told they were prohibited from having
any contact with the church.No daily
outings with the local missionaries, no fellowship in church services, nothing to
do with the church at all.Not sure yet
the tone of that communication or what it all implies.But, it's a bit of a blow.We are thankful for the 16 days they have
been able to share, but I struggle to see the team limited like that. However, the real concern is that any un-necessary
and harmful attention given to the church and the leadership.We need to pray protection for our brothers
in Cuba.Our Dominican son in the LORD
will be heading over there on Sunday to wrap up their time and bring them
home.But in the meantime I ask you
please pray that the LORD keeps the church safe and unhindered.Also, pray that our team can finish their time
there led by the SPIRIT; encouraged and emboldened by HIS strength.A little extra covering would be helpful
right now.And we count on you to join
us to do just that.
Today we'll
continue to talk about the Dominican Rising vision. Being a visionary myself,
my challenge is always how do we implement? What are the nuts and bolts? Thankfully,
I've had some great coaches along the way in both Seth Barnes and Scott Borg. Here are a few pieces of the puzzle.
First, we work together
with the local church. Our ministry is
not independent of local leadership, but interdependent with them. We communicate the vision with church leaders
and let them know up front we are not here to replace them, or take their
people. We minister in conjunction and
in agreement with their authority. The
local churches provide us the space to cast vision, are vital in the selection
process of who has the maturity and the calling to begin training, and in discipling them along the way. Students must remain active in serving their
local congregation on top of working with our ministry. And they need to remain in good standing with
their church leadership. We will not
send anyone, anywhere without the blessing of their spiritual authorities. Finally, we ask the church to partner with us
in prayer and in financially supporting the mission trips.
Our number one goal
with Dominican Rising is discipleship. We want to see these guys transformed into true CHRIST followers who live
out the character of the Risen LORD. More than knowledge and more than ministry abilities, we purse the
internal work of becoming who we were made to be. Discipleship takes time. After three years with the MASTER, spending
all day, everyday with HIM, the first disciples were still a pretty rag-tag
group of guys. Three years equals about
25,000 hours, so we push for A LOT of face time!
Once we have a discipleship relationship
going, we move into developing a handful of ministry skills. These include evangelism, intercession, spiritual
warfare, disciple-making, and teaching new believers. The
end goal is to have a group of disciples who are able to move into an
un-reached community and plant a house church (picture at left). Our gang is out in the community at least three times a week living out
the classroom. We partner with existing
churches who are planting in new areas coming alongside that work. It is very important to us that there is a
long-term plan anywhere we work.
We pursue
community. By studying together, praying
together, ministering together, and eating together, we mesh into a family. A safe place to be real and belong to a
movement is one way to interpret how the church did life in Acts 2.
About every 6
months we send the team out on a short-term mission trip. Each consecutive trip increases in duration and
cross-cultural challenges, moving them closer to being sent out long-term to an
unreached nation.
Everything the
students learn, every way they become more like CHRIST, is to be in-turn passed
on to others. Paul did this with Timothy. "The things which you have heard
from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will
be able to teach others also." (2 Tim 2:2). We believe in the model of replication. After the students are a part of the ministry for awhile, they begin to
disciple others.
Finally, I am a
firm believer that not only is the LORD calling the Dominican to be a sending
nation, but HE is going to provide from this very land the resources to fund the
missionary work. Many churches from developing
nations still have a poverty mindset (oftentimes learned from unhealthy
partnership with western churches) that does not trust in the FATHER's
provision on a large scale. "We can have
a calling, but unless someone else pays for it, we cannot live it out." I hear it all the time. But I just don't see that anywhere in the Bible. To brake that deceptive mold we have started up several Kingdom
Business', which are small business where 100% of the profits are invested in sending
Dominicans. It's micro, it's low
overhead, it's low volume, but so far every Dominican Rising ministry has been
fully funded by these local businesses. And people are taking notice. The church is seeing HIS favor, blessing, and
provision when we trust in HIM. There is
a team in Cuba planting churches for a month through these small businesses.
We are learning as we go, depending on HIS leading. There has been a lot of fruit since we starting with Ronnie five years ago. And we are confident in the one day fulfillment of HIS calling on our lives. Thank you for being a part of this vision through your financial support of my family, and most importantly, through your prayers.
Since returning back
from launching our team in Cuba, I have been taking the time to re-evaluate our
life here in the DR. I ask myself some hard questions; are we being the
best stewards of all we have been given? Are we being faithful? Are we focused? Or have we become distracted from what HE
called us to? Too often I find we get sidetracked by a bunch of 'good'
stuff, and miss out honing in on HIS perfect will for our lives. I'm a
firm believer that a life lived focused on carrying out HIS will, can make a
significant impact on the Kingdom. When
I am heaving my final breathes, I'd love to know I pursued just that.
In my several-day
quest for clarity, I realized that our blog looks a little like our life does
at times. Sporadic stories of good stuff,
but where is it all pointing to? What
are we really trying to accomplish? I
haven't communicated that well enough with you.
So I want to take a
little time and share with you more specially about the vision GOD has laid on
our lives. Not to get too compartmentalized,
but I must admit, my personality is one that greatly benefits from a little
structure.
We'll begin with our
call to raise up a missionary force from the Dominican nation. It was 2004 when the LORD spoke in a
dream. HE showed me thousands and
thousands of Disciples being sent out of this island and into the nations
(people groups) who have yet to hear the gospel. It was a beautiful image. My Dominican brothers and sisters were shinning
like stars as they brought Light to all corners of the globe. I believe that before I die, I will see the
Dominican Republic become the largest sending nation per capita in the entire
western hemisphere, you could call it my Simeon (Luke 2). Currently, South Korea is wining that
race! There is a powerful grasping and
infusing of the FATHER's inheritance when we take up the call to GO, and I am convinced that spiritual
maturity will explode in this land when the church clings to HIS passion for
the Great Commission. In GOD's economy
when you give away the Kingdom, it grows even greater in yourself.
We've dubbed this
vision Dominican Rising (Amanece Dominicano in Spanish). Amanecer means 'sunrise' - the Sunrise of the
Dominican to shine HIS glory over the world. Pslam 19:4-6 states:
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his
chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with
joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heaves,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
(ESV)
We see GOD doing
this all around us. Many churches are
catching the heartbeat of GOD for all nations to hear HIS gospel. Already we have sent Dominicans to Haiti,
Peru, Cuba, and even to muslim Arabs immigrating to New Jersey! I talk to followers of CHRIST on a weekly
basis whom hear GOD calling them to Africa, Asia, the middle east, and beyond. There is a movement afoot. And it's just the beginning...
Next time, I want
to go into the guts of the thing, how we are working to implement the vision,
and what we are actually doing to carry this out. But I think this blog is long enough, so we'll leave for la proxima.
The team is off and
running! Although our first point of contact at the airport was far from
a warm welcome (3 hours of intense "interviewing") we quickly
discovered the average islander does not treat you as an immigration agent does. The LORD miraculously got us through the
process without endangering ourselves, or more importantly, our local contact. Paperwork that would have given exact
detail of where and with whom we were to work literally disappeared from my
folder as they went through my backpack... and literally reappeared as soon as
they handed it back to me! The
supernatural was at work. We had been
praying for closed eyes when needed, and GOD answered our prayers.
After 6 hours of
travel over the lush countryside, we arrived at one of the least reached
provinces on the island. Our host
ministry surpassed my expectations. The
team is well setup in Villa Clara, with a solid ministry plan and energy to
join up with the existing team of Cuban missionaries. As I said before, they will be hitting over
40 communities, leaving around 6:30 in the morning and often not returning
until 7:00 at night. With no lunch or
dinner plans available, that makes for one long day on a pre-dawn
breakfast!
I am able to get
reports from the team and will be posting on this site in English, and on our
Dominican Rising site en espanol. Hopefully
we can get an update posted weekly.Thanks for praying for our team.
In the meantime, here
are prayer requests petitioned by the head of the regional missions work in
Cuba:
- Pray for the leaders
in front of each mission
-Communities that have
been under-served due to lack of adequate finances
-More laborers (both
evangelistic and pastoral)
-Pray for the funding
of all the missions work. Without the
freedom to earn much income or start private business, the local church is
heavily dependent on donations made by the global church.
-Pray for meeting
space in the different communities; as of now, nearly all gatherings are held
in small houses that often don't have enough space.
-For the strength to
continue getting to and reaching more communities
My time with the
pastors and leaders in Cuba left me extremely excited for future Dominican involvement
in the movement there. I can't wait to
report in again on how the LORD is moving in the islands!
If you haven't seen it yet, the Dominican Rising team just posted their major report on their time in Cuba. More personal stories to come, but it's a great overview with some great pictures. Check it out at 
In August of this
year, my family took a month to reconnect with family and engage in a little
support raising. At that point, our
needs were consistently more than $1,000 short per month. More so, the ministry continued to grow. More communities, further away,
necessitates extra funding to reach them in a consistent maner. As the expenses were increasing, our funding
was decreasing. It looked like another
opportunity to see GOD's glory shine through...and it has!
Just a quick update for those of you who have been following and praying for the Cuba team, they arrived back in San Juan safely and in good spirits. We are excited for a month long (if not longer) tour mobilizing more missionaries and casting the Dominican Rising vision to numerous churches around the island. There is a momentum that we want run with. And despite a long hard month, are team is ready to roll! For all of you praying for this group and their work in Cuba, we can't tell you enough how valuable you have been. There are so many stories to share. For the most part, those are going to be posted over on the 
Once we have a discipleship relationship
going, we move into developing a handful of ministry skills. These include evangelism, intercession, spiritual
warfare, disciple-making, and teaching new believers. The
end goal is to have a group of disciples who are able to move into an
un-reached community and plant a house church (picture at left). Our gang is out in the community at least three times a week living out
the classroom. We partner with existing
churches who are planting in new areas coming alongside that work. It is very important to us that there is a
long-term plan anywhere we work.
After 6 hours of
travel over the lush countryside, we arrived at one of the least reached
provinces on the island. Our host
ministry surpassed my expectations. The
team is well setup in Villa Clara, with a solid ministry plan and energy to
join up with the existing team of Cuban missionaries. As I said before, they will be hitting over
40 communities, leaving around 6:30 in the morning and often not returning
until 7:00 at night. With no lunch or
dinner plans available, that makes for one long day on a pre-dawn
breakfast!