Trust in the Lord with all thine heart

AWESOME is the only word to describe the incredible work that has been done here this week. My heart is so full, and the presence of the Lord has been palpable here in Juan Tomas the past few days. Yesterday we took a bus full of campers and counselors on a field trip into Santo Domingo. We went to an attraction called “Tres Ojos” that is a group of underground lakes in the heart of the city. It is a marvelous example of God's creative handiwork. A humourous note was that our guide remembered our family from last January – so decided to eliminate the part of the tour lecture about “3 billion years ago”-- having been intellectually challenged the last time!

We had challenged our team and the campers to “redeem the time”. We took about 50 Bibles with us, and a few hundred Spanish tracts, and asked the team members and campers each to make an effort to pass out a few. We were so amazed at God's going ahead of us and preparing the way. At the caves, many dozens of tracts were passed out to other tourists. The amazing thing was that they took them graciously, and the more amazing thing was that most people I saw were actually reading them! Also of note was that we were able to pass out all the Bibles at that stop – with some people asking for more for their family members. One of the guides was a pastor, and had seven new members in his church. He asked for seven Bibles to give to them because they could not afford to buy any for themselves.

At the end of that part of the trip, one of the campers was talking to one of the mission board members who had accompanied us, and Miguel asked the Lord to be his Saviour. We were all rejoicing as we boarded the bus! The whole English camp effort was worth the eternal salvation of that one soul!

We stayed on our “high” all the way to our next stop which was “Pala Pizza”. We were served typical Dominican pizza, and marveled at the huge appetites of thos skinny little village boys. They inhaled that pizza! We noticed a big difference in the service between America and here. They do NOT keep your beverages full. Because of the aversion to waste, they would only bring drinks when you asked several times, and many went away very thirsty (remember – you can't drink the tap water!).

After leaving the pizza place, we walked across the road where we stood on the wall overlooking the Carribbean. It was nearly sunset and we once again saw the wonderful beauty of God's creation. The kids resumed passing out tracts, and passed out many dozens more to people on the seawall. They again took them graciously and most were reading them. They seemed grateful to be worthy of the attention. After we got to the end of our walk, we realized that we would not be back to campus in time for church.

We had both the preachers and the congregation with us, so decided that there was no better time than the present, and no better place than the beauty of that sunset over the sea to worship our Lord & Saviour. There was a hill sloping down from the seawall, so with memories of George Whitfield, we sat down on the hill with David preaching, and Ingrid translating. David had been concerned because he was without his sermon notes and Bible. We challenged him to use the word that God had hidden in his heart, and the many previous hours of study, to proclaim God's Word then and there, from his heart. After some beautiful singing from the whole group, he preached God's Word, giving a clear message of salvation and victorious Christian living to the campers, and to the bus drivers, and to the tourists who were gathering around (with tracts in hand!). It was another amazing time of God's working.

We continued to rejoice over the one brought to eternal life that day, the safety on the trip and God's omnipotence and omnipresence during this whole camp.