Testing of Your Faith

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:2-3

I think that about sums up the last month for Stephanie and I.  I wouldn't say we have faced any severe trials or difficulties but we have certainly had some testing.  A few things have happened this month demanding that we remain patient and wait on the Lord.

First and foremost our Visa situation continues to go unchanged. We deposited all of our documents several months ago and now each time we travel to the capital to check on them we get a “they aren't finished yet” response. We were told to return in the middle of January and now we have been told to wait until March before checking again.

Secondly, Steph and I have had some difficulty with our house in Maryland.  Our current tenants are in the military and her husband is being re-deployed.  Because of his re-deployment she is legally allowed to move to another location without penalty from a landlord. They will be moving out March 31^st.  Thankfully we have David, Stephanie’s dad, who is going to be helping us with finding a new tenant. 

Thirdly, Steph and I have had a difficult time finding a vehicle.  We thought that we had one all lined up for purchase but when we went to change all the paperwork to our name the current owner had never changed the title to his name.  This is not uncommon in the Dominican Republic but it ended up making the vehicle unable to be purchased by Stephanie and I. 

So needless to say it has been a month of waiting.  Waiting on the Lord to show Himself faithful, waiting on God to open doors for us and waiting to see how the Lord will provide for our housing situation.

Patience is not an easy thing to learn.  Living here has made us trust in the Lord for even the simple things in life that we sometimes took for granted in the United States.  In the Dominican Republic when it comes to any kind of paperwork it’s always a difficult task to accomplish. 

This much I know.  My God shall supply all of our needs.  We will trust in Him and follow where He leads.  We know that when the time is right God will open the doors.  We certainly aren’t saying we have this all figured out as sometimes we still get frustrated or begin to question God as to why things take so long or are happening a certain way.  What we do know is that in the end He will accomplish His will in His time.

Apart from these things, ministry continues and the Lord is doing great things!

We continue to work with the youth group.  Things seem to be moving in a good direction as we regularly have 4-8 kids each week now.  We are continuing our study of Philippians.  We also look to take a trip to the beach with the kids sometime soon.  This is always a huge blessing for the kids.  Despite living only 20 minutes from a beautiful beach many of them do not ever get to go and enjoy it.

Calvary Chapel Barahona is growing! New people are coming each week. It is so exciting to see new people come as Pastor Lewis simply teaches the Word of God to them.

A team from Calvary Chapel of Delta, PA (our home church) sent a group here for a week in January. It was great to see our Pastor and friends from home. They worked hard and the Lord did amazing things through them. They shared the gospel with many people on the mountain. We have been able to see some fruit from their labor as some of the people they shared with have been to the church services. They also worked together with a local Dominican mason to lay a cement floor in our outdoor pavilion we use for church. It has been a huge blessing to the church body and our youth group kids.

One of our friends and co-workers, Johan, got married in January. It was a pleasure to share in his special day.

Please pray for us to continue to learn Spanish, to be able to hear the Lord’s voice in reference to the youth group and that He would lead and guide us in every decision we make.

Our God is faithful to complete the work He has started in each of us.  We look forward to seeing how He sorts out all of the details with what has been happening.