Exceedingly Abundantly

We are all settled back in here in Barahona. We were in the States for 4 weeks May into June, as most of you already know. I meant to post so much sooner and now that I am looking at the calendar I realize that we have already been back in the Dominican Republic over three weeks now. It's true what they say, time flies when you're having fun! We have been very busy since we got back. Summer is a good opportunity to spend more time with the youth group kids as they are off school, so that is exactly what we have been doing with Bible studies, drama practices, hang out time... We are also gearing up for a busy summer season of teams.

But, in this blog post we wanted to share what the Lord did while we were in the States, I guess its something the Lord has been doing for years now. One year ago this month, Jared was placed by the overseers of our sending church, Calvary Chapel of Delta as the leader and teacher of the local church plant, Capilla del Calvario de Barahona. They prayed about it and felt that the Lord had gifted Jared for the role. When Pastor Doug told Jared how they felt the Lord directing them Pastor Doug told him that men do not make pastors, God makes pastors.

So, Jared began teaching and leading and we all watched to see what the Lord would do. Over the past year, the Lord has grown His church in the truth. The Lord has blessed us with sweet times of fellowship. The congregation feels more and more like a family. These aren't things that Jared did, but God. The Lord is the one to mature the believers, He is the reason for our love one for another. But, over the past year, the church body has embraced Jared as their pastor. The Lord is speaking though Jared to equip and edify this body of believers. Pastor Doug and the overseers also see the Lord's anointing on Jared, that He has a pastoral calling and that the Lord has called him to shepherd this flock. While we were in the States, they officially commissioned him to the church here.

We truly appreciate how our overseers handled things. Over the past year we were able to see the Lord confirm Jared's calling, to watch the Lord make Jared the pastor of CCB. When I first met Jared in Bible college in 2002, he felt called to be a pastor. He waited and sought the Lord for many years. When the Lord opened the door to move to Barahona, pastoring the church here was not what we thought we were coming for. But God knew. It is amazing how God works. The Apostle Paul said it best in Ephesians 3:20:

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

Another exciting thing that has happened this month is that we were going through the process to become officially affiliated with Calvary Chapel, and the paperwork was approved last week! We appreciate the model Calvary Chapel has implemented and how they simply teach the Word, so we are excited to be officially associated.

We are really excited to see what the Lord has in store for this summer and the rest of this next year with the church. Please continue to pray for our church! Pray that we as a congregation would reach out to our community around us. Please also pray for the teams we will have this summer. The Lord has put some exciting ideas on their hearts and we are looking forward to the impact it will have on our youth group kids, our church and our community as a whole.