Spring Outreaches

Our last spring short-term outreach ended on Monday. Since January, we have hosted teams from River of Life Church, Wintonbury Church, Taylor University, Simpson College, Bethel University, and Jupiter Christian High School. These teams joined us in ministry, working alongside our nineteen Students International staff. They helped build a house, assisted our doctors, physical therapist, and dentist, worked at our preschools and special ed school, taught kids gardening, art, and English, and practiced baseball with adolescent boys. Relationships were built - relationships through which the gospel was then shared. These teams blessed the peoples of the D.R. and encouraged our staff.

Equally important, was the work that God did in each outreach participant while they were with us. For many, it was a time to be challenged - to step back from their busy lives and evaluate their personal goals and values. Tyler, a young man from Ohio (in photo on right), wrote this after his time in the D.R. "God did some really cool things in my life through the trip. More than ever before, He confirmed that he wants me to do missions as a vocation. In fact, He started laying out the path for me to continue doing that."

God doesn't call everyone into missions. But he does call us to be salt and light in whatever vocation he has us serve. He calls us to abandon our own dreams and to embrace his dreams for our lives, for our communities, and for the world.