TAN Mission Report January 2012

Mission toThe Dominican Republic

Delron and a group of seventeen Charis Bible College students, including students from across the US, the UK, and Kenya, spent the first week of December with missionaries Tim and Trena Johnson at the Casa Grande mission compound in Santiago, Dominican Republic.   Fred Taylor, a graduate of World Harvest Bible College who has traveled with Teach All Nations on several previous trips including Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic joined them a couple days after their arrival in the country.  They were also joined for one day by a team of students from the Jacksonville, Florida, campus of Charis.

The week was very busy with a full schedule of activities including four church services, four open-air outreaches, a children’s crusade, a visit to a feeding center where the team helped serve lunch to the children in an impoverished community, and a pastors’ conference.  The student team took the lead in each ministry event with puppet shows, original dramas written by one of the team members, testimonies, preaching, and praying for those who responded to the altar calls.  Although none of the students spoke Spanish and most of them had no previous experience in working with a interpreter, they had no problem communicating the love of God with the audiences.  It was beautiful to see how quickly the hearts of the students and the Dominicans were knit together.  Perhaps the bond of love between the students and the people was most evident at the kids’ crusade as the children’s bright faces graphically displayed their awe and amazement at the puppet show and dramas and their joy as the students prayed for them and handed out candy as they left for their homes.  Each service was highlighted by salvations, healings, and deliverances.  Even on our free day when the team took a break at a Caribbean beach, they took time to share the gospel with the local souvenir vendors and led at least one to Christ.  Although the language barrier hindered us from getting the full report, we did hear numerous testimonies of lives that were touched and changed through the ministry.  But the changes didn’t stop with the Dominicans; all the students testified that they would never be the same after this experience.   Some of the team members even testified that they had received the directions for their ministries and even missionary callings during the trip.

In addition to coordinating the mission team, Delron was the featured speaker at the pastors and leaders’ conference where several hundred pastors packed the hall to capacity and others from outside the local area logged onto a live internet broadcast as Delron taught from his book People Who Make a Difference.  Plans have been initiated to have the book translated into Spanish and published for distribution in the Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries.