Ridgewood Bible Church - Saturday
Familia de Ridgewood,
I wish you could be there for our devotions each night. Most nights we have been at the pool here at the complex. Envision about half of us floating in the water and half of us dangling our feet from the side. I lightly strum mi guitarra and the songs soar from our hearts and mouths high into the Dominican sky and, I believe, all the way to God’s heart! It has been powerful. We just finished tonight. We were talking about some numbers and decided to make this your official day of numerical report!!!!
(By the way, we regret that the devotions from the last three days were not posted for you to read until this morning. We have been writing them each night but had some confusion in the posting process! We trust by now you are all caught up!!!!)
So, some UNBELIEVABLE GOD-SIZED numbers…
Ø $1300 dollars spent today at the Jumbo (Dominican Walmart) to buy food to feed the village of Los Montones (more than any team has ever spent to feed a village with Score International—from the funds God provided for this trip).
Ø 360 cans of tuna purchased.
Ø 120 bags of rice, bags of beans, bottles of oil, cans of salt, and packs of coffee purchased.
Ø 11 Dominican grocers it took to help us check out (including Ben Russell, who was sporting his newly acquired Jumbo tshirt!)
Ø 120 families who received a bag of groceries in Los Montones.
Ø 120 prayers prayed individually by our team over the people receiving the groceries.
Ø 6 days these groceries will last each family.
Ø 102 adults present for our adult program (many of which had never come to a ministry program yet in the village).
Ø 30 or so adults who responded to the gospel invitation given by our missionary Andres.
Ø 40 men who met in Los Montones for discipleship today with Andres (every Saturday he meets with 4 men each hour for 10 hours).
Ø 69 kids present for our children’s program in Los Montones—most of whom either responded to gospel or had already responded in the past.
Ø 6 innings of hardball baseball played by 18 players (mix of us and Dominicans!).
Ø 4 cows that passed through the baseball field during the game.
Ø .500—Pastor Mike’s official batting average in the Dominican Republic (I was 1 for 2 with a single over the centerfielder’s head that would have been a double if I could have found the piece of rubber that was first base).
Ø 10 months of ministry so far in Los Montones by Andres and Johanna.
Ø 2 weeks until the first church service in Los Montones!!!!!! (Our week of ministry there was so good that it confirmed for them it was time to launch the actual church!)
Ø 8 testimonies of salvation proclaimed by our team today (Jeanie, Jeff, Alex, Josh, Ben H, Felicia, Jenny W, Genie).
Ø 3 songs sung to the precious orphans of Jackie’s House.
Ø 6 songs sung to us by the precious orphans of Jackie’s House!
Ø 13—age in years of Israel, the orphan in the wheelchair at Jackie’s House who dreams of being an evangelist, who shared the gospel with our team today, who prayed for us as we left, who memorizes books of the Bible, and who inspired us greatly!
Ø 93 million—miles the heat from the sun travels before burning us badly (do pray!)
Ø 50—SPF of sunscreen recommended!
Ø 24—individuals from our team who didn’t faint today. (It was Alex. She is wonderful now!)
Ø 1 bag of goodies leftover from Los Montones that was not used…for 30 minutes…because on the way home we needed to make an emergency bathroom stop. The wife of our busdriver happened to be nearby! We went to their home, gave our last goodie bag to their daughter, and shared the gospel!
Ø 11:59—pm/et that our flight arrives in Buffalo on Monday—can’t wait to see you!
Ø 25—lives you will see that have changed!
Please pray for tomorrow…
Church in the morning—Jenee and Rachael will sing duet, Mark and Jen R will share testimonies of encouragement.
Afternoon of ministry at local beach—we’re taking all the tracts and resources we have left and praying for opportunities!
Celebration meal at evening—pray for a great time of praise!
We will miss being with you in church tomorrow!!!! God bless you!!!!!
God is good…all the time!
Posted by Pastor Mike
