Orphanage Ministry

A Wonderful team from Houston Pennsylvania came to help                     

                                        in December.

Sophia Getchell and her team

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The childrens' home we visited was as much a blessing to us as we were to them.  The ministry of King's Castle joined us and brought their talents. and equipement.

Sophia artfully told them the story of Christmas.  There was face painting, ballons, cotton candy and many games. We all had a good time.

Prayer tunnel

The young people put on a very fun drama.  Then we formed a prayer tunnel.  All the children passed through it and were prayed for. 

At the end of the tunnel they got a gift and  some sweets.

A prize  at the end of the tunnel

                   

Teams are a blessing

  We welcome teams.  They always give us a boost and leave a blessing behind.  What do teams do?

                           They pose for pictures

      They work with children, telling them of God's Love

                  They eat all kinds of different foods

            

              They build walls and do all kinds of construction.

They  sight see some interesting things, like the caves  So come and join us.  We do a lot more things that we can't fit onto this page.The ladies of the barrio come to do crafts, get their fingernails polished and hear God's word.  Teans are  ministered to.  So come and join us.

Meet our pastors

          Meet our Pastors:   Kenny and Claudia Gomez

They have the cutest little boy, John David 

They have quite a romantic story.  Kenny has 13 siblings.  He went to church because he liked a girl there.  He didn't get the girl, but he found someone better.  God got a hold of his heart and he fell in love with the King of Kings.  His family didn't accept him so he moved out and lived in a room above the church.  He became an excellent worship leader.  In Bible school he kept showing us a picture of a beautiful girl from the States that he met from a misions team.

Claudia's father left her mother and went to live in the States with another woman.  When Claudia was 14 her mother died of cancer so she was sent to the States to live with her father who was not a  Christian  She found a Spanish Assemblies of God church and started attending.  There a family "adopted" her and she lived with them.  Her church came to the Dominican Republic on a miisions trip.  She met Kenny, and the rest is history.

Kenny graduates from Bible School

Our pastors are doing a great job.  We feel confident that they will lead the church to higher ground.   Claudia is a beautiful singer and is often asked to sing at special events.   Kenny is asked to lead in worship  at conferences and preach at rallies.  We thank

God for giving us competent pastors.

A Mexican Feast with the Castlegar Ladies

   We had a delightful time visiting old friends  and churches in British Columbia.

In Castlegar the ladies had a Mexican theme for their banquet.  They sure know how to spoil missionaries.  We really enjoyed their love and kindness.

Some of the beautiful girls who joined us.  Thank you very much. 

 

 

  

         

  It was wonderful to have a techie in the house when wen stayed with family.  Our 13 year old Sophia was a huge help to me.  She seems to know everything that I needed help with in my computer. "How do you know so much? "  I asked.  "I was just born with it," was her reply.  She said she just knows.   It must be that the young people are born with some kind of chip in their brains.  Yay for Sophie.
Here she's catching pigeons when they visited us in the Dominican Republic last Christmas.

Celebrations in Canada

The Church that the Teams Built

• Thank you to everyone who came and worked hard in the heat to  make our church                              building a reality.
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At first it was just a back yard which had to be cleared.  It had a tree in it that had to be chopped down.  The team worked hard to clear the ground and prepare it  for construction.  They brought funds with them to start laying the foundation.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                               

Gerry Stoltzfooz from Freedom Valley  in Gettysburg brought a crew of men who worked hard to put up walls.

• John and Teresa Decker from Quakertown Morning Star sent us a wonderful offering which enabled us to pour the cement roof. 

Peckville church group from Blakly PA came with some money to continue the work. We really needed the space. There was no room for the children so they sat on the floor.    We really appreciate the work they did.

By Christmas we were able to have our Christmas meal in the church even though it was full of cement bags and dirt.  

Then the Quakertown team came, led by Cyndy and Glenn.  They really blessed us with their talents and hard work.  

They came with some talented artists and instead of just painting the front of the church, they painted a mural.  It looks beautiful.

Our Christians are so thankful for all the teams that came to help us.  They are poor and would not have been able to get this church building done by themselves.  But they wanted to do all they could.  So they had a bake sale and clothes sale and were able to buy paint.  They have painted the church and it looks so nice.

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• Thank you very much, teams, for helping us plant a church in the Dominicn Republic.   We really appreciate you. God will reward both the givers and the goers.

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             A  SPECIAL MOTHER'S DAY SERVICE

1.  

April in Pennsylvania - cold

                          What a welcome we got!
We left The Dominican Republic with temperatures in the 80's.
Pennsylvania was still thawing out from their very cold windter. It rained without stopping for day and our bodies complained.  But we survived.  We're enjoying very much meeting friends.

We come to give a stock- holders report to the churches and people who have invested in the Dominican Republic. The pastor and his wife (most are good sports)are dressed up in this Dominican costume. We  tell a victory story of how they got saved. We even show them our pets.

Twenty years ago we came to Pennsylvania to begin working with the Assemblies of God.  We met an interesting couple, Glen and Luli Stoltzfus.  Glen's family came from an Amish background. Luli was a Bolivian girl.  They met in Bible school, fell in love and got married.  Soon they welcomed a baby boy, Jordan.  Then Jonathan was born into the family.  After the first joy and delight, they were shocked to find that Jonathan was missing part of his leg.  The femur bone wasn't there.  His knee was where his hip joint was suposed to be.

We became friends as they worked through the realization that their baby would be handicapped.  Later they welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Julia.  Years passed and we stayed with the Stoltzfus family when in the States.

                          What happened to Jonathan?

He grew to be a the sweetest young man who really loves Jesus. He is loved and has many friends dispite limping along on his artificial leg.  After he graduated from High school last year, he and a couple of friends decided to walk across the United States. So he is doing it!!! Through all kinds of weather they press on.

As they walk and meet people, they love to tell them about their best friend, Jesus.  They want to win people to the Lord. 
   
 If you want to follow their trip go to www.achurchofus.com 

        Here's Jonathan with his friends, Jeffery, and Trevor.

What a blessing the Stoltzfus family have been to us.  They made a cozy "Prophet's chamber" for us to stay  when we're in Pennsylvania, itinerating.

An exciting March

We were busy this month trying to put the finishing touches on the church.  Nearly every time we had a service, the electricty would go out, leaving us in the dark.  Candles and a lamp helped some.  We decided to borrow more money and buy a generator.  What a difference it made to have a lighted church without interruption!

Our first meeting with lights was an evangelistic service for youth with a rapper.  He was good!  Many from the neighborhood came and went forward to accept the Lord. 

   It's wonderful to see young people deciding to follow Jesus

We baptized five more Christians.

Graduation is always an exciting time.  Fifteen students finished their studies and are off to work for the Lord.

It has been a busy, but happy month.

               God is at  work in the Dominican Republic

We're pleased to see how the Lord is blessing our Saturday Bible school.  We really enjoy our work with the students.  The school continues to grow and produce workers for the Kingdom. 

            Joseph surrounded by happy young people.  They're eager to learn and love their professor.

  Johnny and Catherine are two of our Bible School students.  They are already a big help to us in our church, leading three cell groups and  teaching Sunday school.   What a blessing they are to our youth group!

Pastor Kenny (right) teaches in our Bible school as well.  He gets the students to practice what they learn.

Sorry (that's her name) is part of Johnny's cell group.  She has five children and is expecting twins.  We had a baby shower for her.  They are so poor and always need lots of  help.  Her husband works very little.

Quakertown Morning Star Fellowhip Team came to the rescue

What an amazing team!    Glenn Singer, Cynde and Tom Dumire had so many original projects and gave us many ideas to grow the church. 

Instead of just painting the outside of the church, they painted a mural.  It's looks wonderful now. 

They came to work and it was hard to get them to stop to eat or rest.

Festival Sabana de la Mar

 We were privileged to be part of  a great campaign with Gerry Stoltfoos in the north part of the country.  Thousands gathered in the baseball field to worship God.  Christopher Alam was the main speaker, but the local churches brought  music, dramas and dancing.

Gerry is pastor of Freedom Vallley Church in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. He brought with him Tommy Arnold, who is pastoring a church he began in Harrisburg.  Gerry's passion is to begin chuches all over the world.

An enthusiastic team came with Gerry to help.  We stayed in a hotel that looked like Flintstone Park.  It was hewn out of a mountain.  A truck was available to drive us to the baseball field, no seat belts.  What a bumpy road.  Fun!!

It was worth it all  to see several people healed and souls responding to the Gospel in the parks. We did street meetings in the mornings and the afternoons and invited people to come to the Festival.

Happy New year

We had lots of family here to bring in the new year.  

Steve and family stayed longer.  Here Steve is teaching some boys a how the guitar works.

We wandered through the Colonia village where Spain  made its  first colony in the west.  Interesting old building and a big plaza.  Sophial, our granddaught, was delighted to feed the pigeons. Look at  the birds on  her  head and arms.