Hola from Monte Plata! I am excited to quickly share with you the amazing things the Lord is doing here and to ask you to continue praying for our ministry.
Listen to these two incredible stories of the Lord’s provision within our missionary community! First, we have a missionary couple named Kami and Romulo who live in Santo Domingo and are the directors of our new care center there. They have a 3-year-old son named Robert. On Tuesday, Robert slipped and fell from a second-story balcony at his babysitter’s house. After an overnight stay in the hospital to monitor for internal injuries, Robert was released without a broken bone, with no internal problems, and with only a scrape on his elbow and a bruise on his heel. Praise the Lord for protecting this little missionary boy! Another one of our missionaries, Lorren, had a heart attack yesterday. His wife, Kari, was on her way back to Canada to see family, but her plane had been delayed in Miami for several hours. So instead of being on a plane and nearly in Canada like she should have been, she was only in Miami and was able to quickly change her flight and return to the DR. They placed a stent in Lorren’s heart and he is recovering well in Santiago now. Praise the Lord for his provision and hand of care for our missionary family! Your consistent prayers for our ministry team are heard and answered!
Another great praise is the turn that our first grade class has made in the past month or so. The first grade classroom used to be…well, a zoo! We have a rowdy bunch of 5 girls and 12 boys who all need very special, individual attention. At the beginning of the year, our kids were never in their seats, never using an “inside voice,” and always fighting or yelling. Almost every time that I enter now, our kids are in their seats and working on something in their notebooks. It is a drastic change that can only be attributed to the calming presence of the Holy Spirit in that classroom. The first grade teacher Flora consistently tells me these days that she is so thankful for the change our kids have made, that she feels so much more at peace, and that she gives all the glory to the Lord. We are all grateful!
Please pray this weekend for our retreat with the teenage girls from the Casa Monte Plata orphanage. I will spend the weekend with our 5 older girls and Rebekah Holt (CMP director). Our four Bible studies throughout the weekend are about spiritual purity and delighting ourselves in the Lord, mental purity and taking our thoughts captive, physical purity and setting boundaries in relationships, and living life as a single woman for the glory of God. We are excited to have time away with our oldest girls and to deepen our relationships with each other. Please pray that the Lord gives Rebekah and I wisdom as we teach and lead, that the Lord protects us on the road, and that our time together is productive for the Kingdom.
This Saturday we say goodbye to a visiting group of teachers/painters from New Jersey and say hello to a group of college students from California who are coming to work with our kids in sports camps. Pray that the Lord gives us missionaries the strength and endurance to work with groups for two weeks in a row and that He is able to work through these groups to bring our children and their families closer to Him.
Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement! I recently had a very blessed visit from my dad and cousin here in Monte Plata. They worked with our kids at school and at CMP and we had a wonderful time serving together. They were able to see firsthand the incredible difference that the Lord makes in the lives of children through our sponsorship program. If you are interested in sponsoring a child from my school or our orphanage for $39/month, please let me know! I can even arrange for you to sponsor a specific child that you have seen in a photo on my blog or on my facebook, a child from a specific classroom, or a child of a specific age.
You all are a blessing to me and I look forward to hearing from you!
In Christ,
Kristin Barber