At the end of my last blog entry I had stated that I had just returned from our missions trip to the Dominican Republic. My church, Living Hope Worship Center, has been involved in ongoing trips and missions work in the DR for the last fifteen years. Because of this ongoing relationship with the schools and churches over this time, Living Hope and the other NJ teams involved have literally seen schools and churches be built from empty lots, High School drop out rates drastically decrease, children that are involved in the programs grow up to become teachers, pastors, and other community leaders, as well as many, many other positives.
This was my seventh missions trip that I have had the privilege to go on (four here in the states and my third abroad) and I have to say that each time I go on a trip like this, I find that the Lord challenges me and teaches me something new or maybe something that I need to be reminded of. It was so awesome to be a part of a trip of this caliber and below I have a number of images for you to check out as a brief glimpse of what our trip was like!
The first three pictures were taken at one of the Latin America Child Care (LACC) schools. Nationally, only one in four students in the Dominican Republic graduate from High School. The rate of graduation from LACC schools is eighty percent (four out of every five students).
The missionaries that we worked with on this specific missions trip were Matt and Carrie Love and they are involved with sixteen schools throughout the Dominican Republic. The need is great, but they diligently serve and work to see thousands of kids have the opportunity to get a quality education. It was such a privilege to be able to see them speak life and encouragement into the lives of these precious kids in the DR.
Here are a few pictures as we went from school to school:
The next two pictures were taken in a church that Living Hope was instrumental in having been built. From an empty lot to this:
Here are some views of the area from the roof of the church!
An eye-opening experience for sure, there are many ways that you become a part of the ministry of Latin America Child Care; the biggest way is through sponsoring a child so that they have the ability to go to one of the sixteen schools there. For $32 a month, we have the opportunity to sponsor a student (right up to twelfth grade) to be able to get an education and do our part to break the cycle of poverty there.
Another enormous way to support this ministry is through prayer. Please keep this important ministry in your prayers, as they make it a point to reach out to these children and teenagers in the DR and across the Latin American countries. God is doing great things around the islands and most certainly around the world through our missionaries and we need to make it a priority to keep them in our prayers. If you currently are not praying for those serving as missionaries and the work that they are doing around the world, I would challenge you to put that right on the top of your prayer list (if you don't have a prayer list, make it a priority to write one)!
Lastly, I would also most certainly encourage you that if you have the opportunity to go on a missions trip, take it!! It is such a blessing and so enriching to be able to firsthand see the work that is doing being done around the world, but also to allow yourself to be used in doing that work.
To learn more about Latin America Child Care and the work of missionaries Matt and Carrie Love, please visit:
What missions trips have you been on? Do you currently support a ministry like this? I would love to hear about them! Drop a comment below or hit me up on Facebook/Twitter: @solidschultz!
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