Frequent blackouts in the Dominican Republic plummet whole neighborhoods into darkness—blacker than a hundred midnights.* They light candles and continue their activities without a hiccup.  When the lights are suddenly restored, a joyous cry echoes from house to house. “Llego la luz!”  The light has come!

The Figueroa family represents a composite of many families in which the LIGHT has transformed their lives.  The three children attended a VBS class held by a mission team. They accepted Christ. A small candle of hope glimmered. A medical team met physical needs and counseled for spiritual needs. Mom glimpsed an answer to the darkness and chaos of their alcoholic family.

Other teams visited the Figueroa family and shared an evening meal and the love of Christ. Eventually, the children were sponsored through Samuel’s Fund. Teams shared groceries from the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering. Mom accepted Christ. The LIGHT grew.

Dad continued to drink constantly. Teams and church members continue to visit. More discipleship. More VBS. The LIGHT could not be restrained. Hallelujah time! Dad accepts Christ. Mom and Dad’s marriage is restored.

Now the LIGHT is blazing out of that home and family into the entire neighborhood. “I want what you have,” neighbors and family declare. Eventually, other teams rebuild their home. Today, their family of five shares the LIGHT of the Gospel message into countless other homes.

How many teams invested in that family? How long did it take?  Possibly 8-9 teams, over a four-year period, plus the donations from many more, and the sponsors of the children. Is it worth it?  Wouldn’t the time be better spent sharing 500 tracts and testimonies door-to-door? Possibly. How much time and effort did Jesus invest during his short time on earth to disciple only 12?   They began a multiplication process that has extended throughout the world and continues into each of our lives.

This summer 22 churches and over 369 participants ministered in the Dominican Republic and in Costa Rica. 127 made a decision to open their hearts to the LIGHT! The teams also discipled, taught, and met many needs of children and families. With one heart they shared life-transforming LIGHT.

In Costa Rica, Kenedy/Kerrville teamed up to do maintenance at an orphanage in San Jose and then traveled into the interior to minister to Nicaraguan refugees trapped in desperate poverty.

In late June, Bear Creek team was joined by FBC San Antonio and FBC Kenedy. Their ministry activities included building on the Higuey orphanage, VBS, sports camp, a ladies Bible study, preaching and teaching.

University Baptist church flew into Santiago for the 5th year.  They built a playground for orphanage children and Trauma Competent Caregiving to the staff.

FBC Corpus Christi and Parkway Victoria joined together to bless the school at Guaricanos with bookshelves for the library and a VBS, in addition to a pastor’s conference, marriage seminar and youth activities.

WUBC-Crosspoint brought a record 60+ team members.  Construction on the orphanage and the home of a Samuel’s Fund child, sports camp, medical clinic and ESL and VBS classes kept them especially busy.

Crossroads Baptist teachers team held training workshops in La Romana, in addition to IBQ.  They overlapped with FBC Beeville, Emmanuel, and Bay City as they worked in Hatillo.

“Go into all the world,” commanded Jesus just before He returned to His Father.  Sharing the LIGHT of the Gospel is essential.  What about the rest of the commandment?  “Make disciples… teaching them to observe all things I have commanded.” Teams who return annually and continue to pour into Dominican and Costa Rican ministries can truly fulfill Jesus’ Kingdom-building commandment.

*James Weldon Johnson, poet

May, 2019—STCH Ministries International expanded into Costa Rica!  Amanda Longoria, associate director for International, led the BSM college group from Texas State on this faith adventure.  STCH Ministries therapist, Leslee O’Neal  and her husband, Johnny, also accompanied the group.  Excitement, blunted by apprehension, gripped their hearts as the trip began.  “Would their skills and resources be enough for the needs they would encounter?

After the short flight to San Jose, they began their first assignment at Excelencia Familiar children’s home. Asked to paint the girls bedrooms a hot pink color, the team went to work.  On the last bedroom…Oh no! Big brown eyes reflected disappointment with the announcement, “We have run out of the pink color.” Hesitating momentarily, Amanda responded, “If Jesus made water into wine, we can make more pink paint!” They hurriedly mixed the remaining pink paint with leftover beige and red, and Presto! A unique Pepto Bismol paint job resulted.  The girls expressed delight.

The team next moved into the rain forest to work with Nicaraguan refugees.  During VBS, Leslee was “volun-told” to take charge of making chicken soup for the large group of children and moms.  Panic set in as she viewed three WHOLE chickens.  Her US-grocery- store chicken was pre-cut!  Bravely, she picked up the helpless chicken, grabbed a knife, and set to work.  After sabotaging one chicken, she noticed the Costa Rican ladies patiently watching, and cried, “Help!”  Immediately one stepped forward. Whack, whack, whack!  The chicken was ready for the soup pot.

While the soup cooked, Leslee presented on depression and grief to grateful moms. Then it was time to serve the soup to 120 children and moms.  Anxiety increased, as the amount of soup dwindled.  Would there be enough?  Like the Biblical widow’s oil, they had just enough!

Repeatedly, God proved his faithfulness.  The men mixed concrete for a cement floor in the community worship center.  The supply was just enough for the floor, and a sidewalk. Later, the community gathered on the new cement floor for popcorn and the movie, Left Behind.  Johnny spontaneously was asked to speak to the crowd. Exhausted from the unaccustomed concrete work, the life-long dread of public speaking threatened to overwhelm him.  Then he thought, “I don’t want any of these people to be left behind.” God’s peace replaced fear as Johnny shared the Good News of salvation through faith in Christ.

After the event, they planned to distribute groceries to the first 50 families.  Too late they realized the supplies filled only 41 bags. Miraculously, only 41 families stayed to receive the food.

Reflecting back on their experiences, Amanda reported, “The greatest lesson we learned was to trust God with everything because, He IS able. Every day we learned to lean on him for strength and energy, and all of our needs.”

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A mission trip requires each person to step out of the ordinary, leave the known for the unknown. “Does God really want me to do this? Will God be enough for the unknown,” we wonder?  When we step out in obedience and faith, we open ourselves to God-sized surprises.

The Yorktown Baptist medical team had a mission–sharing the love of Christ through medical clinics, and ministries with children.  The team included several nurses, but no doctors.  How could they assess in a different language, and how would they prescribe medications accurately without a doctor?  Dr. Francisco Paredes was up to the challenge.  He recruited 4 additional Dominican doctors who spoke English.  He divided the group into 5 teams of nurses, doctors and translators.  What could be more perfect?  With 5 teams there was time to assess and treat medical issues, and also to share Christ and to pray with each patient.

The children’s team had shared the love of Christ with children in many venues.  Their concern was, “How can we effectively communicate Jesus’ love for each child when we can’t speak the language?” They prepared colorful cards with their pictures to give each child that stated, “Hemos venido a compartir el amor de Jesus.”  (We have come to share the love of Jesus).  The team was paired with Valentina, a translator whose passion to share Jesus’ love with children, rivaled their own. Word for word, gesture for gesture, her tone of voice mirrored the presenter. To their surprise, the communication obstacle vanished in the unity of spirit they experienced.

God’s surprises varied from overcoming financial barriers through generous donors to helping a team member find peace in her personal relationship with Christ. Others exclaimed, “I expected to serve others, instead I was the one served. Love was so freely given, it was infectious!” And God surprised during home visits. “The home was so small we sat outside, the only source of light a small candle at the table. We ate and shared our testimonies. The presence of God was so apparent in those moments. I couldn’t believe I was sitting in a different country having an experience like this one.”

When we follow God by faith, He will surprise us by giving more than we hoped for, abundantly more than we could ask or imagine.

Mission Trips 2019 began in January with the First Baptist mission team from Allen, Texas.  Their main focus was evangelism. Villa Altagracia is a village where STCHM mission teams have built a two-story school building. Rodney and Nilsia lead the school, but recently the IBQ church under the leadership of Pastor Rudy have commissioned this couple to begin a church in the school facilities.  They have also pledged some monthly support to help them plant this church.

The Allen group partnered with the ministry in Villa Altagracia for a significant part of their activities.  They traveled to Villa Altagracia for children’s meetings in the afternoon.  After that activity they divided into groups of 4-5 and walked the streets of Villa Altagracia sharing their testimonies and the Gospel.  They also invited the community to attend evangelistic services on two nights at the school.  Rented chairs, and a make-shift canvas tent hoped to shield a few people from the expected rain.  But God held back the rain!

God also performed another miracle that first night.  Directly outside of the school a crew of men and a huge rented machine were digging a well.  Boom!  Boom! Boom!  All through the children’s Bible classes the noise was deafening.  Surely, we asked, they would stop when night came?  Wrong!  The machine was rented per day at a very high cost, and they planned to dig through the night until the job was done.  Now what to do?  It was one thing to tolerate that noise over 100 noisy children, but an evening church service and a message to adults?  We asked Russell, “What do we do now?”  O ye of little faith.  Russell’s answer?  “Don’t worry.  All Satan has is a machine.  We have God on our side!”  At exactly 7 pm, the men paused their machine for one hour and we held our evangelistic service!!  An even greater miracle was the 3 adults who accepted Christ as a result of these efforts.

As an integral part of evangelism, the Bible was highlighted through Bible memory competitions, the purchase and gifting of Bibles in the Spanish language, and a training for leaders of Bible classes for children.  How can you motivate children (and adults) to memorize Scriptures?  The Allen group demonstrated some unique methods through drills, competitions and games.  Even the boys at the Betesda Home joined in the competition to find books of the Bible with the new Bible that the team had given them.

Through the efforts of this mission team, God’s Spirit pushed back the darkness in the Villa Altagracia village, and especially in the lives of the many individuals who heard the Gospel, those that accepted Christ, and many more who received Bibles. As the Allen trip ended, they knew that the Word of God that they left behind would continue to be alive and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, and penetrating to the soul and spirit.  (From Hebrews 4:12)

For the many people who knew her, the memory of Rosa Elena lives on.  Dark-skinned, turbaned elegantly, and dressed in flowing white, she often pointed one thumb heavenward.  It was her signature gesture as she deflected all the glory to God. Rosa Elena inspired everyone with her amazing faith and her dedication to the forgotten, yet priceless to God, children of Hatillo—chained by ignorance, generational poverty, and immorality.

Shortly after she opened her heart to Christ, God gave her a passion for these children living in the Hatillo area.  Their location and poverty isolated them without access to education, without knowledge of God’s love, without hope for the future. Rosa Elena began educating 7 children in 1996, and labored faithfully with minimal resources for 10 years.  When STCH Ministries began to partner with the school in 2007, a former graduated student recounted, “We had to break a crayon in four pieces to share!”  In 2012, STCH Ministries received significant funding for this project.  With the help of partnering churches they replaced the deteriorating wooden buildings with new concrete structures.  The school grew to over 100 students.

Unexpectedly, Rosa Elena’s health began to deteriorate and on September 26, 2016 she passed away.  A crisis developed as the school struggled with decreasing attendance, teacher resignations, and financial stress.  STCH Ministries staff and donors, along with the IBQ church staff and a newly formed board, stepped up their support. New staff was trained, salaries were increased, additional investments were made in uniforms, computers, and other equipment. Gradually the school stabilized and began to grow. Today, the goals for the future of Rosa Elena’s school are excellence with self-sustainability.

Since the time Rosa Elena began to educate children and share the hope of the Gospel, many years have passed and countless children have been impacted.  “La Gloria a Dios,” was Rosa Elena’s refrain, as she pointed with her thumb to the skies.  Two years ago Rosa Elena left our planet to reside in that Glory-land to which she often pointed.