Untitled Sermon (2)

Well good evening, I trust everyone is doing well tonight and really looking forward to hearing from our team members tonight about the chance we had to serve and glorify our Father in the Dominican Republic. You know, we had a fantastic trip, in so many different ways, and you’ll hear about those tonight from the teens and leaders.

You know, as this trip was getting closer and closer, I had more and more people come up and ask me if I was ready or nervous or worried at all about the trip. And my response was, “No, not really…I just want to get to and through the airport/security with all 16 people…then I would be able to relax.” And so we left at 6 am that Saturday morning for the airport, and yes, we did sit at the gate for a good 2 1/2 or 3 hours! And let me tell you guys, the teens made fun of me all week for being that way. Always counting heads, always asking out passports, etc…..

But we arrived to Freedom’s campus Saturday evening. Sunday morning was a church service with Freedom on campus, followed by orientation, a trip to the beach for a few hours, and a campus tour led by the president of Freedom, Jason Hilgeman. The tour was actually about an hour and a half long, but to see the vision Freedom had for impacting the next generation was quite phenomenal.

Well, our week played out like this: Our days kicked off at 7:30 and ended around 10 pm each night. Monday, Wed, Fridays we had English camp with the older children. Which meant we joined right in with the kids and practiced English through various centers with them for the morning. The afternoons of those same days, we were involved in Bible camp with those same children. Think games, fun, Bible story (in Spanish). Tues and Thursdays our mornings were again spent in English camp, this time with the younger kids, which as you can imagine, became harder to communicate as they weren’t near as skilled in English. Those afternoons we spent in the Bateyes, putting on a VBS. Now, we just had VBS, and I can assure you theirs looked absolutely nothing like ours. But it was awesome to see the kids in their home environments and be able to be hands and feet for Freedom by just being there and spending time loving on the kids. It was in the bateyes, where Freedom gave the opportunity for any students to share their testimony with the kids, and from what I gathered…this wasn’t an opportunity that many students usually latched onto. And what was awesome was seeing three of our teens, Grace, Trevan, and Elijah, volunteer to share their testimony. And you know for these kids, they know who Freedom is, they know who Scott and Abbie and the other missionaries are. But we were the new people, and they got to see that Jesus was our Savior too.

Each night, we had a session with worship and a message by Jason, where he spoke on God’s faithfulness, and looked at several OT characters throughout the week, and how they had to stand upon God’s Word. We as a team were challenged and encouraged to also take that stand. To truly believe that God will do what He says He will do, and He will glorify His name.

We had free time each night, where really as a team, we bonded and grew together in my opinion. We played games, some of us lifted at the weight room (Trevan’s biggest fear), and really just hung out as a group and reflected on the day and so forth

Well, that is kind of a big picture look at our week so you had a frame of reference as the teens and leaders come up. Now I know you didn’t come to hear from me tonight, and if you did, I apologize, but I don’t think that ever really happens anyway! But I wanted to say one last thing…really to my team behind me, and that is this:

“I don’t think I could be more proud of you all and the work you did to to glorify God in the D.R. I know going into the trip there was trepidation and fear about the plane ride, the food, how we would be able to communicate with kids who don’t speak great English, the heat, etc…..You worked hard, you never complained, you served with joy, and you grew together as a group. It was awesome to watch. But what most impressed me was each morning, during quiet time, seeing each and every one of you opening your Bible, writing down what you were learning, spending time praying, if there was a rule book of how to encourage a youth pastor, that would be number one.”

Paul says in , “I I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” And that verse keeps running through my mind as Ive been reflecting on this trip.

Well enough from me. I’m going to invite Chris up to share, and then we’ll just run down the line.