 So to start what I'd like to do is I'd like to direct you all to go with me to Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, and I'm going to read to you verses 24 through 28. Acts chapter 14 verses 24 through 28. And I think I read these verses the last time that we came back and give a report from a trip to Dahu'uon. And I think it's a fitting text to consider when we give evangelism testimonies, reports on what the Lord has done in our evangelism. So it reads, Acts chapter 14, starting at verse 24. Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia, and when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Atalia. And from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles, and they remained no little time with the disciples. So I want to point out just a few things here, particularly in verse 27 here. So you have Paul, he went on his first missionary journey. He was sent from Antioch, and now he returns to the very place that he was commissioned from. And in verse 27 it says, they arrived and they gathered the church together. And when they gathered the church together, what did they do? They declared all that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And that is what we're trying to do right now. We're trying to declare all that God had done with us in our little, many missionary journey to Dahabon and how He had opened a door of faith to a particular set of Gentiles, those people in Dahabon and in neighboring Haiti. And I want to really make mention of the fact that it's not all that Paul had done. It's not all that Barnabas had done. This is all that God had done. And I want to keep that in a very specific, particular context in our minds. This is not my work. This is not the work of my family. This is not the work of the team, and it's not the work of our church necessarily. Obviously we all play a part in that work. There's a particular doing that we all have in it. Some give, some go. Some do multiple parts of that. But in the end, this is God's work, and we're all replaceable. So if I croak, my family croaks, any of you croak, whatever God decides to do will continue. And whatever God decides to stop will stop. So we'll keep it in that context as we go on. The way we're going to fashion this evening is what I've done is I've put together a set of canned questions. Canned, open-ended questions that I'm going to moderate and ask the team. So I have, up here, I have Ricardo right here in Valique. And two pivotal brothers who had come and worked in Dabon with us. And I also have, and when I say pivotal, I don't mean like there's some sort of hierarchy within the team. But I thought it would be good to have a good Spanish-speaking representative and a good Creole-speaking representative of brothers who came and evangelized in Dabon. And also we have the rest of the team here in the first two rows. We have Alex, Barbie, Bernardo, Lydia, Jasmine, and Jati. Sergio wasn't able to make it today. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask questions to the team from both of the brothers up here and the team down there. We'll see what the team has to say and give a report of about the trip. And then we're going to reserve some time we're willing at the end of our time together where we open up the questions to the floor where you can ask whatever questions you like about the work in Dabon, whether that's how things went on this last trip, whether that's plans for the future, whatever that is to inform your prayers, to inform your giving, to inform whatever else in between. Maybe some ways that you might be able to support and help with the work. So starting off with the questions, the first question is, what surprised you most about the evangelism on this trip? I'm going to start with you, Ricardo. What are your biggest surprise? My biggest surprise is on the way there's people in our answer. I open the door sometime and that would surprise me to see, because I've been going through the church a couple of times and some type of people are rejecting you. Over there, they want to welcome you, even invite you to come inside. There's one guy, I remember I was with my sister, you're having his car go and start his car and we stop him. I think his name is Orlando, if I believe. And it turned off his car, got outside, closed his door and we spent more than 30 minutes sharing the gospel with him. That's what surprised me. We don't see that more often over here. That's what surprised me. Anything from you, Valik? Yeah, kind of following what Brother Ricardo said. One thing maybe you mentioned, Brother Oliver and Sister Richelle, they were also with us and they are still in the Dominican Republic. They're still down there. Kind of along the way what Brother Ricardo said was, the first day for me was like, okay, I see all the doors open, but there's nobody at the front door. So, okay, kind of empty, so I skipped those doors and okay, next day I figure out somebody shouting to the back something, whatever, I don't know, I don't remember. I figure out, okay, that's the way it works. So I said, hola, hola, familia! And then somebody would come out. So kind of the same, you know, it's a good surprise. Also, exactly what you were saying is that even at the street, you know, there's people riding on a motorcycle. You just stop them, just talk to them and it'll take the time, right? So that was a blessing. Any of you guys on the floor, any surprises that you noticed, Barbie? So I was in the corner sharing tracks because a little bit about background with me and Brother Ricardo, like you were asked to speak Spanish or Creole. So if it was Creole, then he would speak to the Asians and I would speak to the Dominicans. And there's one time we were in the corner, he was having a conversation in Creole, and people saw that we were not from the area and we have like tracks, like they have something to give. So there's this car, it was like two workers, they stopped in the motorcycle, they were like on going traffic. They stopped. And there's cars behind them and was like, I want one. Like, oh, wait, Ricardo, like they're Haitians, but they spoke Spanish so I was kind of like talking to them at the same time. I've never seen that in my life. It was so encouraging. They wanted to see what we have, you know. Yeah, amen, amen. And so Barbie's point before we go to the next person. Many of you are familiar with the work in Dahabon and you kind of know the geography a little bit, but for those of you who aren't, Dahabon is a border town on the Dominican side, but it's on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an island commonly called Hispaniola. And so in Dahabon, it is a Dominican town, Spanish speaking town, but because of the market there locally, the way that they open the borders to Haitians to come to the market, there are a lot of Creole speaking, Haitian Creole speaking people in Dahabon. So it's, and since we've been evangelizing there these last two trips, we've realized just how much you will end up speaking Creole evangelizing in Dahabon. Any others on the floor? Any surprises from evangelism? Okay, we'll move to the next question then. So what's evangelism conversation did you find the most edifying during the trip? We'll start at the floor. Lydia? We talked with the women who spoke predominantly Creole, but me and my partner, well, Sergio spoke Spanish and she spoke some Spanish and she labored to understand, she took her time, she was very patient. She tracked the whole time. She asked questions. And then, I was going to say, at the end when we invited her to come to the evening service, she was concerned that we wouldn't want her to come because she was at this house with her two kids and we just assumed that was where she lived, but this is the house of the father of her two kids. She lives elsewhere. She has a boyfriend and she lives across the way from him and so she just assumed we just wouldn't want her to come. I guess that's what her mindset was, but so we're just telling her that she should come. She should learn about Christ and Christ will show her how to obey him now that she's in the situation. It was just edifying just because she took her time and then just kind of her humility at the end. I think here more people just kind of feel like Christ needs them in some way, but she just had that humility that she felt like she knew she wasn't worthy, but we want her to come anyway, of course. Amen. There's a lot of women who resemble the women at the well. Sexual morality is a very prevalent sin in the Havoun, so it's not uncommon to find someone, it's not uncommon to find a man with two wives or a woman with multiple husbands, if you will. Alex, did you? Oh, yeah. I mean, one of the things that Christ tells us to go is to go to the, you know, the centers, go where they dwell, you know. And me and Bernardo, we took a journey about five to ten minutes. We walked around the bridge and we had talked to some pimps and to some prostitutes that were there and we had shared the gospel with both of them. And just trying to share about Christ with them and tell them to repent, you know, that's where he calls us and there's a big need in that area because that's pretty prevalent from what we've noticed, so those conversations really stuck out to me on the trip. Yeah, yeah. Amen, amen. Any others? Jody, I know you had a good one. Pretty me on the spot. Okay, so me and Pastor Jerome had a really good conversation outside of a barber shop. I would say it was about, like, what, five, ten minutes as well from the house? Yeah, no more than five minutes. Yeah. And so I think it was our first conversation of the day and we talked to this one guy, his name was Jorge, and he had, like, two friends next to him, like a religious guy and then some other friend. That just came to listen. And at first, like, he didn't know anything. Like, he knew, like, he didn't even call himself a Christian, but he had, like, some knowledge, but twisted theology, and he let Pastor Jerome and I go through the entire law with him, and he, you can just, you could see, like, the guilt on his face and his concern. And so I remember me and Pastor Jerome just left that conversation rejoicing and we even prayed, like, in the corner because we were so happy. So it was a blessing. That was probably our best conversation. Oh yeah, that was absolutely the best. You know, what was really cool about that, too, was I think during that conversation, there was at least four other people that were in and out and listening to the conversation. There was that girl that worked there. There was another guy who was there during the end. There was that religious guy that we had to shut down, you know, and, but it was, yeah, it was, and his own response was just very, very encouraging. We were a little bummed when he didn't come to the Bible study, but we do have his contact info. We'll follow up with him. Yeah, I'll praise God. Any others, any other edifying conversations? Ricardo Valique. Yeah, so I think, I don't remember which day it was, but it was pouring, it was raining, and it was a wonderful, typical Dominican weather. And so we're trying to figure out what to do now. And so I saw this door, and I, you know, I guess, okay, maybe I should go there and talk to this lady. And she was on the phone, and like we already mentioned before, well, they dropped everything in the start. And because it was raining, she said, let me open up the door, but I know actually I shouldn't do that because, you know, it's, you know, we're not supposed to do this because, well, she tried to explain this. All to say that we started a conversation with her, my sister, Shal and I, we were there, she put some chairs, you know, at the front side of the house. And, you know, gradually, you know, we started having more to talk about, you know, why she needs Christ. And then the sun came out, and, you know, we started opening the tract. And we started reading, you know, and then I started, you know, you understand what we're trying to say here. It's not my word. It's your reading from God's word. I mean, I'm pointing out it was the tract, but I'm saying this is not what I say, but this is what God says. And she said, you know what, I heard about this, but I never realized that, you know, that's what it's about. And so I might consider that preventing you from, because we invited her. Well, my husband, you know, he doesn't like me to go to those places because of COVID, but probably because of other things. Now they didn't come, we invited them, but I think we're being called to just to share the gospel, right? So I think that was, it was encouraging to me, you know, in all those circumstances, even with rain, all those things, you know, people still hear the gospel. Amen, amen. Thank you, brother. I'll watch you, Ricardo. I don't have to start with this one. I have a few, but the one I just keep thinking, Praise God, it's a God named Jomai. Amen. Please, church, keep in prayer, because I spoke to him today. He felt like he had a desire to follow God and his stuff for him. And well, the day we got there, like it was at midnight, I believe, and the next day, it went out in the morning and doing 11 p.m., 11 a.m., we went back to change our clothes or to go out and eat and I spoke like I had him, his friend, I think, Preval René and Jomai and René, they was passed by and stepped out like an outside compound, and I heard one of them say, yeah, there's Haitian here, there's Haitian. I can hear they speak Creole and I heard, I was about to call my wife to see how she's doing and I smile, hey, let me call you back. And I went to them and say, hey, I know that. And I heard the phone and said, I know, I told this Haitian. I said, yeah, I'm Haitian. And that's where we start, and we start talking and he said, he claims himself as a believer, member of the church, get baptized, play music, all those things. And he kept talking where he came from to like Brazil, pass to Brazil, spend days on New Jersey to jail, all those things, whole story. He kept saying, yeah, God's love me, God's love me because he's been to all those old trials pretty much and he still think that's all. And I asked him, you know, you're gonna face standing before God one day and they're gonna judge you while you're in. So he said, yeah, I'm a safe man. He said, okay. And I went back to the law by grace of God and after I laid the law I asked him again. He said, hey, we call it all, based on what you said. And I'm not safe. He said, I'm not safe. And we spent about an hour talking outside and I invited him to come inside and he came back. They came inside, sat down with us and talking and it was to John, pass to John, Oliver, everybody and we talking and everything, each time I'm talking to him he keeps saying, man, I never heard that before. I never heard that before. He keeps saying that over and over again. He keeps saying that and I keep going, keep going by the grace of God and the next day and he was, each time she came she left at about 11, midnight, almost 11 o'clock. Technically I have to say, okay, you have to go. Because you have to go in the morning together. And next day early in the morning he showed up. He showed up again. Every single day he even went out. He asked me hey, Ricardo, is that okay to go out with you? And I asked Pastor John, and Pastor John was fine and Pastor John paired him with Oliver, brother Oliver, he went out. Brother Oliver said, he didn't say nothing but keep passing tracks to people. And what amazed me, I praise God for that. Like Pastor John said early, every single day like it's like, that reminds me the woman of the well. Like he heard the truth. The truth, God won't just say go find your husband. You'll say okay, you say right. You don't have one because you have fire already and the one you had is not yours. And the Bible said that lady went to the city, called everybody to come to the truth. And I felt like it's like the same word. Every single day he brought a lot of people. I believe more than 10 people. Family member, friend, young, all kind of people. Not only one trip, he just came drop them off and go back, get more and come back. And Pastor said, wow that's crazy. In a sense, I understand that before. And not only for one day, every day I don't see we left. Just go get people and drop them in and go back. I'm coming, I'm coming. Just go back again, get more people, come back to hear the word of God, which is that's really, that's a blessing. I praise God for that. Please keep him in your prayer because he came from the false Gospel and one day was talking Oliver and I. He asked Oliver and I how can I be right with God and the tree was talking to him and he realized that he has a member of the church and he said in that case I'm not safe. And he said he got baptized, he said all those things. You think those things, he said no, he's not. You do that to please your preacher because the preacher said they took money from him, bought a white clothes, bought a Bible all those things, he said nothing. And please keep his name in your prayer. And I talked to him and I was talking to him early today and keeping your prayer so God can work on his heart so he can follow God. That's one thing I'm still, every day I pray for him so God can save his heart. Amen. What's your name? Joe May. Joe May. You know you should have seen him when he brought the people to the Bible studies. When he would bring them he would sit them down treat them very tenderly, bend over make sure everyone was situated to be taught. He would, I think multiple times he would reposition himself so that he can hear the preaching better. He's on the edge of his seat listening to the Word of God preached. Like they said he came out evangelizing with us. He's out of work right now so he had the time to do it. He's looking for work at the moment. He didn't ask for a cent. There was nothing about him that seemed like he was he could be fooling us but man he's on a really good job if he's fooling us. He didn't ask for a cent. It looks like the Lord has saved him or working on his heart. If I had to just pick one that's been on my mind I think the rest of the team would probably say the same. It's Joe Meck, you know. Even to the point of us leaving it was just sad to he's just one of the people he just didn't want to leave behind. So yeah, keep him in your prayers and we hope to see him soon again. So, next question. Where do you see work still left to be done? What obviously Da Haban is not the biggest town in the world but it's not even a team of 12 or 16 isn't big enough to cover the whole area in a week and there's probably people being unmet that you're like, man I can't wait to talk to that person next time. What do you guys think about work left to be done? I'll start up here and then go down there this time. I pray God for the next trip to Da Haban and to have more labor because there's a lot to be done now near Da Haban since we just went there and as a believer God save us and if we have the truth and we have to go and spread the truth and I believe that's why not I believe that's what God said before he left he said go make disciples and don't be I'm sorry to say lazy I don't know how to say lazy but just go out and preach the gospel not only Da Haban anytime there's a chance that really I've been not going I feel guilty about that not going out for about over a year now but me going to Da Haban see that that pushed me to go preach the gospel. I believe church have to stand up and go and preach the gospel because sometimes we lay back waiting for the preachers elders to go do their work but you every single of us say you have to go and make disciples for the glory of God any others Balik? I guess one of the things that I saw and I seek lots of opportunities is that while we have been there blessed actually to share the gospel and we do see some responses I think that's a great opportunity also to follow up and I think that is the next challenge I know we're trying to get ready to the next steps and we feel blessed also that we have Pastor Guzman and others being involved but there's a big need because so many confusion there's a lot of confusion there and also I know we not a lot of Haitian here and I feel like only two people is starting off because I feel bad for the other team they say man I wish you were here I wish you were here because they're following some Haitian and I think they can do this Pasi Track which is good but some of them for Haiti some of them doesn't know how to read or they know the basic reading but I spoke to some of them I have to take time to the tracks to explain them to go step by step that's why I said you'll be best if God will to get more Haitian people speak Creole you can go for those kind of trips because there's a lot out there need to hear the cheer for God it sounds like the LaGuerre family should come and move down to the Havone and the Primes I see you Robinson any of you down on the floor any work left to be done yeah we need to pray more I mean just straight up we need more prayer that place is spiritually dark our fight is against flesh and blood but against principalities and heavenly places and there is a wickedness in that place so we need God to lift the veils off their eyes have the blind see we want to pray that more we want to pray that people get converted because there's just confusion cults wickedness these people are dead in their sins so as a church, as individuals we need to pray because we need God's help we need God's power we need God's strength in this area and we need him to prepare the way for the Bradleys to go there so that was one of the biggest things I think I took away from the whole trip amen thank you brother, any others yeah like I really echo the talk of oh Barbie go ahead I was just thinking because I realized there's a lot of material we took in Spanish like the Christology books and the Bibles and I'm not very familiar in how much material it's available in Creole because we were right at the border and so I realized that there was a lot of population that didn't speak Spanish so that comes to my mind like material in Creole more resources amen that's a very good one you know when I think of those things that kind of work left I think of short term and long term the follow ups obviously we've talked to people I can talk to the same people we want to stay in contact with them especially the people who have come to the Bible study and we're by God's grace we have a plan together to do that Pastor Guzmán brought another brother from his church who's committed to come every weekend like a gentleman named Jose Luis and this brother he's one of those guys it's just hard not to like him it's just a really kind of a big personality he's an older gentleman he commands respect when he walks into a room and he's very bold about preaching the gospel I even got the chance to sit down with him as he preached the gospel to a young man who showed up late after one of the Bible studies and I was just rejoicing at how sound his preaching of the gospel was even notice how he used pieces of the sermon that I preached that evening and his gospel preaching and it was just a little amen fest as he talked so he's going to be on the ground he's very he's a real hard worker Pastor Guzmán speaks very highly of him and he was speaking to Joe May he was speaking to a bunch of people and we hit it off really well and we're going to be in contact going soon he's going to be kind of the leader down there while we're away so we're very very thankful for him and so yeah short term just thinking about follow ups long term materials just like Barbie mentioned is a big deal and materials in two ways one there's like a fundamental problem with reading in general so Haitians by and large there's a large population of Haitians that cannot read of the population of Haitians down there who can read the reading level is very poor some of us who have been to Haiti together I think Robinson you probably remember I think you remember that time Ron Kazmir even many Haitians who can read the reading level is so low it's not at a level where you can pass someone a book to read so it's very difficult so helping people to learn to read is a big deal even Dominicans in that area they're not generally readers it's not like America down there you know in America people like to go to Barnes and Noble and buy books that they won't read you know I'm kind of telling them myself too buy books that we don't read and we kind of have this culture where even if we're not reading a book it's sort of like popular to like be known as a person who reads or a person who has books like we sort of think it good to be a person who reads a lot or has a lot of books it feels smart, intelligent but there's not really much of a culture like that down there you don't walk into houses and see big bookshelves full of books so there's a hurdle there but also too even for those who can read or do read the materials are sparse they're sparse in Spanish already and there's a lot of headway being made in Spanish but there's not a whole lot in Spanish and in Creole it's virtually non-existent they only have half of a good Bible and it's not really even available to the people and so you can pretty much forget about any good tracks available you can there's just hardly anything available so that's going to be something that work that we need to think about going forward, translating works so that people can read them, getting people in a position so that they can read them even if they have them so yeah I'm going to move on to another question what do you think about differently now having experience being in Dahabon for a week Alex or Bernardo yeah I'm just reading Serge's answer he's saying that what I think differently of the experience in Dahabon is relating to the poor and having compassion on them and yeah I also agree with that and just to add to that we had in one case there was a boy he might be 8 or 9 years old he was coming from Haiti every day and he was collecting scrap metal and we invited him and he entered and he sat down you can see he was visibly tired he was completely overloaded by work and I think he was trying to sustain part of his family and they are making like 20 pesos a day which is like and you could see a lot of people going to Dominican Republic to collect mangoes or something just because they are families they don't have anything to eat and I think we spoke with John Mayer he said that 80% of the people they have one meal or less in Haiti a day so just so you know the reality of the place yeah I mean I've traveled a lot it never gets easy you never get used to seeing the poverty you just see it everywhere and it's always a refresher to remind us how blessed we really are in this nation in this country of what we have and God has raised up people to teachers to solid biblical teachers to spread that and raise up people financially to give to different solid biblical missions and to to advance the kingdom of the gospel but the poverty is just you just never get used to it so I praise God for where we are at but it's something that we should all think about from time to time Amen I want to add as far as evangelistic conversations I've been very blessed by the Lord to have the opportunity to be in Guatemala as opposed to here and it's a little bit different but a little bit similar people there in the Habon they I notice at least with my experience they have when you talk to them like remember going over the law like they want to know like normally I've never heard the gospel this way or the Bible being explained this way but I was so encouraged because they wanted to just sit there and listen and they had so many questions just thinking about how different the people are there their hearts were very soft and when you remember going over the law like you were saying one of them had two wives going over the adultery sin and just explaining that he was just like scared like I didn't know that was wrong I was remember that guy with the motorcycle it was like two hour conversation I was like wow how did you not know like I was just in my mind like not knowing like how do you not know it's just very convicting in how much work needs to be there done there and I was just thinking about that and I know just that came to my mind amen thank you sister anyone else I just wanted to say quick well back to Jose Luis I want to take you back off that this guy he trains baseball players yes he does I played baseball I enjoyed baseball so I want to talk to him about that and he's in his room and he walks out and he just looks at me and he goes Charles Bergen and then he goes Martin Lloyd Jones and he's just mentioning these guys and I'm it was encouraging I was like man this guy he's reading some good authors I don't know why I just keep thinking about that since the end of the trip Alex don't forget that you promised to send him a book I know I'm going to send him that book I got to see it he can read English so yeah I'm going to send him that book yeah Alex decided to tell Jose Luis that he can still pitch 80 miles an hour and Jose Luis told Alex that he has a 16 year old who pitches 92 so he put me in my place yeah he told Alex to sit down you know how about you brothers any anything you think about differently having experience I think it's today was preaching about the oracles of God and this became very clear from the perspective of how privileged we are having all possibilities to really digital analog churches and at the time people there don't even have the time because already people have to do the money for one day and that's it I think we have to consider that there's plenty of things we can do and one of the things is consider them also through prayers I think that's really key I think we might need to become more warriors of prayer maybe just do this as a church think about all the people that need to be safe and that's what we're going through and that's financial difficulties that have to go through so I think knowing again from close the difficulties the hard life that have to go through but not forgetting they still need Christ so yes we care about them we pray for them we see people that are sick people that are on the street we see that and I think the best way to approach this we care about your soul and yes come come eat with us here don't forget their soul so I think we are privileged here so that would be my comment quick thing I can say like me and our brother Bernardo we technically preach every day or call Alex or Alex or Oliver sometimes there's doing Bible study we stand front and talk we see people if it's Spanish speaking some of them you see a surprise and they go on the way pass by and we stop them and they just go ahead and say wow we never see that over here like then I even go inside the church and at the fact we say hey we got Bible study here and we give a trial and say oh when now and there's come inside straight before asking nothing we see like our easy God put it for us to make disciple and they can hear the word of God and the same way too the other hands is our easy for those people let's say they find false preacher to get to that tractor so we need to pray for that too and cause there's not a false teacher outside the same way God tells people on our way we say hey come to the Bible study the same way it's a false teacher to tell them that to the old father the tractor to go to hear the gospel that make me take men over here in the harbour it's different it's a different world we live in pretty much when you come to the gospel amen amen yeah like so there's a number of themes that I heard from your folks like you mentioned poverty unlike America you go down there you actually meet real poor people you know over here you have homeless people who are overweight you know and they have everything that they need everything provided for down there you'll find people who beg for a living and begging in a weird way is their job because you know it's a good job and you're gonna have to beg to get your food we met one in the last trip a guy named Julio you also notice down there that people who are poor tend to stay poor it's not like it's not necessarily like America where we have this sort of you can sort of pick up yourself by your bootstraps type of thing going on college education and you can make something of yourself well you get a college education in Haiti that doesn't mean a thing you know and even in Dominican Republic there's limits especially if you live outside of the big cities so you see real poor people it causes you to to see how blessed we are here it also causes you to it highlights the importance of the gospel and how you see them there and how you realize man I cannot help this person apart from some of them but at least all I can do is help them for their soul's sake and give them what their soul needs and it just shows you how vain our life is you know it causes you to realize you can't mix the two you can't mix the gospel and riches and you know we are very privileged to have so many resources in our language so greatly available to us if you want to read a Puritan you go find that Puritan you know there's just so many things available to the point where we just can't take them all in and there because of that we have a responsibility we have a responsibility to share what we've learned and to see other people benefited for their soul's sake from what we have so yeah, I'm praised God for that so we have 15 minutes left and what I'd like to do is I'd like to open up questions to the rest of you what questions might you have for the team what questions might you have for me regarding the future of our ministry in Dahabon anything the floor is open Clyde so I've got two questions first question is if someone is considering to move down there economically like what would they have to think through because is it easy to find work down there that's one and the two probably could answer this one first do they have like Wi-Fi down there I'm just asking I know it's poor but I know you said there was a lady who was on a phone it's just a jungle bro do they have do they have Wi-Fi down there yes absolutely so to answer both let me know if I don't answer your questions in total so considering moving down the main thing is you'd have to be able to be able to get a job and to work down there I don't mean you unless it is you for someone looking to come down that person would have to be able to get a job so any skills that you might have that might be lucrative some way that you can provide for yourself and your family that would be the first thing financially I would recommend coming on a trip to kind of see and to price things and to be able to ask questions we know people down there who would be able to help with that obviously when you go to a different country it's a little weird because there are some things that are you're like oh man that's dirt cheap compared to the United States and then there's other things where you're like you pay what for that you know so there's a there's always some disparities here and there and things to consider depending on everyone's situation so and even without going down there you know anyone who's interested can talk to me and I can help you get in contact with some folks and so in between doing some research at home and maybe come in taking a trip and doing some exploration we can help you think through that process and so that you can pray and see if that's a way that the Lord might be leading you to work in his vineyard yes there's Wi-Fi there's good phone service we have really good internet at the house people there have cell phones out there we're talking about resources and they're not able to get to a Bible they could do that online yeah so people do have things like phones and stuff like that you find that is not uncommon is for someone to not have a phone or it's not uncommon to find someone who doesn't have electricity so you know here in the states right you'd have a particular level of income you know might be the bottom rung and then our income level might go way up high you know well there you might have some people at this level of income but then you also have some people at a much much lower level of income where they live on the bare necessities they get their food for the day they don't have any cell phone or anything and they just get by you know and so that's another thing the other thing too is some of the resource problems aren't necessarily due to like access to technology some of them it's really just due to the resources themselves just not being available at all you know for instance especially when it comes to Creole resources it's like even you can have all the internet in the world and it's hard to I've tried it you know it's really hard to find a novel in Creole to read you know just for practice you know let alone biblical books or good biblical books so I had a follow up question about so I understand you're saying some of the issue is people not being able to read with the internet and with those who have phones and with our Creole speaking people who might not be able to go there why can't you do I know Island people love WhatsApp would it be possible for Ricardo say or some of the Creole speaking others to do short devotional videos it doesn't have to be a big production we're roping Edgar and giving more work but reading the Bible in Creole or doing a short devotional recording it and if you're familiar with WhatsApp those things go like crazy you get it at one time they forward it on to all their family members and maybe that might be a way to start getting resources to them I like that idea thanks for bringing that up and I spoke to Pastor Joe about that about a group of Haitians to get a WhatsApp group and I told him straight this WhatsApp group is not going to be too like posting videos or like joke I told him that and I'm waiting for these numbers to be completed to create a group for like you said that's my desire to try to help them like that group will be I'm going to add Pastor Joe on it and Oliver and I'm going to add Brother Robinson they can post like you said sermon, audio, like in Creole try to translate them in Creole and they can have access to them and I spoke to Pastor Joe I'm going to create that group just for a Haitian living on that place they don't know how to read there's some prayer it's different between say something and doing it I was just going to encourage you to I didn't mean as far as translating a sermon I meant our brothers doing short devotionals in Creole because if you do something too long they're not likely to listen to the whole thing but if you're consistent and you do short little devotionals and they know every Monday this comes out you start creating an expectation for it and they get to build if you go through a series or something like that that's what I meant thank you sister, I appreciate that any other questions Tom it's a general question I was going to ask a similar question to what Clyde asked because I was reading up on the population of Dahabon it's about 30,000 or so it's what I was estimating it said 25,000 back in 2012 and just added a few population increase and you gave really good accounts of going to people and stopping them and they're willing to stop and talk to you for half an hour for 45 minutes is a lot of the people there are working in jobs do they have or other means of employment or work or is there a high unemployment rate in the population or is it just an agrarian society how is the society constructed that's a good question I don't have it all figured out the island culture is definitely different from what we have here so it's much more laid back in Dahabon and so you find out that people do have jobs but you just sort of sit down and wonder when do they go so you know I don't have it all figured out but yeah there are plenty of people with jobs I think some of what confuses a little bit is on the Haitian side there is a very high unemployment rate the unemployment rate on the Haitian side I think Pastor Tony in the back of the day said he said like this the employment rate is something like 23 or 26% you know so unemployment is like in the 70s and basically in Haiti you have to hustle to make money to sell something you go to the market and you do things but you're not really employed employed by an employer on the Dominican side it's much more stable I don't know what the numbers are but either way there is a very laissez-faire kind of bit to the culture where people have time when they're off they tend to go to people's houses and they're sitting and they don't mind getting up to come talk for a while and you have a bible study they'll come because they're not doing anything else so it's much different than here where we we tend to plan our days even some of us who are the worst the most poorly organized here in the states we kind of like what we want our day to look like so even the laziest person is like I'm going to binge watch something on Netflix from 5 to 10 and there it's a little different so I can't say I have it all figured out but yeah it is different does that answer the question? yeah thank you brother six still speaking about those that can't read I'm talking about Spanish speaking is there going to be anything that when the ministry is down there it's going to be available or to help those that can't read be able to read because even if they have a phone or a bible they still can't read it all they can do is hear yeah I've thought about that a little bit I can't say my thoughts are fully formed about that but I think reading is essential for a Christian we're people of the book and so what I kind of envision is putting something together to help people to learn to read and using biblical materials to do that it will take some work to like assess what that's going to take you know how much time how much effort it may not be something we'd be able to do immediately or maybe something that we just have to do immediately so it could also be something that would give us an opportunity to evangelize to more people something that you can invite people over to the church building and preach the gospel to them as you teach them and their kids to read so yes I have ideas but not fully formed but I'm just imagining what would we be without being able to read it would be a mess thank you brother Raquel just because I have a lot of family throughout the Dominican Republic I wanted to answer a little bit from what I know from my family employment I know I have families that live in Harabacoa Constanza, Santo Domingo and Santiago and other parts the majority they usually travel to populated cities for work so just in case so I know when I went the last time Anita and I we talked to a couple of ladies and there was a man that Pastor Jerome, sorry I'm a little out of breath Pastor Jerome and I had met, his name is Jose and he says he has family that live in Santo Domingo they send him money so that's one of the ways that many of them that live in Tahabong they get money through other family members that live in populated cities yeah thank you sister in fact that reminds me of a conversation that Jati and I had with a guy named Wilson and he worked in Santiago and but he lives in Tahabong yeah Anita my question was similar to a six though because last time on the trip we came across a couple of people who didn't read and so the good thing about the Spanish is that I was able to show a u-version to be able to read the Bible and she could hear it in Spanish but then on the Creole side I don't know are there audio bibles in Creole yeah well you know the Creole Bible right now is a very very very poor translation if you want to call it a translation in certain spots and what we do have that is an accurate translation is only the New Testament and Psalms and Proverbs and my understanding it's not very widely available it's more available in a poor difference but outside of there you know it's not readily available even to get a bunch of copies for myself I think you remember me ordering it it's it was a chore to order it's not like I could just go online and click a few buttons it was making calls and sending money to a particular place to get bibles hand packaged so that would be a challenge Jesse when will be the next mission trip and once you move how much space do you have like how many people can go and visit are you going to have regular mission trips for us to go and visit is there space how does that work very good question so the next mission trip is up in the air so it's originally scheduled to be in November but we might change the plans a little bit since we're planning on moving there in January to see how whether that's a good idea or not or how we're going to do that but we do plan to host mission trips definitely being down there and in the church house right now we have I think 12 beds in total we got a bunch of bunk beds we got a very special room for the ladies it fits four ladies it's got its own bathroom it's like the best room in the house and then the rest of the guys you know we have there's another two rooms so so yeah 12 people in total and we'll take as many as we'll come and as often as you would come we want your company so yeah was that a hand Christy Christy Sixto it just came to mind what's the progress on personages for you guys for you to live yeah so right now the plan is for when we go down there for the first month or two that we'll stay in Santo Domingo the capital for a little bit just to help get the family acclimated Santo Domingo is a little more Americanized and it'll be an easier transition for my family also too it will give my wife and some of my older kids and maybe even me a chance to attend a Spanish language school just for a little bit like we're basically I'm trying to prioritize acclimation of the family to the Dominican Republic Pastor Guzman's church is there well and we would travel on the weekends to Dahabon for a while and during that period of time that would be the time where we would start looking for a house to rent down there there are plenty of houses there plenty of even big houses that we would rent but yeah that's kind of so we don't have a particular spot right now we've looked at a few houses here and there but we're gonna hold off until January or February before we actually choose a place to stay yeah thank you brother any other questions Job's so considering what you said about the literacy and those kind of things would it make sense to have a simpler track for both languages yeah I thought about that and and working on that thought about a track with one language on one side and one on the other thought about doing the opposite but definitely a simpler track is in order just because the track that we have it's an awesome track I don't know quite frankly I don't know a better one but it's for Dominican to look at it's intimidating to see that much text so we'd like to get something a little simpler I saw one there that was just a little too simple for my liking and I want to have enough content there where I can say you know if you read this and understand it and you obey the Lord's command to you here that you will be saved so I think we can shorten it and we'll see what kind of progress we can make anyone else I think we're out of time anyway I will thank you all for your prayers I'd like to remind you to pray in four different areas four P's the first P is purpose that the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in Da Havon and in the surrounding area particularly in Haiti as well the second P are the people pray for the people that the Lord would save people that he would build the core group to form a gospel preaching Bible believing church in the area the third P is the pastor pray for me and my family pray that for my development and ministry pray for our acquisition of the language pray for our ability to assimilate into the culture and process pray for the logistics you know moving is tough you know across town it's even tougher when you move from state to state it really gets crazy when you move to a different country especially when you have to cross a big body of water to do it so pray that the Lord would give us wisdom and guidance in that process of moving and also I want to direct you too to consider giving to the work our website is missions da habon.org that's da habon like Alex said earlier with a J not an H missions da habon.org that was the best way to say it I like this guy so missions da habon.org and from there I encourage you to become one of our regular monthly donors and your your faithful giving will contribute to preaching the gospel in a place where it is not being preached in a place where there is great opportunity on both sides of that border so let's pray and ask the Lord to bless our efforts Father in Heaven thank you for what you have done in da habon up until this point thank you for how you have opened so many doors to get there just thinking of how we started in Haiti and how through the court over the course of time you have allowed us to meet people and see opportunities open up for preaching of your gospel and now Lord we're coming close to a point where we're actually looking to have my family move down there and Lord we pray that you would bless our work in da habon that the Lord Jesus Christ would be glorified that you would save people in the area that you would build a core group to plant a good solid bible believing church that you would help me and my family as we learn the language as we seek to assimilate into the culture as we seek to work in ministry and also Lord please guide us and all wisdom in the process thank you Lord for the team that went on this last trip thank you for all of the evangelism and Lord for all the comradery and the friendships that we've built with one another the fellowship that we had the encouragements from the scripture together and Lord thank you for all of my brethren here as a whole for all of their prayers for all of their support for all of their advice and counsel so Lord please Lord bless our church and bless our efforts as a church to plant churches and Lord may this church plant be one that honors you in Jesus name we pray Amen