Sure have I, sure have I, Sure
have I, Sure have I, Sure have I, Sure have I, Sure have I,
Sure have I, Sure have I, Sure have I, Sure have I, OK. Gracias. Gracias. OK. Abran sus Biblias, Timoteo. Saludo Timoteo, capitulo tres. OK? Timoteo? Timoteo? Down Timberline. Second Timothy. Capitulo tres. Capitulo tres. Leemos, uh, vesiculo cinco. Cinco. Estoy muy contento de
estar aquí en la noche. Me gusta mi viaje a Santo Domingo,
the Dominican Republic of the Dominican Republic. La iglesia
es muy bien. La iglesia dice hola a la iglesia
en Central Bautista. Entiende? We had a good trip. I had a good
trip. And the church there says hello to the church here at Central
Baptist Church. start to have my daughter translate
for me, but I didn't want to embarrass her. She's better,
much better than I am. They told me my Spanish had gotten
much better after the last day, but then I left. I have to relearn
it again. 2 Timothy chapter 4, this, I
said chapter 3, I mean, capitulo 4. 2 Timothy 3 chapter 4 verse 5 is
a verse I want to read that kind of a springboard for what I'm
going to say. Paul, the apostle, is talking to a young preacher
named Timothy who eventually became a pastor at Ephesus. Paul
told him in verse 5, Watch thou in all things endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of thy ministry."
Do the work of an evangelist, he told Timothy. Now, an evangelist is not a pastor. A pastor is one who stays in
one place all the time and preaches to the same congregation of people,
but an evangelist, which Paul said in Ephesians, the Lord gave
some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists. John the Baptist
was an evangelist. In our modern times, Rolf was
an evangelist. He was a John the Baptist in
our modern era whom the Lord used mightily. Every grace church we know of
somehow or another indirectly associated with Ralph Barnard's
preaching back in the early 50s. Bill Clark in our day was an
evangelist. Bill Clark. That's a man who
travels all over Preaching the gospel in various places, especially. Pioneer situations, or that is
places where the gospel. Where there's no church. And
where the gospel is being. Where church is being established,
so Paul told young Timothy to do the work of an evangelist.
Though Timothy was a pastor, eventually, Paul told him still
do the work of an evangelist so. And what he's saying is if
doors are open to preach, especially in a new area, go. Go. Go preach. Verse two, he
said, preach the word. Preach the word. And we know
Peter said, this is the word which by the gospel is preached.
So while my place is here, my calling, my life is here, and
my desire is here. with you, yet I'm told to do
the work of an evangelist, and you send me, which you should. And I appreciate all that you
do for me, enabling me to go, supporting and paying the expenses
and so forth of whoever comes in my absence, and helping me
with the trip as well. But this, so this is, I'm told
to do this, you see. The door is open, and this truly
is a door that has been opened, and it's a high honor to go in that
door. Well, these visits to the Republic of Dominica are a truly
evangelistic effort, because, They do not have this is a young
young church a pioneer truly a pioneer effort I believe. And
they do not have a pastor they do not have a clear cut leader.
And it's a. Very very young. Church people
are literally are young. The oldest. person who attends
regularly would be Rinaldo's mother, who is in her late 60s,
I guess, which is young. Right, Henry? Very young. But
the rest are young, younger people in their 50s and 40s and 30s
and so on. But this is a place, the Republic
of Dominica is a place where I don't know that the gospel
has been here in modern times. I don't know that, at least I
don't know of any. And we're pretty well acquainted
through the likes of Bill Clark and others. You remember Dan
Parks when he was down in the Virgin Islands, which is real
close to the Dominican Republic. We have a real opportunity to
preach the gospel in a pioneer place. Brother Cody Gruber and
I, Missionary Cody Gruber and I, as well as Pastor Greg Elmquist,
you all got to meet Greg down in Cherokee. And we've all been
going down. Altogether, we've made several
trips together to the Dominican Republic. Cody more so than Greg
and I. But all three of us are very,
very encouraged and optimistic that the Lord has indeed started
a church there. And since the Lord started something,
we're confident that what he has begun, he will perfect. He will finish. He will bring it to a maturity. Now,
they're small in number. Very small in numbers, you'll
see in a moment. At very humble beginnings, I'm
going to tell you the story. I've told you before the story
behind this little group. And I had to call Brother Greg
and get him to refresh my memory on it. And it's such a blessing. Very small in number yet and
very humble beginnings, yet that's the way the Lord's Church starts
everywhere. That's the way it started in the scriptures, the
Lord's Church. Very, very humble beginning. Very humble beginning. Started
in homes, did it. Like Lydia, you remember? Lydia
and the apostle preaching to her and Mary and Mark and so
forth. Every church started that way. Now the history of this
little group, I'll try to get it correct. Four
or five years ago, Pastor Todd Nyberg, it's just marvelous the
way the Lord moves, the way he does things. He's known unto
God all his works from the beginning. And things he does... Years previous will bring consequences
years later. Things he does over here have
repercussions down here. It's just amazing, you know,
what he'll do through this man, this woman, this person. And
the end result is seen somewhere down the road. The Lord's providence,
sovereign providence is amazing. But four or five years ago, Pastor
Todd Knight, if you remember the story, His sister was attending. She had to move to Orlando, Florida. Okay, her husband got another
job and moved from Ashland, Kentucky, down to Orlando, Florida. Susan
is a fine believer. That's Todd's sister. And she
went looking for a Grace Church. Well, the closest thing she could
find was one of these Reformed places, which is not Grace, by
the way. And I'll say more about that
later. But anyway, she heard, she was hearing some doctrine
from this fellow named Elmquist. And she would take him to task. And every time he preached, you
know, it's the naive way to speak your mind. And she just liked
Todd in that respect. And she'd take Pastor Elmquist
to task after a message, and he realized, This woman, this
is no silly woman here. She knows something. Well, anyway,
Greg, Pastor Elk was leaving town and this is just the way
religion does it. Can you find somebody to preach
in my absence? It doesn't matter. And Susan
said, my brother is a preacher. Well good, can he get it to come?
Not knowing what he was doing. And Susan said, yes, I'd love
to have him down here. So you know the rest of the story. Todd preached and the Lord used
that Greg and just heard the tape and it struck, it convicted him.
Greg heard the gospel for the first time. And the Lord split
that, well he didn't split it, he just took a handful of people
out of that multi-million dollar organization and with Brother
Greg, taught Brother Greg the gospel, and brought them out
and they started meeting in a home, just a handful of people. Now
that's another story, but it's all related. In that church in
Orlando are many Hispanic people. people, Latin American people,
that come from the Republic of Dominica, okay? One of the men,
this is interesting, I was reminded of this, one of the men named
Hugo, when Greg, when Brother Greg
learned the gospel, he started preaching it, and He in Orlando,
he preaches with an interpreter for the Hispanic people in that
church. Okay. Before Brother, well, Hugo,
the interpreter, would stand with Greg, just like we do in
Mexico, and he would interpret in Spanish for the Hispanic people. Well, they told me that Hugo
didn't believe the gospel at first. And he was changing what
Greg was saying. While he was preaching, Greg
would say something in English and Hugo changed it, because
he didn't like that. So finally somebody told him,
one of them said, hey, he's not saying what you're saying. Well,
anyway, to make a long story short, the Lord saved Hugo, taught
him the gospel. Hugo's wife, Zobie is her name. Cute little Dominican girl. All Dominican girls are rather
cute. But anyway, his wife came from
Santiago, which is a town far north of Santo Domingo. Santo
Domingo is down, I don't have a big map. Santa Domingo is down on the
south coast and Santiago is on the north coast, all right? Well, three years ago or less,
Hugo was visiting his wife's home there in Santiago. Now,
Hugo is a believer now, all right? And he arranged for Pastor Greg
to come down and preach to Her family. And they gathered
20 some people and met in the backyard. Brother Greg, now he
preaches what he does. He preaches Christ. And there's
another man in the church in Orlando named Alex Pena. Alex Pena. Okay, and he's a fine
man. What a fine man. What a fine
family. My family's medical. You. Isn't
it? You know, Alex is a short, bald-headed
man. and his wife, son, family, beautiful,
wonderful people, believers. Brother Alex Pena's family is
from Santo Domingo, down south. Brother Alex heard that Greg
was going to go down there, and he asked him to go down there
and preach to some people. And so he set it up for Brother
Greg to preach in his sister's home, his sister It's named Solange,
and I ate dinner in her home. Wow. It's a Spanish architecture
type house, and you've got to understand, I rushed it in some
of those places. It was amazing. Had a big barbecue
out back, pollo. Oh, my gusta pollo, chicken. barbecue chicken and plantains,
you know, bananas and fruit and just sitting in this backyard.
Well, this is where they met in this backyard. And anyway,
it came time for Brother Greg to preach to, and they got about
20 some people together to meet in Alex's sister's home in their
backyard. All of these people that came
to this service were members at that time of a reformed place,
a church reformed, which has doctrine, but that's it. They
come from that cell up in Pennsylvania, who has a strong influence down
there. Some of you know who I'm talking about. Well, before the
meeting started, a man came who was an elder in that place. And he told Greg and the man
who owned the home, Mike, and Solange, his wife, he said, I
want to talk to you all in private. So he took them to another room
and began to ask Brother Greg, what are you going to preach
to my people? And Greg began to tell him, you
know, I'm just going to preach the gospel. I'm going to preach
Christ. Well, the man was very concerned. He did not want these
people hearing what Brother Greg had to preach. And eventually, Greg said they
talked for 30 or 40 minutes until eventually the man convinced
this man and his wife, who owned the home, to not have a meeting,
to call it off, send everybody home. And you see why I read
this in Acts 17. You know, these Jews stirred
up the people and said, don't you let them preach here. Well,
they all left. And Brother Greg thought, why
did I come here? Well, he and them, they meet
late down there. They like to, they like to get
together late. A service that started at 8.30
at night and ended, they like to sing. Boy, they like to sing.
And after service, they like to meet together. And boy, I
said, my bedtime is generally about 9.30, you know. And, but
anyway, they like to stay up late. Well, Brother Greg and
Hugo went to a restaurant at midnight. At midnight, okay? And they were eating in one of
these outdoor restaurants. Always, year-round, it's just
tropical weather. They were eating in one of these
outdoor cafes, and Rinaldo Pena, Alex's brother, who had come
to that meeting, Rinaldo Pena, This man, right here, Rinaldo. I tear up thinking about him.
Rinaldo Pena came to that rescue. He took his family home, his
four of the most beautiful girls you've ever seen in your life,
and wife, and she hurt too. But he took his family home and
about midnight he came to this restaurant. He knew that that's
where they were and he sat down with them and he said, now I
want to hear what they didn't want me to hear. And Brother Greg talked about
the gospel to Brother Rinaldo for a long time. From there and
then on, Brother Rinaldo began to get tapes, all the tapes he
could get. And then Brother Cody went down,
first time, after Greg. And then I went down. And that's
the history of that little place. People began to come and they
began to meet. Who had to spy on you? Small
things, Zachariah said. Small things. Greg said, well,
let's just go to a restaurant. I thought of so many scriptural examples. Noah and seven persons
populated the whole earth. Our Lord and twelve men turned
the world upside down. I keep thinking, I keep thinking
about this situation in light of something that happened 37
years ago. 37 years ago, a man who was from
Alabama, worked in a steel mill, living at the time in Texas,
had a wife, small children, this man was in his 20s at the time. Yeah, early 20s. And he was living
in Texas at the time and the Lord saved him and he felt called
to preach and just felt called to go to Mexico. And so he took that family down
to Mexico and worked his way down through Mexico and preached
wherever somebody would give him a hearing. Any home, any
little grass hut. And he ended up eventually in
Yucatan peninsula of Mexico City capital city of Medina. And you
know what the Lord has done to that man, Walter Kruger, many
years later. And this little work in Dominica,
who knows? Who knows? It could well be such
a beginning. At least I believe, Brother Cody
believes, Brother Greg believes it's a true church. Let me give you a little bit
of factual some facts about Republica Dominica. Dominican Republic
is right in the middle of the Caribbean. That's how you pronounce
it. Caribbean. And it's next to Haiti, where
some have visited the island of Haiti. It's in the bunch of
islands known as the West Indies. This is where Christopher Columbus
landed, not at Dominican Republic first, but in some islands right
above that. But you can see, I think you
can see, the United States, and right down here, Cuba. Cuba, and then, I know you can't
see very well, but Little island right here, Haiti and Dominican
Republic are equally divided, this island of about 35,000 square
miles, yeah. It's real close to Cuba, real
close to Cuba, right beside Puerto Rico. And here's a little bigger
map. As you can see, right here is
Dominica. It's bigger than Haiti. And right here is Cuba. Right here is Yucatan Peninsula,
Mexico. So it's right down in there.
It's in the tropics. Caribbean island, tropical. Nice weather all the time. 7.9 million people on that, in
that country, 7.9 million people, which is over a million or more
than the state of Virginia. It's about the size of a third
of Virginia, about a third the size of the state of Virginia,
and a million more people or more. As I said, this is where
Columbus went, he kind of settled that
island and his, any history people? I think it
was his son or somebody founded Santo Domingo, which
means Holy Sunday. It's Catholics, 90% Catholic.
Always has been in Spanish, Spaniards, Columbus was Spanish, Catholic. horrible oppression, you know,
something about that. Well, this place, and I hope you'll bear with me, it's
all very interesting. This place is rich land. Puerto Rico means rich port.
It's rich land. All of those Caribbean islands
are very rich, very rich, very fertile land. You can grow anything.
You can grow anything down there. If they had good governments,
they could be rich, they could be well off, but, you know, the
governments are just not like ours. Well, let me change that. The governments are just not
above board. And it's a very rich land. It's very
tropical. They have mountains in the range
of 9,000 to 10,000 feet high. I didn't realize that until this
trip. Huge mountains. And then down to coastal cities
like Santo Domingo, rich land, tropical, beautiful coast, all
just beautiful. I don't want to show you the
picture that I took from my motel room because I don't want you
to think I was really rough looking out over the Caribbean. Beautiful. However, now, the city of Santo
Domingo, which is the capital city, and by the way, it's the
oldest city in the Western Hemisphere. I'm talking North and South America,
western half of the North Globe, which is the oldest city. And
that old city, colonial city, still exists, and it's pretty
unique. There's over two, maybe three
million people in this place, and it is indescribable. Overcrowded, dirty. And I'm not saying, I wouldn't
dare say anything about our brethren, their hometown. This is their
home. And I'm not saying anything,
I'm just stating a fact. They know it. And they're embarrassed
by the fact that it's filthy, it's sad, it's just awful. It's
just so jam-packed with people and poverty. It's so, oh my. There are really two classes
of very rich and very poor. Very poor. And it's noisy and
it's indescribable. I've been in some world-class
cities and this is a place that's indescribable. If anybody's been,
like, maybe to Hong Kong or someplace, it's awful. I can't describe
to you how it is. It's just unbelievable. I told
Brother Rinaldo that I would never drive a car here. I never
would not get behind the wheel of a car here. Signs mean nothing. They mean
nothing. Lines on the road mean nothing.
Forget it. Red lights, they might as well
not have them. Speed limits, forget it. It's
every man for himself. And noisy and awful. If people
run, if you can hold it together with bailing wire, you can drive. It's awful. High crime, as you
can imagine with such poverty, high crime, everyone's windows
and doors are barred, I mean cast iron bars. And in the midst
of this mass of humanity, noise and filth, is a little group
of believers meeting in a home. And it consists of, right now, consists of three
men, and I only mention those who are regular. Three men and eight or nine women. Now, this
is some of the folks. The women, I compared them to some of you
ladies, all of you ladies. When I think about these ladies,
I would give each one of them a name of one of the, our precious
ladies here that just, that you would love, you're going to follow.
You're going to meet them someday. If not here, there. But they are just the salt of
the earth. Strong believers of women. They
are, they're just something else. and three men, two of which are
the leaders, Roberto Martinez and Rinaldo Pena. This is Rinaldo,
one of his daughters, Samantha. They had four girls, black hair,
brown eyes, all smiles, and they had me right there, Steven, right
there, the whole time. And Rinaldo's wife, Laura, and
his mother, Armida, Each one of these ladies are just dear,
dear. They meet right now. This is the home they're meeting
in. And Teresa, I call her Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa. But Teresa
is, oh, she is a Mother Israel, that's for sure. She is an outspoken believer concerning the gospel
This is Rinald, Laura's mother, Rinald's mother-in-law, his mother,
his sister, and this is Roberto's sister. Precious people, all
of them. I have invited some of them to
come visit us. I sure hope they will. But the two men, Roberto Martinez
and Rinaldo Pena, alternate preaching. Neither one of them would claim
to be a preacher. They translated for me the whole
time. Did an admirable job. They both speak, well, Roberto speaks the better
English of the two. Rinaldo, I believe Rinaldo is
perhaps the one the Lord is You might plan, Brother Cody
and I, to go down there and do just that, but for other reasons
we haven't, didn't at this time. Brother Cody was going elsewhere.
But at some point in the near future, perhaps, we will. And
that would be a blessed time and a high honor, privilege to
do that. Because this man is worthy. Oh, he's worthy. of who the world
is not worthy of. I've written all those things.
Like I said, I can't hardly think about him without... My wife
hasn't met him yet, but she loves him already. Just talking to
him on the phone, don't you? And Hannah. But they alternate
preaching. I haven't heard them preach,
but Brother Cody says they do a good job. I'll tell you a little
bit about what went on when I was there. I first preached from March 16th. Preach the message
here, and I also preach this for down in Orlando, Florida.
Message verses 15 and 16. Go ye in all the world and preach
the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Well, Brother Rinaldo preaches
from my pastor's commentary. Roberto does too. They both use
the commentary to preach from, and tapes. They get anybody's
tapes they can find and preach those messages. When I preached
the first time from that passage, let me go back a little bit. Before every time I was to preach,
I would have whoever it was translated for me to meet with me in my
motel room and go over my notes with me and go over like look
at the scripture verses, make sure that the scriptures you
know, make sure he understood where I was coming from, so he
could, you know. Well, I told him that first night
I'm going to preach to Mark 1660. He said, I heard the message.
I heard you preach that on tape in Orlando. He said, I preached
it last week. I said, oh, well. I said, that's
all right. I said, let's hear it from the
mouth of two or three witnesses. So, And he told me afterward
it wasn't even similar, you know, it was changed. But it was similar
at that time. Nevertheless, there's other things.
We sure don't exhaust the passage. But anyway, I thought that was
good. It was most amazing to me. Now, they meet in a small home. I hope we don't run out of tape. My dad wanted to hear this. They
meet in a small home, very small. It's hard to find them. They're
looking for a permanent place to meet, a public place to meet,
and I looked at some with them. The problems being, it's not
like here. It's not like here. You just
go find a, you know, take your pick of many places and pay a
fairly reasonable price. They're not there. A good location's
hard to find, and it's very expensive, and there's a restriction, and
facilities are very limited, and then, like I told you, the
person that owns it might not be willing to promise it every
single serving, you know. Well, they found a place they
thought they liked and were going to get, and the fella at the
last minute said, no, I don't want to rent it to a religious
place. And I really don't blame him. I wouldn't either. Unless
I move the gospel. But anyway, so they're having
difficulty finding a place. But they live right now in Mother
Teresa's house. And she has opened up her home
now for over a year. And I reminded her and them of
how the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom When David was bringing
the ark back to Jerusalem, they parked that ark in the house
of Obed-Edom for three months. And the Lord, it said, blessed
that whole house. And I asked Roberto, Teresa,
Carina, has the Lord blessed this house because of the gospel?
Oh, si. One of a kind. Understand, this is a small,
very small, cramped quarters in a hard to find place in the
midst of a jungle. But people, the thing that encouraged
me was there was a visitor, a new face every circle. Every single
circle. A neighbor, a friend, a co-worker
or something. They'd find that place. I've
been there now a total of about 14 days. If they let me out in
the middle of that city, Roberta, I'd forget it. I might as well
call home. I mean, I can't make heads or
tails of that place. But they found it. They found
that building home. Visitors. And the first time
I was there, man, I'll have the picture. Manuel and Olga, his
wife, nice young couple. He's the one I told you about
that I was the first one I ever heard the gospel from. And remember,
he said after the service, I've never heard these words before.
In broken English, he was saying, I've never heard these words
before. I want to hear these words again. And he's been there
every sermon. Every circle, and they're precious
people. But the first trip I took down
there was a getting acquainted time. I didn't know them. It
was, you remember my story, wondering why am I here? And getting acquainted
with them. But this trip, I went back to
see family. Boy, I was anxious. so anxious
to go back and see my family. You know those people real quickly
because they're so loving and so hospitable. You just know them immediately. Everyone there had me in their
home many times, to the point where I got embarrassed that
they were lavishing me, feeding me, and doing so much for me.
Please. Thank you. Look at 2 Timothy 2. This is
2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. I'm going to go over
with you a little bit of what I dealt with down there. This
is a young church, as I said, along with preaching the gospel.
You know, that's why I was there every time the gospel needs to
be proclaimed. But also the needs of a young,
struggling church need to be dealt with all the scriptures. Speak up concerning the young
church, Timothy, his instructions, the young Timothy, chapter two,
verses one and two. He told young Timothy, who was
an evangelist and a young pastor and young church, be strong in
the grace that's in Christ Jesus, strong message of grace, Timothy.
Every time. If you preach grace, it's a strong
message of grace. That's what really edifies it. If nothing else, that the church
will grow. I told the folks after a while
dealing with preachers, pastors, I was talking to them about a
pastor, what a pastor is and what to look for, what scripture
says. And I said, if anything, you can do with a man who's not
so sociable. And doesn't have all the social
skills, but you sure want him preaching the gospel above all
else. And he doesn't have to be the
best preacher in the world, but just solid. But so there's the injunction,
preach, be strong in the grace. Verse two, the things you've
heard of me among many witnesses, commit thou to faithful men.
And so that's what I was doing to Rinaldo and Roberto and the
church as a whole. And more than anything, my desire
in going down there, knowing the situation, was to encourage
these two men. Because God raises up men, men,
to lead the church. And to encourage these two men,
one of which, as I said, I believe the Lord is, Raising up and perhaps
we'll use pastor. I don't know, but. Then I preached
from March 16, as I told you, and then I preached. Go to Acts
2 real quick, Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. And this is. Was the general direction that
the preaching took while I was there, Peter's message at Pentecost. There's a large influence of Pentecostalism down
there, charismatic as everywhere throughout the world, you know,
that stuff has taken over the world, you know. Especially in
poor countries, you know, they get the people, they got to have
some excitement. Well, Peter's message at Pentecost,
you know, it's not about tongues and signs, it's about the Lord
on the cross. And then the results of that
message that Peter preached at Pentecost was the establishing
of a church at Jerusalem. The Lord saved people. David gladly, you remember Sunday,
verse 41, David gladly received his word and were baptized. The
same day were added several thousand souls. And so I preached on not
only Peter's message, but then Peter, the church, Sunday morning,
that message you heard. Church, what's the church all
about? What's the church do? What's the message and the means
of the church? What are we meeting for? All of those things. And then look at verse Forty
four and five, they all believe were together and had all things
common. Sold their possessions and goods. Dealt with giving
and service and administering the church and commitment and
what it takes to have a church. It's not just a place, you know,
you go on Sunday and that's it. It's a lifelong commitment of
service and giving all that you can give in order to have the
gospel there for your family, for the community, for your for
your friends, how much is the gospel worth? So it's a commitment,
you know, to take whatever's necessary. And then lastly, I
dealt with the leaders of the church, pastors, elders, deacons,
what the scriptures says about that. And final exhortations to them
to seek the Lord's will, pray and wait on the Lord. The Lord, well, they're a little
discouraged. Those two men don't feel like leaders, don't feel led,
called at this time. They don't feel called. But they
love it when they call me pastor when I'm there. And Renaldo kept
dropping little hints, you know, when you're going to move here.
things like that. They do that. They want so bad. They would love for Cody to Gruber
to move there. They would love that so much. They really looked to Brother
Cody for their leadership, because obviously, the language and,
you know, well, you know Cody. Wouldn't you like to have him
as pastor? But they just love it when anybody comes down. preach
the gospel of them. And these are sweet and blessed
people. I just look forward to humiliating
them someday. They love the gospel. They love
each other. They just, they're happy people
in spite of difficult lives, and they do live difficult lives
for the most part. They're very happy. They're happy,
very contented, happy people. They love to sing. Last night
I was there, by 11 or 12 o'clock, they wanted to sing and eat. And they're so happy. They got
me a guitar and wanted me to play the guitar. And we sang
for the wee hours. And then they brought out the
gifts. They prove the theory of their
love for the gospel. And I'm just confident that the
Lord will bless that kind of love for the gospel and his people. And I encourage them to be patient. The Lord is going to send you
a pastor. And I look forward to meeting
the man or whoever. And I hope to go again. I really do. I hope you get to meet perhaps
some of them, like they have expressed a desire to come here.
Perhaps the Pena family, Ronaldo, Laura, and their four daughters.
If they move, oh my, you'll know why I'd love to go with them. So let's remember them in prayer.
I hope this has given you a little heart of the people there. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for your
grace, your mercy. Again, we give you thanks for
all things. By your grace, we are what we
are, have what we have, especially the gospel of your grace. And
this gospel, this blessed gospel that makes, turns sons of Adam
into sons of God, that unites the hearts of people so different,
it immediately unites and knits the hearts of your people. The
gospel of your love, your mercy and your grace, it's in Christ.
How we thank you. It's a miracle, it's a wonder,
it's amazing what you do through preaching the gospel. life-giving
word of truth. Thank you, Lord, for what you've
done in the Republic of Dominica. Thank you for those people. We
ask from the depth of our being that
you would bless these people abundantly, provide their needs,
hold them up, encourage them, call out your sheep there. Thank
you. for giving us a small part in
this work of yours. Bless them, we pray. Bless our
people. Be with your people here throughout the rest of this week.
In Christ's blessed name, we pray and have met together. Amen. Thank you.