The Lord is with us now, He is
with us now. He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now. Yes, Jesus knew the truth the
way that He willed it to be. We believe in Him with gladness,
and we are fully glad. Oh, we trust Him, oh, we trust
Him, oh, we trust Him now. Gracias, Senora. Es muy bueno
ir aquí con ustedes otra vez. What I'm saying is, it's good
to be back home again. And I thank God for the safe
journey. Thank God for the opportunity
to preach the gospel to people in the church in San Domingo. I've been traveling to Mexico
for many years, since I was Hannah's age, 14 years old. and picking up a little bit of
the language trying to. And this time in particular,
it was an absolute necessity that I know something, because
I was thrust into a situation. I didn't have Cody, I didn't
have someone to lean on for the language, and was thrust into
a predominantly Spanish-speaking situation. That, what I just said to you,
very elementary. I don't know the language. And
I sound like a two-year-old, you know, to them. But they appreciate
me trying to talk to them, trying to speak to them. It's very frustrating,
very difficult to preach and even speak to people through
a translator. And I would like so very much
to really study the language and learn it in order to preach
to these people. Because I told the brother that
translated for me, I said, Now, you better be saying this exactly
like I say it. I said, that's what God demands
of me in preaching, that all I'm supposed to do is repeat
what he said. And I said, and that's what I
want you to do. Don't add anything to it. And he'd say something,
and I said, did you say that right? And I want so badly to
say it myself. So I don't know, you know, you
know, there are many Hispanic people in this area. You see
them at the grocery store and so forth. And I don't know what the Lord has
in store, but I received a message on my answering machine the other
day. It was completely in Spanish
from somebody in this area. And that was before I left for
the Dominican. And I caught the phone number. But I thought, well, I'll call
her up. I don't know what to say. So I don't know. And I was encouraged
by the brother. The only way to learn the language
is to do it and to be put in a situation where you either
speak it or you don't get by. And the last day that I was there,
I was encouraged by one of the brethren who told me, you have
learned so much since you've been here. So, I don't know, I've thought about this
for years. And I even told Brother Cody that I would love, next
time that he comes, I would love to advertise. a meeting here
for the Hispanic people in this area. But then if some of them,
what if they believe the gospel? Then what? So you pray about
that. I've been thinking about that
ever since I've been here, and it's no light, no easy thing,
you know, learning another language. But I'm going to give you a running
account of the whole trip this morning, the trip to Mexico and
the Dominican Republic. Turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter
13. Luke, chapter 13. And I understand that you heard
some mighty good preaching while I was away, as I knew you would. And I did not plan it this way.
Really, I did not. I just asked my pastor to deal
with the verses which were due for us to study, and
that was verses 11 through 17. He dealt with those, I believe,
didn't he? And I really didn't look ahead,
I really didn't think about it, but verse, begin with verse 18,
now this just fell this way. It is absolutely perfect as a
text for the things that I'm going to tell you about this
morning, absolutely perfect. Let's read verses 18 through 18-22, then said he, unto what
is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard
seed, which a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew
and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the
branches of it. And again he said, Whereunto
shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which
a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole
was leaven. And he went through the cities
and villages teaching, and I like this line, journeying toward
Jerusalem. That was his whole purpose. preach the gospel, but to go
to Jerusalem to offer that sacrifice of himself. This is very fitting
in God's providence that this comes up, because this is exactly
what I want to talk to you about, this mustard seed that has been
planted in the Dominican Republic. Mindy Hannah and I drove to Greensboro,
North Carolina, on last Monday before that, in the evening,
because we had to catch an early morning Tuesday flight, 6.40
a.m. And the reason we drove to Greensboro
is because the The airline ticket was $200 cheaper than coming
from Roanoke, so just being wise there. At any rate, we woke up
at about 5 a.m. that Tuesday morning and there
was about 6 inches of snow on the ground in Greensboro. I thought,
why, why, why? And I immediately thought it
was the first time I came here. Do you remember that? Do you
remember that Joe? You were the one, I had no idea
who Joe Parks was. But it was about ten inches of
snow, you know, that came down on Saturday, it was snowing,
and woke up Sunday morning, about ten inches of snow. Hadn't had
any snow yet that winter, I don't think. And I called the man named
Joe Parks up, you know. And we going to have service?
I don't know. You know, we'll wait and see.
And I waved around. You remember? And by about 11
o'clock, it was gone. It was gone. That was a test,
I guess, of you, whether or not you were willing to Whether or
not you were really looking for a pastor or not, everybody came
out. And I guess it was a test of
me, whether I was willing to come down. But I don't know why
it snowed Tuesday morning in Greensboro, but we missed our
flight to Mexico. We got to Miami. Late, both flights
from Greensboro were kind of delayed. Well, we missed the
first one, had to get on another one, and it was delayed. And
got to Miami with about 50 minutes to get to Aeromexico with our
luggage and all that. Got there about 20 minutes before
departure, and they said, no, can't get on. And I thought,
wow, see, I'll give you, I'll give you $50 to get me, sorry. And I don't know, you know, and
then Hannah started getting sick, started getting that flu. So
what is going on now? And we, at any rate, we woke
up the next day and had to mill around. There was only one flight
out of Mexico. That's the reason we couldn't get another one. One flight into Mexico, and that's
in the evening. Well, we got to Merida, M-E-R-I-D-A,
Merida. And I made it to Mexico on Wednesday
in the evening, about 6 o'clock, I guess, that evening. And Cody
asked if I was tired, you know, if I wanted to do the preach
that night. But he asked if I wanted to cancel
it. No. Well, that's why I'm here,
you know. So we met in Medina, the town
of Medina, there's a church there you've heard me speak of. Meet
in a little rented building. It's a small group. Cody is the pastor. In fact,
they do not have a native man pastoring yet, but Cody is the
pastor. And we had a good, very good
service. And then Thursday night, we traveled
to a town called Zimbabwe. And I've been there many times,
many, many times. I remember that from years ago.
They do not have a pastor either. And Cody is the pastor there,
but he hopes that... Now, there's a man who lives
there, Elio, E-L-I-O, Elio. And he's just a mended smile
when I mention his name. He's like You'd fall in love
with him if you met him. Just a sweet, fine... His wife,
Teresa, like Jerry. These are God's people, salt
of the earth, just wonderful. You don't understand their language,
but your heart's nipped to them immediately. They've got a wonderful
countenance. La palabra segura y no fabula. That means the Word of God, the
sure Word of God, and no fable. Remember that? I preached that
here, 2 Peter chapter 1. Now, Mexico, the Yucatan, this
passage of Scripture applies to that place. I guess it was thirty-five years
ago that Walter Gruber first went down there with a very,
very limited knowledge of the language, very limited. Went
down there with five small children, and about the ages of the Williams
children. I'm sorry, what? The one. Oh the youngest one yeah that's
right you know it's a baby in our. And. At any rate, they didn't know
anybody or, well, no church at that time. And Walter would go
out into the villages, and all his family got sick, too, you
know. They got deathly ill. The children didn't know the
language. It was just tough, tough, tough. And it was whole,
altogether different than it is now, altogether. Merida, the
capital of the Yucatan Peninsula. You've seen maps of Mexico. I used to have one up there,
but it's that little peninsula that juts out into the Gulf of
Mexico. You've seen that. That's where
the Yucatan Peninsula is, a large state. about the size of Virginia,
a little bit bigger. Maybe Virginia and North Carolina
put together. But Medina is the capital city. And when Walter first moved there,
it was only about 200,000 people there, and now it's about a million. So, and that, it has, it went
through about 500,000 ten years ago, and in about ten years it
has doubled. It's just exploding. But it was
nothing like it is now. When Walter first went there,
it was just very primitive. And no, they did not have nice
supermarkets to go to and stores, anything of the sort. Nice roads.
It was awful, awful, awful. I can't describe how bad it was.
But now it's livable in their homes. And that's another story.
I'm not here to talk so much about Mexico. At any rate, Walter
would go out into the villages and preach in his limited Spanish
vocabulary what he knew. And the Lord would spark an interest
in somebody, and they'd begin meeting in someone's home. Every
single church began in someone's home, just like it said in the
New Testament, the early church. All the early church started
meeting in someone's home. So it's like a mustard seed.
That's what this is about. The kingdom of God is the gospel,
preaching of the gospel. And it begins in a very, very
small way, like a mustard seed, which is very, very insignificant,
very small, but it's planted by God. Whatever God does, he
blesses. Whatever God begins, he finishes.
He blesses, causes it to grow. And now Mexico, one way you know that Walter
Gruber is a true man sent from God is that he won't tell you
anything. He won't talk about himself. He won't talk about
the work. He won't talk about all the churches.
He's not interested in how many or how much or how big or himself. He's just interested in preaching
the gospel. But you just prying and prying and prying, you know,
trying to find out. And at any rate, there are about
17 churches. I mean, churches. Most of them
bigger than this one. More people than this one, I
mean. And people just like us that get poorer, much poorer. But people that know the gospel,
and some of them have known the gospel 25, 30 years, you know,
solid men like these men. And churches now, not primitive
little ignorant natives, churches full of people. I asked Walter
and Cody both about the preachers there. He said, they're some
of the finest preachers on earth. Some of the finest preachers
on earth, he said, they're just like Tom Harding, and Todd Nyberg,
and some of these men, and David Fletcher, and so forth. He said,
you would love to hear them preach. I haven't heard, I've heard maybe
one man. At any rate, the Lord is greatly
blessed. Well, I believe maybe that mustard seed's
been planted in other places, like the Dominican Republic.
And we're getting in on it, and it's a blessing. Well, I took Friday off, preached
Thursday night in Zit-Zan-Dum. And that, by the way, was the
largest crowd in any village I've ever been to. It was standing
room only, literally. They have a building about the
size of this one, and they were standing room only. Chairs in
the aisles, the biggest crowd of everything. And they listened intently, intently. But then that was Thursday night,
and Friday we took the day off just to fellowship together. We went
downtown and so forth. But then Saturday morning, I
took an early morning flight, nine-something, back to Miami. There's no direct flight to the
Dominican Republic. I had to fly back to Miami and
then catch a later evening flight to the Dominican Republic. And
I arrived there after dark, about 8 o'clock, 8 p.m. And I was met
by, well, I was not met by anyone at the airport. There was no
one there. And we're talking about lost, you know. And I'll
tell you more about this place in a minute, but you thrust this
white man in the middle of the road, sir, in a strange language,
and people just swarm you, you know, an American. If you're
an American, you've got money. And I don't care who you are,
you've got money that they don't have, and they swarm you. Help. Where are my brethren,
you know, that are supposed to meet me? Well, and I'd never
met them before, Roberto and Rinaldo. And they, finally, I
looked over and there was a man, decently dressed, and I thought
he looked kind of familiar. And he looked at me. All he had
of me was a picture. And he looked at me and I looked
at him. And it was Rinaldo. And Roberto came also. But the Dominican Republic is
an island, and it was dark. I didn't get to see any of it.
And they drove me, the airport's about 45 minutes from the hotel. I stayed in the hotel. And they
drove me to the hotel, couldn't see a thing, and they didn't
stay. They just dropped me off because
we had to meet the next morning. And I have to admit that when
I got in that hotel in a strange city, in a strange language,
I thought, I don't know why I'm here. You know, is this, Lord,
is this, did you do this? And that was good for me because
that's my daughters in that situation. And at any rate, the Dominican
Republic, the Dominican Republic, is an island in the Caribbean. It's an island, totally surrounded
by water. It's joined to Haiti. You've
heard Ken Wymer talk about visiting Haiti. It's right there. Here's Cuba. There's Cuba down
south of Florida. This is the Dominican Republic
in red there. Can you see it? Not a very good
map. I didn't know anything about it either until I was getting
ready to go. It's about a fourth the size
of the state of Virginia. That's how big the country of
the Dominican Republic is. give you a little history on
it because this will tell you who the people that are there
now. It was explored and colonized
by the Spanish explorers like Columbus and Cortes, those men. It was, as I understand from
Cody, it was kind of a military base for Cortes, those who conquered
Mexico, Cortes. It was kind of like a supply
base or a place where they would come over and ship and rest there
and resupply and all that to go over and attack Mexico. which
they did, you know, they just absolutely enslaved the Mayan
Indians and the people of Mexico, the Spaniards. That's where the
language came from. It wasn't Mayan speaking in Mexico,
the Indian, Mayan Indians speaking a different language from Spanish,
but now it's predominantly Spanish because of the Spaniards, okay? And Dominican Republic is all
Spanish speaking. Haiti, interestingly, He says,
just join at the hip, you know. He's all French, totally French
people. No Spanish, French. So here you've
got this line, this border, and you've got French people and
Spanish. At any rate, a great Spanish influence. People in
the Dominican Republic are very diversified. Some of the people
in the Dominican came up from Africa, and so they're very dark,
very dark skinned, and a mixture of Spanish and Africans. And
so you have dark, and then the Spaniards now, Spain, remember,
we were over in Spain. Most Spaniards are just like
us. They look like us, except most
of them have dark hair and either brown or dark blue eye. Rinaldo
Pena, one of the leading men there, and his wife both, they
looked like Spaniards. And I told Rinaldo that he looks
like one of those matadors, you know. He's just a very dignified
fellow, and if you put one of those uniforms on him with a
cape, you know, he'd look just like one of those stampers. Really
elegant looking man. I'll tell you more about him
in a little bit. At any rate, it's Spanish speaking, that's
why. The capital city of, I don't have a good map, the capital
city of the Dominican Republic is Santo Domingo. And everything,
you notice these, Santo is holy. Every city, the whole country,
everything is Catholic. That's where those names came
from. Holy Sunday. Domingo is Sunday. and the Dominican Republic, but
the capital city is Santo Domingo. It's on the southern coast. It's
right on the coast, so the ocean is real close. It has a population
of two million people, and that city, the city of Santo Domingo
is about the size of Roanoke. 2 million people. It's absolutely the dirtiest,
filthiest, most polluted, congested, chaotic place I've ever visited
in my life. It is indescribable, indescribably madness, filth. There's nothing desirable about it, nothing that
enjoyable about the city. Yeah, they have an old city that
was colonized and it's hundreds and hundreds of years old, but
it's just so many people, two million people. And man is depraved. And you stick two million people
in a small area, and it becomes a mess, an absolute mess. Traffic, you would never, ever,
ever, ever complain again about traffic in this country, ever,
if you visited there, ever. Joe, you would never complain
about bad drivers ever again. You can't believe it. Stop signs
have no purpose whatsoever. Lines on the road, I don't know
why they're there. Nobody pays attention to them.
And no police anywhere in sight. It's the first one to that intersection
goes through. The taxi drivers there are absolutely
the best drivers in the world. These men, you couldn't pay me
enough money to drive a taxi. I mean madness, chaos. Even Cody says, worse than Medina,
which that's bad. But it's frightening, really,
frightening. But I didn't see one wreck, not
one. And the automobiles are held
together with bailing wire, literally. The people live in, most of them
live, as you can imagine, in a big city like that, most of
them live in apartments that are four or five stories high. If they have a house, it's very
small. A house, an average house in the city would be about the
size of the, a little bit bigger than our nursery downstate, and
they have families larger than and the Williams family live
in a little house like that. The Pena's live in an apartment
about the size of a nursery, a little bit bigger than that,
and they have four children. And their mother-in-law was living
with them at the time. And I'll tell you more in a minute.
But they live, the people on the outside of the city, live
in an object. I mean, the villages when you
go outside the city, the villages are absolute squalor. Ten huts. It's absolute. It's awful. It's awful. The area, the countryside, It would remind you, and I've
never been to Vietnam, but I've seen pictures of it. That's what
it looks like. That's what it reminds me of. And they had a hurricane not
long ago, and it looks like a war has been there. And people in
these huts, it's just awful. A palm tree, it could be beautiful,
but it's not because of the number of people and the poverty that
they live in. It could be beautiful. There's
a strong class system. There's the very rich and the
very poor. There's the very rich that drive
around in brand-new Mercedes-Benz. And then there's the very poor
that ride on mopeds or 25-year-old cars held together with wire.
And the very, very poor work for the very, very rich for very,
very little money. And Santo Domingo, the city of
Santo Domingo, is so overcrowded and so congested and so poor,
as you can imagine, there's high crime. Why do I say all this? Well, you're interested, aren't
you? You're interested. But we live. We live. We live in absolutely the most
blessed country in the world. Our dogs live better than most
people. They really do. There were lots
of dogs and horses. Horses overworked, skin and bones. I felt even sorry for the animals
there. Just awful. I was reminded of
the passage in 1 Corinthians of the whole creation groaning,
travailing together because of sin. But there's high crime in
the city of Santo Domingo because there's so many people. And so
little money. And people live in cages. They literally have their homes
and apartments caged. They have iron bars surrounding
fences with spikes on them, you know, surrounding all their property,
even apartments. It doesn't matter if it's five
stories high. They've got to have a cage around them. Their
doors are locked like a prison. Cages. And that's why the children,
they're concerned about the children by the time they just step out
the door. We're blessed, aren't we? And, well, we just can't really appreciate
all of this unless you see it. And with all of our problems
in this country, we still live in a paradise. We really do.
We live in paradise. Our homes, our land, our schools,
you know, children go to school, and they go to school in a cage. The schools are surrounded by
eight-foot fences and barbed wire. They just live in fear of crime
and all that. But, you know, the sad thing
about it is that it could be a rich land. The land is very,
very rich. The soil is as black as this
Bible. It can grow anything. And it
is. It's full of it. The food, the
food's in the scrap, fresh. You name a fruit and they've
got it. They were selling cashews on the side of the road, big
jars full of cashews and sweet potatoes. I told Mindy, we stopped,
they sell Poor people try to make a living, eke it out a living
any way they can, and they sell sweet potato. Well, they are
baking these sweet potatoes over a fire on the side of the road
and selling these to cars that go by, these fresh baked sweet
potatoes about this big, one sweet potato about that big,
and it's yellow. And Rinaldo and I stopped one
day, and she bought a cup and broke it out. You don't need
butter, don't need anything. That's the best sweet potato
there is. Papaya, mango, watermelon, pineapple, this big, you know. You name it. Bananas, oranges,
orange groves everywhere. It could be a rich land, tobacco,
they grow a lot of tobacco. It could be a very rich land,
but the government, we complain about our government? We've got
the best government in the world. You would be thankful for our
government, for the regulations, for the law, every law that keeps
our cities clean and prohibits people from crossing yellow lines. And you'd be thankful for our
government, because theirs is so corrupt that they pocket all
the money. People don't get it. Well, in
the midst of all that, and another reason I told you all that, it's
not only interesting, but in the midst of all that, that chaos
and that danger and overcrowded conditions in that city, two
million people is a handful of the finest people I've ever
met in my entire life. I mean, let me say this again,
the finest people I've ever met in my entire life. Believers. Believers. Just a handful. Slightly
larger than Noah's family. Slightly larger than Noah's family. Mostly women. But there's a church
there that's in Christ the Arch. in the midst of that sea of humanity.
A mustard seed, that's what it is right now. It's a little bit
eleven that the Lord has, I just am convinced that this is of
the Lord. A group of believers meeting
in a home, that's where we met every night in the same home,
the home of Teresa, who's a mother of Roberto, and I called her
Mother Teresa. And she doesn't, she did mother
me. We got a kick out of it, but after a while, she kind of
took me under her wing and mothered me, and I'd call her mama. But
a mustard seed, small, barely seeing it, two million people.
And this little group of believers meeting in a little home, I mean
a small home, one of those small homes, like I said, that's the
size of our nursery and study. Turn over to Zechariah chapter
4. I thought of this scripture.
Zechariah chapter 4, verse 10. says, for who hath despised the
day a small thing? For they shall see, they shall
rejoice and shall see the plummet, the stone in the hand of Zerubbabel
with those seven through the eyes of the Lord, which run to
and fro through the whole earth. Who hath despised a day of small
things? Now, in this world of missionaries
all over the place, and evangelism, incidentally I was in the hotel
and I saw there was a group of, a big bunch of Americans. And Americans are stickable. I am absolutely ashamed of Americans,
tourists. They are despicable. Every place
I've been, whether it's France or Mexico or now the Dominican
Republic, wherever, the American tourists are absolutely the most
obnoxious, demanding, loud, They come in acting like everybody,
it ought to be everybody's privilege to wait on them, make no attempt
at speaking to the people, they act like everybody else speak
English, you know. And, well, there was this big
group of Americans in a hotel. They were all standing around,
you know, with their shorts on, looking, people, you know, dress
rather well. And there was this great big
fellow, rotund fellow in the midst of them, weighed about
400 pounds. And he had his Bible out. They all had their Bibles
open. And their phylacteries were very
broad, you know. In the midst of that hotel, Americans,
missionaries. They were about to go out and
come to sea and land to make some proselyte, you know. And I told the president, I said,
I'm ashamed that these are my countrymen. I'm ashamed of them. Ashamed of them. What I did, what we did, me going
there and ministering to just a handful of people, to the world,
to the missionaries, you know, to these mission boards. If I
reported back, yeah, there was about 12 people. They'd cancel the contract, wouldn't
they? Nothing there, you know, forget
it. But I'm telling you, they're
some of the finest people I've ever met. There's a church there. And in the beginning, this is
how this whole thing started. Mustard Seed. Mustard Seed. About a year and a half ago,
that's all it's been. About a year and a half ago,
Brother Greg Elmquist, who himself first heard the gospel, Just
a couple of years ago from Todd Niners. I mean, that's a whole
other story, you know. It's marvelous how the Lord moves,
how He works, you know. Just a small way, Todd's sister
was moved. Her husband's an unbeliever.
Her husband's an unbeliever, and the drug took her to Orlando,
Florida. Oh no, why, why, why? I don't
want to move to Orlando. There's no gospel there. Now we're going to Orlando. So
I took Susan Nyberg Emory, and I took her down there to Orlando.
No gospel. That was four or five years ago,
you know, and well, there was a man. She tried to find a church
somewhere to hear the gospel, and there was a reformed Pastor
named Greg Elmquist, a preacher, didn't know the gospel. She went
there and started attending, and she's real outspoken like
Todd. You know, she tells what's on her mind just like Todd. And
she told that pastor, Greg Elmquist, that's not the gospel. She said, my brother's a preacher.
You need to have him down here to preach the gospel. Well, you
know, Armenian preachers, they don't, you know, somebody called
a preacher, they'll let you preach. And Greg was going out of town,
and he said, OK, call your brother, have him come down here. So Todd
went down there. And that's history. The Lord
taught, Greg heard the tape. He didn't even meet Todd. He heard the tape. And he said,
hey, wait a minute. This is something, this is different.
He said, let's have your brother down here again. And Todd came
down again preaching, and the Lord saved Greg Elman. That was
a huge place, and they moved out a handful of people, and
I'd love for Rick to tell you of his most recent trip to, maybe
he will. Winston, I? Maybe. But, now that's the church that
the Lord, small beginnings, just a handful of people, and it's
marvelous, it's marvelous, those people, that church. And, well,
one of the men in the church in Orlando named Alex Pena was
from the Dominican Republic. A native, born and raised in
the Dominican Republic, and his wife, Karolina, and their children
had moved to Orlando, Florida, where they met Greg Elmquist
and began to go to that place where Greg was a pastor. Well,
the Lord taught them the gospel, too, and they moved out. Well,
Alex Pena had a burden for his family in the Dominican Republic. And he said, Pastor Greg, would
you go down and preach to them? He's not from the Dominican Republic.
His wife is. Is he from Puerto Rico or somewhere? Another Latin American country. Hugo. Iron man. A real handsome
Hispanic man. But Hugo speaks English. And
so Hugo and Greg went to the Dominican Republic. for Greg
to preach what little gospel he knew at the time. You know,
Greg had just learned the gospel, and preaching what he knew. And Hugo went to translate for
him. Greg doesn't know Spanish. And
they preached, as I understand it, up in Santiago, another city. And it kind of reminds me of
the Church of Philippi, where Lydia was from Bithynia, I believe it was. But she was visiting Philippi
at the time. And, well, Reynaldo Pena went
up to Santiago to hear Brother Greg preach. And they met in
the home, or whatever, and old Renaldo, the brother of Alex
in Orlando, heard the gospel. Brother Cody You know, he can't
even talk about Rinaldo without breaking down and crying. His
story about how the Lord taught him the gospel, and Greg would
sit and talk to Rinaldo in a restaurant and so forth. The Lord taught
Rinaldo the gospel. Well, at any rate, Rinaldo went
back to his home, down to Domingo. And that's where the church is,
in Santo Domingo. Well, through that, the people began
meeting together. Rinaldo, his mother, who visits
occasionally, lives half the year in Orlando and half in Santo
Domingo. Rinaldo's sister, Marina, a friend
of his named Roberto. whom he knew. And the Lord began
to teach him. He began to list the tapes in
a home. And Rinaldo would say what he
knew, just tell what he knew, what he'd learned from Pastor
Greg. And I believe Greg went back again, but then, now this
was just about a year ago, that Greg talked to me and said, we
need somebody to preach in Spanish, to go down there and preach to
these people. And I said, Walter Grouper, just immediately, you
know, Walter Grouper, or Cody, even better yet, Cody, Cody Grouper. So they called Cody and Cody
went. And it was like, you know, so
the seed, the mustard seed was planted. And then Brother Cody
went down and started watering. And those people, oh, do they
love Cody Group. Oh, do they love Cody Group.
They have begged him to move there, be our pastor, move here. And does he love them? Oh, my.
And Walter's been there. And, well, now recently, Brother
Cody expressed a desire for other
men to go and preach there, other men. And there are very few Spanish-speaking
men, you know, and so he thought it good that some other pastor
would go. Well, I was first asked by him,
a high honor. And so I went. And now there's
a little church meeting there together, speaking the Lord's
will. Seeking a pastor, by the way, they asked me to move back. And, oh my, somebody's going
to have to be called, that's for sure. And they're seeking the Lord's
will, seeking a pastor, seeking a building to meet him. They
want to meet in a building, but it's not time yet, not ready
yet. Brother Walter, you know. So slow-moving, like Mexicans,
you know. And he'd tell them, you don't
need to do anything. Just meet, hear the gospel, and
the Lord will open doors, you know. And he said, you're doing
the right thing, you're doing the right thing. Just meet together
in a home and preach. And with two men that I mentioned,
two men, Rinaldo Pena, and Roberto Martinez. These are
the two leading men. There's another man, but Rinaldo
Pena who is the brother of Alex that I told you about in Orlando.
He's 38 years old. His wife is named Laura, Laura,
Laura. Did you know your name is pronounced
Laura? And Laura and her mother, the
Lord taught her mother the gospel. Her name is Laura, Laura. And
that moment will remind you of Betty Gruber. I'm telling you,
Cherie, she's like Betty Gruber. You fall in love with her. She listens to the gospel with
you. And she just, they greet you
with a kiss down there. I mean, it's hugging and kissing. That's the way they greet you.
Boy, if you preach the gospel, they'll kiss you. They'll love
you. Anyway, Rinaldo, 38 years old,
and I told you, he's a very Spanish-looking man. His wife, Laura, is about
34, and they have four children. They're absolutely the most gorgeous,
black-headed children on the face of the earth. You know how
beautiful these girls are? Well, these are four little Spanish
girls, Spaniards. Looked back like four young channels. And they melted me. I mean, they
absolutely, they took to me, you know. I'd try to speak to
them and they'd laugh and I'd say, help me, ayuda me, ayuda
me, help me, you know, teach me. I'd say, I'm necessarily,
I've been diagnosed, but I knew they'd teach me. And they would,
they'd, you know, they'd teach me. And they started, the one
that was named, the oldest was Rebecca, Rebecca, Daniela, Samantha,
and then Maria, the youngest was six months old, baby in arms.
And Rebecca and Daniela, Rebecca nine, and Daniela six, and they
just absolutely, literally like storm effect. And I was, I just
melted. Little black-headed girls. Goodness,
are they beautiful. Beautiful Spanish family living
in a little tiny house. They opened their arms to me
and treated me like a king. I mean, there's barely enough
room to walk around, and they absolutely killed the fatted
calf for me. And just what a family, what
a family. And this man, Rinaldo, the reason
I keep bringing him up is I think maybe that he just might be the
pastor of this church. Because Rinaldo, he is a very
kind man, just in every way. His whole family, his wife is
just so hospitable and loving and kind, and they both speak
a little bit of English. Rinaldo translated for me while I was there half the time.
And he's a gifted man, but he's so very meek, and I kept broaching
the subject. I kept bringing it up. Rinaldo,
do you feel any leadings at all to pastor this group? And he
does preach on occasion. But, oh, no, I'm not worthy,
you know, he'd say. I can't do that. But I was trying
to encourage him, and I believe Cody has too, but the Lord would
have to do that. And then there's Roberto Martinez,
a young single man, 34 years old. He's totally different looking
than Rinaldo. Yeah, I'm going a little long,
I know, but I've still got your interest. Roberto is Caribbean,
and he looks, pardon me, he's got a smile this big, big white
teeth and he's dark skinned and wears a little goatee. Speak
like this, you know, he speaks a good English, but everything
is just so wonderful, you know, he's just upbeat. He's a lawyer. Abogado, he's a lawyer. Now,
wait a minute, he's not lawyer, lawyer like you know here. And
he doesn't make any money. It doesn't matter if you're a
doctor down there, which I, there's a doctor that can do that too. He's Caribbean all the way, and
a fine man. He speaks very good English.
And his sister, the Lord taught his mother and his sister the
gospel, and they lived together. The mother, whose husband died,
she's a widow, and her sister. And every one of these people
I bring up, I just my heart. Every one of them, I'm telling
you, they're the finest. If you met them, I hope you meet
them in this life, because you will absolutely, you think. These
are wonderful people. Teresa, you know, whom I told
you about, Mother Teresa, just real outgoing. Remind you of
Nancy. Just, you know, You just love
her to death, and she just makes you feel so welcome. Karina is
a sister, 25 years old, single, very beautiful believer, and
she has a Caribbean look about her, like Roberto, and she speaks
very good English. And she, oh my, she just melts
you, just melts you. She's just so sweet, so sweet,
and loves the gospel. And there are others, there are
others. Alex, you know, Alex Pena down
there in Orlando, the Lord taught him the gospel. His mother, Armita,
his brother, Bernardo, his sister, Marina, and on it goes, their
family. and a few others comprise the
church there in the Dominican Republic. There's another man
named Amadeo, Amadeus, Amadeo. At any rate, I preached the gospel,
got there Saturday night, woke up Sunday morning, preached the
gospel twice on Sunday and every night from then on out. The messages I preach, you know,
this is a burden. You go to a strange place, you
know what to preach, the gospel. Who? Christ. But where and how
to apply it and what there and who's there and what they're
involved in, just, you know. It's Catholic and some of them
came out of reform and Pentecostal and all that, and I thought,
I immediately thought of Hebrews. It answers all those questions. Well, I preached the first four
chapters of Hebrews, the first four messages, four or five messages. And then the final night, preached
from Philippians 3, on three marks of a true church, a true
belief. Worship God in spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and no conflicts in the flesh. The same gospel,
Joe, the same things we believe, but they needn't be here. And
each message was enthusiastically received, just enthusiastically
received. And they kept me afterwards,
questions after questions after questions, didn't want to leave,
did not want to leave. Amadeo would have kept me up
till three in the morning every night asking questions. He said,
I have a whole list of questions here, I've written them down. I said, just wait until it's
all over and maybe we'll answer them in preaching. So at any
rate, these are a hundred and thirsty people. And they called
me a pastor the whole time I was there. Pastor. They don't have one. And one
man said, you are a pastor while you're here. And one person said, you know,
I will be preaching, and like now, I didn't want to quit. And
I said, well, I won't quit. And they said, no, no, no, no.
And one of them said, you are like an orange. She said, we
want to squeeze all the juice out of you. We want to get all
the juice out of you. Well, they did. I never been
called that. It was quite an honor and a compliment. They did. I was out of juice
by the time it was all over. Bill Clark did this very thing
for 40 years. He went everywhere, Portugal,
Spain, France, Africa, just everywhere, Australia, preaching in little
homes like this, and just night after night after night after
night after night. And I mean this when I say this
now. Although this is the smallest
group I've ever preached to, the most humble beginnings, humble
little group I've ever been a part of, but this was the most profitable,
and I felt like the most the trip with the most purpose used
by God that I've ever had in my life. And I mean that. That first night in that hotel,
you know, by myself, strange city, two million people. I thought,
why am I here? But I mean it. I felt like every
message was the most important message I would ever bring. And I can't help but believe
that the Lord is going to greatly bless them. The reason being, I told you, these people treated
me like a king. I mean, these people lived poorly,
but I was in four homes, four different homes, four little
tiny dwellings full of family and all that, and they literally
killed a fatty cat for me. Treated me like a king. One night,
after the service, they fixed me a dinner. Just me. I mean, just me. And they had
this huge spread on the table, and sat me there, and they all
stood around the table and watched me eat. Watched me eat. I felt like Solomon, you know.
I was begging them, please, somebody eat something with me. So I should have been serving
them. But this kind of hunger for the
Word and hospitality and obvious proof of the sincerity
of their love for the gospel, God is going to bless that group.
That's what Christ said. He said, come, enter into the
kingdom of heaven.