To the Highways and Hedges: Part Two

—A Continuation of my Previous Story with Contributions from Matthew 22:11-14—
Reclining at the table, Becher looked about him, and couldn’t keep back a silly grin; there was so much splendor and joy in this house. Guests filled the large banquet hall, all wearing their finest wedding garments. Becher had no idea where [...]

Dominican Market

I walked along the market street,
My camera wrapped around my hand;
The noises of the swift and fleet
Motos, carros, camionetas— manned
By dexterous drivers— passed me by
Unnoticed, unremembered until I try.
I peer into the shops and stalls,
Observing people, observing wares;
So much to see, to hear— but walls,
Not between vendors but in their stares,
Keep me out, though I [...]

Day Five (Friday August 1, 2008)

Today was to be the last day of the Summer Bible School. In the morning, Calvin, Nathan, and I went all over the city with Don Francis. First we dropped off the Guerrero’s daughter, Claudia, at the University where she was taking entrance exams. Don Francis intended to print the certificates of completion that [...]

Day Four (Thursday July 31, 2008)

Our morning routine with the Guerreros was much the same for the rest of the week. Today, at the church, we finished moving the rubble and then spent most of the morning moving sand (for cement) from the street to the second level. We did this by handing the full buckets from person to person [...]

Day Three (Wednesday July 30, 2008)

For Calvin, Nathan, and I, our first morning in Santo Domingo began early. The family we were staying with, the Guerrero family, owns a small restaurant in the middle of Santo Domingo. Doña Nelly oversees the operations at the restaurant. Every morning, she and DonFrancis go to a nearby market, where they buy fresh [...]

Day Two (Tuesday July 29, 2008)

As a tepid sun rose over Atlanta, the twenty-one of us groggy-eyed americanos tumbled out of our hotel rooms and bumped down to the lobby where we were once again reunited with our army of suitcases. The reason for our “42 suitcases plus additional carry-on luggage” was not merely because we were going to [...]

Day One (Monday July 28, 2008)

As Josiah posted on July 27th, a wrench was thrown into our traveling plans right from the start. On the evening before we were to leave, Señora Waters received the news that our flight from PITT to JFK was canceled due to bad weather in Pittsburgh. We were supposed to take a plane from JFK [...]

Regreso de la República Dominicana

Thank you for your prayers and sweet notes of interest! As planned and scheduled, our mission team made it safely back to U.S. soil on August 5th. Our trip was a powerful and memorable experience for all of us. The brothers and sisters at Iglesia Fundamento Biblico (Biblical Foundations Church) threw their hearts and doors [...]

Greetings from the Dominican Republic!

We finally arrived Tuesday afternoon and have now helped with two VBS’s. There are a lot of children, and it is quite interesting trying to talk to them with my limited Spanish. This morning we helped move a bunch of debris and have started building (with help from some Hatian men) a small wall that [...]

Layovers

Before leaving Akron for their departure flight out of the Pittsburgh airport in the wee hours on Monday morning, someone in the Dominic Republic mission team called the airport to confirm their flight once again only to find that it had had been cancelled due to lack of occupants (all of the airline companies are [...]

Please Pray for Us

Stephen, Heather, Calvin and Nathan have each written short blog entries about the mission trip that they will be participating in with our church family on July 28th through August 5th. If you like to read more specific trip details and prayer requests, I encourage you to scroll down to Stephen’s July 3rd blog entry [...]

Heather’s Departing Highlights

I came across this Bible verse the other day, and it has become my desire for our trip. We leave in a fewhours, so I don’t have time to write more now. Lord willing, I will be able to give an update of sorts when we return.
“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but [...]

Stephen’s Departing Statements

After I finished the missions course I took this Spring, I began to read through the second half of the book of Isaiah. As I read, I began to view my reading more and more as preparation for our upcoming mission trip to Santo Domingo. Just a few weeks ago, I came to Isaiah 58. [...]

Calvin’s Departing Comments

In my personal Bible-study times, I have been reading through a commentary on the gospel according to Matthew. Just the other day I came to Matthew 17, wherein Jesus first heals a demon-possessed child and then later pays the temple tax. Jerry Bridges notes that at first glance the healing of the demon possessed boy [...]

Nathan’s Departing Notes

The apostle Peter shows us some very important things in his second New Testament epistle; He says:
“…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities [...]

Destinación República Dominicana

If the Lord wills and so favors, in less than one month the four young people you see above will be found nowhere else but on a little island in the Caribbean, in the city of Santo Domingo. The four of us (right to left: Calvin, Nathan, Heather, and Stephen) are going on our first [...]

Prisoners of Hope

Prisoners of Hope: The Story of Our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan
Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer with Stacy Mattingly
Doubleday, 2002
The art of poetry is to say much with very little. Therefore, there is a kind of poetry to book titles, for much is said in very few words, unless the book predates the 20th [...]

Humility

Throughout the Perspectives course, but especially in the chapters ten and eleven, I have been strikingly reminded that humility must be at the core of every Christian’s life. We need humility while we represent Christ in the world because it is God alone that saves. It is he that saved us. It is he that [...]

Who Is the Lord of History?

Through the lessons on the historical perspective of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class I have been taking, I have come to rediscover in a very profound way that Jesus Christ is the Lord of history.
One of my favorite chapters in the Perspectives Reader has been The Kingdom Strikes Back by Ralph D. [...]

To the Highways and Hedges: Part One

—A Rendition of Luke 14:16-25—
Slowly, suddenly the darkness closed in on Becher. He hurried his small flock of sheep down the path, urging them forward in a gentle but greatly wearied voice. It had been a long, hot day, but the coolness of the evening was beginning to work its way into [...]