1st Outreach (Was back in January, but i am trying to catch up in my Blog...)

1st Outreach

Laying down the foundation for the new ministry site

The last two weeks of January was my first outreach with students at my ministry site. I had two amazing students for my first team: Jonny Montejano and Jason Hackbarth. These two young men are part of a discipleship gap year program called Joshua based out of Hume Lake in California. They were such a big help in the development and formation of this new ministry site for the young men in the streets of Jarabacoa. I was really amazed to see how much God connected these guys despite the language and cultural barriers. We spent the two weeks making preparations in the ministry site such as painting what were once these hideous bright pink walls. We also made contacts with local leaders in local businesses and made connections with the guys themselves in the park. It was really encouraging to have these two guys and see their willingness to allow God to work in and through them.  They demonstrated so much flexibility and maturity with handling some even difficult situations.

There was a tense moment between a couple of the guys at the park the group’s last day in the country. One of the young men was struggling and expressed that his desire is to leave the streets and do things well, however because of all of the difficulties and struggles of his daily life, it is really difficult to go against the current. He was really disheartened by some events currently going on in his life and the internal battle that he is having trying not to fall back into the ways of the streets. He expressed to me that he is anxious for this new site to begin because he has hope that there he will be able to move forward. My heart broke to hear the difficulties and the battles that he fights on a daily basis, and at the same time I am encouraged to know that God is working and that through this new ministry site HE has some big plans for these young men. I asked him to please have patience and that even though this site is still in the process of being developed, we are here to encourage and support him.