June 3, 2009
*Trip to the **Dominican Republic***
*May 17th-23rd, 2009***
Dear brethren,
My prayer is that you are all well, as we are. We are truly in the rainy season now, one of the hottest (and cooler) times of the year. When it’s raining it is cool, if you don’t have the windows closed so it won’t rain in, but otherwise it’s hot and humid.
This trip to the Dominican Republic was the culmination of efforts from several people over the last year or so and the results were excellent. In the last year or so the liberal/institutional churches have accelerated their “progress”—a “national church of Christ” complete with constitution to be filed with the national government, a “National group for the planning of young peoples’ activities” (this is the translation of their name for this committee), and even applying for government funds to set up schools, medical clinics, etc. As you can imagine, some preachers and brethren are becoming more and more concerned with all this, which is why I’ve been going there more often—every 3-4 months.
There were 5 of us who preached, besides Arcadio Ozuna, who preaches full time on the Eastside of Santo Domingo. Arcadio “left” the liberals 3-4 years ago, although he had distanced himself from them in various things some years earlier. He still has a good reputation with many and has opened a number of doors for us, as well as quietly working with several churches in his area. My other co-workers were Nino Estevez, a Dominicano who has lived and preached in Barinas, Venezuela for many years; Roger Polanco, another Dominicano; Caleb Churchill, who will eventually start preaching in Spanish (I’m working on that); and Jeremy Ferguson, from East Texas, who came to DR for the first time. Nino worked mostly on the North side of Santo Domingo. Roger and Caleb worked all over SD and Jeremy stayed with me.
Since the church at Caparra (where I regularly work) doesn’t meet on Sunday afternoon I try to get the flight that lands me in Santo Domingoaround 3:45 PM, to be able to preach somewhere that night. Arcadio and his wife Lillian picked me up at 4 and we went directly to the village of Guerra, to the house of a sister who was having a “service of thanksgiving”. There were over 60 people present—25 or so members of the church in Guerra plus neighbors, family, friends, etc. This house, a 1000 square foot, 3 bedroom house, was built after the death of her husband in a car wreck. She is mid-30’s, with 3 children and they had been living in an even smaller wood house, but the company her husband worked at paid for most of the materials and then family and friends helped put it up. She wanted to primarily thank God for His care, but also to thank those who’ve helped in these hard times. When we arrived they were already singing, so after one song I preached about 35 minutes on the need to draw near to God. After another couple of songs and a prayer we were dismissed and then she and various ladies served everyone snacks, juice, and a piece of cake. Several Bible studies were set up that evening for the next week with neighbors by Arcadio.
We picked Jeremy up at the airport Mon. afternoon and went directly from there to San Pedro de Macoris. The brethren here distanced themselves from the liberal “leaders” in Santo Domingo after they went to the “Ministry of Culture and Worship” to register one of the churches and were told they needed a letter of authority from one of the liberal churches in SD. We first met them about a year ago and have continued in contact, finding that they already understood much, having found the websites of Valente Rodriguez, Gardner Hall, Wayne Partain, Bill Reaves, etc. This was my first time to spend any time with them and I was even more impressed as I got to know them. Antonio Saleme works as the manager of 2 Shell gas stations because that allows him to leave early 2-3 afternoons a week to work with churches in the outlying areas. He’s been offered a good paying job by his brother in law in Indianapolis but has refused it to stay and work for the Lord. I preached 3 mornings on their radio program (Mon.-Sat. from 9:30-10 AM) and then both afternoons outside the city. The church that meets in Quisqueya has just added a plywood lean to onto the side of a member’s house and the one that meets in Santa Fe has decided to sell the lot they now have and purchase one in a better location. Both of these have 8-10 members, but 4-6 brethren come from San Pedro to help and encourage them. We picked up 4 sisters on our way to Quisqueya and 2 young men came on the bus. Huaquer (pronounced Walker) and Davy led the singing. We were not expecting to meet in Santa Fe—just to introduce me to the brethren, but when we arrived they all had songbooks and Bibles so I preached.
Tuesday night we met with the church in Barrio Mexico and Jeremy read a sermon. He’s not yet fluent enough in Spanish to feel comfortable just preaching and although his pronunciation wasn’t the best everyone understood him and really appreciated his effort. His desire is to improve and preach in Spanish. The next night I preached in Jardines del Este, to about 45 or so. I still have not met with the 3rd church in San Pedro that meets in Placer Bonito. These brethren put us up in a hotel, fed us, and took us where we needed to be those 2 ½ days.
Thursday night we drove over an hour, in the rain and traffic, to meet with a church that meets in Los Guaricanos. Feliciano (Feliz for short) does most of the preaching. He just began selling speakers, PA systems, etc. to churches so he can have more time for preaching and teaching. These brethren are typical of many in the Dominican Republic — they came out of Pentecostal churches, so retain a number of their practices—the proper posture for prayer is kneeling, lots of “gloria a Dios” and “Aleluya”, etc. This was my first time to be with them so I preached “Does it matter how we serve God”. It was very well received and one brother asked for more information because he sometimes has doubts if they are serving God correctly and wants to make sure. I’ve sent Feliz the 7 lessons we use to teach new converts/non Christians—this sermon is the 1st lesson. After going to Feliz’s house for a snack afterwards we arrived back at Arcadio’s around 10 PM.
Miguel Angel Garcia preaches for a church of around 100 on Sunday morning that meets in the Tres Brazos area of Santo Domingo. I first met Miguel about a year ago, when I preached there the first time. He was first taught by Arcadio Ozuna. From that first time I thought Miguel was conservative in his thinking and that has been confirmed each time I see him. Arcadio has been teaching him about liberalism since Jan. so when we arrived this time he confirmed a few things with me, then later thanked us (Nino and I) and insisted that we must continue to come and teach them more concerning these things. He has been concerned about the progressions of liberalism in some of the churches and has been vocal to the point that Tres Brazos has been isolated by the more liberal churches, which is okay with him. He now understands enough to know these things are wrong and wants us to continue to teach and preach at Tres Brazos “so the brethren will also understand”. Not only is the church at Tres Brazos large, but they are very active in helping 3-4 other congregations, most of which they have “established”. I preached about leadership in the local congregation, particularly elders, which was very well received. I was interrupted with a question by one of the men (not uncommon here) about why some preachers don’t want elders and his comments opened a door that I wanted to go through, but wasn’t quite sure how to approach it—they have been very appreciative of my preaching, but this is only the 3rd time I’ve preached there. One young lady came forward to be restored and another asked to be baptized the next morning.
In Jan. 2009 Nino asked me to teach a class to his family who live just north of Santo Domingo (a city of 4 million people) and from there he made contact with a church of around 40 who meet in that area, Valle Encantado is the name. Luis Matos is doing the preaching there and has been cut off by the liberal church that helped him get started over there because he objected to some of their liberal ideas. Nino and Roger Polanco preached there that week, but I wasn’t able to. I did meet Luis on Saturday morning and was impressed with him. He also was glad to learn there were others who agreed with his understanding of the church and its work.
We have also met with a couple of brethren who had left a liberal church in northern Santo Domingo, in the Hato Nuevo area. They have just begun meeting as a church in that area, which will fill a void on that side of this city. Nino has been the prime “mover” in this, although Arcadio has met with the young man that is doing most of the preaching a couple of times.
Brethren, I’m sorry this is so long, but there is much going on in the DR. We also received news that a liberal church in the city of Santiagohas just cut their ties with the liberal “establishment” but were unable to get there this time. This is a church that Nino, and I to a lesser extent, have been in contact with for some years and as the liberals continue their “progress” they now see the need to cut their ties with them.
Your brother,
Tol Burk
P.O. Box 50182
Toa Baja, PR 00950
(787) 998-2098
(787) 930-6341 cell
blog:
caribbeanpost.blogspot.com,
predicandoenelmarcaribe.blogspot.com,
www.priglesiadecristo.com
Posts
