The Quiet Hour financially sponsored 24 student speakers in a group of 57 students and adult helpers from Thunderbird Adventist Academy, on a March 16-31, 2007 short-term evangelism mission to the Dominican Republic.

Mrs. Kathy McKey acted as news correspondent for the students’ parents, The Quiet Hour, and ministry partner ShareHim.

View Dominican Republic slide show

-----Original Message-----

From: Kathy McKey

Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007

Subject: Dominican Mission Trip

Dear friends and family,

It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve been here less than a week because so many wonderful things have happened! It seems like our days just whiz by! We have our breakfast around 8:30 and then worship. The youth are divided up and they practice their sermon until 12:00 and then they have an hour to swim. By 1:00 pm we have our lunch and then it’s practice time until 3:00, free time or swim time until 4:00, and then time to get ready for the meetings.

Everyone arrived in Santo Domingo without any problems and everyone’s luggage arrived as well, which is nothing short of a miracle. Our Arizona travelers boarded a bus and the luggage was put on a truck. We traveled about 1½ hours to the Adventist university and had a wonderful dinner. You know if young people go back for seconds that the food is good! We continued on and finally arrived at our hotel in San Francisco.

The hotel is wonderful, in fact it’s luxurious for a mission trip. It even has a great swimming pool. The hotel people have been very accommodating. The mission had arranged for some people to cook breakfast and lunch for our group; however, we found that on the day of orientation that it would be very time consuming to transport all of us (we would have to make two trips on the bus) to the mission for two meals a day. Pastor Luis Leonor, a ShareHim coordinator, asked the hotel management if we could bring the food to a sheltered area which is away from the hotel restaurant and they said we could. Abi Feliciano is fixing sandwiches, fruit, etc. for when our young people come back from their meetings at night. All of the food is delicious and I haven’t heard one complaint from anyone about the food. Today they were asked what they want more of and they said with a loud voice, rice and beans!

I wish you could hear our young people preach. They are now truly “international evangelists.” Every night they become more dynamic. We are so proud of them! When they are waiting in the hotel lobby and sitting on the front steps of the hotel waiting for their rides, they all look so sharp! Some of them are talking about their Truth for Youth program, the puppets, crafts that they are going to do, and others are practicing their Truth for Today and Hope for Tomorrow sermons. Thank you for letting us have the privilege of bringing them on this mission trip.

I want to share a few experiences with you from our—your—young people.

Lauren Cano, a senior from Thunderbird, is doing a great job preaching; however, let me share with you how she felt after preaching her first sermon Friday night. She said she felt so awful that she thought she would drink some “bad” water from the tap (I had cautioned all of the people in orientation to drink only bottled water) so that she would get sick and not have to preach. Then she thought about the sermon she had preached which said that if we put our will above God’s that we’re giving into temptation. She didn’t want to do that. Then she decided to read Early Writings. In the section she was reading, Ellen White was struggling with having to tell specific people the visions that God had given her just for them. Then God gave her the assurance that He would be with her through examples in the Bible. This gave Lauren so much courage, so she prepared her sermon for Sabbath morning. While she was preaching Sabbath morning, she teared up because everything was going so smoothly and she felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was then that she, herself, decided to be baptized. She is the first convert from our meetings in the Dominican! Praise the Lord! The people at Lauren’s site love her so much that when she was a little under the weather last night and couldn’t preach, one of the members brought a card to the hotel for her.

Last night was the first call or appeal our evangelists made. I wish you could have been here when our speakers returned from their meeting sites. They were so excited! It is a real blessing to us to see them excited about sharing Jesus’ love with others.

This morning after Pastor Ben Lundquist had worship, Duane [Pastor Duane McKey, president of the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists] asked for volunteers to share some of their experiences from last night. The following were shared with us:

Luke La Madrid had an incredible experience last night at his meeting. This is being written in Luke’s words. “We intended to start early, but the translator wasn’t there and the generator wasn’t working. Because the generator wasn’t working for us that meant no microphones, no projector, and no lights—only my computer. So I prayed and decided to start anyway. Because I had no microphone, I prayed that my voice would be strong and the people could hear me. Each night the attendance to my meeting has been building to between 80-100 people, so I had to speak loudly. About mid-sermon, the people started being restless because it was so dark. And then I said, ‘Brothers and sisters, I know that you can’t see me and I can’t see you, but I know that your ears work just as well in the dark as in the light.’ I said a short prayer in my head and almost immediately there was a hush over the congregation. So I continued and almost at the end of my sermon, just as I was about to make my call, the light came on. When I was giving the call, I asked how many loved Jesus and would be willing to surrender to Him. Everyone raised their hands. But then I clarified it and said, how many are willing to lay down your life for Jesus and then everyone put their hands down. The crowd became silent. At that point I prayed in my head and I said, ‘Lord, if I’m here for just one person tonight, show them to me.’ One girl stood up and she came up to the platform and then another young man stood up and came to the platform. One by one, more and more people came. Finally, I asked everyone to kneel and I prayed, thanking God for those people who had made the decision to follow Jesus and I prayed that they would follow through with their commitment until Jesus comes again.

Monday night after the meeting:

Today everyone was practicing their sermon on the 2300 days prophecy. Most everyone was nervous about this sermon but we told them that they should pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We saw some of our young people off by themselves praying. Tonight Cody Akers’ church told him that the 2300 days sermon was the best he’s preached thus far. Amazing!

I must stop for now and get this sent off. Blessings to each of you at home. Please keep praying for us as we preach the word!

Kathy McKey

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