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

From: Kathy McKey

Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Subject: Wednesday Dominican Republic Report

Dear friends and family,

I wish each of you could have been at our worship this morning. I was so moved at how the Holy Spirit is working through our young people. God is giving them experiences to let them know how much He loves them and wants to use them to convey His love to others.

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Grant Parfitt – I have two miracles that I want to share with you. The first happened with Pastor Navarro’s computer. Ashley Lee, Anali and I were in Pastor Navarro’s room practicing for the sermon that night. There had been some power surges going through the building. Pastor Navarro’s computer was running purely on AC power, because his battery hadn’t worked for three weeks. The power surges kept turning off the computer and projector. So Pastor Navarro got worried and unplugged his computer from the wall. Before plugging it back in and starting it up, Anali suggested that we pray for the computer. After the prayer, we turned it back on. It was starting up, and suddenly Pastor Navarro realized that it wasn’t plugged into the wall. He logged on and looked at the battery. It was at 79%. The battery that hadn’t worked for three weeks now worked after prayer!

The second incident happened later that night at my site. We had gotten all set up, and were just about to start. So I tried to start the Jesus DVD, but the DVD player refused to turn on. The standby light was flashing, so I knew it had power, but it wouldn’t go to the ON light. So my translator Dorian suggested that we prayed. We put our hands on it and asked God to make it work. Then I pushed the power button, and it turned on, just like that! So there were two miracles for me that day.

Just a footnote to Grant’s comments, I needed to stop at Pastor Ray Navarro’s room because he was practicing with several youth and Grant was so excited about the miracle that had happened with Pastor Ray’s computer battery that he was the first to share.

Luke La Madrid – This mission trip has been an amazing experience thus far. Here in the Dominican Republic, where answers to prayers are assumed and miracles are commonplace, the events that take place are anything but common. It is a marvelous work that the young people do here. When you are cast into the extreme situations you encounter, there is nothing to do but to rely completely on your Lord and Savior. From miraculous technical recoveries to impossible feats of verbal projection, it is awe-inspiring to hear the testimonies of students on a day-to-day basis! But aside from the physical, it has been such a privilege and to be able to witness the internal miracles as well. I have seen the shyest, most soft-spoken person in the group preach an incredibly powerful sermon, and I have watched as the unlikeliest Bible student picks up the Word and reads with earnestness and fervor. There is no doubt in my mind that these are solely the fruits of passion for the Word and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is evident that the devil does not want us here, but I am convinced that every trial and every obstacle is just another opportunity to remind me how mighty my God is. I can only tell you so much about our time spent here, but the only way to truly understand is to experience it for yourself! So if you ever have the opportunity to send or help fund a student on a mission trip or even feel impressed to go on one yourself, I encourage you to do so! Put the Lord to the test and see what incredible blessings He has in store for you today!

Luke has been helping lead song service at our worships. He and Eric Ramirez and Jonathan Prakish sing beautiful harmony together. When we sing as a group it sounds like a beautiful choir. The angels must rejoice!

Today Hanna Melara shared in worship about her experience in preaching the sermon on the 2300-days prophecy. You need to understand that the 2300-days sermon is the most difficult sermon of all that the evangelists will preach. She said that her sermon was going really well and then toward the end of the sermon she realized what this all meant and started to cry. When she had finished, the pastor asked her if she was an experienced evangelist because she did so well. When Hanna was sharing her experience I couldn’t keep the tears back.

I had shared with the group that last year when I had taken a group to Rwanda, some of the evangelists came to me and said that they were so nervous and they didn’t know how they would get through the 2300-days sermon. I told them that they couldn’t do anything on their own but that they should pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When these particular evangelists returned from their sites after preaching this sermon, they came to me and said that the people at their sites loved that sermon so much that they asked them to preach it again the next night. One of the speakers was a 15-year-old. Hanna had such a rich experience with the Lord and delivered it so well because Duane and I had seen her off by herself praying throughout the day.

Nathaniel (Nate) Kirby shared how last night it rained so hard at his site that the people couldn’t even hear what he was saying, so right in the middle of his sermon he said a silent prayer. He said that almost immediately it stopped raining!

Charles Smith shared how last evening when he was waiting for the bus, one of his friends came up to him and said that his jacket and his slacks didn’t match. When he went back to his room to take off his jacket, he discovered that he had left his computer-to-projector cord in his room. Then when he was setting up at his site, he discovered that he had left his projector cord in his room. (He later discovered that when he unplugged the power cord from the projector it fell behind the table.) I went behind the sheet that is really my screen and prayed that God’s will would be done in the circumstances I was in. Afterward, the sound guy said, ‘I think I may have a cord that will work,’ but he didn’t. And then the translator said that he thought he had a cord that would work and he did. When I made my call at the end of my sermon, 15 people came forward. What I learned from this is that God will work in every circumstance, no matter what it is.

It’s Wednesday night and I just got back from the sites of Charles Smith and Cedric Johnson. They both are powerful preachers and both of them have wonderful translators. When Charles preaches, his translator does exactly what Charles does. It’s a perfect match. There were three baptisms at Cedric’s site tonight. Charles has been so helpful in setting up equipment for the morning worship. It is such a blessing to have helpful youth!

Electric power is a big issue. It seems like it’s always going off and then they have to start the generator, but we’re thankful that most sites, if not all, have generators.

John Stahl is our “high tech” person. He has been so helpful with computers and he goes around the different sites each night to video the speakers and their sites. He will put together a video of the Dominican trip.

Tomorrow I hope to share with you John Daniel’s experience when he preached.

Each day that we’re here is filled with special blessings, especially for our youth. One pastor said to me today, ‘My churches love the young preachers so much that I think from now on I will only ask for young people to preach evangelistic meetings in my churches. The attendance is so much better than even when we have our best Dominican evangelists.’ Praise the Lord for His blessings!

Kathy McKey

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