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

From: Kathy McKey

Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Subject: Another Amazing Day in the Dominican Republic

Dear friends and family,

It is another beautiful day in the Dominican Republic!

We just finished our worship and what a powerful worship it was! Jonathan Prakash, Luke LaMadrid, and Eric Ramirez lead a rousing song service and then Erik Vandenburgh, the Arizona Conference Youth Director, and Chaplain Mathieu Theoret from Thunderbird Adventist Academy, continued. Duane and I are so excited that these two young men are a part of our conference. They are very spiritual and have such a gift in leading young people to Jesus Christ.

Back to our worship: Luke LaMadrid and Gianpaul Dalotto told about the experience they had two nights ago when they preached on what the Bible has to say about the subject of death. Then Sandra Smith shared her experience of preaching on the millennium last night. Aimee Smith shared about some of her baptismal candidates and Charles Smith also shared about a family of four that is going to be baptized. I hope to get each one of their experiences to share with you.

Javier Lopez , the son of Dr. Carlos Lopez, is sharing one of his sermons at a public school. Also the principal of a Catholic school has asked him to preach the sermon on the Ten Commandments. He has also been asked to preach the same sermon in the Catholic church on Saturday night when the church is packed with people. It is amazing to me how God wants to use our very young people to preach the gospel. The brother of Javier is nine years old and he wants to be able to preach, also. It is such a blessing to have Dr. Carlos and Dr. Luz Lopez and their children with us. It is reassuring to Duane and I to know that we have a doctor to check the young people when they’re a little under the weather.

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Jordan Ellstrom – Out of the time spent here many great things have been happening. We are able to see the Lord working every day. After the first day passed I thought that the most difficult part was over. When the third day came, my meeting was going much better. I was more confident and speaking with ease. However, my mic kept cutting in and out. Finally it stopped working altogether. I was told that it wasn’t going to be back on, so I said a short prayer. I asked the Lord to give my voice power, and I began speaking. To my surprise, my voice was strong and I felt that everyone could hear me clearly. At the end of the sermon, I made a call. Four people came forward and even more stood up. Through the experiences, we are able to see God working. Personally, I have become closer to God than ever before, and I am thankful for my experiences.

Maxwell Swann – I’m going to be blunt and frank here. Being an international evangelist is hard work! I had little or no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up to go on this trip. I thought it was going to be all fun and games with some strategically-placed preaching throughout the trip. Little did I know, it is not all fun and games and I had to preach every night. You edit and study your sermons a lot. After my first night of talking to the kids, I was not looking forward to the next. It was the first time I had ever preached. I was very nervous and it did not go as well I would have liked. As the days went by, my preaching skills increased beyond my most optimistic projections. I began to feel more and more comfortable up front, as well as more confident in myself. Over my stay in the Dominican Republic, I have felt God’s presence. I have also grown closer to Him. I am very glad I went on this trip. I have had a lot of fun and the good times definitely outweigh the bad.

Aimee Smith – On Sunday I was preaching about baptism. Just before my appeal at the end of my sermon, we had five people baptized. Among them was a young boy (about 12 years old) who lived with his grandma. He had been attending church and had told her that he was going to work for her every day of the week, but on Sabbath, he was going to go to church. I was so impressed by his dedication – he was so young and yet was willing to follow God so completely even though no one else in his family would! Well, after the baptisms, the pastor made a call for anyone who wanted to be baptized, and a family stood. As I went up to finish my sermon, I wasn’t quite sure whether or not I should have the appeal for more people who wanted to get baptized, because the pastor had just made a call. But I made the appeal anyway and three more people stood. Among the three who stood was the little boy’s grandma! His faithfulness and influence had been one of the links that had brought her closer to accepting the truth. It reminded me of the importance of being faithful to follow our convictions in our daily lives.

Sondra Smith – On Sunday night, there was incredibly loud music that played sporadically throughout the meeting from a house just down the street. On Tuesday night, when I was in the middle of my sermon, the music started again. It felt like the entire building was vibrating. I had to hold my hand on the computer to keep it still and it was so loud that my translator and I could barely hear each other. The music was coming from the same house as before. The house was completely dark with no lights on. We stopped the meeting and had everyone kneel for a special prayer that the music would stop. I wanted God to work a miracle but at the same time I had doubts – what if the music didn’t stop? What would the people attending the meeting think if He didn’t answer the prayer? As my translator prayed in Spanish, I quietly prayed, claiming God’s promises to work a miracle and stop the music. The moment we ended our prayer the music stopped and remained that way for the rest of the meeting! It re-affirmed in my mind the statement that says, “At the sound of fervent prayer Satan’s whole host trembles.”

Charles Smith – There is a family of four that is attending my meetings that heard about the meetings from the local SDA Church. The family is from another denomination, but the whole family wants to be baptized this coming Sabbath. The father asked for the people to pray that their family will stay together until Jesus comes.

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I just wanted to let you know that Pastor Benjamin Lundquist e-mailed Duane and I and said that the members are praying for our team at 3:00 p.m. every afternoon. Maybe each one of you receiving this e-mail could do the same. Please pray that it will stop raining in the late afternoon because the people don’t come out as well. Most of them walk to the meetings.

Every evening we have a great surprise from Abimael Feliciano, the Thunderbird Adventist Academy food service director! He tries to fix food that we would eat at home. He brought along some big rolls of veggie-meat and some canned veggie-meat. He has been a real blessing!

I don’t want to forget to mention the folks from the mission that are fixing our breakfast and lunch. They have done an awesome job! Most of our students really don’t care for eggplant; however, these cooks fix it in such a way that our students didn’t even know what they were eating until they asked what was in the dish. By then most had eaten it and loved it and even came back for seconds. Some of our students heap their plate with the eggplant. Amazing!

Bye for now,

Kathy McKey

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