Trip to the Dominican Republic

This past weekend I was invited to be the main speaker for the Sabbath service and conduct a missiological seminar in the afternoon for the 3^rd annual Youth Congress of the Central Dominican Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. When I arrived I got a lovely tour of the old historic section of Santo Domingo, including Christopher Columbus’s son’s palace. Also did an impromptu segment on the Conference’s radio station. The hour we arrived was the peak hour for youth listenership. So we hit the jackpot. This was my fifth or sixth visit to the country (the last being over 20 years ago). But it was the first that I wasn’t popping-in and popping-out. Rather I had some time to absorb the people, the culture, and the country.

I was recommended by Fidel Perez. He and his brother Raul were in High School at West Indies College, Jamaica, and were members and teenage deacons of the Junior Church that I founded in 1976. I heard for the first time how God miraculously led their deeply politically minded parents (they were named after the Cuban leader and his brother) to pick WIC out of thin air and send them to Jamaica to learn English (not knowing anything about the country, the school, or the Adventist church). They got English, and they got Jesus, and are still vibrant members and patrons of the Church. I went to the Dominican Republic this past weekend to share Jesus with a new generation of Adventist DR youth, -- because of the miracles of WIC and Junior Church! Hallelujah!

Wow! The place where the Congress was held (Barceló resorts in Bavaro) is a fabulous resort on the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic. It is an all-inclusive resort, and they had me in an extraordinary room. There were 200 – 300 energetic young adults (18-35 years old) participating. The other invited speaker was Dr. Felix Cortes from Montemoreles University. And the guest singer was Maribel Soto from Puerto Rico. What a blessing they both were.

The drive to the resort was gorgeous. We passed through the town (San Pedro?) that is famous for producing great baseball stars like Sammy Sosa. And before we left Santo Domingo for the four-hour drive, we stopped to visit my former student, Julio Figuereo. He is now the CEO at the Adventist hospital there. In the 2 years that he is there he is transforming the hospital from an 18-bed hospital to a 90-bed one (from 2 floors to 8). It has a special room for the President of the country if he gets sick, with special rooms for his bodyguards, etc. The hospital overlooks the fabulous botanical gardens and the city in the distance. I just so love and admire leaders with super-vision – and especially when they are young!

Sabbath was a great day. As I told the attendees at the end, I was brought here to give a blessing; but I received a greater one instead. This was especially true during the concert. It was more a “worship service” than a traditional concert, where the artist performs and the audience listens and applauds. These young people were totally engaged – singing along and being emotive throughout. I was so moved and blessed. Their energy, and their love for and expressions of that love for Christ, religion, and spirituality were enormously contagious. When we from the north hang around these kids, we obtain a glimpse of why the church is growing in the global south.

As always, I prayed for the Spirit to lead, and I spoke for the main service in the morning and closed the Congress with a brief workshop/seminar/sermon on wholistic evangelism – evangelism that goes beyond proclamation of propositional truths; rather evangelism as a missiological enterprise that brings wholeness to the body, mind, and “spirit” – that reaches the cognitive, the emotive, the physical, and the social of both the individual and the society. Fun stuff!!

Click on the following link to see pics of my time there: http://www.wallawalla.edu/campus-life/spiritual-life/gallery/youth_congress%2C_dominican_republic%2C_2009