Twenty-four hours later and we were all refreshed. When we planned to have a 24 hour retreat with the women in leadership of Nagua and its surrounding area, we had no idea what God had in mind. It was not only refreshing, but healing to each woman involved. These women came with the apparent wear of their ministry’s demands; however, they left refreshed, recharged and invigorated. We were so blessed to witness it. Testimonies brought not only tears to our eyes, but joy to our hearts. God is so faithful. When we draw near to Him, He draws near to us!

Sometimes in the midst of the everyday tasks of planning and organizing…God gets our attention by demonstrating His sovereignty through what we call “divine appointments.” In the midst of our “doing” we continue to see the way the hand of the Lord is orchestrating things here in His due time. Recently we have been preparing for a Healing Crusade that will take place in February with RAIN Ministries and had been praying about which areas to bring them to. We then met a Pastor from the area of Pimentel (about 1 hour away). He was at a Pastors’ Appreciation Celebration we were a part of in Nagua. He said that as we shared our hearts at the event, he knew he was to invite us to Pimentel. When he spoke with us afterwards, we felt a burden for the area. We prayed about it and contacted the Pastor. A couple of weeks later later we went to meet with him and several other Pastors from the area. We sensed God’s hand from the beginning as we pulled up in front of a Pastor’s home. This Pastor, who we were meeting for the first time,(or so we thought) looked at us and remembered us from a visit he had in Nagua. He said that he had been waiting and trusting God for His timing of our visit. He pulled out the business card that Pastor Jim had given him last summer. We could not believe he still had it. He replied, “This is not any ordinary card. It is connected to heaven.” That is very humbling to hear those type of words. It is a constant reminder of how we represent the Lord in everything we do. While at the meeting with about 20 more pastors we had never met before, we witnessed God create an instant bond between us. As we all shared our hearts and vision for the country of the Dominican Republic, our bond increased. It was truly a bond from the Lord. We planned for a community outreach and pastoral training while RAIN is with us. They said that this is what they had been waiting on the Lord for. We are looking forward to see what God is going to do through this new friendship and “divine appointment.” As we left that day, we were surrounded by the love of the Lord as they each embraced us and blessed us. It was a good day to be a missionary.