Following Him...In the Dominican Republic

2012 !!!!!!!

2012-01-16T03:47:00.001-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE-----It's hard to believe that we are now well into January. We wanted to share with you some of our "goals for 2012"...

Our theme last year was "LOVE AND BE OBVIOUS" and we want to continue with that but we also want to focus on a new theme "ACCEPTANCE WITH JOY".

Here is a quote that a fellow missionary friend just gave us that really fits how we are feeling led---"WHEREVER YOU ARE, BE ALL THERE. LIVE TO THE HILT EVERY SITUATION YOU BELIEVE TO BE THE WILL OF GOD."--Jim Elliot

With this in mind, here are our main goals for this new year...

1. Continue to pour into the Dominicans we have discipled and equipped to lead small growth groups in their local communities, local prisons, Teen Challenge Santiago, and local drug/alcohol rehabilitation centers---always with the goal to "mulitiply"---develop more local leaders ministering to their own people.

2. Focus more on our local community, Lajas de Yaroa--through small growth groups, leadership training, and individual discipleship of those expressing a desire to grow spiritually.

Here's a look at what we've been doing in discipleship and in marriage mentoring...

Our community of Lajas---as of this new year, we have started a women's group--so we now have four small groups meeting weekly---a women's group on Monday nights, a men's group and teen girl group on Tuesday nights, and another men's group on Wednesday nights--please pray for all those involved--that they sense the Lord's great love for them, that they accept it and respond to it!!!

THE WEDNESDAY MEN'S GROUP with Dave and Jose Miguel leading...

RACHAEL'S TEEN GROUP--here celebrating a birthday...

NEW WOMEN'S GROUP which Cherry's mentee, Carolina, organized!!...

We have a number of young girls in this neighborhood (ages 8-12) that continue to ask us when we are starting a young girls group!!! would you please pray about that with us.

In each of these groups we clearly see those with potential to change their community--please pray for these potential community leaders!!

MARRIAGE MINISTRY...

Here are two of the couples we have had the privilege to walk alongside and counsel as they prepare for marriage---we use the book, LOVE AND RESPECT by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs (available in both Spanish and English)---what a gift they have been to us and our family!!

Guesly and Katie---

He proposed to her at church in front of the whole congregation---way to go Gues!!!

Their wedding date is June 15

LUIS Y LOIDA...

They both have waited for God's perfect plan for their lives and it looks beautiful!!

Their wedding date is September 1----please join us in prayer for these two couples and for us to share Godly wisdom and love with them.

Thanks for all the Christmas cards with beautiful family pictures--that so encourages us!! Please take a look at the righthand panel for our prayer requests and some new "quotes from here and there" to encourage you along your way.

BY GOD'S GRACE AND FOR HIS GLORY,

THE DAVE SCHWULST FAMILY

Feliz Navidad----Merry Christmas

2011-12-18T07:19:00.000-08:00

View of our community of Lajas de Yaroa tucked in the beautiful mountains of the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic...

No snow here but lots and lots of rain and cooler temperatures do make us feel like it is Christmas here on the island.

As we end 2011 and celebrate Christ' birth, we would like to share this quote from Shane Clairborne regarding Advent---we feel it explains well our reason for choosing to live where we live and do what we do...we pray it will encourage you as you follow Christ in the way He has called you "for such a time as this"...

"Everything in our society teaches us to move away from suffering, to move out of the neighborhoods where there is high crime, to move away from people who don't look like us. But the gospel calls us to something altogether different. We are to laugh at fear, to lean into suffering, to open ourselves to the stranger. Advent is the season when we remember how Jesus put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. God getting born in a barn reminds us that God shows up in the most forsaken corners of the earth.

Movements throughout church history have gone to the desert, to the slums, to the most difficult places on earth to follow Jesus. For some of us that means remaining in difficult neighborhoods that we were born into even though folks mahy think we are crazy for not moving out. For others it means returning to a difficult neighborhood after heading off to college or job training to acquire skills--choosing to bring those skills back to where we came from to help restore the broken streets. And for others it may mean relocating our lives from places of so-called privilege to an abandoned place to offer our gifts for God's kingdom. (The last point describes why we are here.)

Wherever we come from, Jesus teaches us that good can happen where we are, even if real-estate agents and politicians aren't interested in our neighborhoods. Jesus comes from Nazareth, a town from which folks said nothing good could come. He knew suffering from the moment he entered the world as a baby refugee born in the middle of a genocide. Jesus knew poverty and pain until he was tortured and executed on a Roman cross. This is the Jesus we are called to follow. With his coming we learn that the most dangerous place for Christians to be is in comfort and safety, detached from the suffering of others. Places that are physically safe can be spiritually dead."

Please pray for our neighbors here--those who are hungry for light---like the shepherds--- who over 2000 years ago were told ---"Today in the city of David was born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

those in the elementary school here...

and who play on this basketball court with an incredible view of the glory of God...

and please pray for land such as this which could be used for a playground/community center...

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas---check the right-hand panel for our prayer requests and a special Advent prayer for you too. Our Christmas letters have been sent--if you didn't receive one please email us and we will get one to you. Thanks for the cards we are receiving---use the address on the right to send us your cards.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

FALL HAPPENINGS...

2011-10-17T10:29:00.001-07:00

WE REALLY DO LIVE IN A TREEHOUSE!

This is a picture of our home taken from the meditation bench on our property behind our home----One of the guiding principles of our ministry is "Dwell with the Lord, gaze upon His beauty, savor the sweetness of the Lord and seek Him in His temple" (Psalm 27:4) We continue to praise our God for giving us such a beautiful place to seek Him, dwell with Him and savor His sweetness--a huge blessing for us and all those who enjoy time here with us.

DAY RETREATS AND SEMINARS--"PASADIAS"

Our second ministry guiding principle is 2 Timothy 2:2 --Teach what you have learned to reliable people(who later will do the same)--understanding that in the process we are all really "taught" by the Lord. This year we have hosted many who come here to draw closer to the Lord and learn more of Him and His ways---Here is an one example-- a small group that Cherry is a part of in Santiago.

Their day retreat started with a table of fresh foods from the island...

Followed by teaching and fellowship...

Then personal time in prayer and study...

Enjoying all of our property--outside by the pool...

or inside our home ...

MEN'S STUDY GRADUATION...

This month we want to feature another graduation--but one that represents our hopes and prayers for our men's ministry---in 2010, we offered the men's study to a church in a small community, Moca, outside of Santiago--the pastor attended the study, was very impacted by the teaching, and his young adult son who had been far from the Lord was brought back "home" through the study. Needless to say, both are very enthusiastic about this study so this year they offered the study to two other churches in Moca resulting in two groups of men meeting weekly. We just celebrated a joint graduation with these two groups. They now plan to offer the study at the men's prison in Moca. Please keep this work in your prayers. A beautiful example of God's "multiplication"--all now led by trained Dominicans.

JOSE MIGUEL GIVING HIS TESTIMONY, THE "LAJAS GANG" SITTING IN FRONT AND PROUD DAVE RECORDING IT ALL...

Our third ministry guiding principle is based on Revelations 7:9-10)--Witness the results/rewards--a great multitude from every nation standing before the throne. This month we got to witness our first "disciple" here in our community of Lajas stand before our church family and share what the love of Christ means in his life now--almost two years later. It was beautiful to share this with our church family---a body of believers from many "nations"--Dominican Republic, Haiti, United States, Honduras, Canada...and our little community sat in the front row!!!

Here is the group from our community of Lajas that we brought down the mountain to church last Sunday--- We continue to see more interest from our community in the things of God and growing their faith--pray that we stay in tune with God's plans here.

TRIP TO HAITI...

Since we have lived here, along with seeing the spiritual and physical needs, we have also hoped and prayed that the Dominicans who have the means to help those less fortunate would be drawn to do so. One of the goals of Santiago Christian School, where our girls attend high school, is the spiritual growth of their students, the majority of whom are from the most wealthy families on the island. We would love to see these young people and their families live for Christ and minister to those in need on the island. Dave and Rachael were part of a group from the school who went to Haiti to minister to school children there.

CELEBRATING OUR FALL BIRTHDAYS...

We will close with some fun pictures of our family and our neighbors celebrating birthdays here---Dave, Rebekah and Cherry all have fall birthdays---the guys from the neighborhood planned a surprise party for Dave---they were thrilled to pull off this surprise...

Our family really enjoyed this special evening...

Rachael and Beka wrote a new song in honor of their father and sang it to him---you can imagine what a blessing that was!!!...

The guys from the neighborhood did a little "singing" too...

The guys bought a special birthday cake and sparkling grapefruit juice (they know we like that!!) to celebrate...

Everyone enjoyed some snacks along with the birthday cake...

We ended the evening playing pool--a favorite Dominican past time...

We thank you for sharing in this journey with us and for keeping us in your prayers. Please check out the right-hand side panel for new prayer requests and words to encourage you.

Please remember that our ministry, Kingdom Seeker Ministry, has a new P.O. Box number you are to use for sending us support. And...we would love to receive Christmas cards at the Florida address below.

BY GOD'S GRACE AND FOR HIS GLORY,

THE DAVE SCHWULST FAMILY

DRINK DEEPLY...

2011-09-16T06:24:00.001-07:00

THE BEAUTY OF NATURE THAT IS SO ABUNDANT HERE...

A theme that has been emerging lately in our lives here is the idea of "drinking deeply" from all God offers us every day. So this month we want to share how God nourishes us through his beauty and through relationships with his people---enjoy!!

Our youngest daughter, Rebekah, took these pictures on our property...

Rebekah, budding photographer with our great landscape in the background!!

AUGUST MEN'S CONFERENCE... was offered to all the graduates of the manhood study these last two years...it was held at a beautiful retreat center in our community...

Paul Thompson, a MK who grew up in Cuba and later ministered and raised his family in Spain and now lives and ministers here in the DR, did the teaching...

Our good friends Josh Davis and Royce Morris led worship...

There were times to connect...

times to relax...

times to play and enjoy this beautiful countryside in our community...

or to take time alone to pray in "quiet places" such as this little chapel on the retreat center's grounds...

SPECIAL GUESTHOUSE VISIT...Our family was blessed to have Josh and Royce spend a week with us while they put on the conference--great times of fellowship...

we especially enjoyed times where Josh and Royce "made music" in our living room with our daughters, Rachael and Beka!! We even went out in our neighborhood one night and went door to door giving a "portable concert"---one of the most special times we have had here to date!!...

A VERY SPECIAL MEN'S GROUP GRADUATION--THE GROUP FROM OUR COMMUNITY, LAJAS DE YAROA...after 24 weeks of study, four young men from our community were ready to "graduate"---first, they spent a Sunday afternoon at "27 Waterfalls" with Dave and their two group leaders, Jon and Jose Miguel---it was the first time for all of them!!!

The waterfalls experience...

The ceremony...we hosted the graduation at our place on our gazebo that night---Rachael and Beka started off by leading us all in worship...

Dave introducing the graduates...

Joel giving a testimony of how the group has impacted his life...

Jose Miguel, Jon and Dave presenting the medalions and certificates to each young man...

The "audience" of friends and family seemed to enjoy it all--each graduate was encouraged to invite their families to the graduation and each one had one or more family members come!!!

Joel and his mother...

Antonio and his father...

Lindo and his mother...

Frances and his mother...

Everyone had fun eating cake afterwards...

And what's next...

The above picture is very special to us--on the surface it is simply a picture of three of the young men who participate in the men's group in our community holding the new study they are doing by Paul Thompson, "Una Salvacion tan grande" (The glory of the Gospel)---but it is really much more---many of you will remember that about one year ago, Edward, a beautiful young man from our community was killed in a motor cycle accident--as in any small community, the people all came together to grieve and comfort one another--we felt humbled to be a part of all that---but we also prayed, O Lord, let this death not be in vain! Do something beautiful here---well, as we look at the above photo, we realize that it is a photo of Edward's younger brother, Joel, his cousin, Lindo, who was with Edward the night of the accident, and a good friend and neighbor, Frances---all three of these men as well as the others involved in the small group are now on a very different "camino" (path) than they were on a year ago. Thank you Lord--you are good!! Please continue to pray for our community of Lajas, especially the young men here.

RACHAEL AND REBEKAH...

Our girls do seem to flourish here and we are so grateful for that!! These past few months Pamela, the sister of one of the young men in the men's group here, has expressed her desire to grow in her faith. So Rachael offered to mentor/disciple her--in Spanish of course!!--so they are now meeting weekly for study and prayer---please pray for them.

Both Rachael and Beka continue to write music, in English and Spanish, and bless others---here they are at our home church with Dave singing harmony--in Spanish!!! God is good!!!

And sports at their school, Santiago Christian School, is a big part of Rebekah's life here---she is talented and a great team player---here are both girls with their team at the end of last soccer season...

Thanks for sharing in all this with us---your prayers, support and encouragement bless us!! Look at the right-hand panel for our prayer requests and some things to hopefully encourage you too.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst Family

SUMMERTIME STORIES...

2011-08-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

STORIES, STORIES, DON'T WE ALL LOVE A GOOD STORY!!! Having just returned from a wonderful stateside visit, we can say firsthand that there is much benefit in telling one's story and in listening to the stories of others---through this "telling" and "listening" we get a taste of God's big story. We so enjoyed telling the story of our life here and listening to family and friends tell us their stories. So this month we want to tell you two "stories"--of the many, many stories of our life here. And we want to use pictures as well as a few words.

The first story involves the community where we live, Lajas del Yaroa--we have lived here two years and we are blessed to witness how God is "wooing" the people, especially the young men of this community--we have shared the story up to this point of how the two men who work for us became Christ followers, were baptized and have been sharing their faith with their neighbors as they do life together. This spring another young man made the decision to follow Christ and also was baptized. A small group of young men in the community has formed and they are now meeting twice a week in our gazebo--for study and fellowship. After one of their gatherings, three of the young men said they wanted to follow Christ and be baptized---so Dave and the other three believers met with them for futher teaching and discussion--other young men from the group came to these teachings with the result that six young men were ready to be baptized!!! So on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in June, these young men gathered at our place--for a meal of course!! and some fellowship with young men from our church in Santiago--they also invited family members to witness the event. So those ready for baptism gathered in our pool with Dave, Jose Miguel and Santos...

Two of the young men asked Dave to baptize them...

Each Baptism was followed by much applause by tapping the water!!! a nice Dominican touch to this Christian tradition...

Three of the young men asked Jose Miguel to baptize them---it is beautiful to see the young men look to him as a leader now...

and more celebration...

And Santos had the privilege of baptizing his brother, Noel...

And one last grand finale "splashing" to celebrate the new lives here!!...

LAJAS...OUR COMMUNITY...So we ask you to pray for our community and this "movement" that seems to be growing here!!! Here are a few photos of the neighborhood...

The elementary school...

The basketball court with a great view of the countryside!!...

And here are two possible sites for a playground and community center which could bring much of God's goodness to this community!!...

A PRISON MINISTRY STORY...

We have shared that three groups of fifty men each have now completed the manhood study at the prison in Santiago---for the first two classes, the director, Adolfo, observed from a distance, somewhat skeptical of what was going on. But he could not deny the changes in the men so when the study was offered to the guards and leadership of the prison, he joined the group. And now he has a story to share!!! He has been touched by God through the study and is very hungry for more---it's exciting to ponder what God will do through this man who is in a postition to affect great change for good in this prison as well as in the penal system throughout the island. Here is Adolfo, front right in the white t-shirt, with the group of guards and leaders after they spent a day of reflection and fellowship at our place.

STATESIDE--SPECIAL MOMENTS...SPECIAL STORIES...

Each of these photos represents a special moment for us stateside---and there were so many of those moments...

Time with our son, Shane and Grandma King (Cherry's mom)...

Rachael's very good friend, Raquel, from the DR and their Young Life small group leader here in the DR, Kristen, visited us at Cherry's mom's farm---extra special to have DR friends see our life stateside!!...

Rebekah got her ears pierced...

She wanted Grandma with her for the special event!!...

Rachael FINALLY got her cast off thanks to our very good friend, Jeff Williamson---just one example out of many of how well our Illinois friends care for us when we are back home---we are so grateful to all of them!!...

We were very grateful to spend time with our oldest daughter, Blythe----here are three generations of "King women"!!!...

A special evening with many of Dave's family...

We spent so many special moments with friends!!! We can't include them all but one special moment was spending an evening with our old neighbors--a big chunk of Rachael and Beka's childhood memories include these neighbors, whom we hadn't seen in five years!!! Now the kids are teenagers!!!...

Even if it was a bit "awkward" at first for the kids now grown up, it made us parents smile and proved to be a beautiful evening for all...

And we got to share a meal with our co-laborers in the DR field, Amaury and Catherine--how fun to see them stateside---Dave wanted to buy Amaury a steak dinner!!!...

AND...A BIG FISH STORY!!!...

Dave was blessed to be treated to a fishing trip up north in Minnesota---he did a little ministry, helping them plan a manhood study for their church and then got to do something he loves!!!---fish!!!! And he has the pictures to prove his "catch"!!

Thanks for letting us share these special "stories" with you---please look at the right-hand panel for our prayer requests and some things to hopefully encourage you in your walk with the Lord today.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwuslt family

Summertime, Summertime...

2011-05-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

As we head into summer on the island, we want so share some of what we have been up to these past two months---

MEN'S MINISTRY---ANOTHER PRISON GRADUATION...

Presenting the third group of men to graduate from the prison ministry class--56 graduates...

Some special moments---Dave sharing with one of the graduates...

Prison administration once again allowed family members to come for the ceremony...

Marriages were recognized...

The prison director shares how he has personally been impacted by this course...

Examples of God "multipying" this work--here is the pastor of a church in Moca that has completed this study and now he along with some of the graduates have started two more groups in their community and were on hand to help with this prison graduation as well...

Pastor William recognized his wife, Jacqueline, thanking her for staying by his side as God does his work in their marriage as well..

WOMEN'S RETREAT---We hosted fifty women for a day retreat...

Here are the women at the end of their day--"muy contentas todas"...

Our gazebo out front was filled during the worship and teaching times...

Our daughter, Rachael, was a part of the worship team for the day...

We enjoyed some great food thanks to Cheyla(she and her family moved to the DR from Honduras) who was in charge of the kitchen...

Women "filled" our property enjoying good food and fellowship...

and time alone with our Creator...

We even offered a water aerobics class in the afternoon:)!!...

MENTORING---here are a few photos of the special people we feel so blessed to "do life with--for such a time as this"...

Although Dave meets regularly with Jon and Jose Miguel for more formal discipling/mentoring sessions, so much of what God is doing in these lives happens as they work side by side together---they recently finished a new bathroom outside so we can better accomodate day retreats and seminars...

We also have the privilege of mentoring some of the young North Americans in ministry here on the island---our friend Chris is with Young Life Ministries...

Cherry also is blessed to mentor both Dominican and North American women ministering here--here are just a few of the women that bless her life here...

And she also has helped lead a women's growth group of English speakers serving here...

OUR COMMUNITY--LAJAS DE YAROA...

We are so excited to see God's hand in our neighborhood--the new men's group is growing in numbers and depth--they have just completed lesson seven of the Authentic Manhood study...

It is a joy to watch Dave's two disciples here serving as small group leaders now...

The last Sunday in May Mother's Day is celebrated here in the DR and it is a very BIG occasion---this is a picture of the group from our neighborhood who came to church with us that Sunday--some of the young men invited their mothers and their younger sisters!!!

A FEW WORDS FROM DAVE...

Wow! Time is flying by and we're now heading into the summer months. School for our girls is out now and we are preparing to come back to the states for a short three week visit in July. We are extremely excited to see as many of our family, friends and supporters as we can during that brief time.

I can't tell you how many times Cherry and I will be sitting down here overwhelmed by God's goodness in our lives--for providing the continual support, love and encouragement by you folks back in the states. You all have been so faithful to God's call to support us here in the DR whether it be financially, prayerfully or calling and writing to encourage us. Words cannot express our heartfelt gratitude for each one of you. We could not be here ministering to the myriad of broken hearts and broken lives without you.

It is hard to convey the impact that the "Quest for Authentic Manhood" study has had on the men here in the DR. Pastor William and I have had the priviledge of presenting this program to twelve groups of men from the men's prison in Santiago to a number of different churches, different denominations and different communities. Close to 300 men have completed this 24 week series. The transformation and healing we have witnessed has been miraculous. There are now over ten churches and two more prisons and drug/alcohol rehabilitation centers that want us to present this study. And many of those communities who have completed the study are now reaching out to offer it again to others--so the discipleship continues.

Our biggest challenge is training leaders from those who have graduated to invest their time and energy in the lives of other men so all of us can grow deeper in our relationship with God.

I thank God for this challenge and the many opportunities we have because I wholeheartedly believe that His ultimate purpose for each of us is to be disciples and make disciples through the transforming power of His Holy Spirit.

Again, thanks to each one of you that make it possible for us to carry on in this endeavor. Please take a look at the right-hand panel for our prayer requests, some words of encouragement and recommendations for some "good reads".

Dios les bendiga.

By His grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

Springtime in the Dominican Republic...

2011-04-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the latest activities in our ministry---

MEN'S MINISTRY---TWO GRADUATIONS ON THE SAME DAY!...

On Sunday, April 3, we celebrated graduations at two separate churches---the church we attend as a family, Vida Nueva (New Life) in Santiago and a church in the community of Los Salados---here are the graduates of Vida Nueva...

Jose Miguel, from our community of Lajas, gave an encouraging testimony...

Omar, whom Dave has trained to take over the leadership of this group, shared with the men...

The "knighting" of each man is always powerful--here Dave knights Romano, who will be helping lead this group of men in the future...

The congregation thoroughly enjoyed this graduation of 16 young men...

It was beautiful to witness both Jose Miguel and Jon, who work for us and whom Dave has been discipling for the past year, receive their diplomas...

And then there were three---these three men are all from our community of Lajas and have now begun a new men's group up in our neighborhood--please pray for Jose Miguel, Jon and Santos----Dave will be training and discipling them in this process...

After the church service, all the men and their families came back to our home to celebrate by sharing a meal, sharing some powerful testimonies in front of their family members and spending the afternoon together...

That same evening the men's group in Los Salados also hosted their graduation---so beautiful to see how God's message in "multiplying" here...

It is always powerful for the congregation to watch the men file in for the ceremony--please continue to pray for all the men in these small groups--that their faith and walk with the Lord grow stronger and stronger...

AND...A SPECIAL BAPTISM...

It was especially sweet when Santos asked Dave if he could be baptized in our pool the day of the men's class graduation--he shared with everyone first about his background which was not an easy one and how the Lord is changing him and giving him hope for a new life in Christ...

Both Dave and Jose Miguel have been discipling Santos---so now there are three young men in our neighborhood who are serious about following Christ and what they will mean for them and for this community--it has been a blessing and a privilege to witness how God is bringing forth new life in this community--one soul at a time!!!...

GUESTHOUSE HAPPENINGS...

Again this past month, we were privileged to host a young couple in our guest house-Edwin and Millie-they are members of Vida Nueva in Santiago and Edwin has been training to become a pastor---they are a beautiful example of God "renewing the face of the earth" here--one person and one couple at a time...

The week before their visit, they found out that they are pregnant with their first child---please keep this family in your prayers...

As always, our whole family is blessed by these visits---and a special blessing is that our teenage daughters get to witness young people strong in their faith living out their life and their marriage for Christ and bringing His goodness into their worlds...

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THOUGHTS FROM DAVE (AND HOPEFULLY FROM GOD TOO!)...

(1 John 1:5-6 NIV) “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him, must walk as Jesus did.”

O.K., I’ve been reading the Bible and studying it for a few decades now and why does this passage kind of “stick in my craw” all of a sudden. I’ve read it many times before and it’s probably impacted me about as much as reading Leviticus (that’s the book of the Bible I go to when I’m having trouble falling asleep at night- 5 minutes into Leviticus and I’m out like a light).

Anyhow, what’s this passage saying to us? Whenever the Bible says you “must” do something that kind of gets my attention and my carnal reaction is – “Hey, nobody’s going to tell me what I ‘must’ do.” You can’t water that word down. It’s as absolute as absolute can get. In our world today of political correctness using a word like “must” can get you in a lot of hot water. And why is it when someone (like my wife for instance) tells me I “must” do something, the hair on the back of my neck stands up and I want to do almost the exact opposite and become hostile. What’s that all about? Maybe it’s because it’s not being presented as a request but as a command.

Gosh look what happened to our first parents, created perfectly in the image of God, placed in a perfect garden- Eden. In Genesis 2:16-17 it says: “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat it you will surely die.’” Why did God have to say that after everything? Thus far everything was going along so beautifully. To top it all off he could have said: “If you eat of it you’ll die,” but no he says: “When you eat from it you’ll die.” It’s like he knew old Adam and Eve were going to give in and do it. I wonder how many times they passed by that tree and thought: “What in the world is God’s reason for prohibiting us from eating the fruit from that tree?”

O.K., so here is my case in point: If two perfect people like Adam and Eve who had no sin but had the inclination or tendency to do the exact opposite of what God told them not to do, then can’t I cut myself a little slack when I get a burr in my saddle and put up some resistance to God’s must do’s or must not do’s?

Let’s go back to our verses in 1 John. Here is the point. God’s intentions from the beginning weren’t to booby trap us or set us up for failure. He’s not sitting up on his throne chuckling at us while we stumble and bumble along. Rather, he loves us so much that he’s given us total freedom. That freedom even goes as far as allowing us to totally reject him. He never forces obedience. His motivation is always in love and because he is the total embodiment of love, he has created each of us with the utmost desire of wanting to be loved; so what a beautiful passage 1 John 1:5 is. We can actually experience in this life our ultimate, innermost desire: to truly be complete in his love. Wow! When I look at God and know him in this way I’m motivated to obey his word and walk as Jesus did. I want to instead of I have to.

Next month I’m going to continue this, taking a serious look at verse 6 where it says: “If we claim to live in him than we must walk as Jesus did.” That really is where the “rubber meets the road” and where we as Christians have to look deep inside ourselves to see if we’re willing to trust him to that level of following Jesus and to see if our walk aligns with how Jesus walked.

Till next time…
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As always, we are very grateful for you all---your friendship, love, encouragement, prayers and perseverance with us on this journey. We love to hear from you so all emails and snail mail are very welcome! (Addresses at the bottom of this blog) Take a look at the right-hand side panel for our prayer requests and some words to encourage you.

We plan to be in Illinois in July and would love to see as many of you as possible--see side panel for details.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

BRINGING IN THE NEW YEAR...

2011-03-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

Enjoy some photos of life here in 2011...

THE NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERT...
As Dave has been discipling Jose Miguel and Jon, they have begun to ask what the Lord would have them do to bring the light and love of the gospel to this community--one idea they had was to put on a Christian concert for the community---and when our good friend and talented mulit-lingual musician, Josh Davis, contacted us about bringing his family to visit, this felt like God at work--the result was a beautiful evening in January---with more than 200 people from our community and some of the surrounding communities attending the concert!!

First, the worship band that our girls are a part of agreed to put on the concert--they came early in the afternoon to set everything up at our local basketball court---and to eat a nice spagetti dinner at our place first!!! Here are some of Cherry's girl friends helping with the meal...

and the group getting ready to eat!!

As usual, there were a few "technically difficulties" getting ready for the concert--here Dave helps "jump" the backup generator with our truck--(but look at that beautiful mountain scenery in the background!...

But as always, God was faithful, and the group was ready to begin the concert...

and a nice crowd had gathered...

our girls love being part of this group!...

and it was a special treat for them to sing with Josh Davis!!!...

Dave had fun with the audience during the "rifa" (raffle)

Pastor William gave an encouraging message..

and many came forward asking for prayer...

It is such a blessing to share this adventure as a couple--here we are at the end of the evening--muy contentos (content and happy)!!!...

GUEST HOUSE HAPPENINGS...
The first guests of the new year were Josh and Jen Davis and their sweet family--Josh was an MK here, then returned to live and work here as an adult--and now lives in Atlanta heading up a multi-cultural ministry--he had long dreamed of bringing his whole family to the island with him---so we served as "home base" for them for their two week visit in January.

It was a real blessing to spend time as families--encouraging one another...

and some sweet times for the kids too--here they all are cuddled up on Beka's bed watching a movie during their "sleepover"...

Then we had a sweet young couple celebrating their one year anniversary---Gregory and Gery---he is a worship leader (who also led the group for the neighborhood concert) and she is a church secretary---it was so fun to see them take time away for each other!!

Here they are at breakfast--pancakes and candles--later we had a sweet conversation (the four of us) on marriage---please keep these two in your prayers--that God be glorified in their marriage and ministry...

A very special guest in February was Dave's brother Tim...

He is such an encouragement to us in the faith as he quietly serves in so many ways, most of which go unrecognized (but not unrecognized by the Father!!!) We are especially grateful to Tim for being our personal administrator back in the states and for how he selflessly cared for their mom and dad in their last days so that Dave and his sister could continue their work in the DR and California--we love you Tim!! You bless us!! Please pray for Tim as he seeks to follow the Lord's will for him in his future.

And Tim did get to experience the beautiful Dominican beach--"brothers at the beach"

FROM DAVE'S HEART...

Hi—this is Dave writing this month—Cherry usually does it and I have to admit that God has really gifted her to be a great communicator.

“The place that God calls us is the place where our deep joy and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner

There are so many beautiful things God is doing here that it’s difficult to capsulize it all without losing the spiritual and emotional impact that is occurring in the relationships we have. So my challenge here is –“How can I speak to your soul?” In this age of information and sensory overload, how can this blog be more than just information of activities and events in our life, but words that can penetrate to your soul?

Here in the Dominican Republic we live in a LOUD culture. Between the incessant horn honking of taxis and trucks to the muffler-less motorcycles coupled with the 30,000 watt sound systems in people’s cars, homes and businesses blaring at all hours, you can barely keep your sanity. I turn into an explosive beast if exposed to noise for too long a time (like 10 minutes)—ask my wife and daughters.

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) What is the “noise” in your life? What robs you of your peace and joy? Busyness…worry…people pleasing…self-righteousness or self-defensiveness, unresolved conflict, competitiveness, jealousy, free floating anxiety, shame, critical attitude, a “secret sin”, control of people or circumstances? Any of these strike a chord? Why is it we hold on to destructive attitudes and behaviors when they constantly lead to disillusion and pain? Why is it we (as Christians especially) try to hide behind a façade of constantly wanting everybody to think that we’re ok? By gosh we’re Christians and we’re supposed to have our “act together”. Don’t you get tired of putting on the “game face” everyday and rushing out the door to work, or this social activity or that school function, or this Bible study or that small group ore this sporting event or that meeting; the list goes on, thinking this is the Christian life---I need to be involved more, giving more, sacrificing more—to be a better parent, be a better husband (or wife), be a better neighbor, be a better employee, be a better Christian---hey, what’s the matter with you , you slacker? Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and move on. Get with the program. Read this book or that book, exercise more, get on a diet, pray more, read your Bible more, change this…change that…Somebody just shoot me and put me out of this misery. H-E-L-P!!

Anybody relating to me on this? Any of you reading this about ready to explode? In just writing this what’s going on inside me is like a tornado in my head. I just want to go out and punch somebody,. I’m exhausted, I’m frustrated, I’m mad, I’m depressed. Lord help me—Lord rescue me—Lord save me from myself!

“Be still and know that I am God.” I’m trying Lord, but my mind won’t quit spinning. There’s too much going on. I can’t do it all. When’s it going to end?
Anybody tracking with me yet or are all of you on better medication than me? Maybe this is sounding a bit negative, or depressing or self-deprecating and you don’t wrestle with any of what has been mentioned, but I do. Not all the time, but a lot of the time. I know I’m in the heat of a big spiritual battle down here. I know there’s an enemy trying to do me in, destroy my marriage, and tear apart my family. It’s so subtle at times, and yet so obvious. Do you see yourselves in this spiritual battle too? The tritest of things unnerve you. A comment from your wife that you take as a complaint. And expression on someone’s face that you presume is negative or critical. You go reeling into a self-defense mode as if a terrorist was going to detonate himself in front of you. I react like a trigger hypersensitive private in a mine field. Why do I get that way? Could it be Satan having a field day?

“Be still and know that I am God.” What’s the solution? Is there a solution? Anybody tracking with me? Am I the only one out in left-field? I do believe there is a solution--given to each of us by God himself. Some of you know that my two youngest daughters, Rachael and Rebekah, write music. I'd like to share one of their latest songs as I believe it expresses the solution beautifully--enjoy...(the song is attached to this month's update email---if you didn't receive the email, contact us and we will get it to you)

We thank you all for your love, prayers and support--please check the right-hand column for our prayers requests and some words to encourage you on your way.

BY GOD'S GRACE AND FOR HIS GLORY,

THE DAVE SCHWULST FAMILY

HOLIDAY MEMORIES---2010...

2011-01-08T10:38:00.001-08:00

FELIZ ANO NUEVO OR HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL--This holiday season we stayed on the island for the first time since we moved here in 2007 and we feel the Lord really blessed our time here with much of the same things that we have always loved about these holiday times in the states---focusing on faith, family, friends and food!! But we surely missed our family and friends back in the states and thought we would share our holidays with you this way...

Our Thanksgiving consisted of the traditional turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie, etc but we celebrated with a mixture of Dominican and North American missionary friends eating outside on our gazebo!! Most of our Dominican friends had never celebrated this holiday so it was especially fun to share the day with them...

Little 3 year old Grayson dazzled us all with his Spanish---it helps that he has grown up here!!!

The following weekend we hosted new friends of ours, Mark and Naomi Widmer, who came to the island last August to work with Santiago Christian School--they wanted a little get away to spend time together, pray about their future ministry and get to know our family a bit better--we so enjoyed their visit and felt God's blessing on both our families...

We had fun decorating the guesthouse for Christmas before their arrival...

The first weekend in December we hosted a "pasadia" or day trip for Cherry's women's small group from our church, Vida Nueva--it was a great day of fellowship and focusing on what we have been learning in our study, Sanidad de Corazon, or Heart Healing...

And we attended a beautiful Cena Navidena or Christmas dinner at our church, Vida Nueva...

Dave with Omar who he is training to lead the men's group class at Vida Nueva--over 25 men attend their weekly small group--they are halfway through their study...

Cherry with some of the young women in her women's group--Dominican beauties!!!--almost 20 women attend this weekly small group--lots of possibilities to impact their families and community with the gospel...

The following weekend we hosted another "pasadia" for the drama group of fellow missionaries, Amaury and Catherine Gracesqui--their group of about 20 Domincan young adults spent the day relaxing, fellowshiping, and reviewing their last performance---Dave gave a little message challenging them to live out the faith they are portraying in these dramas...

Our family was very blessed by spending the day with this group so full of potential...

The week before Christmas our son Shane came for a visit which was one of the highlights of our Christmas this year!! We so enjoyed showing him around and just being able to relax and hang out together as a family...

And, of course, we took him to the beach--warm and sunny in December!!!...

Shane even got to attend a graduation ceremony of the second men's prison class to graduate this year...(check the right-hand side panel for our continuing summary of this course's contents)

And for our Christmas day here, we enjoyed a lovely dinner with Dominican friends and some fellow missionaries on the island...

Our girls had two and a half weeks off from school which we thoroughly enjoyed spending time together as a family on our property---We also had one more guest house visit from the family of Rachael's good school friend, Raquel---Dave and I are becoming friends with Raquel's parents, Carlos and Bielka--Carlos has been attending Dave and Omar's men's group at Vida Nueva --so it was a great time to celebrate the New Year as families...

The women had fun cooking...

Sancocho---a traditional Dominican dish like our stew...

While the guys played dominos...

Then we enjoyed a great meal in our outdoor kitchen...

And they spent the night in our casita---the last guests of 2010--please pray for the Abreu family--as they live out their faith as a family

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve and New Years Day at home as a family---as part of our tradition, we reviewed our year--the highs and lows--and shared our hopes and dreams for 2011---Rachael chose the theme "Love and Be Obvious" and we all want to adopt that as our family/ministry theme for 2011!!! Check out the right-hand side panel for a poem she shared with our family.

Thanks again for all the Christmas cards---they already are on our "refrigerator gallery"---Rachael, Beka and Cherry had great fun putting up the new pictures and sharing fond memories we have of each family.

We are grateful for your love and support---please check out the right-hand panel for prayer requests and some words to encourage you along your way.

By God's grace and for His glory,
La familia Schwulst

Fall happenings here in the DR...

2010-10-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

A Dominican fall sunrise--taken from the front balcony of our home...

May we never take for granted the unbelievable beauty of the place to which the Lord has sent us for such a time as this!!! When we first arrived on the island a young woman who would become a dear friend of mine offered me the following advice--"Always remember to look up"---and that has proven to be sound counsel---when we look up here, we see God's majesty---the tall trees, the grand mountains, the sky filled with fluffy clouds all remind us of "the eternal" even when what is "on the ground" at the moment may not seem quite so lovely! Thank you Catherine for passing on that wisdom which I now pass on here---LOOK UP!!!

MEN'S MINISTRY UPDATE...

The second men's prison class is going strong---with over 50 new men attending--the prison administration has made the class a requirement for those married men who want visiting privileges with their spouse----God is changing men's hearts towards Him and towards their families---praise Him for this----Ten men from this new class were baptized this past month---in a baby pool in back of the prison!!! God can make a way!!!!!

Small group leader training...

We hosted a small group leader training at our home this past month---leaders from two Santiago churches, one Methodist and one Baptist, joined together for a day of worship, teaching and prayer---The morning began with Rachael and Beka leading worship---singing and playing guitar---we pray that this encouraged the men, many of whom have a long road ahead to rebuild their families...

It was beautiful to see the men from these two churches come together to share their testimonies and experiences in their groups...

Unfortunately, many Dominican men have not had a strong father figure in their lives nor a healthy family environment---here is the testimony of one of the men who is now leading a men's group in his own church---"my father was with many other women besides my mother so I have a total of 32 brothers and sisters"---one can only imagine the pain this has caused to so many!!---yet this man now shares how God is speaking truth into his life and changing him from the inside out---this gives us all much "esperanza" (hope)!!

GUESTHOUSE VISITS...

We were blessed to have Pastor William Gomez and wife Jaqueline spend the weekend this past month---They should have been the first to visit since he has been the pastor who has opened so many doors for the men's ministry but their schedule had been quite full and this was the first they were able to get away---we shared a great time of fellowship and food!! with them and they enjoyed some much needed sweet alone time as well...

This time Beka challenged them in dominos while Dave manned the grill...

Rachael and Beka's music ministry...

We've promised to share a bit more about our girls and their music---before coming to the DR, we were blessed to have a great piano teacher and choir director for our girls---both of them just seem naturally to love making music--so since we have been here, they have continued with piano lessons, voice lessons, guitar lessons and even drum lessons for Beka!! They started writing their own music lyrics as well. They have performed at their school, Rachael is on the chapel worship team this year, at our local church and in two community productions---Below is their latest performance--in a concert --"El es digno" which means "He is worthy"---we are hopeful to perform this same concert in our neighborhood here in the mountains in December!!

Singing "bilingually--Spanish and English" at church...

CHERRY'S VISIT TO "THE FARM"...

We'll end this update sharing about my visit to my mom in October--I feel so blessed to have been able to "sneak back to Illinois" for a 10 day visit with my mom---and to surprise my very dear friend, Kim, on her BIG 50 birthday!! I won't share my mom's age but let's just say she has definitely aged very gracefully and I hope to follow her example...

My mom still lives on the farm in the home where I grew up so that's where I got to stay with her...

Even got to see my Aunt Jenny, my mom's sister, too...

When people ask me what is the hardest thing about being out of the country in mission work, I always say that it was not giving up my "stuff" in the states, or even always feeling a little different here, not sure if we are doing things correctly or having problems understanding the language ---the most difficult thing for me, what tears at my heart the most, is being so far from my mom and my two oldest children, Shane and Blythe, especially my daughter as it is hard thinking of her on her own now so far away--so it was especially sweet to be able to spend this time---just my mom and me---sweet girl time!!! And I pray that God will give us both the grace to trust in Him and His plans for us all until we see each other again!! Would you pray that way as well?

As always we send you our love and our gratefulness for your love, support and encouragement of us and our work here.

Take a look at the right-hand panel for our new prayer requests and some words of encouragement to help us along our way!!

Con el amor y gracia de Cristo, (With the love and grace of Christ)

La familia Schwulst

NEVER LOSE HOPE IN GOD'S MERCY...

2010-09-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

We want to highlight our men's prison ministry this month remembering our ministry's guiding scripture---“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness to the prisoners.” (Isaiah 61:1)

We were blessed to participate in the first men's prison class', Authentic Manhood, graduation this month at Centro de Correcion y Rehabilitacion Rafey --64 men graduated---the administration has been so pleased with the signs of "transformation" that they are seeing that they allowed the men to invite their families to attend...

Looking out at the audience felt like one of those "standing on holy ground moments"
-the men sitting next to their families enjoying the moment!!...

Both the assistant director and the psychologist spoke praising the men for their efforts and results and encouraging them to continue in the process...

Two of the men acted as spokespersons for the group and read a very warm thank you to all who helped make this course possible...

Then the "knighting" of each man started...

It has been amazing to see the soft hearts of these "tough guy" men...

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43: 18-19)

The highlight of the event was when Pastor William spoke a message on "EL PERDON" (FORGIVENESS) and then asked for some "brave volunteers" to put into practice what they had been learning and "publicly ask their loved ones to forgive them"--what followed really can't be adequately conveyed here but it will be forever remembered in our hearts and the hearts of all who witnessed "God's mercy" that afternoon...

Men came forward with their mothers to ask their forgiveness...

One man asked his wife and son for forgiveness...

Another asked his grown daughters for forgiveness...

Another, while holding their small son, asked his wife to forgive him...

And on it went....we all were crying, even the guards!!! Thank you Lord Jesus Christ!!!

Please keep these men and their families in your prayers--and the new class that just began this week---the administration would like all their men residents to participate in this ministry.

GUESTHOUSE HAPPENINGS---HACIENDA PENUEL (FACE TO FACE WITH GOD)

You may remember that we named our property "Hacienda Penuel" based on the scriptural account of Jacob wrestling with God and the spot being called Penuel (in Spanish) which means "face to face with God". We continue to find these "visitas" --visits in Spanish--to richly bless us all---This past month Pastor Martin Colon and his wife Marta spent a weekend with us...

It is amazing how nourishing it can be--body, mind and soul--to open up your home and share a meal with another in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!!...

And...equally amazing is how much you can learn about a person through a good game of dominos!!! So far Dave has not been able to beat a Domincan pastor!!!...

They were refreshed, renewed, refocused...and the beauty of it all is...
we were too!!!

ANOTHER BAPTISM...

A dear missionary friend of ours asked to use our pool and property for her Baptism and celebration with family and friends---we will let her tell the story in her words and with her pictures--go to their website at

http://braistedfamilyupdates.blogspot.com/2010/09/next-installment-baptism.html

JUST FOR FUN!!!...

Next month we will highlight some of our daughters' music ministry here but for now we will close with a few pictures of them with our latest addition---Chubs!!!... We now have three dogs, a cat, a turtle and two bunnies, one pregnant!!! Our place is certainly "full of life and love"!!!...

Beka with Chubs..

Rachael with Chubs...

And for a little perspective, Chubs with our Rottweiler!!...

Thanks again to all of you for your love, prayers, encouragement and support---check out the right side panel for our new prayer requests and some words to encourage you!!

By God's grace and for His glory,

Dave Schwulst family

July's news...

2010-07-15T18:21:00.001-07:00

MEN'S MINISTRY UPDATE...ONE MORE GRADUATION!! AT BARRERO WITH PASTOR MARTIN COLON AND HIS WIFE, MARTA...

THE GRADUATING CLASS--26 graduated from the 24 week course...

THE MEN FILING IN WHILE THEIR WIVES AND FAMILIES PROUDLY LOOK ON---PRECIOUS MOMENT!!

DAVE "KNIGHTING" CLASS MEMBER WHO HAS ALREADY STARTED A NEW MEN'S CLASS IN HIS HOME CHURCH IN SANTIAGO...

THE TESTIMONY...

Each class includes at least one testimony where a class member comes forward with his wife and children and they all share how God has shown himself, his grace and his redeeming power to begin a process of transformation in their family---a priceless moment---please join us in praying for all these families.

TAKING IT ALL IN---WHO KNOWS WHAT GOD HAS IN STORE FOR THESE TWO YOUNG MEN...

Our young workers, Jon and Jose Miguel usually ask to attend these graduations with us---please pray that they stay hungry to draw close to God, learn his ways, his great love for them and his "proposito" (purpose) for their lives.

MEN'S CLASS IN SANTIAGO PRISON...

We are over halfway through the men's class at the prison--65 men are attending.
For more information about this class, look at the sidepanel to the right, The Quest for Authentic Manhood.

CELEBRATING FATHER'S DAY...

Father's Day in the Dominican Republic is celebrated in July---here is Dave celebrating with our family and a few of his "Dominican sons"!!!

MARRIAGE MINISTRY...

We were blessed to attend the one year wedding anniversary celebration of a young couple, Brian and Carolina, who we became friends with and counseled a bit before they married. They now live in California but returned to the island to celebrate with their Dominican family and friends who were not able to attend their wedding last year in the states. And we got to dress up too!!!! Please keep the Bermans in your prayers...

And Dave had the honor of toasting the couple with a few words of encouragement...

Here are Rachael and Beka helping me babysit the Perez twins--we'd like to think that these little beauties are some fruit of our marriage ministry!! Aren't they all adorable---please keep the Perez family in your prayers as well...

GUESTHOUSE HAPPENINGS...

Pastor Jose Rodriquez and his wife, Alba joined us for a weekend getaway at our guesthouse. He pastors the church in Villa Gonzalez that just completed the men's class. He will be offering the class to a group of pastors and church leaders from his community beginning this month. He and his wife enjoyed a time away to be refreshed and renewed in their marriage and their ministy. And...we had a lot of fun and laughs with them---including playing dominos late into the evening!! And it must be said that Pastor Jose was the champion!!! Sorry, Dave!!

We also offer our guest house for individual retreats for those in ministry---Here are Cherry with her friend, Bielka, who spent a day and evening with us. A special note---Cherry has prayed for a good Dominican girlfriend to walk alongside one another as prayer and accountability partners--Bielka is an answer to that prayer!!

Visitors from the States...

We want to end with a visit we just had from friends and ministry supporters, Brent and Cheryl Nussbaum---we spent a long weekend together and we praise God for the encouragement they were to us and the great counsel they provided as well. We are so grateful and we love you--Brent and Cheryl!!

Our girls were also so blessed by this visit as the Nussbaums also have teenage daughters and they included Rachael and Beka in many of our conversations!!

And Rach and Beka treated our guests to some of their music as well---on the gazebo.

Thanks to you all for walking alongside us as we continue to seek God's face and to know, love and serve Him better day by day, moment by moment. Please take a moment to look at the side panel on the right for prayer requests and a little encouragement and inspiration for you.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

June---a month of graduations!!!

2010-06-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

June is usually the month associated with graduations and weddings. Though we had no weddings, we do want to share a number of special graduations and new beginnings that we experienced this past month...

Jose Miguel and Jon, our two young employees, completed a 16 week discipleship course with Dave---they were all very excited with this accomplishment!! They faithfully met with Dave early mornings,at 7am, to do the study before beginning work.

So...what is next for them? They are continuing the early morning meeting times and have begun to study Rick Warren's "UNA VIDA CON PROPOSITO" (A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE)--our hope and prayer is that these young men will have a burden for our community and seek God's direction as to how they can live out the gospel here.

We were honored to participate in three graduations of the Authentic Manhood 24-week course--a total of 82 men will graduate from the four classes that began last January...

Cienfuegos men's group graduation...

In each class, one class member gave a testimony of the impact of the class on his life---this class member is now very motivated to share the message of this class and will be leading the next class that the church will offer. That's the goal--to raise up leaders who will take responsibility to continue this training in their local church!!!

Each man was "knighted" as a "caballero autentico"!!

The graduates of Cienfuegos...

Each of the four classes decided to hold the graduation in the hosting church so that the whole congregation could participate in the celebration and to motivate others to attend the next course offering...

Moca men's class graduation...

Beka shining the sword --that Dave uses to "knight" each graduate--before the ceremony!!!

This graduate gave a very moving testimony of changes in his family--instead of viewing his wife as simply a "companera" (companion), he is learning what it means to have a wife and how to be a servant leader in his family. He brought his wife and four precious children up front with him while he shared--sorry no photo--I had camera battery problems!! Please pray that these men can continue to fight the good fight for their marriage, family and community.

The graduates at Moca---they commit to live out the course's four key principles--Reject passivity, Accept responsibility, Lead courageously and Expect the greater reward--God's reward. One of the graduates, the pastor's son, will be working with four other churches in the community to offer the next class at their community center.

Villa Gonzalez graduation...

Rachael and Beka helping---setting out the medallions...

The congregation waiting for graduates to file in...

The knighting sword...

Each graduate receives a certificate of course completion...

The graduating class--yes there was one woman who completed the course!! The church's pastor is now helping Dave and Pastor William facilitate the new men's class at the Santiago prison.

Dave is very grateful for the dedication and enthusiasm of Pastor William to "open doors" in these communities to offer the class, to faithfully facilitate the class and help train up new class facilitators. And to good friend, Pastor Felix, who was personally very impacted when he took the first course in 2009--he supports Pastor William by attending some of the classes and sharing his testimony of a restored relationship with his father. William and Felix also put into practice one of the recommendations of the class which is to have an accountability partner to share openly with and encourage on in the faith.

Both our family and the William Gomez family were blessed to be able to attend these graduations and participate as families---we were also encouraged to "live a life worthy of Christ"--as individuals, couples and families.

Dave, Pastor William and other Dominican leaders are now offering this men's course at the local prison in Santiago. The course began in June and seventy-two men are attending the class which meets twice a week. We'll share more on this next month. We ask for your prayers that many seeds can be planted so that the captives may truly be set free.

We were also blessed by a visit from our home church, Eastview Christian Church...

It was great to see friends and ministy supporters and share a meal--pizza!!

And our girls got to play "bananagrams" with old and new friends...

And to see our good friend Traci Trunk who led the team--We want to extend a huge thank you to Traci for all she does for us personally and to support our ministy efforts here---When we think of Traci we think of "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ"---she and her husband Marty have shown us that kind of love!!

Rachael and Beka ministering...

Our girls participated in a drama presentation of our missionary friends, Amaury and Catherine's new drama minstry --they sang in the choir (so did Dave!!)

And both received awards at school this year--

Rachael-Student of the Year in Geometry and French
Beka-Girls Basketball MVP and Christian Character Award

Summertime fun...

All year long as we have driven up and down the mountain to school, we have passed a little shop where two sweet women make hats and other items out of straw. The girls and I kept saying that when we had time this summer we were going to stop by and meet them---so we did!!! And it was a sweet time---they have lived here all their lives though they kept their ages a secret.

We pray that you are having a blessed summer. We thank you for all the encouragement that you give us and your support and prayers. Please look at the right-hand section for our new prayer requests, a new song by our girls, and some new quotes and reading to encourage you.

Dios les bendiga (God bless you),

La familia Schwulst

A memory filled May...

2010-06-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

Wow---This past month has been filled with so much---new births (spiritual, that is!!) an unexpected death in our neighborhood and life's celebrations---Mother's Day and a college graduation!!! We thank God for all these gifts of life.

A NEW BIRTH... May began with a baptism in our pool!!! A little history---Jose Miguel and Jon, who work for us, have been slowly considering the Christian faith for this past year. They have had the opportunity to meet many of our friends, sharing with them and observing their lives as they have our life. One of those friends, Greg and Carol Kent, have been missionaries here with their family for about 10 years and they have taken a new assignment in Wales (their story is so very encouraging!!!) On their last Sunday here, Greg preached and offered an altar call and Jose Miguel went forward (Jon did the same a few weeks later!!)What a wonderful blessing for our friends!!! So Dave began meeting with both young men early each weekday morning before they start work and discipling them. Soon they both wanted to be baptized!!!

Dave baptized Jose Miguel who is a very thoughtful young man and did not make this decision lightly!! And good friend Louis who has also befriended these young men baptized Jon.

Of course we celebrated with a party-----food and pool time!!!

Dave, Jose Miguel and Jon continue to meet each morning at 7am!!! A hightlight of Dave's day and theirs too!!!

A SUDDEN DEATH... On Wednesday evening, May 12, Edward de Leon, a young man from our neighborhood was in a motorcycle accident and died immediately--He was only 23 years old and so well-loved in this community---His beautiful smile was contagious and he was always so eager to help Dave in any way he could. He tutored Dave in Spanish, helped us visit the local schools to decide on Rachael's and Beka's education for next year and helped us get the needed paperwork for our property title.

He will be deeply missed by the whole community, especially his mother who is very young herself.

Attending his visitation and funeral was a real honor for our family. The day after his death, the whole community just shut down and went over to his family's home--then late afternoon there was a procession with his casket to his church, followed by a service and his burial. For the next nine days, a prayer service was held in his home with the last service held at his church. We all were left wanting to live better, love better and not take anything or anyone for granted. We never know how long we have to live on this earth.

A COLLEGE GRADUATION... Mid-month we were blessed to all fly to Washington DC to celebrate our oldest daughter, Blythe's, college graduation. It was a beautiful time for us all---a time to reflect on God's goodness and faithfulness. Please join us in prayer for Blythe as she begins her career and decides what her continued education will look like.

MOTHER'S DAY CELEBRATION... Rachael's good friend, Raquel and her mother invited Rachael and I to a mother/daughter retreat in Puerta Plata. It was such a fun mother/daughter thing to do and a wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day. We were some of the few non-Dominicans there and the teaching and worship were all in Spanish. I personally felt so ministered to by my Dominican sisters in Christ. What a gift!!

Here we are at the end of the weekend--Cherry, Rachael, Raquel and her mother, Bielka.

Here's a quick update of our three ministry areas---

MEN'S MINISTRY UPDATE... All four men's classes will hold graduation ceremonies in June and the men's prison class is beginning next week!!! Look for graduation pics next month.

MARRIAGE MINISTRY UPDATE... Our friends, Eric and Sunshine-- missionaries here who we have mentored in their marriage, came up for a visit and to enjoy our guesthouse for a little get away!!

We are always blessed by our time with them and this time we were especially blessed because they made a gourmet meal for us!!! Thanks Eric and Sunshine. Please pray for this couple as they minister here and as they are expecting their first child later this year!!!

We want to highly recommend a book that we have read and use in ministering to marriages---The Love Dare--it's available in Spanish as well.

Here's a quote from the chapter, Love Endures, "But if love is really love, it doesn't waffle when it's not received the way you want it to be. If love can be told to quit loving, then it's not really love. Love that comes from God is unending, unstoppable. If the object of it's affection doesn't choose to receive it, love keeps loving anyway. Love never fails. Never."

MENDING BROKEN HEARTS UPDATE... We want to share just a bit about two groups we are involved with--Cherry meets weekly with a group of English speaking women for prayer, accountability and Bible study. We have been studying the "reciprical commands" or the "one another" commands like love one another, honor one another, etc----it's been challenging to look at how Jesus describes how we are to treat one another and bear each others burdens---here is the group at our last gathering at a restaurant before we break for summer---this group has been God's gift to Cherry these past two years!!

Dave also meets with a small group of men to do the Authentic Manhood study in English and to pray and keep one another accountable.

We went out to dinner with our wives to celebrate completing the first semester of the study and to say goodbye to two couples who are moving back to the states and Canada!!

God has very graciously provided us with a wonderful support system while we have been here on the field.

We close again thanking you all for your prayers, support and encouragement. We continue to value prayer more and more. Cherry has been reading a Christian fiction series called "The Yada Yada Prayer Group"...

This could make a great summer read and it is full of themes on God's faithfulness, seeking the Kingdom first, what true friendship is...Here's a quote we love...

"It's one of those loose ends in life, know what I mean? We don't like it that way, but for one reason or another, we can't quite figure out how to tuck it in"--"Yeah, I got a few of those myself."

May we continue to look to the Lord to "tuck in" our loose ends.

Be sure to take a look at the righthand panel for new prayer requests, and quotes and song lyrics to encourage you!!

By God's grace and for His glory,

Dave Schwulst family

"Connections made by God"...

2010-04-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when you get a glimpse of God "putting all the pieces together"? Below is a picture of a sweet family He has put in our path this past year. We knew that Wilkens was looking for work--which is hard to find in our little mountain community --we had been praying and keeping our ears open. Then a friend of ours from church, Luis, got a management job at a factory in Santiago and was hiring!! So...we introduced them and Wilkens got a job!! And a friend/mentor in Luis--we so rejoice when we see Dominicans reaching out to one another! Many Sundays Wilkens rides into church with us and gets to see Luis and other new friends. This particular Sunday he brought the whole family...

Here they are with Luis and Pastor John...

Unfortunately, as we write this update, Wilkens has lost his job. One of the many examples of "one step forward, two steps backward" that we all experience in life. Dissappointing but we know this is not the end of the story--we continue to reach out to him in friendship and trust God to do what only He can do in the life of this sweet family. Pray that we all will not grow weary and we will do what we can always do--share one another's burdens with Christ's love.

GUEST HOUSE HAPPENINGS---We recently hosted Pastor Wilby and Lisa for an overnight stay in the guesthouse. With the recent earthquake in Haiti, their church has been challenged with providing for the needs of Haitian refugees here in the DR. They asked if they could come visit and spend the night in our guest house to pray, seek God’s wisdom and have time alone as a couple. We enjoyed a meal together in our outside kitchen...

Then Pastor Wilby and Lisa went up to the guesthouse...

And Rachael and Beka helped us babysit their baby and 7 year old son...

MEN'S MINISTRY---The four men's classes are all going very well and we are planning graduation ceremonies at each of the churches in June--and...there are actually eleven more groups waiting to start, including a group at the men's prison in Santiago---we will feature more next month but for now please pray for wisdom in planning future classes and for the new class leaders that are being trained.

WOMEN'S MINISTRY--This month we share with you some of the women's ministry Cherry has been involved with lately---but she will be quick to share that she feels the best way to encourage and help the quality of life of women here is to support Dave, Pastor William and other leaders in offering the Authentic Manhood classes here---as these men are empowered by God's spirit to become the kind of husbands, fathers, and community leaders that God desires, lives of women and girls here will be dramatically affected for the good!!!

Here Cherry is teaching a class on marriage and family at a new church plant of our good friend Pastor Jonas---it was a joy to co-labor with him to "kick-off" this new work of his...

The church/community center is called "El Camino" which means "The Way"...

Dave always drives Cherry to these events as they are at night and we feel so blessed to share these times together as a couple...

Cherry also came along side our church's pastor's wife and her leadership team to put on a women's overnight retreat for 50 women--the theme was "Clothed in Christ--A Picture of Grace"

Here we are preparing materials for the retreat and sharing about marriage and family life--right now we are all doing the 40 day "Love Dare"!!...

At the retreat waiting for the women to arrive--the hotel in Jarabacoa was full of this island's beauty!!...

Cherry translating for one of the speakers...

All the women participants--a multi-cultural group--all the talks and worship were completely bi-lingual!!!--the women are carrying Hearts at Home bags that were donated and very appreciated by all!!...

RACHAEL AND REBEKAH'S MINISTRY... One of the sweetest blessings for us is to watch how the Lord takes care of our children here, our daughter in Maryland and our son in Mexico!! We will share more about our older children next month--this month we will hightlight Rachael and Beka--Many of you know that they are both very musically inclined. That has continued here. Easter Sunday they participated in our church's service here which included a drama...

Rachael and Beka singing in the choir...

Our family enjoyed a beautiful Resurrection Sunday here...

Recently our girls participated in an all-school talent show at Santiago Christian School---they won first place with a song that they had written, composed the music for and sang in harmony with Rachael on the piano----look for the lyrics on the side panel of our blog, "In This Rain"--here they are with the second and third place winners--the girls are a little sun-burned as they had just played three soccer games in a school tournament BEFORE the talent show competition!!...

And...we can't talk about our children without mentioning how much they all four love animals!!! Here is Beka with our latest addition--two new puppies!!...

VISTORS--- This month we were blessed by a wonderful visit from our good friends and ministry leaders, Steve and Nancy Jeffreys---it was great to spend time with them in our environment here, share ministry and marriage challenges with them and receive their wisdom with love!! We love you Steve and Nancy!!!...

And our good friends and top-notch ministry administrator, Marty and Traci Trunk, also came to visit during the same time---a double blessing!! We love the Trunk family!!! Here we all are visiting Paul and Carol Thompson, longtime missionaries with World Team, now serving in the DR--we have all participated in their excellent study of Galatians (available in English and Spanish)--we spent lunch and an afternoon with them sharing about the study and dreaming of possibilities for the future!!! Thank you Thompsons for your hospitality and your obedience to the Lord all these years---you bless us and many others---many the seeds planted grow and grow!!...

Well, this was a long update but we hope it reflects our grateful hearts for our lives here--for such a time as this!! Please look to the side of this blog for our prayer requests, the book we are reading and some words to encourage you.

We love you---God bless and keep you!!

By His grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

Changing seasons...

2010-02-21T11:53:00.000-08:00

Men's ministry update...

This month we highlight Pastor William Gomez and his family---Pastor William has ministered here on the island for over 25 years and is very respected by many. He has attended both of the past men's conferences where God worked in his life to give him a passion for men's ministry and the strength to face some of the sin and brokenness in his own life. As William says, he spent many years listening and ministering to others but not allowing God to minister to his own heart. William also participated in the first Authentic Manhood class offered in our old neighborhood and found it a great source of comfort and healing. From those early "seeds planted", God has given William a boldness to be transparent with his own continuing healing process and struggles and to reach out to men to encourage them to do the same. He has been instrumental in starting the four classes that are in process now as well as the four new communities that are waiting to begin classes. This part of our ministry is much further along than we ever dreamed it would be at this point due to God bringing Dave and William together in a partnership of their mutual passion to bring change to this island through emotional and spiritual healing of the men. Please join us in praying for Pastor William, his personal healing, his marriage and family and this ongoing ministry. Also, pray as William and Dave are training men in the current classes to lead future classes.

Marriage and family ministry update...

Many of the communities offering the men's classes are wanting something similar for their women, saying the women are "celosas" (jealous)--Cherry is now offering a marriage and family seminar centered on "Guarding our hearts and the hearts of our children"--Above, Cherry is working with the women on a second floor patio of the church at the same time William and Dave offer their class to the men on the first floor and there was an activity for the children on the third floor organized by the church---A beautiful evening for these families!!

The first guest house is officially completed!!! Here are photos of the inside...

Guests can also enjoy our fresh water pool which is fed by a small river on the property...

Mending Broken Hearts Ministry update...

This month when we think of broken hearts, we think of Haiti---we have met so many here who have lost family there as well as those who have housed family "refugees" who fled Haiti and are living with family in the DR until they can return home. One of Cherry's women's group members, Bijou, is Haitian and was housing 19 family members as they waiting to return home. The women's group raised money to help with caring for the family and visited to offer some encouragement and prayer---below is some of the group with family members who were returning home to Haiti the next day---it was a very powerful and precious time of Christian fellowship...

Our girls school, Santiago Christian School, also joined in to help Haiti---they sponsored a basketball game with another Dominican school with proceeds going to help some of the Haitian families and ministries that the school is connected with--it is always so encouraging to see Dominicans reaching out to their Haitian brothers and sisters...

Our family is doing well---Dave continues to go to physical therapy five days a week and is making good progress--we are developing more friendships in our neighborhood--we love the Dominican sense of humor--it is so good to laugh!! The girls are both doing so well in school and enjoying playing soccer too!! Rachael will turn 15 this month--that is a very special birthday in Latin America with some very elaborate celebrations--below are Rachael and her three best friends at one of these parties...pray for Dave especially as his daughters are growing up too fast!!!

We love you all and thank you for your faithful prayer support--please continue!! You are in our prayers as well--our refrigerator is covered with your photos!! For our current prayer requests and "word of the month", please look at the righthand side panel.

By His grace and for His glory,

La familia Schwulst

DWELL, TEACH AND WAIT EXPECTANTLY...

2010-01-25T08:52:00.000-08:00

GREETINGS AND GOD'S BLESSINGS TO YOU IN 2010!!!

We wanted to begin this year first by thanking you all for being such faithful supporters of ours---We left the US three years ago and we are humbled by what a large community of supporters God has given us---it is one thing to start a journey with enthusiasm, it is another to continue on in faith!! We believe God's design is for us to live out our faith and grow in His likeness through participation in community. It is amazing to realize how many people who God placed in our lives while we were living in the states, still form part of our "community" here!! We humbly say thank you and pray for your growth in Christ in 2010.

We also want to share with you the three main scriptures that our mission agency, Kingdom Seekers, is based on---we feel the Lord has written these passages on our hearts as well--we want to live them out here in the DR and we encourage you all to live them out in your communities as well.

1--PSALM 27:4--DWELL WITH THE LORD, GAZE UPON HIS BEAUTY, SAVOR THE SWEETNESS OF THE LORD AND SEEK HIM IN HIS TEMPLE

2--2 TIMOTHY 2:2--TEACH WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED TO RELIABLE PEOPLE (WHO WILL LATER DO THE SAME)

3--REVELATIONS 7:9-10--WITNESS THE RESULTS/REWARDS--A GREAT MULTITUDE FROM EVERY NATION STANDING BEFORE THE THRONE

We hope this gives you a brief summary or picture of the main focus of our time and ministry here--that we first dwell deeply with the Lord and savor his sweetness,then we pay attention to those "reliable people" He brings across our path and we teach to them what the Lord has taught us (through His power!!) with the expectation that we will see many familiar faces from many nations gathered around His throne!!!

Our property is full of places to "dwell with God" and enjoy His splendor--here are a few of our favorites...

The pathway up to one of the meditation areas...

A great area to "Dwell" and to "Teach"...

Our gazebo--Dave sharing with Chris, a young missionary here with his wife and son with Young Life Ministries--We have found that many of the young missionaries here really long for older mentors in their lives--We love sharing life with them too!! For those of you "over 40", remember mentoring is a great way to "go and make disciples"!!

MEN'S MINISTRY NEWS---

There are currently churches in four communities offering the Authentic Manhood discipleship classes--which means that 90-100 men are participating in this program!! For more information on this study, in English or Spanish, visit their website http://www.mensfraternity.com

Last week, one of the classes who had finished the chapter on The Father Wound, decided to hold a special ceremony for the men and their sons---a time to share from the heart, say "I love you and Will you forgive me?" It was a special moment that we pray glorified God (Sorry, no photos as we wanted to keep it intimate and private)

We have five more churches waiting to get started--would you please pray for more men whom we can mentor to become leaders of these groups--a great problem to have!!We will be hosting a small group leaders training in March at our home.

Our first guest house is finished!!!!!!! Cherry and the girls are having fun "decorating it" as we write this blog update---would you join us in praying for our first "official guest couple"---that God would use their stay here to "come face to face with Him", to grow closer to Him and to each other.

We are both listening to a tape series on "Spiritual Formation" by John Coe---we highly recommend it!!! Please pray that we can "teach what we are learning" to those reliable people God has placed in our lives!!

Many thanks again. Please look to the side column for prayer requests and hopefully a little "spiritual inspiration" to help you along your way.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

ps----here's some fun photos too...

Rachael's good friend, Raquel, turned 15 and celebrated her birthday at the beach right before we left for Illinois for Christmas...

Then on to a White Christmas at Grandma King's, Rachael and Beka enjoying the snow...

HEALING---BODY, MIND AND SOUL...

2009-12-06T16:54:00.003-08:00

This has been the theme for our past month here!!!

Come to the waters...the healing waters...

We are always so profoundly impacted when we witness a baptism, especially here when so many times "we go down to the river" for this sacred event. Above is a picture of a group of over 50 who were baptized recently. As we say this season--JOY TO THE WORLD!!!

MEN'S MINISTRY UPDATE---we celebrated another graduation from our 24 week Authentic Manhood class---Below is the graduation class from Puerta Plata--20 men with their wives during the celebration at our home.

Of course, we started the event with food---pastor William's wife prepared a delicious meal...

Here Pastor William Gomez and Pastor Felix Abreu award diploma and medallion to one of the graduates. Pastor Felix plans to begin a class next year in his community, one that desperately needs men whose hearts have been healed so they can serve their families and their community!!

The latest men's group to start is in the community of Cienfuegos (100 fires---near a landfill!!) Below are the men breaking into small groups for prayer and accountability---see the young boy in the last photo----precious!!

This is Pastor William presenting an introduction to the program at a church in the village of Moca--Pastor Felix is waiting on the side to share his testimony--women always come to the intro class!!! Then they work on getting the men in their lives to actually attend the course!!

MENTORING UPDATE---Pastor Wilby Romain and wife Lisa just had their first baby, Ruben--they were the first couple we started mentoring here and Pastor Wilby is a "graduate" from the Authentic Manhood course---he says he is putting much of what he learned in practice now as a husband and father and able to share this with his congregation as well---Congrats Wilby and Lisa---we love you all!!!!

Another couple we have mentored, Alan and Jackie Perez, recently found out that they are pregnant, expecting twins!!! What sweet fruit of all of our labors!! Please join us in praying for this precious family of four!!

MENDING BROKEN HEARTS MINISTRY UPDATE---like all of you, we run across people everyday with some type of broken heart--this past month we have been reading the book "The Transformation of the Inner Man" by John and Paula Sanford---this book was a gift to us from a dear friend and it truly has been a gift as we personally continue on our journey of healing and as we have been able to share what we are learning with others. We highly recommend this book for those of you discipling as well as for your own healing journey.

We are also witnessing God use our daughters to share His love in many ways---Below they are singing at church--a song that they composed and wrote the music for, "Be Real to Me"--Rachael on piano and Beka on guitar!!! Thank you Lord for caring so well for our children!!

We wanted to share a couple of photos from our precious community too...

Here's the bridge decorated for Christmas---the teens of the community used plastic bags that you get at the grocery store to make the decorations!!

Rachael and Beka with our little tree!!!

A little grocery store in our community---what a view!!!

Many of you know that Dave had knee replacement surgery here about three weeks ago--What a blessing Dr. Garcia has been to us---here's Dave and the doctor at Homs Hospital in Santiago...

And...as I was finishing this blogspot Dave actually came down with Dengue Fever!! Fortunately the doctors caught this, Dave had to return to the hospital overnight but now he is home recuperating. God does watch over us!!! And we sure don't take your prayers for granted either!!

So this past month has been one of much healing for us ---in all aspects--body, mind and soul---may we continue to be open to let our loving Father work in and through us so that "His Kingdom Comes".

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to 2010 with great expectations!!

With Christ's love,

The Dave Schwulst Family

Fall happenings here in the DR...

2009-10-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Sounds kind of funny because we don't exactly have "fall" here on the island but up here in the mountains with the cooler weather and the leaves falling, it does feel like "fall" and that has been a sweet surprise for us!!

A good friend of ours made this wall hanging for us as a house warming present. It is her "paraphrase" of Ezekiel 34:25-26--It's hanging in our kitchen above the stove so it serves as a constant reminder to us of our great God and His plans for us...

Would you join us in praying that these words become a reality for us here...

In the wilderness they'll safely dwell
(I will make a covenant of peace)
In the woods at night they'll soundly sleep
(I will make wild beasts to cease)

I will make them be a blessing on and all around My hill,
I will pour out showers of blessing--
Yes, I surely will! (Ezekiel 34:25-26)

I actually received this gift when Dave was back in the states for his mom's funeral and it was a great comfort and encouragement for our whole family. We love how God uses His people to comfort and lift one another up---
Gracias a Bob y Janna!!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind...Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-38)

Here are two young men from our new neighborhood, Jon and Jose Miguel, who come everyday to help us work on the property. Here they are loading cement on the back of Jose Miguel's burro to carry up higher to the little guesthouse they are helping us finish. These two young men are becoming very dear to us---we have opened our hearts to them which feels very good---and God's command to love Him without reserve and with His love, to love others well keeps coming to mind.

Living in a foreign country and attempting to minister here has really brought many questions to our minds and hearts---like...How do we help here? Should we help here? Do they need our help? What helps, what hurts??? etc, etc

But God seems to keep bringing us back to this "the greatest of His commandments"--to learn how to love well---and we know that on our own power, that is impossible!!! But we also know that God's spirit dwelling within us desires us to love others as God loves us.

So day by day, we want to be "learning" to love each other well--first as a family, husband and wife, daughters and sisters--then to the "others" God puts in our path. Right now Jon and Jose Miguel are "in our path"--we are learning to depend on each other---there is so much we do not know about how to live here in the mountains and Jon and Jose Miguel seem so eager to show us their ways. Like catching a crab that came wandering on our property from our river...

Jon shows us how you hold it behind its claws...

Cherry tries it...

Then into a pot of boiling water to cook!! Did we eat it??? Well, our dog did!!!

We invited them to watch the movie, Facing the Giants, one recent Friday night--we watched it outside on our gazebo--with popcorn. We also invited the family that owns the hardware store down the street. It was a very lovely evening and a beginning to doing life with our neighbors here.

We thank you all for your many prayers---Dave's visit to the states for his mother's funeral went very well, the 4th annual women's conference here was very well attended and so many were blessed (see www.mujeresconproposito2009.blogspot.com for pictures and video), and the second men's group of "Authentic Manhood" is coming to a close---we will celebrate the graduation here next month!! Two more classes will start next month!!

We'll close with some fun pictures of the girls and their friend Raquel enjoying a lazy day off school on our property...

By God's grace and for His glory,

Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Beka

Our journey continues...

2009-09-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

So many want to know what our new property looks like so here are some photos...

View from our bedroom window at sunrise...

view from our meditation area bench...

our home--made from palm tree wood...

a gazebo out front with an awesome view--where we can hold classes, etc...

an outdoor kitchen--perfect for small group gatherings...

beka doing dishes!!!...

The property is 5 1/2 acres so there is much more we could show you but we will wait till our next blog update---We want to take this opportunity to praise God for the blessing of family and friends. Dave's father was involved in discipleship and mentoring up until the Lord took him home last fall. It is with some of the inheritance money that he left us that we were able to purchase this property to carry on his legacy here in the Dominican Republic where there is such a need to come alongside men and women, pastors and their wives and encourage them to grow and stand firm in the faith and God's design for marriage and family. And we thank all of you who share this vision and come alongside us in prayer, encouragement and support.

Speaking of encouragement and support, we were so blessed to have our home church, Eastview's new mission's pastor and his wife come down and spend a few days with us this past month. We are excited for the role Tyler and Jessica Hari will play in the future of missions at Eastview---please join us in praying for them and their two small children.

We were asked to participate in an activity at pastor Jonas' church in La Mosca this month---30 women participated in an event emphasizing The Christian Family---Cherry was blessed to speak at the event. Please pray for this church and community.

Here are two projects we are working on to get our property ready to offer overnight stays to those serving in ministry...

This is a tool shed Dave and two young Dominican neighbors just built...

Here is a small block home already on the property that we are completing now---it has a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Perfect for a weekend stay to refresh a pastor and his wife!!!

Lastly, we want to share a few photos of things we don't usually see in the states that are quite common here!!! Enjoy...

We have cattle next door and sometimes they use the main road right in front of our house!!!

Now what is this huge fruit/vegetable we find growing on our property????

Thanks again for joining us on this journey----Please keep us in your prayers as we keep you in ours.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY AND NEW BEGINNINGS...

2009-08-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Dave and Alan Perez who has become much more than a translator--a dear friend and great leader in the making!!

Greetings to you all!! We celebrated two years on the island August 23 and the evening before we hosted a graduation ceremony for the first class of Authentic Manhood to complete the 24 week course---It was a beautiful evening and a real confirmation of the work God has lead us to here...Enjoy the photos!!

We held the event at our new property in the mountains, and of course we started with food!!

Then we enjoyed some fellowship and a gorgeous early evening mountain view...

Dave and Alan began the program commending the men for their commitment to perserverve for 24 weeks...

The graduates gathered together with family and friends surrounding them...

Special recognition certificates and medallions were awaiting them...

Dave had a special sword to "knight" each man, after explaining the significance of being "knighted"...

We closed the ceremony by gathering together for prayer...

A very content group of men were encouraged to fight the good fight together--for their hearts, their marriages, their families, their communities, and their country...

As always we are so grateful to you all for your faithful prayers and encouragement.

July happenings...

2009-07-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

Our home church, Eastview Christian, is known for sending a big youth group team every summer. The first week of July they sent a team of 83!!!

We had them over to our home one evening for ice cream and they filled our front yard...

Here they are sharing with pastor Richard with whom they partner ...

They ended the evening by "circling up" as their pastor Drew says for worship and share time---that's our dog, Tinker Bell, in the middle with Drew!!!...

Here's a video of their week here...Thank you guys!!!

Eastview Christian Church-Youth from Amanda Braisted on Vimeo.

In the neighborhood...we had a house blessing at Juan Luis and Victor's new homes--we worshipped and Juan Luis shared, thanked God and prayed---it was a beautiful evening for all...

Isaias leading worship...

Worshipping...

Filling the street (calle 4)...

Juan Luis thanking everyone and giving God the glory!!!...

Victor's wife, Cesarina, serving refreshments afterwards in their new home...

It has been a beautiful summer of ministry and we thank you all for making that possible. We are keeping you all in prayer and we ask you to do the same for us. Please take a moment to look at our current prayer request and the "word of the month" sections.

By God's grace and for His glory,

Dave, Cherry and family

Summertime...

2009-06-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the island!!! Our summer began by being blessed with two teams from our home church, Eastview Christian Church. Marty and Traci Trunk led a team of 45 people (representing 13 families) for our first-time ever "Family Mission Trip". God was so faithful to all involved and it was a very impacting time for many. Here's a video of their trip...

Eastview Christian Church-Family Trip from Amanda Braisted on Vimeo.

At the same time, Dr. Tom DeWeert along with two of his children, Dan and Christine, led a team down to the southern part of the island, Los Bateyes, sugarcane field worker communities, to put on a medical clinic and children's ministry. They were also a huge blessing to many and here is a video of their trip...

And back stateside, a young Eastview couple, Jeremiah and Abbey, entered into a special covenant with God, Holy Matrimony and...they blessed our ministry by using centerpieces that were then donated to the ministry!!! Each table at their reception was decorated with a Love and Respect marriage book--in Spanish of course--and pictures of our ministry here in the DR. Then the Trunk team brought all those books down here for us to use in marriage ministry here. What a beautiful way to serve in an international way and increase awareness of missions at the same time!!! Thank you Jeremiah and Abbey!!!! Please join me in praying for this couple as they embark on the marriage journey

We also enjoyed a visit by Pastor Dave Calhoun and a group from his church that partners with Pastor Edward Gabriel. Dave put on Celebrate Recovery training workshops in three different communities that we are involved with here. Please pray for much fruit from these trainings.
Celebrate Recovery---Celebremos Recuperacion!!! The session starts with worship...

Then Pastor Calhoun shared his story and Cherry translated...

We ended with snacks--a traditional Dominican tea that the pastor's wife made and Cherry's chocolate chip cookies...

Here we are with Pastor Eddy and his family and Pastor Dave Calhoun...

We thank you for walking this journey with us. God bless and keep you.

By God's grace and for His glory,

Cherry

Springtime stories from the DR!!!

2009-05-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all!! It's hard to believe that summertime is almost upon us!! We are sure that you probably feel the same. Actually both of our girls here will be "graduating" from 6th and 8th grades and we will be attending those ceremonies on June 5!!

We would like to share some of "the fruits of our labors" that we have seen blossoming this spring. Examples of God's faithfulness and goodness are abounding.

One story really reflects God's heart for his people here.

Pastor Felix Abreau faithfully attended the initial men's group, Authentic Manhood---actually he had perfect attendance!! He came to Dave toward the end of the 13 week group and shared his written testimony as well as "the plan" he was to put together as part of the course. His testimony was very transparent and moving. The last class of the course, Dave asked Pastor Felix to share his testimony with the whole group---being this transparent in front of a group of Dominican men was definitely an act of faith but Pastor Felix agreed to do it. Listening to him openly share himself, see the changes in him and see how that was impacting the other men in the group, was certainly a "fruit" for Dave and a big encouragement to move forward in encouraging and mentoring men, especially pastors, here. As a follow-up, part of Pastor Felix's plan was to make peace with his father. One week after Felix shared his plan with the group, his father had a medical issue and needed his son's help. This provided the opportunity for the two to be reconciled. How great is our God!!

Another huge highlight of our ministry here was the Second Annual Men's Conference, held the last weekend of April, and led by men from our home church, Eastview Christian Church and our good friend and very talented worship leader and teacher, Josue Davis. Thank you men for your sharing your hearts with the men here...

145 men attended and worshipped in three languages--Spanish, Creole and English!

The event ended with 9 baptisms!!

Here's a video of this Eastview Men's short term trip---enjoy...

Eastview Christian Church - Men's Conference from Lisa Romain on Vimeo.

For more pictures of this team's short term mission trip here, check out their website---http://www.eastviewmawdr09.blogspot.com/

We just finished attending our ministry's "Celebration of Partnership" where all of our Haitian and Dominican partners and spouses joined with many North American partners to celebrate God's faithfulness and goodness to our ministry here.

And...we had another wedding!!! Dave was privileged to co-officiate with Pastor Edward Gabriel the wedding of GO National partner Alan and GO missionary Jackie...a beautiful bilingual celebration!!!

What a blessing it has been to walk with this precious couple on their journey to this point!!

And for those of you who ask about our girls here, this is what they look like now as they get ready to enter high school and seventh grade!!!

As always we are deeply grateful for you all---your love, prayers, wisdom and encouragement help us "fight the good fight"!! Please look at our prayer requests and other information included to the right.

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

March news...

2009-03-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!! We hope that you all enjoyed a beautiful Easter holiday and we wish you the hope of new life and new beginnings that this season represents. This month we want to share with you some photos of what our life and ministry looks like here. Enjoy...

The weekly Friday night men's group is now meeting in our front yard--25-30 men faithfully come each week to grow together and encourage one another.

We supported Pastor Rafaelito and wife Griselda as they showed the great marriage movie, Fireproof, at their church. We invited our neighbors Juan Louis, Juana, Victor and Cesarina. A wonderful evening of hope and renewed commitment to our marriages.

We hosted a dinner in our home for pastor Moises and a team from his partner church in the states. It was beautiful to be a part of their sharing, encouraging and praying for one another in their work for the Lord.

And we were able to visit some of our pastors up in the mountains to encourage them along their way--here is pastor Colon of Esperanza (we actually helped build his home when we came as a family on our first mission trip in 2005!!)

And pastor Fabio and his wife, Antonia--please keep them in your prayers as pastor has been very sick of late.

As always we are very appreciative of all your love, support and encouragement. God uses you all to minister to us over and over again. Living in another culture, so much can be unclear and uncertain, but one thing that is for certain---our faith has grown tremendously through it all. And we are so thankful for that!

By God's grace and for His glory,
The Dave Schwulst family

February happenings ...

2009-03-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

February---the month of love--we want to start by sharing a story with you--about a year ago, we did some work on our home here and hired some neighbors to help. Dave was drawn to one fellow in particular, Victor, and he began to get to know him. He continued to hire him to help with work around our yard, etc, and to be honest I had some concerns. Victor was known to use drugs and I was concerned for our daughters. We did take precautions for our safety but Dave continued to reach out to this young man. Then his brother started to come around and I was even more concerned!! Our neighbors and fellow missionaries, Ken and Karen, also hired them to work in their yard. Dave invited them to church regularly and talked to them about faith matters and continued to give them work and befriend them. Our neighbors went back to the states for eight months and returned in January, commenting on the difference they were seeing in Victor and Juan Luis. That was encouraging. Ken and Karen really reached out to them and their families and Dave invited them to his Friday evening men's group--I don't think they have missed a week!! So.....they did begin coming to church and two weeks ago Dave and Ken took them out to a nearby river and they were baptized!! Their whole family came to watch--our van was full of family members. Here are some photos of that afternoon...

A week ago it was Ken's birthday. Karen is back in the states and Victor and Juan Luis have really adopted Ken---inviting him to eat most meals with them and their family. When they found out it was Ken's birthday, they wanted to do something special for him. So they planned a surprise party and invited our family to come too. They made a meal and decorated the house, something they have seen Karen do a number of times. It was so touching to see their excitement and their love for Ken, Karen and our family. And to top it off, the looks on my young daughters faces as we sat in the tiny home were priceless. My girls are witnessing a transformation in the lives of these men. My youngest daughter, Beka, pulled me aside and said "Mom, I love this house, it is so cozy, I'd like to live in a house like this." Now this home is simply sheets of tin put together, probably 300 square feet---the little kitchen has a double bed to one side. I was amazed at my daughter's comment and so grateful to God for what he is doing in my daughters' lives as well.

Waiting to surprise Ken...

Surprising Ken...

Playing dominos--very popular here!!...

Please pray for Victor, Juan Luis and their families. The road ahead will not be easy but they now have tapped into a great source of strength and hope. Ken has helped them buy and repair a bicycle as a form of transportation to help them look for work. He has also helped Victor get his license so he can drive a vehicle as a source of income. We see these men sensing that they have worth and purpose and it is beautiful.

There are so many stories like this one that we could share. But we will just end with a couple of photos of the pastors and their wives at the Valentine's party at our home and the couples marriage retreat---both events held in February thanks to your support!!

The Valentine's Day party in our front patio area--couples sharing and playing games...

Dave and I joined in the game playing too---see these events are good for our marriage too!!...

We ended the evening by encouraging everyone in their marriages, emphasizing the importance of love and respect in the relationship. We gathering in a big circle for prayer and then took a group shot!!!...

We ended the month with an overnight marriage retreat for our pastors and workers--great teaching and much fun!!...

Please check our prayer requests section and other information to the right.

God bless and keep you all

Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Beka

New beginnings---2009

2009-02-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

Faithfulness and goodness---We started 2009 by reflecting on 2008 and these two words came to mind---God is teaching us that He is indeed faithful and good--the world is full of his goodness!! And we are grateful that He is teaching us to see these attributes of His in the midst of what on the surface may seem to be very dark and disturbing--His light shines brightest is the darkness!

We thank all of you for your display of faithfulness and goodness to us and to this ministry. We thank our family, friends, faithful ministry supporters, new ministry supporters and those wonderful year-end gift givers!!! You continue to surprise us and amaze us by your faith and goodness.

After a wonderful Christmas break in Florida with Cherry's sister and family, we returned refreshed and ready to step into our ministry roles here. Our first year was full of just learning all aspects of the ministry and continuing to learn the language and culture (truly a life-long process). This year Dave moves into his role of helping with pastoral support and care and we both will work as ministry support to the field staff here--as mentors and encouragers.

So far this year, here is what our ministry looks like...

We hosted a family service in our home for pastor Edward's church--We love our living room overflowing with people and music like this...

Dave has started a weekly men's group using materials from "A Quest for Authentic Manhood"--a 24 week study with DVD teaching and all written materials are in Spanish--his desire is to raise up more strong men in the churches here and prepare hearts for the men's conference in April--He is encouraging Alan, one of the young men in our sports ministry here, to take on a leadership role in this study...
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We usually make pastor visits twice a week--going out in the more remote areas in the mountains is a special treat for us and for the pastors and their families--

In a recent visit to Palo Alto, we had lunch with the pastor and his family and then attended their afternoon church service--Dave gave the message and I helped translate--people literally walk for hours to come to church!!

Here Dave visits with two pastors at a new church construction site...

One of the pastors that GO Ministries partners with is Pastor Gumercindo and his wife, Dulce--a son and grandaugher were at their home the day of our visit...

GO Ministries encourages continued education for its pastors--We were privileged to attend the graduation service from a two year Christian leadership and church planting program for two of our pastors, Wilby and Romano, who work within Haitian communities here in Santiago. Wilby's wife and fellow missionary, Lisa, enjoyed the celebration too...

We continue to mentor young couples here using the book, Love and Respect, (Amor y Respecto)--We love these precious share times in our backyard patio...

Please continue to keep us in your prayers--we sense the battle between good and evil very strongly here and we know that we cannot fight that battle in our own power. We love you all and keep you in our hearts and prayers!!

By His grace and for His glory,

The Dave Sdhwulst family

ps--please take a look at our prayer request section to the right as well as some fun Christmas pictures at the end of this posting!!!

Feliz Navidad...

2008-11-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that the calendar now says "December"!!! We just had a wonderful visit from our two older children, Shane and Blythe, who were able to celebrate Thanksgiving here with us. And yes, we had turkey and pumpkin pie. Here we are in our front yard enjoying a beautiful warm, sunny day. We truly felt God's blessing on our time together--our older kids got to see so much of the island and the ministry and meet many of the nationals that we work and "do life" with here.

Early in November we made a trip back to Illinois because Dave's father passed on and we were able to celebrate his long life with so many family, friends and supporters in Illinois. We were so touched by how many people came to the visitation and the memorial service. It was a real tribute to Dave's father and the life he lived and the lives that he touched with Christ's love. So we want to make this entry a tribute to Dave's father, Carl. Below is a family photo of Dave's parents, Carl and Ruth, his brother, Tim and sister, Debbie--Dave is "the baby".

Carl was a man who attended church all his life but at the age of 50 had an experience (an encounter with the living God, if you will) that caused him to evaluate his life and make some radical changes. From that point on he purposed to genuinely seek to know and serve God with all his heart. He was involved in many things but his passion was to mentor younger men and encourage them to take their faith seriously. Dave received the following email from a friend and ministry supporter which really captures the essence of Carl...

"I wanted you to know that there were not five other people who contributed more to my life in more ways than Carl did. I had a very tearful conversation about an hour after I learned he had passed away with my son as we sat in my office. Carl was a third father to me -- I am awfully saddened by the passing yet I feel extremely good about the relationship that he and I had over more than 25 years. Nobody contributed more to my spiritual growth than Carl Schwulst. No one genuinely cared for my eternal well-being more than Carl. I feel like he has placed a part of his spirit in my heart that I hope can live on for as long as I am on this earth. And I pray that I can impact people's lives for Christ in a small fractional way that he did.
I do pray for your ministry and support it as I can."

"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."
~Proverbs 27:17~

Wow!! That we all could leave such a legacy!!--genuinely caring for the well being of others and contributing to their spiritual growth so that a part of God's spirit in us lives on in them.

We thank you all for playing such a vital role in the ministry here--where we are trying to do just this---walk alongside the nationals here, lifting them up in prayer and encouraging them in their personal spiritual growth and their ministries.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas--may we all experience afresh the awe and wonder of what this season means---God came to dwell among us and has left us his spirit as our constant companion to lead, guide and comfort us.

With God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

PS--We welcome your Christmas cards--please send them to the Agape Flights address below.

September news...Relationships--God's sweet gift to us!!

2008-10-07T08:37:00.001-07:00

When we reflect on our month of September, the word "relationships" comes to mind. First of all, we had purposed to spend the majority of the month in rest, reflection, prayer and study of God's word. Our purpose was to allow the Lord time to speak to us about our first year on the field, what He was teaching us about Himself and about us, and to seek His direction as to our ministry focus for 2009. So our first relationship focus was God and we both enjoyed sweet fellowship with Him, to which nothing can compare. We thank Him for that time!

Next we enjoyed time with each other as a couple---prayer times and fun "date" times!! and time with our children here and by phone with our children in the states.

And we spent time renewing some relationships with nationals that we were not able to spend as much time with as we would have liked this past summer.

One of the things we treasure here is the opportunity to minister together as a couple---Here we are during a visit to encourage one our our local pastors--Dave is sharing a message and I'm helping translate as needed.

Here we are "cooking for the cooks" and pampering them a bit after their great job of serving our teams this summer. Thank you Marisol, Yesica and Carmen!

We got together with friends and ministry partners, Generoso and Yesica to discuss the book "Love and Respect" with them---they are marrying this month!!

So by the last week of September we were feeling very "filled up" with the goodness that God offers us through relationship with himself first and then with others.

Then we topped the month off with a team from our home church, Eastview, which included many close friends of ours as well as friends from Florida and a small group from Kentucky. This provided us with more time to enjoy relationship with new and old friends.

Here are some of my closest friends after an early morning prayer time in my back patio area---we did this every morning of the trip---it was a sweet gift from the Lord!! There is something very precious about having friends visit and minister together side by side.

This group helped with construction--building a tabernacle for the Lord as one team member reminded us!!--worked at two of our feeding centers, did a teacher training at one of our schools and ended their week by helping put on a three day women's conference for 200 Dominican women!!! We were all blessed by their service and we trust that they returned to the states blessed and changed as well. Enjoy the video of their trip below...

Eastview Christian Church from Amanda Braisted on Vimeo.

Lastly, we enjoyed a beautiful beach day to celebrate Beka's 12th birthday--She invited a few friends, including Pastor Wilby and wife, Lisa--to give them a day of rest and refreshment!! It touches us that our children love those we work with here as much as we do and they are learning how God wants us to lift one another up, encourage one another and help carry one another's burdens--day by day!!

So....it was a very good month!!! Thank you again for all the prayer, encouragement and support you send our way. We are blessed by you!! Take a look below for trip dates for 2009 and our prayer requests on the side.

By God's grace and for His glory,
Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Beka Schwulst

July/August happenings on the island...

2008-09-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

So our summertime has ended here, kids are back in school and it is time to reflect and be so grateful for all that was accomplished here, all those who came to minister here--our new friends and "partners" and all that was learned!!

It is so hard to choose just a few highlights but here we go...

The month of July began by hosting a team of 55 youth and sponsors from our home church, Eastview Christian Church. It was such an awesome group of young people--they worked hard, had great attitudes and their nightly praise and worship sessions on the top floor of the dormitory in Hoya del Caimito literally lit up the neighborhood!! Muchas gracias Eastview!!!

Here they are worshipping at a bonfire for the youth of the Caimito church on the "land" we will use to build the new church!!!

Many medical clinics were held in areas that so badly need medical care--a US audiologist teamed up with an audiology group from the island and offered free hearing aids to many---here a pastor brings a young boy from his community to be fitted for a hearing aid---they both left smiling and so were we!!!

Our friends the Marshall's came down with a new team from their daughter's church--stayed at our new facility in Hato del Yaque and put on a teacher training here at the school---our teachers were thrilled with the training material!! Thanks Ralph and Elaine---please come back!!!

Then...life took an unexpected turn---as we all know can happen!! Our youngest daughters, Rachael and Beka, had gone back to the states to visit grandma and friends. Rachael got quite ill and we found out she needed surgery to remove tonsils, adenoids and open up her sinus passageways. Fortunately Dave and I were able to return to be with her during surgery and recuperation. Our home church and home town friends were just awesome in how they rallied around us, found us places to stay, fed us, and just loved on us for three weeks!!!

Rachael's surgery was a big success!!

Here is just one example of how everyone cared for us and loved on us---our friends the Williamson's did a "rap song and dance" to cheer up Rachael in the hospital

We also were able to fly our oldest daughter Blythe back to Illinois to be with us and we even got to go visit Grandma on her farm!!! Here we are with all three of our daughters...

So...the last few months we have experienced the love of Christ modeled by so many here and there...that motivates us to spend more time communing with God, getting to know Him and His ways better so we can let His love flow through us out to others--every day wherever we are!!

And speaking of love...another wedding--Pastor Wilby and GO missionary Lisa--we are blessed to have this sweet couple in our lives--please pray for their new marriage and for their new church plant which reaches out to Haitians in our neighborhood.

We love you all---and keep you in our hearts and prayers---please look to our side sections on prayer, upcoming team dates,etc---also we encourage you to check out some of the other GO staffer's blogs as they are excellent and have many more pictures and videos---our staff team photographer, Amanda's, blogspot usually contains videos of each team that comes down---www.braistedadventures.blogspot.com

By His grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst Family

ps--just for fun---look at our youngest, Beka, with classmates who worked together on a small group school project (rapper style!!)---thank you for praying for ALL of our children!!

Summer time...many hands and hearts accomplish much!!!

2008-06-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Dominican children---and there are sooooo many!!! A common thread among those who come on a short term mission trip is how impacted they are by the little children here and how they want to help give them a brighter future---to impact the island in such a way that these children have the hope of living a brighter life than did their parents!!! And this summer many people have come to the island to help do just that---in many different and varied ways...

Here are a few of the highlights...Hope Springs Church returned to encourage the work of their partner church here led by pastor Edward Gabriel. Pastor Calhoun did some follow up work with those pastors here that are involved with Celebrate Recovery in their churches, hosted a Celebrate Recovery event at Hogar Crea, the alcohol treatment facility here in Santiago that pastor Edward and Dave are involved with here. And...the women of the church offered a "day spa" for the women of pastor Edward's church here!!!

Lincoln Christian Church returned and, according to their tradition, made a delicous meal one evening for all of our Dominican workers and staff---chicken tretrazzini and fruit pies (19 of them!!) This group is really old pros at all this and know what food to bring with them and what they can buy here--they even let our cooks try their hands at making pies!!

We also hosted a team of 50 men, women and children who put on sports camps for children in baseball, basketball and volleyball. Rachael and Rebekah got to play on a team and they helped translate too!!

A highlight from the sports team was a young woman who plays girls basketball at Vanderbilt who came down for the second time to play ball and share hope for a strong future for these young Domincan girls. Thanks Meredith!!! You inspired us!!

The sports team also offered fitness classes to the women of the community and Cherry helped with translation---everyone really had a blast!!!

Fitness class leader, Susan, was very inspiring to the women of this community...

A huge happening here this past month was the official "inaugaration ceremony" of our new dormitory, feeding center and church facility in the community of Hato del Yaque---please watch the video below---we are praying to impact this community in a big way in the years to come...

Inauguration of Hato del Yaque

As always we thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement and support--and a special thank you to those who have come to work alongside us, those planning to come in 2009 and those who have been moved to "partner" with a national worker here or sponsor a child at our school.

By God's grace and for His glory,
The Dave Schwulst family

May/June Happenings in the DR...

2008-06-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Here is just one example of the "richness" of the teams that come to help---this is a young couple, she is a doctor, he is a dentist--they came to participate in a medical/dental clinic put on in our neighborhood here in Hoya del Caimito---they were able to come because when her father passed away two years ago, her mother sold their home and decided to use part of the proceeds to take her whole family (children, spouses and their children) on a missions trip---they also invited friends and church members so the trip grew to over 50 people. What an inspiration they all were to us here!!!

Greetings and God's richest blessings to you all!!! We have much news to report from this end.

May began with Dave returning to the states to help with our ministry's big support raiser--the Kentucky Derby. Game Time Sports continues to allow us to work as volunteers during the Derby with our "salaries" going as donations to GO Ministries. This year we received $30,000 which will be a great help to our work here on the island.

Since there were no teams in May, we were able to take time to reflect, get refreshed and re-energized and regroup a bit in our ministry efforts. We praise God for this time and are confident that this extra time spent with Him in prayer and meditation will help us grow in his wisdom and understanding as we seek to do His will in all we do.

We also made more visits up to some of the other pastors in the mountain areas whom we had not visited yet. We saw a new feeding center in action--one that serves the needs of Haitian children who have lost parents due to storms and flooding.

We were inspired by Pastor Thomas' young adult daughter, Jessica, who though physically confined to a wheel chair, certainly displays a loving servant's spirit that soars!! Here she is with a gift of new blocks for the children at the feeding center, sent by our friend and home church member, Peggy Parker.

And here is their church which was badly in need of a new roof and front door...we were able to provide both through your donations to our ministry fund!! They are so grateful to be able to stay "dry" during church activities!!

We also got to experience the wedding of one of the couples we have been mentoring with the Love and Respect study. Amaury and Catherine were married at sunset on the beach by GO Ministries president, Brook Brotzman---a beautiful bi-lingual, bi-cultural event!!! And Cherry had the privilege of being the "godmother"--a Domincan tradition.

Cherry was able to spend a few days in the Bateyes, supporting the work of pastor William's wife, Alexandra, as she participated in a week long event for the churches in the area, coordinated by the women's ministries in this community of sugar cane workers.

Cherry, fellow missionary Jackie, and summer intern Jana got to go with pastor William to visit some of the other newer church plants in some of the neighboring bateyes to encourage them--just like Paul did with the early churches. It was definitely a highlight of the month to see the enthusiasm of the new church plants and watch pastor William disciple them in the faith!! Here is one of the newer church plant's pastor and family.

June finds us filled with groups--many times three groups in one week!! It is awesome to meet so many wonderful new people who have come to serve the Lord through helping our Dominican/Haitian brothers and sisters. And it is great to witness all the work that can get done with "many hands,feet and hearts" moving in the same direction!!!

Our new ministry "hub" at Hato del Yaque is officially "open" with groups staying and working there and in the surrounding areas. Two weeks ago we had over 50 people at Hato del Yaque, another group of almost 50 at our main Santiago hub and a group of 20 at our smaller dormitory in Santiago. We know that on our own we could never have accomplished what we did but God is so faithful to equip those He calls---and a special thanks to all our Dominican cooks and cleaners who faithfully serve every day here!!

And thanks to all of you who faithfully support us in prayer, finances, and encouragement. We truly feel so blessed to be doing what we are doing --each day is an opportunity to learn and serve and that is a beautiful way to live!!!

Please take a look at our new prayer requests, thoughts to ponder and support status section to the right.

Dios les bendiga,

The Dave Schwulst family

April update...

2008-05-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

We are so grateful for the month of April that God gave us...starting with a trip to the states for Cherry to visit her older children, Shane and Blythe. It was such a blessing to be able to spend a week with them and see their life as students at the University of Maryland.

As you pray for us here, please pray for our children there--for wisdom to live each day to its fullest, making a difference for good wherever we are!!

Another highlight of our month was the visit from a group of men from our home church, Eastview Christian Church. They were a wonderful group of men who were a great blessing to the ministry here. They came bearing many donations to the ministry including a big supply of resources for our Christian school here in Hoya del Caimito...

The school director and school librarian were thrilled with the beautiful new dictionaries, chapter books and more...

And team member, Marty Trunk got to meet one of the GO kids that his family sponsors---a great benefit of our GO Kids sponsor program is that when you come on a short term mission trip you have the opportunity to meet the child you are sponsoring!!

The main purpose of the Eastview group was to bring the Wild at Heart Men's weekend to the island of Hispanola and they did this in grand fashion!! More than 130 Domincan and Haitian men attended the weekend and we are praying that the seeds planted with bear much fruit for change here on the island. We encourage you to go to their blogspot to view pictures of the weekend and their entire trip here at www.eastviewdr.blogspot.com

We continue to enjoy our discipleship relationships here--meeting and encouraging pastors and their wives as well as our GO staff here on the field. A beautiful example of this work is our relationship with pastor Wilby and his fiancee, GO missionary Lisa. We meet with them weekly to discuss the book we are all reading, Love and Respect, as a way to help prepare them for their marriage in August. Also Wilby is one of our Haitian pastors here who is starting a church plant to reach out to the Haitian community here in Hoya del Caimito. We thank God for this precious couple and ask that you keep their marriage and their ministry in your prayers.

Take a look under our ministry video section at our new family video!!

As always, we are deeply grateful for your faithful prayers, words of encouragement and financial support.

Dios les bendiga,

The Dave Schwulst family

March happenings...

2008-03-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

It is always fun to update our blog because it gives us a chance to look back over the last month and reflect on our lives, how the hand of God and his goodness was present in so many ways.

We are so grateful that our home continues to be a gathering place for many. We helped one of our young missionaries, Lisa, with a goal of hers to work with pre-teen Dominican and Haitian girls in the neighborhood. We (Cherry, Rachael and Rebekah) helped Lisa host a get together in our home where the girls made peanut butter cookies, a first for many...

then gathered in our living room while Lisa shared a lesson on the joys of giving to others (Rachael and Beka helped sometimes with translation) and then the girls went out into the neighborhood and shared their freshly baked cookies with some of the elderly members of the community. A great evening!!

We had a great visit from some good friends and great ministry supporters, Rick and Laurie Studer from our home church. We toured many of our ministry projects with them to help them see where they might be able to help. They were a great encouragement to us and the ministry and they seem to have found a pastor here that they can partner with to help him fulfill his ministry dreams--a GO partnership in action!!

We continue our visits to pastors up in the mountains which is always a treat for us. Pastor Fabio and his wife Antonia welcomed us with typical Dominican hospitality--a great meal and great fellowship.

We also hosted four teams this month!!! So much happens during those times...on so many levels--We feel very blessed to be a part of it!! Our home church sent a team led by Dr. Tom DeWeert to put on a three day medical clinic in a predominately Haitian community here as well as help with construction and feeding center work. Our home church also partners with the pastor in this area.
Enjoy the video of this team's trip below...

And....our Rachael turned 13!!!! officially a teenager or a "senorita"--We had cake and ice cream at our home with both teams who were here plus all the GO Ministries staff--a total of about 35 people---a great celebration...

Dave, along with many Dominican and Haitian men here, are anxiously awaiting the Men's Adventure weekend being led by the men's ministry of our home church the end of April. Please keep this event in prayer---it can be one of those times that plant seeds to change many lives, many families and many communities throughout the island!!!

We thank you for your love, support and prayers. Please check out our prayer, ministry support and thought for the month sections to the right...

Que Dios los acompane,

The Dave Schwulst family

February ministry news

2008-03-06T13:19:00.001-08:00

As the month of February ends, we have now been on the field six months!! And much is becoming more familiar and easier for us though we have much to learn. It really is a wonderful stage to be in and we are so grateful to God for bringing us here and to you all for making it possible to do what we do!

Here are a few highlights of the month...Hope Springs Church, who partner with our pastor Edward, conducted a wonderful pastor training program using Celebrate Recovery materials to help our pastors meet the needs of those suffering from drug and alcohol addictions and other "habits and hangups" (as they say!!) that keep us from living the fullness of life that God intends for us. We had up to 40 pastors participating and we ended the week with a baptism of a dozen young men at Hogar Crea alcohol treatment center--two pastors from the US church helped pastor Edward and Dave conduct the baptism--a beautiful display of a GO partnership at work!!

Next, we invited all the GO sponsored pastors who live in Santiago and surrounding areas to celebrate Valentine's Day with their wives with a dinner at our home. We made things very special for them as couples and as pastors working together for a common purpose. We were all blessed and plan to continue offering these types of gatherings to encourage them in their marriage and ministry.

Dominicans love to play games!!! The pastors were very creative (and competitive!!) in using toilet paper to dress their wife as a bride!!

And kissing was encouraged!!!

Pastor Romano used our home to host a leadership gathering/meal for his church that serves a Haitian community here in the city---they all seemed to enjoy Dave's grilled hamburgers and we enjoyed encouraging this new church plant!!

One of the last teams we hosted this month did a combination construction/medical clinic with a doctor and nurse from the US church that partners with pastor Eddy in the mountains outside the city--Dave and I were able to drive them up to visit pastor Eddy and his family and share gifts their church sent for this family---another beautiful example of GO partnership at work!!

And in the midst of all the ministry, Rachael and Rebekah are the proud owners of two new daschund puppies, thanks to our missionary friends in Santa Domingo!!

Please check the side sections for our prayer updates. We look forward to the Eastview teams coming down in March and April---we are praying for you!!! We still are in need of more teams to come work this fall--if you, your family, or small group want to come help, please contact Vicki at our Louisville office.

With Love and Gratitude,

The Schwulst family

January Ministry News...

2008-02-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

A highlight of the month was traveling down to the southern part of the island to participate in a Baptism ceremony for some of our small churches in the "batey" area--What a glorious time we all had!!!

Fourteen new believers made their profession of faith in the Caribbean!!!
Here is the line...

A new believer...

Our family feeling very blessed to be a part of all this!!!

The ride back from the beach!!!!....

January started and ended with visits from stateside friends. It is such an encouragement to us when friends from home visit, especially when they come to see how they can get involved with the ministry here!!

Ralph and Elaine Marshall spent three days with us looking especially at our ministry's work in education here as they are both educators. We are very excited that they will be returning in July as their daughter leads a team down here.

Their visit was followed by three pastor/mentor staff from our home church. They visited pastors in the area to determine who they will be partnering with in the future. Thank you ECC!!! Here is Rachael with her old junior high pastor, Joel Craig!!

The month ended with a visit with Don and Cathy Roberts from ECC, our home church, who were down here helping build a beautiful playground in an area that surely needs one!! What fun it was to see them and dream a bit about a playground at one of our GO Ministry sites!!!...

We also got to visit another one of our pastors and his family that live in a more remote area in the mountains. Since they don't get a lot of visitors, they were so pleased to have us. And we surely were blessed by the visit too. Thank you Pastor Eddy and Fior...please keep them and their ministry in your prayers!

Please look to our sections to the right for our prayer needs, a support update, and a word of encouragement!!

Your support, encouragement and prayers richly bless us!! You are in our hearts and our prayers too. We are looking forward to our upcoming teams...see schedule below

More photos below too!!

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family

Feliz Ano Nuevo--2008

2008-01-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

Bendiciones from our family ...

December always makes us think of spending extra time with those we love...This December we were blessed to spend the majority of the month as the only North American staff here in Santiago...We were able to devote a lot of time to nuturing our new relationships here and learning more of the culture. And...we were able to spend two weeks back in Illinois with all of our family together, including our two older children and LOTS of extended family and our church family and friends!!!

The "whole family" at Christmas time!!
Pastor Felix and his family join us for a "gringo" meal and great fellowship Our good friends Pastor Edward and wife Kendy --we are at their church most Sundays

Some friends enjoying a game of darts in our back patio

Cherry loves how her Dominican friends ALWAYS offer to help with the dishes!!

We enjoy many wonderful conversations in our living room

And ...on our back patio

And...we even got to take the girls to the beach---in December!!!!

We thank our great and gracious God for His abundant goodness to us and we pray that we all seek after Him with all our hearts in 2008---May we be a part of helping "His Kingdom come" wherever we are!!!

By God's grace and for His glory,

The Schwulsts

December update----with Thanksgiving and anticipation of what is to come...

2007-12-04T02:57:00.000-08:00

We have just completed Thanksgiving and are now in the midst of the Christmas/Advent season here. November started with tropical storm Noel. We were fortunate to be only minimally affected here in Santiago but we were able to be a part of some of the efforts to help those who were greatly affected (See our ministry video section to the right to view video on our work with storm victims). Dave has worked with Pastor Edward who organized a community effort to help collect food and clothing items to distribute to three communities in great need. Some had flood waters up over their windows and weeks later are still recovering...these photos were taken two weeks after the storm!...

It is so difficult for these areas--already so poor and in need--to recover from this kind of damage---it is a long, slow process--please let's not forget them but keep them in our prayers...

Our van filled with clothes was a welcome sight in Batey 9...

Our dormitory there was a refuge for over 100 people whose homes were flooded...

Dave and Pastor Edward passing out bags of food supplies in Nagua...

The lines were long but there was applause at the end!!!

The middle of the month found us stateside in Louisville, Kentucky for our annual year-end meeting. It was very encouraging to review the year of 2007, spend time with our board of directors and stateside staff and pray and plan for 2008!!

Two other highlights of the month were...

Our neighborhood mom's group, Madre a Madre, seems to be a great hit with the women and already we have many women currently not attending church that would like to be a part of this mom's group---here's a photo of the group so far...

We see this mom's group as another opportunity to reach out to the needs of the community with the love of Christ.

Pastor Jonas of La Mosca, an extremely poor neighborhood built up around an active garbage dump (see video in our ministry videos section at right) asked us if we would help him offer some marriage workshops for the people of his community, most of which are not currently attending his church. His idea was to start with a few workshops for the women as they are eager and then start with the couples. We are excited to come alongside him in this much needed effort. We held our first workshop Friday evening, November 31 in candlelight as there was no electricity!!

About 30 women attended this first meeting and shared that their main concerns are: 1)single mom issues, 2)husbands with drug and alcohol addictions and 3) infidelity issues--please keep these families in your prayers!! We will meet again Dec 14.

We will be celebrating Christmas in Illinois--Dec 19--Jan 1---We will be attending Eastview Christian Church Dec 23 and Dec 30---We hope to see many of you then!!

Again, there is much more we could share but for now we again thank you for your prayers, encouragement and support. And we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with much love, joy and peace!!

By God's Grace and for His Glory,
Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Beka

ps---please see more photos below, our prayer requests, our new word for the month and support updates all to the right.

November update--two months on the field!!

2007-11-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

October was a very, very full month for us here--We started the month with a trip to Palo Alto in the mountains (here we are after the church service)...

where Dave preached his first sermon in Spanish ...

and we were blessed to make a new friend who is 101 years young---these dear mountain people touched us by their faith, hope and perseverance and how quickly they opened their hearts and homes to us ...

next we hosted three teams which included a medical/dental clinic, construction work in Batey 9 and children's ministry

and ... we were able to witness the special bond that forms between the Dominican church and its US partners --here Discovery Church, California members pray over Pastor Aristides and his family after we all enjoyed an afternoon in pastor's home listening to his heart for the people of his community and their struggles and to the unbelievable musical talents of him and his family!!

...and we ended the month having witnessed and weathered a very serious tropical storm. As we write this update, many in Batey 9 have taken refuge in our recently completed dormitory (little did we know that it would be used in this way as we were completing it and furnishing it with bunk beds) and we are witnessing the "sacrificial sharing" of the Domincans here in Santiago as the churches join together to send food, clothing and supplies to their fellow countymen down south.

We continue to have the privilege of becoming part of a new culture and all that that entails--it is awesome to be meeting so many new people, both our new Dominican family and the many North Americans God has prompted to make a short term mission trip to the DR (here is Cherry with precious friends from the church in Hoyo de Bartola)...

Other highlights this month---

**Dave continues to help Pastor Edward at Hogar Crea, an alcohol treatment facility here in Santiago--we now take the men to Edward's church with us every Sunday and enjoy our times riding to and from in our minisry van or "guagua"

**Cherry and fellow missionary Amanda have officially begun the mom's group in the neighborhood and are excited about the possiblities there!!

Please see our new prayer requests and word of the month to the side and our list of upcoming short term trips at the bottom of our blog.

Thanks to all for your concern and extra prayers of late. You bless us so!!!

By God's grace and for his glory,

Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Beka

October update--our life "on the field"

2007-10-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

We have been "on the field" for six weeks!!! During this time, we have ...

**hosted a team from our home church, Eastview Christian Church, Bloomington, Illinois and a team from Louisville, Kentucky

**helped with the second annual women's conference here, hosting 150 women for a weekend event at a campsite

**helped with a weekend girls' basketball camp where 50 young Dominican girls participated (our girls were also blessed to be a part of the camp)

**begun forming relationships with the Dominicans, especially pastors and their wives and the other missionary staff here to act as a support and encouragement to them in their respective ministries

Dave and Pastor Romano who ministers to Haitians living in the DR

Pastor William Decena and wife Alejandra with one of their daughters--Pastor ministers to a community of sugarcane field workers in Batey 9, DR

Our biggest blessings have been...

**meeting new people, sharing our hopes, dreams and challenges

**receiving much acceptance and love from the Domincans we are working and living among

**enjoying getting to know the other staff members here on the field and seeing how the Lord is working in their ministries and some obvious "fruit" of their labors

**worship Domincan style is awesome!!

**working with the teams (especially our home church!) and seeing how God touches their hearts and watching them communicate cross-culturally is very impacting!!

**Rachael and Beka both got all high "A's" on their school progress reports!!

Our biggest challenges so far...

**realizing how much we have to learn of the language and the culture!!! and how the Lord would have us live and do ministry here

**Our health--Cherry and the girls have all been sick though all are healthy right now!!

**carving out time to be alone with the Lord amidst all the "new" and the "needs" in our new setting here

How you can continue to support us...

**please watch the new videos of the Eastview team here and the women's conference and review our new updates and prayer requests on the right side of this page. As always, we greatly appreciate all your prayers, words of encouragement and financial support for our ministry here

We love you and pray for you often

By God's grace and for His glory,

Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Beka

September update...from Santiago, Domincan Republic

2007-09-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

We are writing you from Santiago, Domincan Republic. I am actually sitting in our kitchen with my laptop composing this entry. The blessings of technology!! Much has happened this last month and we have much for which we are very grateful. We graduated from language school in Costa Rica in August, packed up our home there and flew to Bloomington, Illinois for a 6 day stay visiting family, church home and friends. It was such a wonderful visit!! The Sunday church service to send us off was awesome in so many ways and over 100 people came to the open house the Trunks hosted for us. And we were royally treated by our host family, the Trunks, who all four showed us servants' hearts filled with Christ's love.

We arrived in Santiago on Friday, August 24 and it has been a whirlwind of activity for the past week!! We have gotten Rachael and Rebekah enrolled and situated at Santiago Christian School. The school just started a new policy that the children of missionaries who qualify go to the school tuition free!!!! Now that was an unexpected blessing!!! The girls have been so flexible and cooperative and just open to all the "new" here!!! We can't thank them and God enough for their sweet missionary spirits!! What a life experience they are having.

Thanks to all of you who donated towards "upfront start up expenses", we have been able to purchase a beautiful, big ministry van plus rent a home and furnish it. And thanks to our new Domincan friends and fellow GO staffers here who helped clean, paint and show us where to shop. Pastor Gabriel's wife, Tata, and Marisol cooked lunch for us every day last week while we cleaned and painted. We have felt very loved and cared for by all who have sacrificed their time and resources to help support us in ministry here.

We have our first team coming next week--Marty and Traci Trunk leading a team from our home church, Eastview Christian Church. They will work construction, offer children's ministry, put on a women's conference for 150 women here, and more...We are so thrilled that the first team we will work with is from our own home church!

Please review our current prayer needs section as well as our support status (which is increasing!!) and our "word for the month" section. We hope you enjoy the new pictures too and more will follow as we wait expectantly for what God will do in our lives and the lives of others here. We feel so privileged to be doing this!!!

By God's grace and for His glory,

Dave,Cherry,Rachael and Rebekah Schwulst

August update...View from the Top...

2007-08-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Some of you will remember when we arrived in Costa Rica in December...it was dark, unfamiliar, a little scarey!! The following morning gave us a fresh perspective; it was bright and sunny and from our back patio we could see gorgeous mountains, with a cross on the very top. As we finish this leg of the journey here at language school, we decided to join a group hiking (una caminata) to the top of that mountain, to the cross. We all four went and all made it to the top. It was a pretty rough climb at times getting to the top and then it poured rain on us on the way back down!...but the view from the top was awesome and well worth "the suffering"...that describes our time here these last eight months---some suffering, some "cuts" as God is breaking us and some rain but as we finish this part we can say that the view from the top has been well worth it!! No regrets!!

We have less than two weeks left at language school. We want to thank all of you who have made this time possible and we want to praise God for His goodness and faithfulness to us during this time!!

G.O. Ministries has been in full force this summer with an average of two teams a week. Much work in the name of the Lord has been done and we pray He has been glorified. Please look at our new video in our mission video section below, "Batey 9", which shows the work of a team in this area where we feel drawn to serve in the future.

We will be in Bloomington August 18-23, at Eastview Christian Church on Sunday, August 19 and Marty and Traci Trunk will be hosting an open house Monday, August 20 from 4pm-8pm--Please come see us if you can!!

We've added new prayer requests, a support update and a new "word of the month"--your prayers and support are changing lives, including ours!!

For our Bloomington friends, we are in need of a few items as we move to the DR --we have found certain things to be of better quality and lower price if purchased in the US..if you can help us with any of the items below, please email us...

Emergency backup electrical generator
Full Piano keyboard for Rachael and Rebekah
Bedding---queen size and twin size sheets
Towels and wash clothes
Kitchen towels and hotpads

By God's grace and for His glory,
The Schwulst's

Schwulst Family Newsletter--July, 2007

2007-07-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

We are now well into our second trimester here at language school and can really see the end in sight!! We will be finishing here and returning to Bloomington for a brief visit, August 18--24, and then we are off for the big move to Santiago, Dominican Republic!! This second trimester here in Costa Rica has really allowed us to benefit from the relationships we have made as well as deepen our knowledge and appreciation of the Spanish language and the Latin American culture. We are more committed than ever to answer God's call to live among our Dominican and Haitian brothers and sisters and do our part to encourage and disciple them to live out the fullness of a life in Christ.

Highlights for this month are........our pastor here, Benjamin Labrador,pictured above with his family, will be moving with his family to Santiago, Dominican Republic in August of this year (even ahead of us!)to study at an institute called Casa Yada that trains Latin American pastors...with the goal of then working in ongoing training of pastors in the DR and Haiti....we are so thrilled that our relationship with pastor and his family will continue and that there is a possibility that he could later work with the pastors that GO Ministries supports in the DR and Haiti...we just can't see this merely as a "coincidence" but rather as God's way of helping us as we want to help empower the national pastors!!!

The other recent highlight for us has been that we have had the privilege of meeting with a number of married couples here, both students at the language school as well as local latino couples, and coming along side them to help them strengthen their marriages. It is beautiful to spend time together listening, sharing and praying and even more beautiful when the Holy Spirit intervenes and allows you to communicate from the heart in the Spanish language!!

So we are pleased to report that our time here has only gotten richer and we continue to live in the fullness of the life of Christ we are so undeservedly given.

We want to also thank our new partners in ministry for your commitment to financially support us. We are so grateful that each month our support continues to increase and we trust that we will be at 100% of our upper level budget as we go to the field. And most of all, we are deeply grateful for your consistent prayer support!!

Please check out our new pictures below as well as our updated prayer requests and the new you tube video of our latest family mission trip to San Carlos.

By God's grace and for His glory,

Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Rebekah

ENJOY OUR PICTURES BELOW!!!

Schwulst Family Newsletter - June 2007

2007-06-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Costa Rica. We are all back together in Costa Rica in the midst of our second trimester of language study. We came back very refreshed and re-energized from our awesome time back in Illinois. We were welcomed back here by all our new missionary and local friends and are excited to "finish strong" with language school as we also are making plans for the move to Santiago, Domincan Republic the end of this August!! Our Spanish is improving daily and we continue to grow in our understanding and appreciation of the Latin American culture.

We continue with our discipleship/mentoring relationships and are so blessed by them all. We've included pictures of some of those God has brought across our path. Please pray that these relationships continue to grow in depth and mutual encouragement.

A highlight of our trip back to Bloomington was that one of our very large initial one time gift donors has agreed to continue supporting our ministry with that same amount or more on an annual basis. What a blessing. We have been praying that those who helped us with initial one time gifts would feel led to continue financially partnering with us monthly/annually now as we enter the field.

As always, we thank you all for joining us on this journey. We continue to be amazed at all the love that comes our way through you all. A special thanks to Ray and Raquel Kralis, (Ray is the women's golf coach at ISU in Normal, Il) for the great huge umbrellas and rain jackets. As we are now in the rainy season with tropical downpours daily, we are so grateful for this gift!!

Please read our prayer section to see our specific prayer needs. And check out our upcoming short term team schedule. We encourage you to make a trip down. We have also included some videos of some of GO's ministry sites and interviews with missionaries over 40 (including Dave and I!!) entitled "Master's Revival to Missions".

And...please keep in touch...we love your emails!!

By God's grace and for His glory,
Dave, Cherry, Rachael and Rebekah

2007-06-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

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