blogging again!

It has been a long time since I used this last, but here we go again!

I am going to keep some of y`all updated via this blog if blogs are your thing.

In the upcoming weeks, I will be posting some updates on ministry and life here. If you are not a Facebook person then I would recommend this. You should be able to subscribe to this blog and get an email whenever I publish something by clicking here. Expect life and ministry updates, prayer requests, videos, and sometimes just personal opinions and thoughts on life as a believer here in the DR. 

I am also raising support for our family and the ministry base we are opening in Elias Piña*. if you would like to donate go here and follow the instructions

https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=ADLTM  

Select Dominican Republic Church Planting/Tierra prometida

and add a note saying Ronnie Herrera

* More info on this in the next blog

Upcoming Dominican Mission trips

Good morning everyone may God bless you abundantly. Hope you guys are enjoying the holidays. It is freezing cold here in DR, yesterday was 86 F, this is the time to buy scarves and coats.

First of all we would like to thank you for partnering with us. Thank you for trusting us, praying and providing funds so we can share the the gospel where Jesus has not been yet preached.

As you may already know Dominican Rising exists to train Dominicans to go to the unreached people groups around the world. We do this by training Dominicans in the church plantings where Tierra Prometida is already working and by short-term mission trips. We will kick off 2017 with a couple of those trips. We have 3 trips happening in the beginning of January. Two of these trips will happen simultaneously while a third trip will happen the following week. One trip is made up of people here in the city of San Juan. This group will go to the border between Dominican Republic and Haití. The main purpose of this first group is that they get a first-hand experience in the short-term mission trips working in a different culture with different language. This trip will have a very similar setup to the ones that visit from the States.

At the same time a group of believers from each church plant village where we're currently working will compose the second team. They will be going to the border too, but a different area. We have 11 church plants happening so we're asking each church to provide one believer to come with us. These community's include: Cativo, El Hoyo, San Ramon, Mogollon Guachupita, Guandules, Hatico, Candelones, Lavapie, Lamedero, Suarez.

A third trip will happen a week later when all the students of the Dominican Rising team will go deeper into Haití and we will spend a week close to the second capital of this country.

Each trip has a different purpose, We want the young adults here in San Juan to experience a cross-cultural mission trip in the same way Jesus sent out his disciples in Luke Chapter 10. We are praying that this short term mission trip encourages these young adults to keep getting involved in the missions work.

Then we have the second trip, where most of those attending were either on last years trip (check this) or heard from a brother or sister about this experience. Most of these believers can´t afford leaving their families or the work in their fields, so this trip is to keep the flame of sharing the gospel alive and burning as well as getting others involved in the Great Commission from their church plant.

Finally we have a Dominican Rising trip, many of us attending have already been to Haití and some of us already speak creole and are confident getting around in Haití, but we are taking new people with us and hopefully we get them ready for bigger stuff.

For those working with Promised Land we have one person of each village community going to the trip on the border. This trip has a cost of $60 per person.  If you feel like you want to donate some money Go here, (click on "give to" drop down menu and select Dominican Republic Tierra prometida). We are pushing the young adults from the city San Juan to fund raise their own support from their churches. This is a collateral purpose; we want to get the churches involved both in prayer and financially. The Dominican Raising team trip will cost of $100 per person.

How can you pray for this:

Pray that the young adults in San Juan get involved.  A lot of them work, or have never been on a short term mission trip, plus the missions calling is the least encouraged ministry in churches in this area.

Pray that the team from the church plants gets to be challenged by God in that it leads them to reach their own with the gospel. Pray that the same boldness we have on the trip is brought back home.

Pray for our Dominican Rising team. We will be inside of Haití. In every trip we make sure we have all of our documents in order, so please pray that the paperwork is hassle free (getting passports, getting visas, customs etc). Pray for safety.  Haití just had their elections a couple of weeks ago, and most people aren't happy with the results. Where we are going is pretty much safe, yet pray that we are divinely protected.

Pray for resources.

Pray for wisdom, so that we are faithful in sharing the gospel in a way that glorifies God. Pray for our contacts in Haití.

Once again thanks for all of your support and prayers

What´s the big deal with this Cuba trip?

 During the las week of September, I had the honor of leading a trip from our church to Cuba. it was a one- week long mission trip, and we stayed three hours away from La havana. A total of sixteen people were in the team (including myself). Thirsteen from Central Mennonite Church and 3 from other churches. This might be one of the greatest testimonies we have had so far. I´d like to explain why this trip is such a big deal.

You might have read a little bit about this in my previous post, and then my most recent prayer request. Nevertheless, While I have been working on Dominican rising and training locals for missions. I am also the Missions Department Director at Central Mennonite Church in San Juan. While this church has beeen working closely with Promised Land in planting churches and sending missionaries (Mayi and Connie), this was the frst time a mission trip involving everyone in church had ever happened. Yes, the church had done some short term visit to unreached areas and yes the church has with a missionary call. But most people had not done missions themselves.

This is one of the main churches in SJ, and has done this mission trip, triggering a desire in other people to join as well. This has started a fire in the community for foreign missions. My hope is to take this into a love for the unreached, unnengaed people groups around the world.

Me and Victor at the airport

 You might have been here in SJ. Think of how the Lord ministered your life here. Well that was pretty much the same. I got stuck in the airport so the authorities could check my luggage (we were bringing a little too many shoes), delaying our team for three hours, and we had to take  another three hour  ride before we got to our destination. By the end of the day we were tired but ready and eager to see what God wanted to do with us.

Team sitting in the airport while I am inside being given a hard time with luggage. 

For our team to see what the Cuban church is doing with what they have and the government llimitations was stunning to us. Mostly eveyone that went on this trip are leaders from CMC and they could see first hand how the church leaders in Cuba work and how the gospel has expanded, how much work there is still to be done and how our visit was such a great blessing to them.

Mrs. Piron is a Gynecologist and took some time to iinstruct women and personal care, brest cancer prevention while also checking on some of the women. 

For the Cuban church, this vist was a blessing as well. For many years they have only had the visit of the church planters from the states. Three or four people would come several times a year to teach ome classes and ti check on how the church is doing. This visit happens on a national level. So the amount of time spent with this specific church is minimum. Add the language barrier and the cultural differences, plus the limitations most americans have to go to Cuba. One lady said at one point "It´s weird you are missionaries but you are so much like us, you speak our language and you like our food". Onether young guy told me after my Sunday morning teaching "This time I understood the missionary without nothing getting lost in translation". There is still that mindset that missions is for Americans. Both within our team and the Cuban church. We were glad to be used by God for this purpose.

Gregorio Preaching at a casa Culto (house church)

visiting the local Seminary

Praying with the Pastor´s Family

Sunday school children´s class

Pastor giving us the orientation, and misnitry schedule. 

House visits 

Visitting the elderly

transportation

Two ladies in our team brought their ponchos, That day they were the only ones who didn´t get damp

Back to Cuba...With a team

Most of you knew about our family´s trip to Cuba in the begining of the year. Then heard about me returning to Cuba for a set up trip for my church. That trip is happening soon.

A team of 16 people are getting ready to take an adventure for the first time on a mission trip to another country. The Majority of the team have never traveled abroad. This is the first mission trip as a our church gets involved in. This trip serves as a pilot project for future misison trips from local churches to neighboring countries in an effort to raise awareness on the need for the local church to get involved in missions.

Our trip to Cuba will serve several purposes,  being the main of it the preaching and sharing the word of God in this Communist country.

For the Cuban church this comes as a refreshment on ministry as they see that countries like DR are interested in seeing the gospel being spread throughout the country. For the Dominican Church this trip will serve as a training in church planting in a semi- persecuted country.

Cuba is a poor country, people are restrained to live with what they can get from the governement. DR is a poor country too, where people have to work hard to be able to survive. so it will be easy to understand each other when it comes to bringing the gospel in difficult enviroments.

Having the same language and Culture and similar issues, the main differences between both countries is political.

Our team is ready to go and looking forward to seeing God working in the lives of the Dominican Church, in the lives of the Cuban church and in the hearts of those that will be hearing about the gospel.

Please pray for this team, Like I said this is the first time most of the participants ever travel outside of the country. Pray that we find the resources the Cuban church needs. Pray that we are good stewards of our time, money and resources. Pray for the spiritual fruit this trip is to bring. Pray that more churches in San Juan feel the call to trips like this, Both to Cuba and Haiti. I thank you in advance for your prayers.

keepin´it short (w/ Pics)

May all of you walk according to God´s desires. God Bless you always.

Since I am not using some of the major social networks (Facebook or Instagram), so I can use that time to work on m spiritual disciplines. I thought I ´d maybe write a post to keep y´all updated. and since it doesn´t seem like I will be using those platforms in a while (or at all), I´ll keep it short and simple. 

My family is doing good, Trip to Cuba was great and it set up the pace for future mission trips, we learned that travelling with a baby might be difficult but not imposible, As a family we were deeply ministered but the Holy Spirit through this trip. Right now we are supper busy and going through some stuff that need to be done before we think on going on another longer trip. Patria´s working on her school, I am working on the missions department in my church, and training more missionaries here in San Juan. 

Dominican Rising is doing good, our former students are leaving the nest, Connie felt led by the Lord to keep on working here in DR as our ministry´s IT, Mayi is getting married next month, and soon after that moving to the states, Laritza just left for a one month training before she heads to Mexico for two years where she will be serving with her church. And Horlyn is working on the paperwork in order to visit a Muslim country, where he feels called to serve for life. *Pray for Laritza´s Visa, Horlyn´s funds, Mayi´s wedding, and Connie´s work with us. 

Cuba Missions team 

We have realized that training individuals for missions is a difficult task unless churches see missions as imperative. - Most churches in DR do not have missions as a doable ministry, the idea is that missions or missionaries are american- We have started focusing our attention to Pastors and ministers encouraging them to adopt one of the unreached communities in San Juan. This process raises missionaries at a slower pace, but they will be raised under the training and experience through their church. 

bible study at el Hoyo

Cuban church leaders

At our home church, I have been officially appointed as the head of the missions department, one month after I went to Cuba with my family, I went back with three more people from our church to work on the set up for a partnership between my local church here in San Juan and a Cuban church near la Havana. The trip was a blessings and we discovered many ways in which we could work together towards the expansion of the Kingdom. A team of Dominicans just met on Sunday to start talking about this mission trip. it will be happening in September, and 25 people have signed up for it. Though this is a local church doing ministry, this will mark the beginning of an era where Dominicans understand we have to give by grace what we have received, that we need to stop being consumer Christians and now start giving, becoming missionaries, and going on missions. Please pray for this project, since it is also a pilot for our encouragement to other churches to adopt a people group and actually making a commitment to work on reaching it with the Gospel. 

Church in Cativo

home church youth group 

Please pray for our family. Patria´s travelling every Monday to Santo Domingo in order to take her college classes, we stay apart three days a week, I take care of Abdiel whenever I can, but mostly Patria´s mom helps us with him. Pray that we are faithful servants, pray that we all deny ourselves take up our crosses and follow Jesus wherever he leads us. Pray that we don´t get used to our comfort zone, Pray that we are committed to seek him everyday. Pray for Promised land and Dominican rising as ministries, that everyday we are led by God, Pray for each of us as disciples and disciplemakers. Pray that we are bold to share the gospel with our words and with our lives. 

Thanks for your prayers and financial support.

Abdiel´s sorta Birthday party

Praise God

Hey folks, blessings.

I know exactly what I want to say, I just don´t know how to put it...

When Patria was pregnant, she told often how we needed some sort of vehicle. As we were still thinking about it, Abdiel arrived and with him all the stuff some of you experienced parents never told me:

The bouncing chair, the 20 pounds pack and play, a whole bag with bottles extra diapers bags for the dirty diapers, etc.

Honestly, I thought land was/is more important than vehicle. The struggle started, if we saved money would we buy a car or land first. I prayed and asked God to help me on this. As I kind of a joke I told Patria, you know what? I´m gonna start praying,  but I´ll pray to God to provide for both the land and the car and so I did.

A week later I told a friend of mine, to take me to a Car dealer so I found out how much a car was.     I´ve never owned a car nor I knew anything about them, but started looking around. I also went and started asking for land prices and good locations in San Juan. To start I would need at least Ten thousand dollars (remember the number for future reference).

Remember I shared a while ago how my fund raising account had some issues going on? Well it was sorta solved, and the money some of you guys have been giving was available. I wanted to know how much money there was so I could start doing math and figure out if a bike and a bucket of sand was doable.

Then I get the email: 10057.00 Dollars
Me: No, so and so, please check the number, there must be a mistake.
so and so: So, I´ve checked and yes that is your money.
Me: can you please check who donated that much money?
So and so: Nope we can´t the money was transferred and we really can´t see it.

So, in about three weeks, God responds this prayer. It´s been more than a month now, and I´ve been very slow at looking for a car and land, in the process God has been very gracious.

- I own a car now (very convenient) post coming soon
- I own land now (the beginning of a story yet unknown) that´s another post

Refreshing

Wednesday was probably the hottest day I remember, we had Abdiel naked all they long in front of  a fan. I had Ice cold water at hand to drink and I know I took at least six showers throughout the day. it was just hot.

Spiritually, not very different. 

Some days can be spiritually exhausting. Sometimes it is just life. Ministry can bring you to a point were you just need to be refreshed. Sometimes, like most Dominicans, you just need to yell "it´s hot!!!!"

Last night I met with some friends, all of us going through struggles, in my case I had been going slower and slower in my serving the Lord. The spiritual stamina has been becoming less and less. God brought us together so we could just help one another and encourage one another in those ministries God has called us. 

It´s not like I´m about to give up. It´s more like I need to find some shade, drink some water wipe my forehead, tell a joke and keep on walking. 

I´m glad, very glad, to know I have people praying for me,  holding their shields to pretect me in battle, as I hold my  shield to protect them as well. I´m very glad to know I have friends whose care can be refreshing 

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 

13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 

14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 

15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business 

instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:12-15 NIV