The Assurance of Things Hoped For

June 25, 2023

Where in the world are Lex and Renée, you ask?

We spent most of this past week in Massachusetts, catching up with a LOT of people. And while we truly enjoyed every one of those meetings, I'd say our favorite moments were spent with these three.

We are now back in the Dominican Republic, where Luperón is quickly feeling like "Home Sweet Home" to us!

We are hosting a great Hope Encounter with friends from Chair City Church in Gardner, MA.

We're off to a great start and blessed to have this group of hard-working, skilled, and very encouraging people with us for the week. Our long-time friend and fellow missionary, Taran, is helping us out this week. Blessings upon blessings!

We are grateful, too, for our Dominican friends who are so eager to step in and help! (FYI: José doesn't "normally" carry a machete! He DOES normally wear a big smile, though.)

We made a stop on our way back from the airport to pick up a couple of items at La Sirena and enjoyed some Domino's pizza while we were there, too!

Everyone arrived safely at the mission house, settled in, participated in an orientation, and still had time to visit the local beach, Playa Grande.

What a blessing it is for all of us that Kaylee brought a keyboard with her!!! She is a beautiful worshiper and we all enjoy joining with Kaylee in worship each morning before breakfast.

The team enjoyed a very festive church service this morning in Luperón.

The church was overflowing!

We are all eager to get the floor poured for the Haitian Baptist Church of Luperón later this week!

Lex and I had the opportunity to visit some other villages in the Dominican Republic this week, including two bateyes.

A batey is a community built for workers - in this case, Haitian sugar cane workers. While most of the sugar cane is gone, along with the jobs it provided, the descendants of those workers, along with refugees from Haiti continue to live in the bateyes.

We took some time to speak with village leaders about the challenges they and their neighbors are facing. They are many and far-reaching. In one of these communities, the leaders estimate that there are as many as 250 infants and toddlers alone. Would you pray with us for wisdom and understanding, and that the LORD would clearly guide us? Thank you.

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting and chatting with this gentleman, Luke, in one of the bateyes. He is 104 years old, a living, walking archive of Haitian history, and he shared much of it with us! He threw his hat on the ground, pointed to his head, and said, "Everything is still in here. I am a dictionary!" By the way, we found him enjoying Lex's favorite pastime - eating whole mangoes.

Our Hope Encounter team visited this batey after church today. Lex took some time to prepare everyone before they entered the community.

It was fun to introduce Luke to our friends from Chair City Church.

This week we also drove up and down mountains and across plains to get to Haiti's border. The agriculture was amazing, with acres upon acres sprawling with bananas and then acres and acres of rice paddies. We even found a beautiful city on a mountaintop.

It's finally pitahaya season! We are enjoying some delicious, deep-purple dragon fruit this week.

Hats off to our friends at Worldwide Lighthouse Missions! Time and time again, they come through with supplies that our students, staff, and neighbors in Haiti really need. Many of these supplies are used when disasters, like the recent floods, strike. School supplies are passed out to students. Toys and clothing are also great for celebrating birthdays.

It's still graduation season. Our schools in Thozin and St. Etienne will hold commencement ceremonies this week. Lex and I are so proud of our staff, students, and their families for working so hard to make education a priority in their lives. This picture is from 2012, when a team from Worldwide Lighthouse Missions joined us for graduation.

Let's also keep our students in prayer because, just like that, it's the end of the school year, and finals have begun!

We're grateful that the medical and dental clinics stay open year-round to attend to the needs of all in the schools and community.

The little ones in the baby feeding program and their caregivers always show up with great anticipation of some good nutrients and some yummy flavors. Eating well in these early years supports good brain development and physical growth. They hear the Gospel regularly, too. Together we are creating an environment where they can learn and grow to fulfill God's plan for their lives.

The name "Mission of Hope" came out of a message found in Hebrews 11:1. Before a person can have faith, they have to have hope. God's word brings hope to life in our hearts and minds. We dare to hope because God has spoken. From there, we can believe. Lex and I thank God for each and every one of you who are bringing hope into very dark situations!!!