Friday, August 28, 2015

July 2015 Newsletter

Earlier this month, we sent out a newsletter to our mailing list.  I decided to post it here for those of you who did not receive it.

(If you did not receive this letter and would like to be added to our mailing list (or if you are on our mailing list, and did not receive it) please email me at carrie.bea1982@yahoo.com and I will update the list.)



Ramos Newsletter - July 2015



Eddy and Carrie Ramos
Missionaries serving in:
Santiago, Dominican Republic

“…Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”  Colossians 4:17





 Greetings from the Dominican Republic!  Blessing to you and your families!  Six months have passed since we made the transition to “Sharing the Vision” so we decided to write you all to update you on what we have been up to over the last six months 

STV Property
First we would like to thank you all for your continued support and prayers as we follow God down this new path in ministry.  Eddy remains confident in his call to one day be a pastor.  Our working with Sharing the Vision is one step in that direction.  We are working side by side with Jim and Teresa White on a daily basis, serving with them and helping with the mission work that they are currently doing in the DR.  We are also receiving invaluable church leadership training from them, which will help us down the road when God calls us to a church.

Sharing the Vision (STV)

Jim and Teresa
We would like to give you a little background information on Sharing the Vision and their ministry.  Sharing the Vision is a ministry founded by a missionary couple named Jim and Teresa White.  Their mission statement is evangelism and making disciples. There are a few different branches to their ministry.  The first is the church.  Jim and Teresa planted a church called International Christian Church (ICC) five years ago. 


Jim is the pastor of the church and Teresa is the worship leader.  The church has many of its own ministries and outreaches as well. 

Mission Team House
Along with their church ministry, Sharing the Vision also has a very large team ministry.  They host several teams from all over the US every year. Additionally, they believe in partnering with and mentoring the leaders of other ministries that are doing good work in the DR, especially nationals that have started their own ministries.  A future goal of Sharing the Vision is to build a discipleship training center, where people who feel called to missions can come and receive discipleship training before being placed on the mission field.  They hope to break ground on the first stage of the school this fall.

Eddy and I have been attending ICC (church) for almost two years.  So we were already very familiar with the church ministry and had been involved in some of the church’s ministries before transitioning to Sharing the Vision.  However, since January we have become much more involved in all areas of the ministry.  What has kept us the busiest, however, is the team ministry.

Team Ministry

Jacobe Team

We hosted four teams between the months of January and April.   The first team was the Jacobe team, they along with two other men spent several days in January working on the construction of the new mission house on the STV property in order to help be prepared for the teams who would arrive later in the month. 
We then hosted two teams, which were more “typical” STV teams.  These team visited and ministered to all of the ministries that we partner with as well as ICC (our church) and its children’s ministry.  In January we hosted the Remnant Team, a small team from Indiana, and then in March, we hosted a large team from New Castle, IN.  Both of these churches have sent teams in the past and we look forward their future teams visiting again.

The Remnant Team
A typical STV team stays for about 10 days.  One difference from the teams we have hosted in the past is that they are not usually focused on construction.  Although each team does spend a couple days helping at the STV property working on projects, they are mostly focused on ministry.  Often teams have pastors as part of their team and they preach in different churches in the community that we have relationships with.  They also spend a day visiting and blessing each of the different ministries that we partner with and mentor.

We also hosted a team called “The Grannies on a Mission”.  This was a team that was very special to me beccause my mom helped oraginze it.  They stayed with us the whole week and attended church with us both Sundays.  They spent a few days helping at Pathway to Jesus School.  They then spent a few days serving Sharing the Vision, our neighbors, and a couple of the ministries that we partner with.

New Castle Team
Ministries We Partner With

Corinthians 3:9 “For we are all fellow workers, laborers together, with and for God…”

Hogar Infantil Visitación de Jesús is an orphanage in Santiago that we have partnered with for a few years.  They have 16 children ages 3 to 16.  Some of the children have special needs.  Our teams bless the orphanage with groceries and pizza for the kids.  They also plan an activity to do with the kids and will sometimes do a project such as building a swing set or any other small project that needs to be done around the house.

Team Meeting
New Hope Academy is a school and home for girls.  Their mission statement is “Dreaming for the girls in the barrio the same dreams we have for our own daughters.”  We bring the women of each team to have a tour of the ministry and pray for the girls.  Some teams choose to bless the ministry by bringing down items that they need or providing money for new uniforms.   Some of our teams have planned activities and lessons to do with the girls as well.  For example, the Granny team did an art project and a baking class with the girls. 

A young Dominican couple in the capital have started a street outreach ministry in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the DR as well as a prison ministry.  We bring our teams down to the capital to participate in an outreach in that neighborhood and the men of the team spend a morning in the prison ministering to the prisoners there.

Grannies on a Mission
A Haitian couple in the capital have planted a church (in Creole) that we partner with as well.  Our teams attend a worship service at their church and lead a VBS for the children of their church and the surrounding neighborhood.

There is a children’s ministry in Haina that we are building a relationship with.  We are very excited about this ministry.  They have a homework club, in which children of the neighborhood come to receive academic help.  They spend half the time doing homework and the other half receiving a Bible class.  Our teams come and lead a fun, VBS type activity for all of the kids.

At ICC, we have a very large children’s ministry.  Every week a bus goes and picks up a bus full of kids bring them to attend our worship service.  They worship with us and then we have children’s church for them during the sermon.  Our teams often plan the lessons for children’s church and also lead a VBS for the kids as well.

ICC Praise Team, Outdoor Service, Monte Adentro
ICC

ICC is a very diverse church.  We have members that are originally from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the United States, and Brazil.  We worship every week in Spanish, English, and Creole (the language spoken in Haiti) and all of the sermons are translated into Spanish or English as needed.  Eddy and I have been very active in the church for a while, but in the last year have gotten even more involved.

ICC kids
Eddy and I both have been involved in the different outreaches and ministries at ICC. The ministry that I am the most involved with at the church is in the leadership of the children’s ministry.  Eddy is a part of the praise team and has led worship on some occasions.  He has also been a children’s church teacher about a year.  This summer he was elected onto the consistory of the church.  He is also starting a community Bible Study in Monte Adentro (a neighborhood in which our church is focused on reaching and where most of the children of our children’s ministry are from).  Eddy and I have also just accepted the church’s request that we take over the Children’s Church ministry completely and have been named Directors of the Children’s Ministry.

Our work with Sharing the Vision

Apart from the work that we do at the church, Eddy and I both help prepare for and host teams.  We love hosting teams and look forward to the times when we have teams here visiting.

ICC kids
Along with helping with teams, on a daily basis, Eddy helps oversee the STV property, the workers and the maintenance.  There is always construction, improvement, and projects going on at the property that Jim needs help with.  In addition to this, Eddy is receiving pastoral training from Jim as well.  He is also starting his theology and English classes within the next couple of weeks.

I (Carrie) have stepped into a few different roles in STV.  I help Teresa plan for and communicate with teams that we will be hosting (creating schedules, planning menus, creating budgets, etc.)  I have also been given the responsibility of communicating with and fostering our relationship with several of the different ministries that we partner with.  Additionally, I have been helping with the administration of the ministry in the area of finances and I am being trained in the accounting of the ministry.  I also help with the management of the mission house. 

Our Visit to the States
Eddy
Early this summer, Eddy and I had to take an unexpected trip to the states.  This trip was necessary for two reasons.  Eddy and I have been working on my residency and nationalization process here in the DR for about a year.  In May, we found out from our lawyer that the immigration laws had changed and that we had to travel to the United States to complete a visa process in the Dominican consulate there, before returning to the DR and continuing the residency process here.  She also told us that this process should be done before July 1.  Since the process takes several weeks, we needed to plan to arrive in the states by the end of May.  Additionally, I had been having some medical issues and around that same time had found out that I needed to surgery to have my gallbladder removed.  So we planned that surgery for while we were in the states as well.

The process for my visa ended up being a lot more work and taking much longer than we originally thought that it would, however, in the end, we successfully completed the process in the states and are now continuing the process here in the DR.  My surgery also went well and had no complications.  We appreciate your prayers as we continue my residency process in the DR and as we do some fundraising as the surgery and immigration process has presented some unplanned costs.


Young Leaders Activity at our house
Since our trip was planned at the last minute and we didn’t know what the surgery and recovery and visa process would look like; we were not able to organize or plan church presentations or meetings.  We apologize if we were not able to see you while we were in town, but we look forward to presenting in your churches as well as updating you all in person on our next trip to the states.

Looking Forward

Please keep us in your prayers over the next few months.  We will be hosting two more mission teams in August and another in December.  Eddy will also be starting his theology and English classes in August as well.  He is looking forward to continuing his education and his efforts to be well prepared and trained for his calling.

Thank you for taking the time to read our update, for your interest in our mission work, and for your prayers and support.  We plan on sending another update at the end of the year, so keep an eye out for that around Christmas.  In the meantime, I do update my blog pretty regularly with “Glimpses into our Life” so if you can’t wait until Christmas for another update, please feel free to check out our blog.  www.pathwaytojesus-carrie.blogspot.com  Dios les bendiga!

“ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8

Blessings,
Eddy and Carrie Ramos

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