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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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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.
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Young Leaders
Activity at our house
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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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