New Roles With G.O. Ministries
This past May as we were just starting our summer here Brook, the President of G.O. Ministries, approached Sunshine and I about serving in a new capacity within the Ministry. Brook asked us to consider splitting our time between the home office in Louisville, KY and Santiago, Dominican Republic. At first though we weren’t really too sure about it, we had just sold or given away pretty much everything that we owned in order to move the Dominican, we were just starting to get settled and we weren’t sure that we wanted to start another new transition process! So, we decided to seek council of friends and most importantly God.
As some time went by, we felt like God was telling us that either way we chose, we would be serving him. I then ran across some text in the Bible:
“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve.” 1 Peter 5:2
What struck me about this verse is that we are to be willing to serve, not out of duty but because our heart with God is right. Our prayer about the possible change became more of how best can we serve you Lord because we know you will provide. It was after this, that both Sunshine and I had peace about our decision. The more we thought about it, it became clear: G.O. Ministries has grown very fast the last five years and currently has hundreds of Nationals in five Countries, one major school with eight satellite schools in churches, approximately seventy churches, eight full time feeding centers serving over 4,000 meals a month, eleven construction projects and countless other undertakings. I tell you this not to brag or boast, but simply to show you the scope of what G.O. does and why we have decided to go back and help out. All of these things are going on at this time with only four people working in the home office! What a huge undertaking. We have since brought on one more person to help, plus added some responsibility on to another so that when we arrive in Louisville there will be eight of us in the office.
What does this mean for Sunshine and I? We will be heading back to Kentucky on October 2nd and start working in the office right away. Our schedule will be flexible in that if there are medical teams or teams that we recruit to go on short term trips we will travel back to the Dominican. Ideally we would group them all together to spend a month there all at one time in the spring. After our big annual fundraiser at Churchill Downs with the Kentucky Derby, we will head back to the D.R. and remain for the entire summer through September each year. So it will look like 7 months in the States and 5 months in the Dominican. The time in Kentucky will allow Sunshine to make more contacts within the Medical field, recruit more medical teams, and work on a steady pipeline of medicine for our clinics. I will be working with Brook on the administrative business side, working on budgets, timelines, fundraising and coordinating various other projects.
We are excited about serving God in this new role. We will continue to fill you in as things progress, but one big praise; is that we have a temporary place to live in Louisville until the end of the year as we search for a permanent home. It is possible that we will be reaching out to you in the future for help in getting donations to set up our home. We want to thank you for all your love and support this last year and give God all the glory for the things accomplishes thus far.
Summer comes to an end
We have crossed the finish line...the summer finish line that is! For the last eleven weeks straight we have had some great people from churches all over the US come down to the Dominican Republic to serve. It has been our joy to work with these teams and share all that God is doing here through their dedication to serving. As we reflect on the highs and lessons that we learned, we are grateful to have experienced it all. We wanted to share with you some of the memorable things from this summer and some of things that God showed us during our struggles. Here is our final video of the summer.
Eric’s Highlights:
• Having both American’s, Dominican’s and Haitian’s accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
• Witnessing American’s, Dominican’s, and Haitians being baptized in rivers & oceans.
• The starting of a new feeding center in Batey Cuchilla. The building is a year or two away from completion, but thanks to start-up funding, 50 new children six days a week will get a hot meal.
• Starting of several new construction projects.
• Learning the true power of prayer!
Eric’s learned lessons:
• God has showed me how to have patience this summer. Patience when things don’t always go according to plan, patience that things don’t operate here like in the States and patience that people are not all the same personality and that is a good thing.
• That it truly is all about Him and not about us. Often times it is difficult to check our own pride at the door and that in all that we do it should bring glory to God.
Sunshine’s Highlights:
• This summer in our traveling medical clinics, we were able to bring medicine to 3,726 people.
• We hosted a dental clinic this spring that was able visit our school, and clean about 400 students’ teeth.
• Our community medical clinic is doing well. Dr. Canela is treating on average 45 patients every afternoon. People are traveling as far as 2 hours away for medical assistance.
Sunshine’s learned lessons:
• God has really showed me the power of prayer this summer. He has shown me time and time again that He is faithful to do what He promises.
• To not be intimidated to strive to be the kind of woman that God has called me to be.
We hope to visit with some of you all when we return to the states this Fall. Please send us a note and let us know how you all are doing.
Below is the last video of the Summer of a medical clinic in Batey Cuchilla.
