All about the Jeffreys: Iglesia Bautista

Iglesia Bautista is the name of the church that we came to serve in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Mike and Anna Doering are the missionaries that are serving with this church. Mike is the pastor of the church. They have three precious kids- Emily, Andrew, and Brett. They were the most wondeful hosts. They graciously opened their home to us during our stay. Anna provided us dinner most nights after our leadership training. They both also served as navigators for us during the day. I especially enjoyed talking to Anna. She is truly the Proverbs 31 wife. I observed her a lot the week we were there and tried to put myself in her shoes. And...I don't honestly know if I could be as compassionate, loving and patient as she is. I do know that she is all of these things and more. She has the patience of Job, she runs her household well, and definetly displays the gift of hospitality. She also is a North Carolina girl!!! And she shares my love for Duke mayonnaise and SWEET TEA!!! Mike is a true man of God and also displays the same virture of having a lot of patience, love and compassion for the people in the DR. Their three kids were also so precious and I was so blessed to be just a timy part of their life during our misson trip. Would you all please add this sweet missionary family to your prayer list. I can't imagine being embedded in a foreign country, and being thousands of miles from family and doing the Lord's work. And I whine and complain about being 6 hours away! They truly love doing what they do in Santo Domingo. I immediately developed a love for this family. Here are a few pics of us with the Doerings and the kids.

Gregg(our worship pastor and leader of the mission trip) Mike Doering, and Hilton

Me and Anna Doering

Emily Doering

Andrew Doering

Brett Doering

Are they not the most precious family?! I am so glad God allowed our paths to cross. The Sunday after we arrived we had children's church that morning at 10 a.m. I was so blessed to observe the kids that attended the morning service. They were all so well behaved and listened so well to the lesson. I watched as older sisters and brothers came in with the younger sibling and took care of them during the service. Some of the older were ones seemed no older than ten or eleven. I mostly enjoyed watching them sing some of the same praise songs that we also sing. But, for some reason I get such a blessing watching children sing about our Lord. After we sung songs, Jessica taught the children's church lesson. She did a wonderful job! It was so interesting to see how God still works when their is a language barrier. Now Jessica can speak and understand Spanish, but during the children's church Anna translated for her. I know personally I was nervous about not knowing the language. But... that did not stop God's will for our mission trip. As I share more with you all about the trip you will see how amazingly that regardless of our shortcomings of not knowing each other's language God still made it where we bonded so well with the people here. I can't wait to share everything that happened on this trip! Please be patient...it will take a while for me to get it all out on here...But I want you to experience just a little taste of our trip.

Can't wait to share on the next post...