Serving in the Dominican Republic: Update!!

In a previous blog, we shared with you an amazing opportunity we have to send a couple of our graduates to the Dominican Republic to serve for a year at the Fundacion Red de Misericordia. Well, we are pleased to announce that this mission is underway, and we have recently received a great update from one of the young ladies and her family who will be going on this trip!

Julia is a graduate of our program, and since graduating she has met and married a godly young man, Nate, who is a graduate of Faith Bible Seminary, and they have a wonderful son, Zebulon! You can watch Julia’s testimony video here. It has been awesome to watch God continue to work in Julia’s life, and to now see her and her family wanting to serve the Lord overseas!

Nate and Julia have been diligently working to raise support and prepare for this one-year commitment. We have received an exciting update from them, and we would love to share it with you as well! Please join us in prayer, as they prepare to go to the Dominican Republic! Here’s what they shared with us:

“Is this really worth it?” I asked myself as my family passed Zebulon around the room for goodbye hugs. Letting go of possessions is one thing; letting go of a community is much harder.

I usually avoid risk like the plague. But we decided to take a risk, get rid of our possessions, and move in with Julia’s mom. The idea is that we will have smaller bills to pay and more time to devote to fundraising which should get us to the DR quicker, Lord willing. I can’t recount all the details but let me share one story of how God brought people to our aid to make our move possible.

On our last Sunday in Lafayette, our Spanish-speaking ministry honored us with a special time of prayer and fellowship as they “sent us out” as missionaries. They surprised us with a wad of money for our DR funds and asked me if they could help in any way. I told them that I could handle it.

In the weeks leading up to our move, I was busy with my job which included an hour of commute. Julia was in charge of selling and giving away our stuff as well as caring for our 1-year old and fixing supper for us. But even though she did a wonderful job juggling these projects, we still had multiple loads of stuff that needed to disappear. We left the state, uncertain of what we would do about the piles of stuff we left in our apartment. Thankfully, the Hispanic ministry came to our rescue with muscular volunteers and trucks! We felt so loved!

After many tearful goodbye’s, we crammed everything we could into my fifteen-year-old, four-cylinder car and took it on a 1000 mile journey through the Smoky Mountains. I was afraid my car would break down somewhere deep in the mountains and spent lot of my time at the wheel praying. And we made it! God brought us to Lynchburg safe and sound!

We have settled into Julia’s mom’s guest bedroom, where she has welcomed us warmly and encouraged us in this scary transition. Finding a temporary job was one of the first things on my “to do” list and last night I attended an orientation to be a Walmart chashier. Praise God! It should be a fun experience with Black Friday around the courner! As for the funds, we have reached over $6000 which is about half of our goal! Keep an eye on our Facebook group because I will be listing some fun events happening both in Indiana and Virginia that may help us raise funds.

I think our risky roadtrip gave us some much-needed humility and dependence on God. But even now there is a lot of uncertainty as we excitedly prep for the DR. Please pray that God gives us patience and initiative in the days to come!
Grace and Peace,
Nate, Julia, and Zebulon

We ask that you prayerfully consider giving financially toward this missions opportunity. Go to our donation page and be sure to designate your gift to “DR Missions” to help support this amazing opportunity. Or, send a check made out to Vision of Hope by mail to 5652 Mercy Way, Lafayette, IN 47905 and write “DR Missions” in the memo line. You can also learn more about the Fundacion Red de Misericordia here.

Bethany Dunn
Bethany heard about Vision of Hope while attending Word of Life Bible Institute in Florida. When she began praying about what God wanted her to do after graduating, He kept bringing Vision of Hope to her mind. Knowing that there was an internship available, Bethany applied, was accepted, and began her internship with VOH in July, 2012. Since then she has been amazed at the opportunities God has given her to learn more about His Word and how it applies to everyday life. Bethany now serves on staff at Vision of Hope.