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Learning a New Culture

Josh Crabtree josh.crabtree@uscm.org May 2012
Time is Nearing an End
May has also been another crazy month that has included the end of the Spring semester, followed by presidential elections. One week after Spring semester ended, the summer semester started. This week of downtime was much needed to regain the energy we will need to finish strong during the last month here and to prepare for the Summer Project team that would be coming at the end of the month for 5 weeks. The Summer Project team includes around 18 students from California and Arizona.
Left: Group picture of the Summer Project team here helping us Bottom Left: Jimmy giving a message during one of the weekly meetings Bottom Right: Leyla and Prospero, the national staff members in the DR

Above: National Staff and the STINT team after having a planning meeting for the yearly retreat for the students

Prayer Requests: Praise: Praise God for a great Spring semester, praise God that the Summer Project team arrived to Santo Domingo safely, praise God that I was able to get a good set of flights for my trip home Requests: Pray that God will give us the strength needed to finish strong during the last month here, pray for team unity during our last weeks here in the DR, pray that no strikes will happen on campus during the summer semester, pray that God will raise up student leaders to continue the Thursday night meeting.

Ministry in the DR The summer semester has been a slight change of the pace that we are used to operating at. During the summer, only about half of the students attend the UASD campus. Fortunately, a good portion of the students and leaders involved with the movement are still around so they are able to help with the Summer Project team by helping translate. They also connect with the new students the Summer Project team meets to help try to keep them growing in their faith long after the STINT and Summer Project teams finish their time here. The amount of energy that the Summer Project team has brought to ministry on campus here has been incredible. In their first week here, a total of around ten people now have a personal relationship with God. These new believers are going through follow-up material with the students that helped lead them to Christ on how to make that relationship deeper and more meaningful. Pray that God would continue to use both the STINT and Summer Project teams in mighty ways during our last few weeks here in the country.