Samana – 10 Days of Purpose

Samana is Day 3 of our 10 Days of Purpose. This picturesque little village is a very unique mission opportunity. And the need in Samana comes directly from the lips of Jesus:

Pray to the Lord of the harvest…

So Day 3 is about why we should engage in this kind of prayer for Samana.

Samana: Equipping For Harvest

I’ve shared the strategic ministry opportunity that exists here. You can learn other things about the village and our past work in previous posts. But the simple need is for more laborers! How does that happen? Can the need be specifically identified?
Yesterday’s post mentioned idea of a model (paradigm) of missions. One thing that means is there many methods or approaches to engaging in mission work. Some are not well conceived and wind up being harmful in some respects. Other models are much healthier for all involved.

And for me, healthier means Biblical. When we do all the things Jesus commissioned us to do, with the love He commanded us to demonstrate, it’s amazing how effective our mission work will be! And that’s true for the mission volunteers as well as those they minister to and with.
One component of a healthy mission model is building relationships. That’s almost impossible to do in what I call hit-and-run missions. As a friend of mine says:

American mission teams often blow in, blow up, and blow out!

That doesn’t foster trust and it can create big problems. We avoid that by asking churches, schools, and other organizations to plug into a mission opportunity for a 3-5 year period. That would mean a church would send its members to the same location for multiple missions. I don’t have space to communicate what it means to people when we come back. That seems like such a simple idea. For the people we go to minister with, it’s bigger than huge! Trust me. I’ve heard it many times from their lips!

Samana: Plug-In – Engage – Commit

We currently have two churches and several individuals committed to Samana. Both are necessary. Any individual who senses a call to engage in our Samana ministry is welcome to do so. I want to be clear about that. But the most helpful thing is for those same individuals to approach their pastors and/or mission leadership teams and plug their church into mission work in Samana. The same would be true for nurses and nursing schools, athletes and athletic departments, etc.

You may think all my work is done on the mission field. That’s far from the truth. Work on the field is like the visible portion of an iceberg. Really! I work with pastors, churches, and mission leadership teams to equip them for mission and lead them in the effort. So I’d love to hear from you, your church, and/or your pastor! That’s what is needed in this beautiful little place on the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic.
Will you pray for the Lord to send His laborers to Samana? We need capable faculty for the pastor’s training school, medical teams, construction teams and more. Please pray and please share this need! Until tomorrow….

Soli Deo Gloria!