Dominican Republic UBF Mission Report by Jorge Antonio

  • by WMD
  • May 01, 2015
  • 1632 reads

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”(Matt. 6:33).

I give thanks to our Lord God Almighty, who in his great mercy has guided my life by allowing me to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Hello my name is Jorge Antonio. I was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, a country of mariachi and tequila. But now I am a missionary and live in Dominican Republic, a country of merengue, baseball and banana power. Before being sent as a missionary, my boss tried to help me become a manager of electrical transformer design. He introduced me to a recognized engineer. It was a great opportunity; I had to decide between being a missionary or a good engineer.

Finally, I accepted a missionary life in January 12, 2006; I arrived in Dominican Republic, sent from Guadalajara UBF as a single missionary. Arriving in this country, I bowed, started a pioneering work, cutting  hairs of my head and burying them in the ground, and prayed to God saying, “Lord, I believe you called me and you brought me here, so I pray that my life be used for your work and my body is in this country.” Every day I bowed before God in prayer to receive visa. After three years, I got permanent residence.

“Look engineering work!”, but it did not call me. I only found work selling soap, medical insurance and finished selling funeral services. I also was offered a course to read 2000 words per minute at 100% comprehension. Now I am working as a street vendor near the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD). On September 1st 2007, God led me to meet my suitable helper, my beautiful wife, Missionary Elizabeth and by faith, M. Isabel and I got married. God has given us two beautiful daughters, Eunice and Daniela.

Our campus mission is at the University of Santo Domingo. Several sheep have studied the Bible. Since 2009, Leonardy and Martin have remained in Bible study and began participating in Sunday worship service, although they have been intermittent. Before I got married I served worship service to empty chairs, but after marriage, Missionary Isabel and Eunice joined me, and we began to serve as a house church.

Because they did not allow us to worship in a small apartment we had to serve the Sunday worship service in the gardens of the UASD, beginning with the passage of Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you as well." The vision of having a mission life was dependent on the word and the power of God. We invited sheep who were in the gardens. From that time we began to pray with Missionary Isabel in the University.

We had to move out of the small apartment because the owner did not want to have us with our little daughter. But a lady gave us a small utility room in this place in which we live more than one year. For us it was like the work of the manger. Now thanks to Guadalajara’s help, we serve UBF worship service in an apartment. Missionary Isabel suffers hypothyroidism, which causes low pressure and mood swings, and she also went on a diet and last year she had chikungunya. My daughter Daniela was diagnosed with autism, but it really seems she has a biochemical problem in the cerebellum that hinders the development of speech and the brain.

Lately, I’ve been feeling a hard time due to our economic situation to pay our girls’ therapies and medical studies. So I started dieting since I thought it was a treat overeating. In Santo Domingo, we have experienced hunger, unemployment, disease and humiliation. I thought when I become an engineer we would not suffer from this anymore. Still some Dominicans tell me: "What are you doing here, Mexico is better than Dominican." We would have received a very nice missionary life in Mexico, without problems, such as hunger, economic problem, humiliation or suffering diseases. But if in such situations we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, God will provide everything we need.

Through this, our key verse this year 2015 is again Matthew 6:33, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you." I remembered and thanked God because there has always been food for our girls and my wife. He provides us to take them to therapies, to the doctor, analysis and medicine.    Every week we serve the worship service with missionary Isabel and my girls; God allowed me to travel to Mexico last year. Missionary Isabel participated in Bible conference in Guadalajara and I participated as a messenger and Bible study leader in Nicaragua. In our Christmas worship service, our sheep Leonardy participated leaving his job that day. And we have had our Bible Study 1: 1 at least in class time.   I thank God for allowing me and my family to serve the work of salvation in Dominican Republic.

Prayer Topics:

  1. Message and 1:1 Bible studies with deep meditation and prayer (Luke).
  2. To establish four disciples of Jesus (2015).
  3. 1:1 Bible Study (10 teams). 
  4. To be self-supporting missionaries.
  5. To provide health to missionary Isabel (thyroid and chest pain).
  6. Daniela’s health(Autism, Cerebellum problem).
  7.  To establish a Bible center (near the UASD).

M. Jorge Antonio.