Hey everyone, Abbey reporting back to you!

As my team rolled up to church we had no idea what to expect. Well I think we maybe expected to see a building of some sorts, or maybe even someone’s home. Instead we pulled up to a carousel type structure, with two rows of seats all facing the dirt floor. In the middle was a pulpit. Some chickens were walking around and on all sides of this strange arena were incredibly views. The mountains are filled with lush green trees. It’s beautiful for such a strange place.

Loma de la Bestia (the community we go to twice a week) has a church service in the afternoons, every Wednesday. This strange arena with chairs and an empty dirt floor, it’s an old cockfighting ring...yup, you read that right. This is where they meet for church. 

Here’s a little back story about this place, it’s pretty crazy. Loma de la Bestia is a poorer community, but the owner of the fighting ring was doing really well for himself. 100s of people would come to bet, drink, and do other illegal activities. Because the owner was doing so well and making a lot of money, his competitor was getting jealous. Voodoo is large in Haiti and crosses over into the DR. This jealous man used voodoo over the cockfighting ring. It affected the mans son – he was depressed and experienced a heavy darkness. The Lord led UTK to this community outside of town and when they realized what was going on they prayed over his son and his son was healed! The man stopped using that space to fight and allowed them to use it for church. ISN’T THAT AMAZING. 

I have loved going to church on Wednesdays and my team has now has been able to lead a Bible study with the women. The majority of them walk to church, we start with worship, share prayer requests, which leads into a time of prayer. Then they go over any homework they might have had from the previous week and finish with a sermon. 

This Wednesday one of my teammates Antoinette shared a little bit of her testimony which went with the sermon about mercy and forgiveness. Then my team prayed for different people! This is one of my favorite places we have been able to go to. The Lord is working in that space and lives are continually being saved. He is so good to use what the enemy intended for evil to save more of His children. 

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Genesis 50:20