Dear Friends,

“There is nothing to fear here.  I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross.  ‘He is risen from the dead.  He is going on ahead of you to Galilee.  You will see him there.’ That’s the message”
 Matt. 28:5-7.  Thanks to your unselfish contributions to the Eastern Dominican Christian Mission, the MESSAGE of the risen Christ can be proclaimed to the lost in the Dominican Republic. 
     It is very appropriate that this Easter week we have so many blessings to report.   The final payment for the church property in Punta Cana was made on March 6th.  God and His people have been faithful.  Construction on the parsonage and multi-purpose building will continue as funds are available.  Tithes and offerings locally have paid for mattresses for the bunk beds ($20,000 pesos), protective grill work for the small apartments already on the property ($15,000 pesos), and $30,000 pesos towards construction costs.  That amounts to about $2000 dollars.
     For four years the La Romana congregation has sponsored “Dorcas’ Boutique” to provide clothing, house wares and shoes to the community and to church members.  That has now been expanded to include grocery items as well.  Every two weeks we all contribute grocery items and then at the end of the church service two or three bags of groceries are distributed to those whose names are randomly selected.  It has been an unexpected blessing to more than one family who was in a temporarily tight spot financially.
     A surgery team and a dental team from Northeast Christian Church were working out of the Clinic at the Centro Mutualista the week of March 10-14.  This very dedicated and skilled team of Drs. and nurses were able to do 31 surgeries. Plus, the dental team easily saw 150-200 children.  Most of the team got caught in Atlanta as that big snow storm swept through the U.S. on March 7th and 8th.   They were a day behind when they got to La Romana on Sunday evening.  But God is good.  The local Dominican Drs. and nurses pitched in at the last minute and all the scheduled surgeries and activities took place without missing a beat.  Victor was on hand to meet and to pray with the patients before surgery and to talk with them about the church.  These types of outreaches always provide the church with new people with whom to start Bible studies.
     The Christian Churches from all over the country have camp over the Easter weekend.  It is about the only time of year that everyone actually gets a full day off (Good Friday) plus the weekend.  The La Romana congregation has 40 campers participating.  Each person was able to pay his or her own way with just a small loan of $60.00 dollars from the EDCM to help pay for fuel.  Some of the young people held bake sales or did odd jobs in order to pay their way.  We are so proud of them for their initiative.  
     We mentioned several months ago that our copier was having a lot of problems.  We were able to negotiate a deal and now have a Canon Image Runner 600 (digital) that connects to our computers as well.  What a blessing!  It seemed that the more urgent the need to produce Sunday school papers, Bible studies, tracts or general information about the church, the more often the old machine broke down and frustration levels went up.   An unexpected offering from the First Christian Church in Johnson City, TN where we were able to minister to the Spanish speaking congregation for several months in 2003, was a big help in the purchase of the new machine.  Thank you all so much and God bless you richly.                 
                                                                     
In Christ,

Rick and Suzanne York                                                                     
Missionaries with Eastern Dominican Christian Mission