The road was made of dirt and surrounded by tall stalks of sugar cane. The bus rolled past sweet cottage-style houses that gradually gave way to small huts. The bus slowed down and took a hard right, entering the Batey, the community of sugar cane farmers and their families. At first, there were a few children standing there watching the bus drive down the road. Then, more kids came running out of their homes and chasing the bus in excitement, yelling, “Americanos! Americanos!”
In January, Campbellsville University sent a mission team to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The university has multiple connections with ministries in the Dominican Republic. However, this trip’s connection was through the pastors of “Iglesia Bautista del Nuevo Pacto” (Baptist Church of the New Covenant), Hector Issac and Patricia Santana, friends of CU President Dr. Joe Hopkins.
The Santana’s main church is in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The Santanas work with other ministries in the surrounding cities, and this mission trip was focused in Punta Cana to serve some of those other ministries.
“These are ministries that they have already going,” said Trent Creason, director of Campus Ministries. “They’re places we can help and grow, but I don’t ever want to add something to somebody’s plate but actually support what’s already there…I don’t ever want them to create this experience for us.”
According to Creason, when he leads mission trips, he wants to make sure to give the space for students to lead in whatever needs are displayed during the trip. Examples of ways Creason invites students to lead are in sharing testimonies, leading a lesson or worship and praying.
“I want to give them chances to get out of their comfort zone, learn more about where their gifts are and how God has equipped them,” he said. “A lot of students won’t just volunteer and ask. So, I’m going to be looking to how I can involve and plug in different students.”
Creason admitted that there are some students who are more comfortable with leading and others who aren’t. As the leader, he said it’s important to him to “balance that out” but that “they all step up in different ways.”
Testimonies are one thing that Creason asks his students to give often. According to Creason, a testimony can range from the story of how someone accepted Christ, or how they saw God work in their lives, whether big or small.
“You’re wanting to reveal what God did and how he changed things,” said Creason.
CU freshman Jayla Meighan did just that when she would share her testimony with the kids.
“I enjoy giving my testimony because of how truly imperfect it is,” she said.
Meighan’s father was a pastor in the small village they’re from in Belize. Her life was normal in the beginning, until July of 2021 when her cousin was murdered by the police in Belize.
“I chose to hate God because I felt like He hated me,” she said.
According to Meighan, she drew away from God. When others requested to pray with and for her, she denied them access to pray with her.
“I don’t like God, so why would I want to pray to Him,” she said. “And I don’t want you to pray to Him for me. They did anyway and I can truly say that those people had a huge impact on my life and if they would have listened to me when I said no, I would not be where I am today.”
A family member who did not believe in God asked Meighan’s mother one day how she had peace after what happened. Her mother explained that she had peace because she would see her nephew again and this life is not the end.
“That really hit me because I realized, as a Christian, I know this isn’t our home and that there is a life after this,” said Meighan. “He was such a believer of God, and I know that he is there. So, I was throwing away a peace that so many other people don’t get the chance to experience, or they get the chance, and they refuse it.”
Meighan said her testimony relates a lot to why she decided to take part in this mission trip. Her cousin was very mischievous, she said, and she knew the kids the team would work with would be the same. The connection between her own village in Belize and the villages the team visited was also in her mind when deciding to go.
“I knew that my story and the way I grew up was so close to the way these kids grew up,” she said. “If I took the chance and if I went and if I said yes, I thought I could use my life for them to see someone like them, the older version of themselves, walking for God and having opportunities.”
Apart from testimonies, the team chose the story of “David and Goliath” to teach. This is a popular story from the Bible where a young boy fights and kills a giant by trusting in God and throwing a stone at his head instead of using armor and swords. To present this story, the team acted it out by having one student play David and another play Goliath.
Noah Bennett, a student from Western Kentucky University and Creason’s nephew, played Goliath the Giant. He said it was fun to do the play for the kids and hear them get excited when he would stomp into the room and then later pretend to be knocked out by a stone and fall on the ground.
After the play, the team would play games, make crafts and dance with the kids. One day, the team served in Sunday school at a bilingual church. The church’s first service was in English, and the second service was in Spanish. Bennett said his favorite part of serving there was connecting with a kid from the English group and another from the Spanish group.
During the English Sunday school, Bennet asked a kid what he was making in the craft section. The kid didn’t understand what they were doing and so Bennett explained to him.
“They’re making a sling shot for David and Goliath,” he said. “And he said, ‘I know that story’ and we started to talk about it a little bit…then he showed me the sling shot and kept coloring.”
During the Spanish class, he said a child gave him a hug and kept hugging him. They couldn’t understand each other, but Bennett hugged him back and said the kid stayed with him, looking and smiling at him.
Bennett’s mother works in preschool and so he had a background in working with children. He said even the little things are important in kids’ ministry, such as bending down to the level of the kids, even if you “can barely stand up after.”
“It’s definitely worth it to connect with them a little bit more,” he said.
Another student on the team, Shalem Canales, a senior from Peru, had experience working with kids in ministry before this trip as well. Her parents are pastors in Peru and work in kids’ ministry a lot. Since serving with her family, Canales has learned different stories and methods of teaching children.
“I have a lot of different ideas we can do with kids, and it was an idea of all of us what story we can share,” she said. “It will be a sweet time for them that they will remember but the important thing and the meaningful thing about this program is to share about God and who He is.”
She said the lesson of the story of David and Goliath is, “God is with us, even in our circumstances, and He fights our battles.”
Sawyer Hess, a sophomore from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, said he decided to take part in this trip out of curiosity for what a mission trip is like, especially one outside the U.S. He wanted to get out of his comfort zone in sharing the gospel and this mission trip gave him the perfect opportunity.
“It definitely just pushed me to realize that it’s God speaking through me,” he said. “It’s not about what I say or what I do. It’s about just following His will for me and what He has in store. Trusting that He’s been working on this trip and all the people in it for a long time.”
A big part of the ministry work was to serve in the Bateyes, poor neighborhoods for the sugarcane workers. In each Batey the group visited, there was a church which was connected to the Santanas. In one Batey, the pastor was a former Compassion child. Compassion International is a ministry organization which invites people to help fund a child in need from across the world by sending money donations or other means they may need to help them earn money.
Noelia del Carmen, the pastor of the Batey Magdalena, was a Compassion child. After her time with Compassion, she had the chance to move to the United States for education and later returned to her home Batey to help give other children the same opportunities.
As the group drove into the Batey Magdalena, the first of multiple Bateyes they would visit, the children were their first warm welcome.
“They were shouting and chasing after the bus,” said Hess. “They all met us at the building, and they were running, screaming and smiling. It was really great to see that.”
This was the common sight for each Batey the group visited – children excited to see the missionaries from America.
“I definitely didn’t expect to be so directly involved with the kids, but I’m glad we were,” said Hess.
When driving into the Bateyes, Hess said it was a culture shock to see their poverty. However, the sight of those families didn’t drive them away, instead it drove them to compassion.
“If anything, it just made me feel more passionate about sharing the gospel with them,” he said. “We can’t lift them out of that situation ourselves. But we can share the gospel with them and show them how to have a relationship with Christ, which is the most valuable thing we can give.”
