A group of about 40 youth from the Dominican Republic and Haiti volunteered in a Maximum Mission event held 21-24 September in the community of Los Arroces in Bonao, Dominican Republic. 

“FOCUS – Deny, Surrender, Follow Me” was the Maximum Mission theme, and the event focused on reaffirming the call to go and make disciples. The volunteers lived out this theme through community service and evangelistic outreach activities for other young people.

The team used sports and games to share the message of salvation with neighborhood children and youth, and they held a small group about beauty and self-worth for women. Eight youth received Jesus as their Lord and Savior through these outreach initiatives. 

On Sunday night, they held a closing service where three more people received Christ into their lives. At the end of the Maximum Mission, the group baptized 12 youth from the Bonao Church of the Nazarene. 

“The strategies that I used to evangelize in the small shops, homes, and in the streets of the community made me feel that God was with us and was speaking into people’s lives through me,” said Angel Duson, one of the youth volunteers on the trip.

The church has already begun holding small groups and weekly activities for those who received Christ through Maximum Mission. The groups found a place to meet and hope to begin holding Sunday services soon.

“During all of the activities, we could see how God worked in the lives of the people in the community through his servants,” said Elba Duson, Global Missions coordinator for the Dominican Republic West District.

--Church of the Nazarene Mesoamerica