Dear friends,
Let’s continue to tell God’s story about Cabrera.
To understand why Cabrera matters to TIME Missions, it helpsto remember where our story began.
Since 1968, the passion of TIME Missions has been simple: toKnow God and Advance Missions. For more than five decades, TIME Missions hashelped connect short-term mission teams with local churches in the DominicanRepublic, Mexico, and Haiti. Our heart has always been to help teams go, seeGod’s hand at work, deepen their vision for missions, and serve alongside thelocal church as it fulfills its own gospel vision.
That mission is what eventually brought TIME to Cabrera.
In 1993, TIME Missions began constructing chapels around the Dominican Republic. Those chapels were never meant to be just buildings. Theywere tools for the local church. A chapel gives a pastor and a congregation aplace to gather, worship, teach, disciple, evangelize, and serve their owncommunity in the name of Jesus.
Around 1995, Pastor Samuel Martinez heard about TIME Missions. Samuel was serving in Cabrera, about three hours north of Santo Domingo, and he believed God might be opening a door for partnership. So, hemade the trip from Cabrera down to TIME Missions to see if God had a plan forCabrera.
Pastor Samuel carried the same heartbeat that TIME Missionshas carried for years: help local pastors establish a faithful gospel presencein their communities. A pastor, a church family, a building, and a love forJesus can become a powerful witness in a community.
What began with one chapel in the Cabrera area became muchmore than a construction project. It became a partnership.
As Executive Director of TIME Missions, I heard of Pastor Samuel’s name countless times when I worked with Dorretta Brown, one of the founders of TIME. Dorretta spoke very highly of Samuel. She talked about his faithfulness, his love for Jesus, and how good it was to work with him in ministry.
Looking back now, I can see again how God was connecting thedots for TIME Missions long before we understood the full picture.
Over the years, TIME Missions continued to partner withPastor Samuel Martinez and the Casa de Dios network of churches. ThroughSamuel’s leadership, along with the leadership of other pastors, churches werestrengthened, pastors were encouraged, leaders were raised up, and the gospelwork continued throughout Cabrera and the surrounding communities.
I will share more about Casa de Dios in the next chapter of TheNext Step, but this much is important to say here: Casa de Dios became amajor part of the Cabrera story.
Because of Pastor Samuel’s love for Jesus, his vision forlocal pastors, and TIME’s ability to connect churches from the United Stateswith churches in the Dominican Republic, 23 chapels have now been built in theCabrera area and nearby communities.
Each chapel tells part of the story. Each chapel representsa pastor, a congregation, a community, and a place where the gospel cancontinue to be shared long after a short-term team has returned home.
But there is another cool thread and important line in theCabrera story.
Years after that first chapel was built, Pastor Samuel’sdaughter, Sarai, became part of the TIME Missions story. Sarai grew up watchingher father serve Jesus, strengthen churches, and care for pastors. She knewabout TIME because of her father’s relationship with the ministry. But shecould not have known how important her own part of the story would become.
Sarai would eventually become a TIME Missions intern.
At the time, it may have seemed like one more step of obedience, one more season of service, and one more connection between Casa de Dios and TIME Missions. But God was doing more than any of us could see.
God was connecting Cabrera, Casa de Dios, TIME Missions,Sarai, and a young American named Tyler.
Little did Sarai know that her pursuit of becoming a doctor,her father’s connection with TIME, and a TIME Missions intern policy would oneday become part of a much bigger story. Through God’s quiet way of connectingpeople, Sarai and Tyler’s lives became woven together. Their story becameanother thread in the larger story God was building in Cabrera.
That is part of what makes Cabrera so meaningful to us.
This is not just a story about a place. It is a story aboutpastors, families, churches, interns, mission teams, relationships, and yearsof faithfulness. God has been weaving these things together for a long time.
One of the challenges in serving Cabrera has always been distances. Cabrera is about three hours from the TIME Dominican Republicministry center in Santo Domingo. Because of that distance, short-term teamshave usually only been able to visit the communities they are serving on theactual chapel construction day.
But TIME Missions has always been about more than completingprojects.
TIME is about connection. TIME is about relationships. TIMEis about helping short-term teams serve in a way that strengthens the localchurch and gives them a deeper vision for missions. So, with all the great things happening in Cabrera, TIMEremained faithful. We kept building. We kept serving. We kept trusting that Godwas doing something we could not fully see yet.
Over time, a question began to grow in our hearts: How canTIME better serve the pastors, churches, communities, and short-term teams inCabrera? For many years, the answer was simple: keep building chapels and keepstrengthening the local church.
So that is what TIME did.
But now, we believe God is leading us to take the next step.
This next step in Cabrera grows naturally out of years ofrelationship, partnership, prayer, chapel construction, church connection, andshared love for Jesus. Cabrera is a place where God has already been working.TIME Missions is not starting a brand-new story. We are simply stepping deeperinto a story God has been building for a long time.
Know God-Advance Missions-Serve the local church-Help peoplesee God’s hand at work.
God is connecting His story.
The Next Step is Cabrera.
With gratitude,
Rick Lee
Executive Director
TIME Missions
