Salgado DR Mission Newsletter

Dear mission partners, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ,

We would first like to give thanks to God for our mission partners. Especially during these difficult times. We trust the Lord completely, but humanly speaking, we have had moments when we have been a bit concerned with the hit that the economy is taking in the US, and how that would affect the ministry here. Especially with so many people losing their jobs. But the Lord has graciously continued to provide so far. He has done so in a such a way that since April 6th, we have been able to provide food to 445 families.  We have been amazed at God’s provision in a time when we actually expected funding to go down. And though we don’t know what the future holds, our hope is to be able to continue ministry as usual if the Lord wills.

The prayers and generosity of our mission partners have allowed us to continue the Lord’s work here, and are the means that the Lord uses to provide for our family, the local church here and much more. Thank you again, for supporting and praying for our family and ministry over the years. Those who pray and give to missions play a role just as important as the missionary on the field.

I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer,  because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. – Philippians 1:3-5 CSB

We are still on quarantine here. The children are all doing virtual school for now and will be finishing the year this way. Christen and I are teaching English from home this way too. Sometimes it’s a challenge with two teachers and three students all online at the same time and keeping up with everything. But it’s nice being more involved with their schooling at home again, especially with Yeison. He is learning how to read now and all kinds of new things, so it has been a blessing. They are all doing good in school and seemed to have transitioned well. It was pretty easy for Maya and Nito, since they have done plenty of virtual and homeschooling in the past, even before we moved here.

We have been waiting to see if the Senate of this country approved the President’s petition for 25 more days of a state of emergency. Today 15 more days were approved. This is not good at all. The percentage of people here who depend on tiny daily wages is high. There are already families everywhere with no income or food as it is. I have seen several desperate families, some with children who have special needs,  widows or widowers who are just pleading for someone to help them, anyone. If it seems that we have been posting a lot about the situation here, food purchases and distribution trips, it is because the needs are very urgent. We are trying to help as many as we can.

The borders are still closed, so I haven’t been able to get to Haiti in a while. But we are able to send funds to Leonel for purchase and distribution there. A couple of brothers that he is discipling are helping him with that, and his children help out too. Here on the DR side, Christen has been doing most of the organizing and packing along with the kids. Usually Pastor Victor or another brother comes to help me distribute and share the Gospel with people when we go out. Sadly, it seems like just a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of people who need help. We hope to continue to help as much as we can as for as long as the Lord continues to provide. What’s the alternative, do nothing? We don’t think that is really even an option. It would be hard for us to sleep at night having food in our refrigerator, while ignoring the fact that others nearby that we know, or know of, have families and are in dire need. Of course, we are aware that we can’t help everyone, but we can certainly pray, share the needs and do our best to help some of them.

 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? – James 2: 15-16

This has not been easy in one sense, and it brings its own tension as we are always facing the question on how much to share or not share. But the needs are real, and if people don’t know about them, how can they help? The Lord uses ordinary means to provide for His people. And because we have made the needs known and share stories of them being met, more people have been moved to give. We should probably consider the fact that taking up offerings to help the poor brothers and sisters in another part of the world is a practice almost as old as the church itself. Paul shared needs on the behalf of others, knowing that the Lord would use His church to provide for them. And they did. This has been our experience time and time again. To ease the tension we feel there, we are intentional about doing good to others in two different ways:

  1. One way is found in Matthew chapter seven,  “being salt and light” and  “doing good works before everyone so that they may glorify our Father in heaven.” These are things that we share with our supporters and followers on social media who donate to the ministry. And let’s just be honest, many people don’t read newsletters that come to them in emails anymore, but on social media more do. Most people tend to keep up with us that way.  Even then, we share very few pics considering how many are taken for our own records. If a donor wishes to see more, they can be shared with them privately. We do not seek to “sound a trumpet” or “the applause of men,” but sincerely seek to help the church and love our neighbor. If brothers and sisters back home are willing to join us in helping others, praise the Lord! It is also just a good and responsible habit to frequently communicate things with supporters back home. Of course, some will always criticize missionaries for sharing too much or not sharing enough. It’s not such an easy thing to navigate, you get criticized and compared to others often. So we try to do the best we can to honor the Lord, seek resources to help the church here and communicate with our mission partners, sharing some things we do, and keeping other things private. Which leads me to the second way of doing good to others.
  2.  There are other things that we keep between us and the Lord as it says in Matthew chapter six,  so that our giving “may be done in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” I don’t think Jesus is contradicting Himself with what He says in chapter seven. There is a time to do things before others and give God glory so that the world may know Who we serve. There is also a time to do things in secret, when our “left hand does not know what our right hand is doing”  so that we may be humble and not seek glory and applause from men. This is pleasing to the Lord. Pray that the Lord would continue to provide for us and give us the wisdom that we need in all of this.

The church in Hato Mayor continues to meet online for a Sunday message, but we communicate and exchange prayer requests daily. Everyone seems pretty anxious to gather again for worship, but we have many people with health problems in the church. I imagine that some may not come back right away out of fear of becoming sick. With the health issues that some older members have, it’s hard to blame them.

Please remember to take a moment to pray for us. Our marriage, our children, provision and our health.

Pray for the churches here, those who have no way to provide for their families, and the many people who are suffering from more than just hunger during this quarantine.

Pray for the women and children who are stuck at home with an abuser. There has been an increase in cases of abuse since the quarantine started.

Pray for those with special needs or mental illnesses who are suffering.

Pray that the church would rise up during this time and be a bold messenger of truth and hope in the midst of falsehood, anxiety and fear.

Pray that we would all seek to help the brethren in need and love our neighbor in the name of Christ for the glory of Christ

Thank you for your love, prayers and support and God bless.

In Service to our Lord and King,

Antonio and Christen Salgado and family

 

If the Lord so lays on your heart to support this ministry,  you can send your tax deductible gift to:

CENTRAL MISSIONARY CLEARINGHOUSE
P.O. Box 219228
Houston, Texas 77218-9228
1-800-CMC-PRAY (1-800-262-7729)
Office: 281-599-7411
Fax: 281-599-7511

The ministry of (CMC) serves hundreds of missionaries, but they ONLY receive the funds for us and in no way have control over how the funds are to be spent or what we are to do as a ministry, which gives room to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and the liberty in making needed adjustments. This is one of the reasons why we went with CMC. There are also three trusted pastors which sit as our mission board.

You may begin sending your support to the Salgado DR Mission at any time at the address above. (Checks should be made payable to Central Missionary Clearinghouse or C.M.C.)

You can also now give to the ministry here in the DR online through the new giving solution called “click and give” at the CMC website.

To get started you just need to click on the link below and register the first time. Just a simple click on the donate button on their page (see link below), and then click the “click and give icon/button”. Look for Antonio Salgado on the list of missionaries there.

https://www.cmcmissions.org/donate

You will then have a private giving solution that comes with many benefits to you the donor. If you have any questions please call the office (tel:1-800-262-7729 or 281-599-7411), and they very kindly will walk you through what you need to do.

You can also donate to this ministry online with Paypal. Click the donate button below and you can send support of any amount directly to the ministry. You can choose the option of doing a one-time donation and this is the fastest option to get funds to us.

Unfortunately through Paypal we are not set up for receiving recurring donations at this time. But the other online giving option above does have the recurring monthly donation option. Simply register one time and that’s it.

For tax exemption, you must send your donation through Central Missionary Clearinghouse (CMC) at the address above or online. 

We do not use a sending agency that gets a percentage of the money donated. Apart from the 2% that CMC charges for processing fees, you can be sure that almost your entire gift goes directly to the mission field.

Whatever you decide, thank you so much for praying for us and helping this ministry. God Bless You!

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