By Donna Fischer

A second team has executed an exploratory mission in the Caribbean. SOP Director Rick Jost has announced that the exploratory mission completed their work in Santo Domingo on Tuesday, August 11, 2015, following successful programs in three locations, including oven building and education, in the Dominican Republic (DR).

Photo: An August mission trip to the Dominican Republic produced successful programs in three locations, including oven building and education. L to R - Lorna Jost, Bill Smith, Rick Jost, Connie Smith, Rev. Maria Bock, Bishop Miguel Cancú, Cathy Hoss, Gloria Borgman, Ron Borgman, and GBGM Missionaries Gordy and Ardell Graner. Hailing from North Dakota, Gordy and Ardell Graner are well known in the Dakotas Conference. Photo submitted by SOP.

When Solar Oven Partners (SOP) announced a time-out in Haiti, due to emerging complications with accountability and concerns for shipping ovens produced in the SOP's three shops last winter and spring, supporters prayed, dreamed and wondered what new doors might open. A successful team visit in July opened one door with Manos Juntas, Mexico and General Board of Global Mininstries (GBGM) Missionary Willie Berman in Rio Bravo.

GBGM Missionaries Gordy and Ardell Graner, serving in the DR, and the Iglesia Evangélica Dominicana (IED) church leaders partnered with the August SOP discovery team. “SOP was formally invited by Bishop Cancú ahead of our trip, and then we met with him upon arrival. We also sat down with him for an hour at the end of our mission. He was joking about how many solar ovens the church could use, based on all the phone calls he was getting from his pastors!” said SOP Director Rick Jost.

North Dakota natives, Gordy and Ardell Graner, are familiar to the Dakotas Conference. The Graners, along with Bishop Cancú and Rev. Maria Bock, chair of Social Action for IED, see great promise in a partnership with SOP in the Dominican Republic.

Photo: SOP Associate Director Cathy Hoss, a Dominican seminar participant, and Rev. Maria Bock, chair of Social Action for IED, prepare one of 20 finished ovens that IED is sending with key pastors and church leaders to begin demonatrations and sharing the blessings of free energy available to all. Photo submitted by SOP.

If Facebook posts and emails are any measure, Solar Oven Partners and volunteers are just as eager to begin shipping ovens and sending mission teams as the IED leadership is to begin this budding partnership. However, Jost reminds SOP supporters that adequate time and due diligence must be given in following the lead of IED to define and organize a cooperative plan before solar cooking training can begin in earnest in the Dominican Republic.

Together with the Graners, team members are excited about this opening door in the Caribbean. “Solar Oven Partners and the Iglesia Evangélica Dominicana have begun a journey that will serve the poor of the Dominican Republic by working alongside them in a self-help ministry that embraces God’s gift of free solar energy as an affirmation of God’s Love,” says Jost.

Once IED has finalized a request for solar ovens based on their program design and the SOP Advisory Board approves, SOP will begin facilitating the sending of supplies followed by a mission team from the Dakotas. Watch for more stories and pictures about both the Mexico and Dominican Republic team trips in Mondays@Dakotas, on the SOP Facebook page, e-newsletter, print newsletter and our website.

Photo: Connie Smith, editor of the SOP newsletters and website, shares baking duties with women who are eager to see the process of solar baking. In the months ahead, Rick Jost and the SOP Advisory Board will be working to facilitate sending of supplies followed by a mission team from the Dakotas. Photo submitted by SOP.