Gregorio Thomas at SAP
Our church has partnered with Gregorio Thomas who serves with SAP Ministry and is a local pastor leading a church in the Sabaneta de Yasica region of the Dominican Republic (DR). We have sent several teams to serve with Gregorio in the Dominican Republic over the last decade.
Our partnership with Pastor Gregorio has been possible because of the SAP Ministry. SAP stands for Servir al Prójimo which means Serve your Neighbor. SAP is a Christ-centered ministry devoted to serving people along the north shore of the Dominican Republic in the name of Jesus Christ—demonstrating His love through compassionate service, meeting practical needs, and sharing the hope of the gospel.
Following the command of Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31), SAP seeks to meet both physical and spiritual needs in the communities it serves. Through acts of compassion, generosity, and presence, the ministry demonstrates the love of Christ while pointing people to the life-changing message of the gospel. SAP’s desire is that through serving others—whether through practical help, encouragement, or prayer—people would experience the mercy of God and come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
FCC formed our partnership with Pastor Gregorio in January of 2013 after 4 leaders from FCC traveled to the Dominican Republic to meet six different potential pastor partners. At the conclusion of this exploratory trip, all four leaders felt called to partner with Pastor Gregorio. Since then, over 150 people from FCC have been down to the DR to serve the community that Pastor Gregorio shepherds.
During those trips, we have participated in feeding the children at the Nutrition Center, held VBS programs, painted the church, painted several houses, constructed a kitchen for the Nutrition Center, constructed a concrete walkway between the road and the feeding center (which is prone to flooding), canvassed the community praying for different individuals we met along the way, as well as handed out invitations to Gregorio’s church services which always results in a packed house. We have also been blessed to witness and participate in many baptisms of new believers in the river by the church!