The Dominican Republic - Please see article in blog below

Lyle Hitt (#65, 300 pound right guard at LSU) and Mason Hitt (#90, 270 pound defensive tackle at LA Tech) -- Some of you might know that they do go head-to-head when the two teams meet. But you might be surprised to know that I have carried both of them on my back at the same time -- actually, one of them on my shoulders and the other one on my back. However, I should add that I did that about 15 years ago! What a great joy it has been to see these young men and their brother Tucker grow up, not just phyically but also spiritually.

Jake and Momma

Three young girls gather to Jake at the orphanage

Jake and Lyle

Looking into the clinic with searching little eyes

This lady's leg was broken when an automobile hit her while she was riding a motorbike (There are many, many motorbikes in D. R.) about two months ago. She has received no treatment because she could not afford the hardware needed to make the very extensive repairs to her leg. While Jake was attending to her, contact was made with the CURE Hospital in hope that she might have the greatly needed surgery. Because of the long delay and the extent of the damage to her leg, it is questionable as to whether she will ever walk again. Please consider taking a moment right now to pray for her.

Dr. Freddy Michaelson

Jake with Alex, a Dominican medical student who worked alongside Jake all week. Jake taught him medicine, and Alex helped Jake in his learning of Spanish. They greatly enjoyed working together.

The people waiting for admittance outside one of the churches

Dr. Freddy and a sweet young boy

This little boy was so badly dehydrated that he passed out while in clinic. After replenishing his fluids, Jake and the other medics recommended that he be taken to the hospital. The cause of the dehydration was uncertain, and he needed further evaluation. This was the only situation we faced in which someone's life was in immediate peril.

Rachel Lee, a pre-med student at LA Tech who shadows Jake at his clinic in Ruston, gives her testimony publicly. Rachel is a cheerleader for the Bulldogs at Tech, but she is unaccustomed to public speaking, and this was her first time to give her testimony before a group. Her gentle words and countenance were very well received by the Dominicans who listened intently. I was given the responsibility for organizing the evangelism, and it was a tremendous joy to see the team members, from the youngest to the oldest, one after another, giving brief words of testimony -- some of them for the first time!

One of the four churches in which we served

Bec greatly enjoyed organizing and working in the pharmacy.

This is a kind of service that she loves.

Lyle Hitt of LSU in Triage

These ladies were laughing and enjoying themselves greatly while doing one another's hair. Their spirits seemed to be so undampened by the material poverty in which they lived.

Matt Slate and Bob Nilsen (SCORE missionary) praying with a patient

Mason Hitt (defensive tackle at LA Tech) and one of the many friends he made as he admitted the people to the clinic.

Jake giving attention to a lady
and her children

Trevor Torres is in Jake's Sunday night ECD (Excellentia Coram Deo -- Excellence Before the Face of God) group that meets every week in his home in Ruston. Trace Kaiser and Mason Hitt are also in that group.

Mason and Trace happily and helpfully greeted hundreds of people through the course of the week. As you see in the picture, Trace kept his Spanish dictionary in hand as he and Mason served the people, calling out their numbers for admittance and relating warmly to them as they waited.

Reading the Gospel Tract given to him by Tucker Hitt

A brief pause in loading -- or possibly unloading

Organizing meds

One of the girls at an orphanage where we spent part of an afternoon.

Happy children in the clinic

Dr. Will Sanders will soon be joining Jake in practice at Green Clinic in Ruston, LA. What a blessing it was to have Will on this mission.

Jimmy Kaiser giving his testimony and passionately sharing the Gospel

Rachel Lee and Merrick Nunn, pre-med students at LA Tech,

and Lyle Hitt of LSU in Triage

The people listened very sweetly as I spoke with them about Christ. They were very kind and helpful to me as I sought to communicate the Gospel for my first time in Spanish.

Tucker Hitt shares a Gospel tract with a young man who is waiting to see one of the doctors. Throughout the week, Tucker's job was to assist the patients in getting from triage to one of our doctors.

Trace Kaiser teamed up with his dad Jimmy in fitting glasses for the Dominicans.

Matt Slate, College Pastor of Crossroads, shares the Gospel.

Freddy Michaelson, Jimmy Kaiser, and me

This lady treated Mason like a beloved grandson.

The people wait to be admitted to the clinic.

Dr. Freddy Michaelson and John Christian at work in the pharmacy

Jake attending to the children

Medical Mission to The Dominican Republic

Our son Jake led a 16-member team on a medical mission to The Dominican Republic. The team included members of Crossroads Church in Ruston, LA, as well as a number from here in Baton Rouge. For some time, Becky and I have looked forward to having this opportunity to be with Jake in this country in which he has served in the past.

We saw hundreds of patients in our temporary clinics which we set up in churches. One of those churches was out in a village in the sugar cane fields while the others were in or near urban areas.

We gave out Gospel tracts to almost all of our patients. It was a joy to see men, women, and children carefully reading the Gospel of our Lord.

One afternoon we went to an industrial area and gave out tracts to the workers as thousands of them zoomed by on their motorcycles. It was amazing to see how eager, and even determined, they were to get our tracts. One of the local missionaries had told us how effective tracts were in D. R., but we were still amazed at the response.

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In addition to our handing out tracts and doing personal evangelism, we held evangelistic meetings right outside of our clinics once or twice a day. Our team members gave their personal testimonies, and a clear Gospel presentation was made. The people were very attentive.

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There are many other details that I could share with you. Instead, I will post a few pictures with brief descriptions. Bec and I are very grateful to God for SCORE INTERNATIONAL, the missions agency that hosted us. Jake has had a relationship with Bob and Anna Nilsen of Score for a number of years. We are so glad that we have had the privilege of serving with Jake and his friends at Score. I hope you will prayerfully consider taking a team to D. R. with Score.

There was extreme poverty.

Jake attending to the children.

Outside one of the churches,
which were the sites of our temporary clinics.

Jake examines a Haitian lady. The Haitians
are among the poorest of the people.

Thirty Years Ago Today at The Chapel on the Campus at LSU

The Mission Foundation
P.O. Box 46358
Baton Rouge, LA 70895

May 20, 2009, A Special Day

Dear friends,

I ask you to please bear with a bit – maybe more than a bit – of personal nostalgia. You see, it has just occurred to me that it was thirty years ago today that I preached my first sermon in Baton Rouge. I preached on “The Judgment Seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:11-15) at The Chapel on the Campus at LSU. I was 28 years old.

I well remember how I felt throughout the earlier parts of the worship service as Bec and I sat together there on the front row. I kept the Holy Scriptures open on the seat beside me to Exodus 4:12, “Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” Although I had prepared diligently and knew what I was going to say, I found God’s words to Moses to be very reassuring as the time neared when I would rise and walk to the pulpit before that wonderful throng of enthusiastic worshippers and before God. It was truly one of the most blessed moments of my life.

About five years earlier (sometime in 1974, I think), I had told my pastor, Rev. Donald Tabb, that I felt called to preach. I was quite surprised by his counsel. He told me to get one message and preach it over and over again – in the woods, in my truck, wherever – just preach it and preach it.

Well, that’s what I did. Each morning it took me forty-five minutes to drive my truck to the site where George Morgan and I were building Southern Silica of Baton Rouge (a blasting sand plant). I usually kept one hand on the steering wheel as I preached to my very patient congregation who assembled in the dawn’s early light to listen to me starting and stopping, correcting, and starting again. I preached from Baton Rouge to Baywood, Louisiana! How many times? I really don’t know. But I do remember that those were wonderful days of traveling with my Teacher.

At long last, on May 20, 1979, there I was – standing before God’s people with the highlighted manuscript of my forty-five minute message restlessly lying on the pulpit of The Chapel on the Campus at LSU. For years it had waited. Now the time had come! Yes, I had in fact preached this sermon and others many times in other cities and towns in the intervening years. But on this Sunday morning, I was back at my alma mater, Louisiana State University, the place where God had rescued me from my waywardness, the place where I had heard Him calling me to preach His Word to His people.

Now, thirty years later, I would like to ask you to prayerfully reflect on the texts that I sought to exposit for my brothers and sisters on that long ago Sunday morning just across the lake from where I am writing this letter at my desk on Myrtledale. In 2 Corinthians 5:10, the Apostle Paul says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” In 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, Paul speaks specifically about the judgment of the work of God’s ministers who teach His Word. But there is application of that text for everyone because we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to experience either the reception of reward or the loss of reward in accordance with the “quality of each man’s work,” which is to be “revealed with fire.” Paul says, “If any man’s work . . . remains (i.e. endures the fiery judgment), he will receive a reward.” Conversely, “If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.”

As you think about Paul’s words, please be encouraged because, through our Lord’s redemptive work, you now have a new capacity for godly intentionality. Through Christ you can do that which is “good.” By God’s grace, you and I can be among those whose “work remains”! By His grace, we will receive our Savior’s reward on that great, soon-coming Day!

In the good Shepherd’s Hand,


Rod (for Bec and me)