Earlier this month I took a short trip to the Dominican Republic. Click on this link to check out some of my photos: http://web.mac.com/pointmanlloyd/iWeb/Site/Dominican.html.

I was blessed by the time I spent with our team delivering the Christmas gifts that were collected by Calvary Christian School for the children living in this impoverished area. I met one young man whose mother, a German woman, had left him with a maid and never returned. It was a sad story, but the maid adopted him and he is doing great now; she is a Christian, raising him in the ways of the Lord. 

While we were there I also spent time with the man who runs the camp, Pastor Jay Munoz. He has a passion for his nation to become grounded in the Word of God. He remarked that because many of the people in the Dominican Republic do not have great reading skills they are unable to read the Bible. Please pray for Pastor Jay and the awesome work that he is doing in the Dominican.

As I reflect upon the trip I'm reminded of how Pastor Jay’s heart for his countrymen to have God’s Word as their foundation, is so similar to that of our founding fathers concerns for this nation during its early development. One of those men, Benjamin Rush, was the founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society, and advocated the use of the Scriptures as a textbook in the public schools; "…let us not be wiser than our maker," he wrote in 1798. He also wrote a pamphlet giving twelve reasons why the Bible needs to be the central textbook in schools. "I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little time to prevent them…We neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principals of Christianity by means of the Bible.” (1)

America has surely lost its way. What do you suppose Benjamin Rush and the rest of our founding fathers would think if they were to walk into one of our public schools today? Unless the Lord sends another revival, it is frightening to consider what lies ahead for our nation.

If you want to learn more about the vision and faith of our founding fathers check out these websites.

http://www.Wallbuilders.com
http://www.faithofourfathers.org

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(1)  "Faith of Our Fathers." "Biographies" http://www.faithofourfathers.org/biographies/rush.html. (Accessed 12/11/06.)