Lynchburg Cru took a mission trip to the Dominican Republic over spring break, March 14-21, which focused on evangelizing to students in an effort to spread the Gospel.
The trip was part of a joint effort between Cru and the campus staff of Dominican Republic Cru to bring mission trips back to the area after COVID-19 caused the ministry to decline and the missions to stop.
Abby Sloan serves as president of Liberty Cru and Matthew Towles, a professor of English serves as faculty adviser. Both participated in the trip to the Dominican Republic.
“I did not expect to feel pushed to go towards the Dominican Republic,” Sloan said. “My past mission experience had only been in European context, and that’s what I thought that I would continue doing, but I was really hoping to experience a different culture and see how God moves in different countries.”
Cru focuses on evangelism and trains year-round to remain prepared to spread the Gospel. The trip to the Dominican Republic involved plenty of preparation, but the ministry prepares members whether or not they attend each trip.
“Every week, in a sense, we are training to do the things we did in the D.R.,” Towles said. “Whether that’s learning how to share our story, whether it’s learning how to talk about Jesus and who he is and what he’s done — these kinds of focused evangelistic training — we do that at Cru every week.”
Cru became familiar with the movement in the Dominican Republic because of a Cru faculty member’s time spent in the and this allowed Cru to learn of the desire and need to bring back Liberty students to evangelize there.
“Lynchburg Cru got involved in partnering with the Dominican Republic this year and last year, because one of our staff lived there for a couple of years,” Sloan said. “The locals there really wanted a mission trip team from Liberty to come and to help them and to support them in trying to get this movement going again. There was a need, and we were able to help them with that need.”
Sloan reflected on the lasting impacts the trip resulted in.
“It was really special to be on this trip in particular, because it wasn’t us coming in with our own initiative and what we wanted to see happen with this ministry,” Sloan said. “But we were able to humbly just come alongside this ministry.”
Cru would like to see the trip happen annually to have a consistent impact in the country.
For this trip, Lynchburg Cru worked to serve the students of Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo and Universidad Nacional Evangélica, both located in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The first day of the trip, Cru members prepared themselves for the week. This involved more than settling in.
“At the beginning of the week, we got settled in and took the time to prayer-walk the campus and to learn more about the campus,” Sloan said.
Cru also provided water filters from Filter of Hope, a nonprofit that partnered with Cru to provide clean, drinkable water to locals.
“We presented the Gospel and gave them a water filter that could last 10 years,” Towles said. “They were purchasing drinking water, so this free filter, we give that to them, and they were able to stop purchasing water.”
Lynchburg Cru’s aimed to positively impact the people of the Dominican Republic and spread grace and hope.
“Cru really does work under those assumptions that we are not just sitting around figuring out how to use these tools,” Towles said. “And Cru has a great number of tools to share your story, share your faith but also to flex the muscle, to go out and learn.”
For more information about Lynchburg Cru and the ministry, visit lynchburgcru.com.
Kelly is an off-campus news reporter for the Liberty Champion.