
Then I heard
the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send? And who will go
for us?”
And I said, “Here am I Lord. Send
me!”
Isaiah 6:8
Willing Servant Ministries
is a non-profit
501c3 organization
established by Rob and Tina Iannone
to carry out the mission that God
has called them to in the Dominican
Republic.
In 2002, a
missionary from Papua, New Guinea
came to speak at our church and after
hearing her
stories and testimonies, Tina and I looked at each other at the
same time and said, “ I could do
that “. Shortly after, our
church had a Ministry Fair where a missions table
was set up by Ren Bruning with pictures of
little children from Haiti that
needed to be sponsored so that they could
have an opportunity of an education.
We sensed a need to choose one
little girl to sponsor and her name was Judith Yules. We prayed
for Judith that God would touch her
life and little did we know that God
would use her to touch our lives. In
January of 2004, Ren Bruning came to
us and said “we are going to Haiti
this summer, you should go ”.
After
praying about this opportunity we thought it would
be nice to meet the little girl we
were sponsoring, so we signed up.
The summer of 2004 was one filled
with
turmoil in Haiti so our missions
trip was redirected to the
Dominican Republic. That was our
first missions experience. The
trip was a wake up call for
us as to how a lot of people in this
world are suffering and in need of
someone to help meet their physical,
emotional and spiritual needs. After returning home, we tried to go
about our daily lives, but we were
struggling inside. For weeks we
struggled with an inner feeling
that something in our lives was suppose to be
different. Before our
missions experience we were serving in many ministries at our
church and we were happy being
involved in all of them but we soon
sensed God calling us
to head up the Missions Ministry at
our Church. Since 2004 we have led
six teams on one week mission trips
to
the Dominican Republic. We also have
been on three missions trips of two
weeks stays, just the two of us. It
was during these trips that
God confirmed in our hearts that He
wanted us to serve full-time in the
Dominican Republic. Each time
we have grown spiritually from the
experiences as well as made many
friendships and built many
relationships with the local people. Now,
God has opened doors to accomplish
His will for us in the Dominican
Republic, to serve Him
faithfully by loving and caring for
His people through personal
relationships, medical care, and
leading mission teams. We asked God “ God,
what do we have to offer you except
that we are willing to serve and
follow your calling for our lives “.
He answered, “ that is all I need“.
We have now been serving on the
North Coast of the Dominican
Republic for over 4 years. God
continues to bless people
physically, emotionally, and
spiritually through this ministry!
The
King will reply, “ I tell you the
truth,
whatever you did for one of the
least of these
brothers
of mine, you did for me. “
Matthew 25:40