After three years abroad, the Bargers return to Birmingham area for stateside assignment

International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries Donald and Jennifier Barger did not experience as much culture shock as one might think when they returned to the United States for stateside assignment after three years in the Dominican Republic.
   
Vacations to their Alabama hometowns of Hueytown for Donald and Pinson and Pelham for Jennifier had kept them up-to-date.
   
But their two girls — Chloe, 5, and Caroline, 3 — noticed a few changes. “It’s just in the little things that they have to get used to,” Jennifier said.
   
The Bargers drink bottled water in the Dominican Republic, so the girls had never seen a water fountain. “Now they want to drink out of every one they see,” Jennifier laughed.
   
“Caroline told me, ‘Daddy, come look, it’s a sink, and you drink right out of the sink!’” Donald said.
  
There’s also the concept of keeping doors closed because the air conditioning is on. “There, when we have the [outer] door shut, it means we don’t want any visitors,” Jennifier said. “The girls don’t understand keeping the door shut to keep the air conditioning in.”
The Bargers, who are church planters, live in the town of Monte Cristi, which is near the Dominican Republic’s border with Haiti.
   
Jennifier said, “I’ve felt called from an early age, then Donald started feeling called in college. When we were at Southwestern Theological Seminary (in Fort Worth, Texas), we felt called to missions.”
   
“I did a church planting internship through Southwestern Seminary,” Donald said. “I worked … starting ministries in three different apartment communities.”
   
They were appointed as missionaries in 1997, and Chloe was born in the United States 11 days after. Since the language of the Dominican Republic is Spanish, the family moved to Costa Rica in 1998 for a year of language school.
   
The family then moved on to the Dominican Republic in April of 1999 for their first missions assignment.
   
Caroline was born there in the capital city of Santo Domingo. And now their third child, a boy already named Jackson, is due to be born Dec. 25 in Birmingham.
   
“[Our stateside assignment] was not scheduled around the pregnancy, but it worked out nicely for the baby to be born here,” Jennifier said. “It will be nice to be with family for this birth.”
   
And he should adjust well to life in the Dominican Republic.
   
“Since we are expecting a boy, the Dominicans will be thrilled since it is very important for them to have a son,” Jennifier said.
   
The girls are bilingual, and Jackson probably will be, too.
   
“The girls speak Spanish and English,” Jennifier said. “We speak English at home, but playing with the other kids and going with us to visit in the homes, they pick [Spanish] up.”
   
Since June 28, the Bargers have been living in the missionary house of Birmingham’s First Baptist Church, and will live there until their return to the Dominican Republic June 5, 2003.
   
The couple plans to speak at several conferences and churches in Alabama and in other states while on stateside assignment.
   
“Especially locally, we have several openings in the next year,” Donald said, adding that churches in Alabama were easier to schedule than those in other states.
   
Jennifier is also beginning to homeschool Chloe and will continue to do so once they return to the Dominican Republic. Donald is working on a doctorate of ministry in missiology at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tenn.
   
“It provides more direct training specifically for missions,” Donald said. “The degree will also help me as we develop strategies to reach the 3.5 million rural Dominicans.”
   
Currently, the Bargers are the only Southern Baptist missionaries who are working with rural Dominicans. Their work is focused in the province of Monte Cristi, where they live, which has a population of 107,711.
   
“Our goal is to teach the people and share the vision with them to reach the people,” Jennifier said.
   
In a country that is two-thirds the size of Alabama and has twice as many people, there are 3,500 villages with no churches at all. In the province of Monte Cristi alone, 176 villages exist. Of these, only 70 host 99 evangelical churches.
   
Three of those are churches started by the Bargers in Monte Cristi.
   
“The first church we started branched out and started one in their own community, because they realized people would not even travel across town to come to church,” Jennifier said.
   
“The majority of people there don’t have cars or motorcycles, they don’t venture outside of their own villages. And 106 [of the villages] don’t have a church, so the people don’t know Christ,” Donald said.
   
The biggest barrier to sharing the gospel is the country’s dominant religion, called Santería. It mixes Roman Catholic, voodoo, Indian and African beliefs.
   
“It’s Catholicism, but not Catholicism. Ninety-seven percent of the people you ask would say they’re Catholic,” Donald said.
   
“The rural people are very open but very confused. They believe everyone gets to heaven eventually, and you get there by doing good works,” he added.
   
“It’s a lot of relationship building and trust,” Jennifier added.
   
“Going door to door is good, but you have to follow up with it, or else they’ll just take it and add it to the other [beliefs],” she continued.
   
For now, the Bargers hold Bible studies at the houses of new believers, training them to lead others to Christ and training them for leadership roles.
   
“Remember to pray for them [right now],” Jennifier said, “because there are no missionaries there at all, so right now it’s up to them and God.”
   
“Everybody working with it right now is a new Christian,” Donald said.
   
When the Bargers return to Monte Cristi, they plan to continue the work they started. “Our plans are to continue in leadership development and encouraging others to have a vision for reaching the community for Christ, as well as beginning new Bible studies,” Donald said.
   
“Jennifier will also continue to lead women’s Bible studies as time permits, as well as homeschooling Chloe.”
   
Also, many opportunities exist for those in the United States to help in the Dominican Republic.
   
“Prayer, of course, is the number one thing [people can do],” Jennifier said. Donald maintains a Web site and e-mails weekly prayer updates to those who wish to receive them. To sign up, visit www.pray4dr.com.
   
“There are also opportunities for volunteers once we get back,” Jennifier said. “We need prayer-walking teams and evangelistic teams.”
   
“Spanish-speaking volunteers are also desperately needed,” Donald added. “It’s logistically easier and it’s not very easy to get translators.”
   
To schedule the Bargers to speak or for information about volunteer opportunities, call them at 205-423-0969 or e-mail them at barger@pray4dr.com.