2026 Dominican Republic Mission Trip
Trip Dates: October 27 thru November 3, 2026
Trip Leader: Jordan Markwood & Kant Chiang
Ages: Must be 15 years old by September 1, 2026
Cost: $800 per missioner (includes travel, insurance, housing, and food). Fundraising opportunities to defray costs will be available.
Foreign mission trips can be a life-changing experience. Have you ever thought about being the hands and feet of Jesus in another country? Fill out this interest form to let our mission team know that you’d like the chance to build hope, faith, and community with our partners in the Dominican Republic.
Questions can be directed to Felicia Johnson, Director of Serve Ministries.
Mission Trip 2025
Galilee’s International Missions Team made a July trip to the Dominican Republic, conducted in partnership with Renewed Hope Missions, a nonprofit dedicated to sharing God’s love with underserved communities. Team members Matthew, Helga, Ryan, Sophia, Hunter, Kant, Juliana, Jen, and Jordan worked in two neighborhoods of Santiago—Cuesta Arena and Los Cocos. This was Galilee’s first collaboration with Renewed Hope, a group Jordan (our choir director) has worked with for over 14 years.
The team’s efforts focused on construction, renovation, and community outreach. In Cuesta Arena, they improved the Renewed Hope School playground by transforming a dismantled platform into a playhouse, repairing swings, building a seesaw, and restoring gates and fences. They also ran a daily Vacation Bible School filled with arts and crafts, games, singing, and laughter.
In Los Cocos, the group renovated a childcare center by pouring concrete and painting, constructing benches, and installing fencing. These projects not only enhanced the physical spaces but also brought visible joy to the children who used them.
Their time concluded with a joyful Sunday celebration service packed with children and families from both neighborhoods, marked by music, dancing, and a deep sense of God’s presence.
The trip wasn’t all work: the team enjoyed rest and local culture through visits to botanical gardens, a ride on the Teleférico, a few hours at the beach, and even an unexpected baseball game.
Despite challenges from heat, plumbing issues, and travel delays, the team remained united and joyful. Their experience was defined by patience, flexibility, and a shared purpose. As Matthew Tucker reflected, the trip embodied the VBS theme, “Todo es de Dios”—everything is from God. From the hospitality of the people to the dedication of local pastors and teachers, the team witnessed God’s love in action.
Ryan and Hunter brave the heat to make things work in Santiago
Check out more pics from the trip below.
In June 2023, Galilee sent a mission team to Costa Rica. If you can believe it, this was the ninth trip Galilee members have made to our mission partners at the Iglesia Metodista Palabra Viva (the Living Word Methodist Church) in Carillos, north of San Jose. We started going in 2006.
Read: Kant Chiang’s Reflection on Costa Rica
That first year, just four missioners from Galilee flew to Central America, along with ten others from a United Methodist Church in Medina, OH. The orginal Galilean missioners were Carrie Harris, Sarah Calvert, Miles Carlson, and of course our current lay leader Jen Shah, who has gone on all nine trips.
That first trip, Galilee’s members met Pastor Eddier, who led a small Methodist congregation in Carillos. Pastor Eddier had precious few resources and a shoestring budget, but he had a larger vision for what his church could be—a community center and focal point for God’s work in the region.
Read: Jen Shah’s Love for Costa Rica
That’s where American missionaries came in. We would support the church and provide labor and materials to help them build. Over the years, Galilee has cooperated with four churches in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in working to realize the Palabra Viva vision.
Click: The Mission in Costa Rica in Pictures, 2006-2023
This year’s trip is the first one to go since 2019. It consisted of Helga Ishikawa (team leader), her husband Ryan McDonnell, Jen Shah (also a team leader), Kant Chiang, Roshni Puterio, Stephen Jermstad, Samantha Moore, Austin Moore, Sam Moore, Alex Bower, Winston Smith, Chris and Reiko Crabtree, and our wonderful online lay leaders Chris Richter and Stephanie Ruiz, who live permanently in Costa Rica.
Also, very specially, the team took along the ashes of one of our own, Michael Butler. Michael died in 2019 at the age of 27. He was the veteran of multiple trips to Costa Rica, a country he very much loved. His ashes accompanied the team to spots familiar to Michael, or Miguel as he was known in the land of “pura vida,” before being entrusted to God’s care at a ceremony on Butterfly Hill, where our missioners conduct their morning devotions.
Read: Helga Ishikawa’s Take on Costa Rica
Time out for dancing
The mission in Costa Rica involves real physical labor. We are concretizing Pastor Eddier’s vision, after all. But more than labor, the mission is about relationships. And also fun.
Read: Winston Smith’s Thoughts on Costa Rica
The team lived, worshipped, ate, and celebrated with the people they have come to know and love in Carillos. They visited local attractions like a volcano, a rain forest, a coffee plantation, and nearby towns and markets. All over, they saw new expressions of God’s love and creative power.
Read: Roshni Puterio’s Impressions of Costa Rica
This was Galilee’s ninth mission to Carillos. We thank God that it was successful, restorative, enlivening, and productive. We can’t wait to go back—and some of us don’t have to: Chris and Stephanie have made Costa Rica their home.
Read: Chris Richter and Stephanie Ruiz Are “Galilee South”
We lift up Jesus Christ when we go on mission, endeavoring to be His hands and His feet on the ground in Costa Rica…and everywhere.
Previous Trips
Mission trips are rewarding experiences, not just for the work we do to help others. A trip to a foreign country expands our minds and expands our understanding of the Gospel. We see the world as a more complicated place, perhaps, then we did at the beginning of our trip. But it’s a place where we can make new friends, behold new vistas, and grow in our appreciation of God’s loving kindness.
Check out some photos from our 2019 mission trip:
