Gary and Allison Hale
Gary is co-founder and ministry leader of the DR Vision, having been sent out
by Lewis Memorial Baptist Church in Huntington, WV.
by Lewis Memorial Baptist Church in Huntington, WV. He also pastors and leads the Iglesia Bautista Evangélica de Macoris (IBEM). Gary has his M.Div. in leadership from Liberty University and a journalism education degree from Marshall University.
He is a co-founder and current board member for Daystar Baptist Missions. He and his wife Alli were married in 2000 and the two enjoy exploring the island and playing with their Boxer, Rocksy. In his free-time, Gary enjoys kayaking, snorkeling, and trying to play golf.
Allison arrived in the Dominican Republic for the first time when she was 13 years old. Her parents, Doug and Paula Hodges, were missionaries to the city of La Romana. As she matured, a love for this country also grew. She returned every summer even through out college to work and serve in the different cities of the DR. She met Gary while he was serving and leading his first missions trip to the country. A few months later they were engaged!
Allison was grateful when God chose to send them full time to live and serve in San Pedro de Macoris Dominican Republic. They have been there since 2003 when the church in San Pedro was established. They both served in discipleship during the first few years of the their ministry. Allison focused on discipling women and after several years those women were serving and teaching in the ministry. in 2009, these same women from the church began sharing with Allison the burden of what they were seeing in the town of San pedro and surrounding tourist areas. Women in vulnerable situations were in the streets being exploited for sex. After praying for several months, they began to seek out answers to the questions of what was driving the vulnerabilities.
In almost all cases, the women were undocumented. Without documents, education and jobs were impossible. So they became vulnerable at an early age. Many of them were prostituted as young girls and then remained in the streets. We began seeing this in a multi generational setting. The women tucked their children into bed at night and went out into the streets hoping to make enough money to feed their children for the next day or so.
Allison founded the ministry of Mercy Jewelry. This ministry offered a job and life skills training to the women as they recovered from the ravages of their life on the streets. Women from IBEM meet with them for Bible study, discipleship, worship times and meals. The women are modeling a new life in Christ!
Ways to get involved:
Host a Mercy Jewelry party! You can host a jewelry party in your home for your friends and neighbors or in your church as a women’s event. Lay out the jewelry and some cookies or snacks and tell the story of our ministry and then shop! mercyjewelry@gmail.com
We have an Amazon wish list for Mercy needs! As our ministry grows, we need tools for jewelry making and crafts as well as educational supplies.
Invite Allison Hale to speak. Allison loves digging in the Word and sharing with women not just about the stories of these women, but about our purpose in HIS Kingdom.
PRAY! Pray for Mercy and for the ministries within San Pedro!
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