Caribbean Mission Trips Recap

3/27/2025

To read about our trips to the Bahamas, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, click the title.

BAHAMAS:

Our mission trip to the Bahamas was a wonderful experience! A team of 30 students and leaders from the 10th and 11th grade partnered with Go Bahamas International Mission to serve alongside The Church of God of Prophecy (Seagrape) on the Grand Bahama Island.

Throughout the week, we had the incredible opportunity to share the love of Jesus in the community. We visited public schools to teach Bible lessons, hosted a fun-filled kid's event for the community, and went door to door inviting families to join us. We also hosted a youth night where the local youth shared their music with us - an amazing moment of connection and joy! One of the biggest highlights was the senior adult event hosted for the wonderful senior ladies of the community, where we played bingo, sang together, and enjoyed hearing their personal stories of their journeys with Jesus.

From start to finish, the trip was full of faith, love and friendships. We are so grateful for this opportunity and look forward to seeing how God uses this experience and us to further His kingdom!

CUBA:

This year we had the opportunity to take a group of 31 students, and 7 leaders on our first ever mission trip to Cuba. It was an impactful and life changing experience for each of us. We were connected with Cuba Connection Ministries (CCM), which is based in the Matanza Province. This organization connects Cuban churches with the rest of the world, to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to the Cuban people.

During our seven day trip, we were able to experience a taste of what day to day life is like for the Cuban people. Whether it was the rolling blackouts, bread lines reaching into the streets, or the inability to communicate home without a prepaid WiFi card, this was definitely an impactful experience for us all. It was like traveling back in time! Each day we took part in various CCM ministries which are being used to preach the gospel. Our team participated with their Handicap ministry, worked on their ministry farm, took part in a youth conference with students from the local churches, and participated in a humanitarian day by delivering beans to senior adults on a horse and buggy. It was an honor to join them on what they are doing everyday!

Even though we went to minister to the people of Cuba, as in most trip experiences, they ended up ministering to us! We learned about prayer, true community, and the joy that comes in suffering when following Jesus. The students were fantastic! They embraced every moment and allowed God to lead our trip. Whether it was their expectations for ministry or how they thought the group dynamics would work, they leaned in and allowed God to show them a bigger version of Himself, and as always, He proved faithful! As we sat together on our last night, we knew that we would forever be changed by our time together, serving in Cuba.

Dominican Republic:

Every year, Hartfield Seniors make the 24 hour trek to Pedernales, DR, on the border of Haiti, to give rice and beans and share the gospel with Dominican and Haitian people. This year, 63 seniors served and shared the love of Jesus in a beautiful, yet broken, place.

Hartfield partners with HMM (Hispaniola Mountain Ministries) to go out into the community and enter homes, sit on porches, and stand on doorsteps telling people that “while this rice and beans will feed you for a little while, God wants to offer you something even better that will satisfy you forever”. Our students enter into sickness and suffering, poverty and pain, heartache and hardship to pray with people, share their own testimonies, and read God’s word, and it is a humbling and amazing thing to be part of! Our students are constantly amazed at the joy they witness on the faces of children to elderly who lack material wealth and blessing but are grateful for a simple gift of rice and beans, a hug, or a word of encouragement.

Another part of the DR mission trip is helping lead Children’s’ Bible School and worship at local churches and schools. Even though there is a language barrier, the songs, games, and skits that we participate in with the children teaches them about the love Jesus has for them and how he sees them and cares for them. It is evident that the local children feel this as they follow our students around throughout the neighborhoods and cling to their hands wherever we go! Our students are tireless in their energy and love poured out in all of these settings!

Finally, there is a sweet element of fellowship amongst the senior class as they worship each night after a long, hot day of ministry, eat meals together without phones in hand, and ride in the back of the pick-up trucks that take them all over Pedernales, and a bond forms between that will be a treasured memory of their time at Hartfield Academy! We give God all the glory for allowing us to take part in this mission trip and play a small part in His saving grace towards the Dominican and Haitian people in this small, island town!

From senior Landry McKinney:

I cannot express how blessed I am to have had the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Pedernales, Dominican Republic over spring break. The Lord challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone and be bold in my faith while sharing the gospel to strangers across the world. Throughout all the heat, long walks with heavy backpacks, accidentally spilling grains of rice and countless hours of travel, it taught me something way more important. Having the chance to listen to the hearts and stories of each individual and praying over every family was truly life altering. Thank you Hartfield Academy for an absolute week of a lifetime and such a good one to end on. The DR was a trip I’ll never forget. I hope to go back again so soon!

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