2026 Mission Trip

La Vega, Dominican Republic, July 19 to 26, 2026

In July 2026, Rick and Isabella Pina Ministries hosted a team of 23 missionaries at Thelma Steward Destiny Academy in La Vega, Dominican Republic. For five days the team taught English as a second language, ran skills classes, fed the children, and worshiped with the church. Then, on Thursday, the whole team walked into the poorest neighborhoods of La Vega and put 1,000 backpacks full of school supplies into the hands of children. One neighborhood at a time. One child at a time.

The Week

Seven days, one assignment

Sunday, July 19: The team landed in Santiago. Welcome dinner, orientation, and prayer that night.

Monday to Wednesday, July 20 to 22: ESL camp at Destiny Academy, 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. The Bible was the curriculum in every classroom. Afternoons were electives: barbering, bracelet and soap making, makeup, dance and sports, art.
Wednesday night, July 22: The whole team filled 1,000 backpacks with school supplies.
Thursday, July 23: Distribution day. The team carried the backpacks into underserved neighborhoods and handed out all 1,000.
Friday, July 24: Graduation. The students were celebrated, and the week closed the way it started, together.

The Camp

English, the Word, and a path to income

The Bible was the curriculum in every classroom. Every game, every song, every conversation came back to the Word of God. The children were grouped by age, ages 8 to 17, four groups in all, with one primary teacher and two assistants in every room.

They picked up English faster than anyone expected. By the end of Day One many of them were reading English off the board. When the teachers asked who wanted to learn English, every hand went up.
The skills classes gave the older students a path to income. The boys learned barbering. Once they understood that a haircut earns money, they were all in. By the time Rick came back to the room, they were already cutting hair. The girls learned to make bracelets and soap they can sell.

1,000 Backpacks

Our annual Back to School Drive, delivered by the team

On Wednesday night the whole team packed 1,000 backpacks with notebooks, pencils, and school supplies. On Thursday they carried them into the neighborhoods where the need is greatest. Every backpack went to a child who needed it. This is our annual Back to School Drive, and 2026 was the first year our missionary team put the backpacks in the children's hands with us.

Eleven Years in the Making

Rick and Isabella and Pastor Idovil Gervais

Rick and Isabella have partnered with Pastor Idovil Gervais for eleven years. The school started under a tarp, in a neighborhood so dangerous that children were hit with rocks on the walk to class. Today Destiny Academy is a walled compound with real classrooms, dry-erase boards, and proper furniture. Two of the students standing in that school on Day One this year, a boy and a girl, have been with us all eleven years. They came every day, through all of it, because all they wanted was to go to school.

In Their Words

From the team and the children

"Sometimes you think you're coming in here to do something for somebody else, and you benefit from it. There is no way these kids are not going to touch your life." (Isabella Pina)

"I feel like those kids that I've seen today, they're gonna be something tomorrow because they are eager to learn." (Renee, missionary)
"The children are so brave." (a local student, about the young missionaries who taught)

Partner With Us

The 2027 mission trip and the next Back to School Drive are already on the calendar. Your gift feeds a child. Your gift fills a backpack. Your gift keeps a teacher in a classroom. Rick and Isabella Pina Ministries is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and every gift is tax deductible.