Our mandate > Isaiah 61:1-3
Our vision is community transformation. This is our goal.
Pastor Hipolito Chalas Moscoso
Pastor Chalas is our main partner in the Dominican Republic and manages the ministry there. He is well known and respected on the north coast of the D.R. and preaches on radio and TV in addition to his school ministry. Pastor Chalas and his wife Tosanna (aka Jenny) have three sons, one daughter, and 3 grandchildren. Their middle son is married. All of their adult children are involved in the ministry.
Pastor Chalas’ founded the church in Arroyo Seco around 2004 and Colegio Cristiana Divina Misión y Iglesia shortly after. The church was meeting on a piece of dirt under a tarp held up by tree branches. The school was kindergarten / grade one located on the flat roof of a bar under a palapa roof. DVI has been helping him operate the school since 2006, which now serves pre-school to grade 7.
Walter and Carol Warkentin
Walter (president of DVI) and Carol are founders of the family construction business that is now owned by their daughter; their younger daughter also works in that business. They graduated from Brake Bible College in Germany, and in 1981 Walter was ordained as a lay minister by their denomination. The Warkentin family started to help one pastor family who Walter and Carol met on a vacation in the Dominican Republic in 2003. This quickly expanded to another family in huge need. There were some God ordained encounters after that and confirmation through Scripture of doing a work helping two small churches, initially, on the north coast of the D.R. They founded what would become Dominican Vision Inc. in 2005 with a small board of directors.
Elizabeth Giesbrecht
Elizabeth Giesbrecht (Betty) owns her own accounting business. She and husband Martin have 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren. Betty’s passion is prayer ministry, and she is involved in that provincially, nationally and internationally. Betty and also Martin have been to the DR with some of the different groups.
Ted and Esther Woberg
Ted is a corrections officer at the Manitoba Youth Centre. Esther is an
Early Childhood Educator at a Christian pre-school. She has been involved in
worship dance and children’s ministry for many years. Esther leads a team
which prays monthly for the Dominican Republic. Both Ted and Esther have
been involved in many areas of church ministry. Their family of four has
been on many mission trips to DR. Ted and Esther enjoy participating in
prayer ministry at the Leader Teaching Retreat.
Kristie Sidwall
Kristie is the Artistic Director of Genesis School of Dance in Winnipeg and has been on a number of D.R. trips with her older dancers (teen girls leadership program). She is married to Kyle and has 2 sons.
Deen Krol
Deen Krol is a committed Christian businessman from Vancouver Island, married with 2 sons. He is a partner in a landscaping company and also active in his church. Deen has been on 5 build trips and is well acquainted with the ministry in Arroyo Seco. He usually brings 3-4 men to help build to give them a vision to help the less fortunate.
Child Sponsorship Co-ordinator
Barbara Hodgkinson
Barbara Hodgkinson is retired from her HR position and spends her time helping her daughter and granddaughters, including attending many of their hockey games.
She has been in DR multiple times with the mission trips and helps DVI in many different ways. Barb is shown on photo with her sponsor child.