The Bello Family - Dominican Republic

September 11th, 2025

About Us

Berly and Jamie both grew up as pastor's kids in the Assemblies of God; Jamie in Washington State and Berly in the Dominican Republic. Berly's father formerly served as General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in the Dominican Republic and is now the National Missions' Department Director and pastoring a church in Santo Domingo. Jamie's father, Wendell Kruger, serves as Consultant and Loan Originator with Assemblies of God Financial Services Group.
Jamie sensed God's call to youth ministry during summer camp at age 17. She studied for two years at Western Washington University and then went on to graduate from Northwest College in Kirkland, WA with a Bachelor's degree in Youth Ministries. Upon graduation, she served as youth pastor in two churches of the Northwest Ministry Network for 5 years. As youth pastor, she began taking high school students on short term missions trips and soon sensed God directing her to full-time missions ministry with youth in Latin America. God's specific leading was to the Caribbean island nation of the Dominican Republic. In 1999 she was commissioned by the Assemblies of God as a single missionary and left for the field in 2001.
As a young boy, Berly sensed God's call to music ministry with a specific desire to minister to youth through music. He began to study piano with tutors, and studied for a couple years at the Conservatory of Music in Santo Domingo, D.R as a teenager. Ever since, he has studied intensely on his own, and has become an accomplished pianist and composer of music. In 1998 he formed his own band, 2000 DC. They recorded their first album, Caminante, and ministered in churches and concerts through the Dominican Republic. For several years he served as worship pianist and music director in a few churches in the Dominican Republic. He also ministers with other Christian artists and groups as a studio recording artist, composer, and producer.
More than halfway through Jamie's first missionary term in the Dominican Republic, she and Berly met at his local church's young adult camp. They began to work together in National Teen Ministries, and then married in January 2004. Upon their return to the States for itinerating, Berly completed his stateside missionary training and they were "re"-commissioned as a missionary couple with the Assemblies of God in the summer of 2004. They are now itinerating in the USA from July 2016-Dec 2017 in order to return to the DR for their 4th missionary term.
They direct Uconexion University Ministries (it's like Chi Alpha) and National Teen Ministries (aka MDA Ministerio de Adolescentes) and Berly produces music for recording artists in his Caminante Music Studio.

Berly and Jamie have two sons: Ethan Manuel (born 3/19/09) and Logan Eugene (born 11/18/10).

December 2024

Ministry Update:

Itineration – We are currently itinerating.
- Base Cash is raised
- $1006/month in new commitments still to raise
- Departure for Field first week of July 2025 when our teenage sons finish the school year.
Comunidad Vida y Gozo Church Plant in Santo Domingo –
- Continues strong while Bello family (lead pastors) are stateside during itineration. Our Associate Pastor and Leadership Team have shown commitment and dedication to continued ministry and discipleship.
- VG preaching team expands –
  1. While we are stateside, we have added multiple young people into our preaching team, and Jamie coaches them from afar.
- Community Outreach
  1. Summerfest (day camp for kids) held both summers 2024 & 2023
  2. Christmas Giving Tree projects – served Christmas dinner to over 100 plaza employees; gave out over 70 Christmas baskets to the businesses in the plaza (our church “neighbors”); providing dining room furniture and other household needs to a family in transition
  3. Backpack giveaways to kids in economically challenged barrios of Arroyo Hondo
- World Missions
  1. Comunidad VG church plant has become the church with the 2nd highest missions giving for the Assemblies of God in the DR, and continues to increase in missions giving.
  2. Supports all 4 Dominican missionary units overseas on monthly basis; plus supports 3 church planters in other cities in the DR.
- Life Groups
  1. VG has over 75% of members involved in small groups.
  2. Kids Min, Teen Min, Couples, and Bible study focused groups
Uconexion University Ministry –
- New Team Members, MAs Zach & Johanna Welsh, joined our ministry team in September in the DR
- In May, Yulisa made a salvation decision after attending a gal’s small group all semester and receiving a Bible so she could begin to read and study God’s Word on her own as well as with the group.
  1. This semester she has been active in evangelism on campus
  2. Recently helped one of the newest gals understand that prayer is having a conversation with God, just like we would with a close friend – and she encouraged that new gal to try praying out loud in the middle of a group on campus!
Audio Production –
- Berly mixed the audio for a Christian movie that was released into the DR movie theaters early this year. (More of these filmmaking projects to come!)
- Berly wrote new arrangements for several more Christmas carols; and the VG band has finished recording and Berly mixing all the music – which will be performed for our 3rd annual Christmas musical special (with an Christmas message shared by Jamie), and is televised on a National channel free of charge on Christmas Eve, and this year a second time slot on New Year’s Day.
Current Challenges:
- Difficulty of trying to itinerate Stateside while also being involved with our ministry teams in the DR by video calls, zooms, text.
- More ministry opportunities than team members can tackle – Praying for MORE global workers to join our team AND more Dominican leaders who will commit to full-time or volunteer ministry.
- Physical healing needed for Jamie’s knees
- Extended family needs – broken relationships, and healing from cancer

Upcoming Projects (2025 and beyond):

Project 21072, Class 64 – Comunidad Vida y Gozo expansion in multisite campus launches – starting with an English campus/international church; then other sites around Santo Domingo focusing on international school communities.

Project 21072, Class 64 -- VG LOVES FIRST project (click link for more info and pics) – community engagement strategy for developing relationships with the unchurched, unengaged middle & upper class in Arroyo Hondo.
- PDF project brief attached to email
- Basketball camps, summer & fall fests, neighborhood block parties & bbqs, parenting classes, marriage seminars

Project 21073, Class 68 – DR Urban Church Plants, raising up a new generation of church planters via training cohort to engage the unengaged urban masses & emerging generation. Goal of raising $6,000 launch funds per church plant. And initiating a matching fund initiative to encourage Dominican AG churches to give towards church planting.
Project 20142, Class 62 – Puente Community Center, construct new restrooms in the Uconexion university ministry center; plus expansion of university ministry via small group discipleship on the UASD campus in Santo Domingo, and other campuses in Santiago, and San Pedro.

Posted in Missionaries