SPRING 2015

Last month we had the awesome opportunity of ministering to hundreds of youth at an event called UNIDOS POR EL (United For Him) in the city of LA VEGA. This is an event where around 2,000 people gather every Sunday of February to battle against CARNAVAL. What a great idea! They have been doing this event for about 7 years and this was the first time they called us to be part. We were extremely honored.

For those of you who don’t know, LA VEGA, is like the Dominican capital for Carnival. Carnival here is crazy; it’s an event where people go to get drunk/ high/ etc. The concert that this Christian community does is a free event to attract the non-Christian youth. They said, “Instead of talking about how bad Carnival is for our city; let’s do something about it to change it”.

Every year they bring different kinds of Christian artists from different parts of the country. It’s a beautiful event where Christians from all over the place gather together to worship the same God.  Most importantly, it gives non-Christians another option on a Sunday afternoon.  

Keep the city of La Vega in your prayers because God is doing amazing things through the Christians there and He is going to continue working with more and more people that are going to jump on board to work for His kingdom.

Last year, I remember writing about being able to perform with one of my favorite rappers for the first time; his name is Funky. Well, this year, not only did I get to perform at the same stage with him, but also we got to hang out and talk about music and life. It was a special time for me because through that experience God showed me His faithfulness.

15 years ago I was performing Funky’s songs in different churches and now I got to meet him and get some advice from him. God is good! I even told him that I once named one of my dogs after him; of course, he laughed. I was just happy he didn’t get mad ha-ha.

When we are faithful in the little things God uses us in the big things. The problem many people struggle with is they like to serve only on big stages where they can be seen by the crowd. God doesn’t work that way; we have to make sure our hearts are right before Him. You can’t jump through the 2^nd hoop without going through the 1^st hoop. One thing leads to the other. Humility is one of the main lessons that Jesus taught us. When we practice that, we will see results we are not expecting.

This week we were honored to have members of Christ’s Church of Oronogo (Missouri) visiting our ministry for the first time. We had a great time with them. There were 29 of them; part of their youth group and some sponsors. But it was very encouraging for me and Lenae to have them visit us and see what we do. Our youth group loves them. It seemed like they knew this group for years. They had a few activities together and they connected right away.

One of my favorite things of the week was on Wednesday night. We had a worship night with both youth groups together, worshiping the same God in different languages. Their youth pastor, Adam, shared with us about holiness. It was great because we have been talking about the meaning of holiness for this entire month. What Adam shared was really good. One of the things that he said really connects with my experience with Funky. He said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” If we do that it would be taking a step closer to holiness.

A BIG PRAISE!

I was honored to be a part of the opening ceremony of our two new basketball courts in Hato del Yaque. I know that many of you worked really hard in the sun for hours to get this project done. We finally did!

While we had two teams there, Current (from Katy, TX) and Wheaton College Football (from Illinois), we decided to do a basketball tournament to officially launch those new courts to the community. A lot of people came, and I could tell they were thankful for the ministry of the Kingdom in their community. Incarnation ministry is where the churches see the needs of the community and get involved.

We performed a few of our songs to celebrate that moment; it was really fun. I couldn’t believe that we finally finished that project. Now it’s cool to see the pastor there playing all the time with the kids from the area. It’s cool to see the respect that they show for our court. Pray for HATO  DEL YAQUE, because I  know God is going to do greater thing there now that we have two basketball courts and a baseball field available to work for His Kingdom.