GOODBYE 2015, HELLO 2016!

I want to start this post by saying that God is faithful and good all the time. There is no other way to explain everything I have experienced in the last few months without mentioning His name. His faithfulness towards everything we do drives us forward every day; there is not a challenge out there that I won’t be able to take, because I know God is with me. And when He sends me, He never leaves me alone.

This past October, I released my new album ¨LA RECOPILACION.¨ I’ve been working on that album for a long time. It’s like a compilation of songs that I have done in the last 10 years. I have been waiting for the right time to release it. I have been really happy for the acceptance of the album. People from all over have been sending me messages saying how much they like it. It´s an honor for me to know that my album is touching lives in a special way.

I have been hearing testimonies of people that are not Christians, people that I have never met; people that someone gave them a CD and they have loved it. It´s crazy to know how powerful music can be, if you use it right. This brought a smile to my face knowing that I’m preaching through a CD, which means that even if I’m not there, people are still listening to the message of salvation. It reminds us that God´s Word is powerful and we are just humble servants serving His kingdom. 

I´m going to give you guys the link of the song we are using to promote this album. In Spanish it´s called ¨TU ME SOSTIENES¨ but in English I named it ¨I PRAISE YOU.¨ This is a powerful song that the Lord gave me back in 2008, and it wasn’t until last year that I decided it was time to record it. I’m glad I did because I have seen this song move in people´s lives in different ways. I hope you all like it, and if you do you can share it. Below the song you can see the link where you can get the full album in iTunes. It has 15 songs, the last 2 of them are in English. I hope you all like it.

To end the year, God prepared a good ending for 2015, I would say ¨a perfect ending¨ last November we found out that we are expecting a baby. We are very happy, we are ready for that blessing to come. So please keep that in your prayers because we want God to take care of the baby. Allow the baby to be healthy and keep Lenae healthy during this process. She already went through the ¨morning sickness¨ process, so now she is about three months. Baby is due July 7^th, (Cristo Urbano Month : P) keep that in your prayers please.

We began this 2016 with lots of events. One of them was taking part of our youth group to a retreat to the mountains. We have been visiting this place since 2001, but we haven’t been there in the last 4 or 5 years, so it was really cool to visit that place again and to see all the new changes they are making to make it better.

We took about 15 students, many couldn’t come because they had to work, but we had a great time reminiscing about all the things that we are grateful for and the goal we have for this New Year. It was a time of fellowship, games and prayers. I loved it. They did too.

My favorite part of it is that everyone in the group gets to hear people´s dreams and goals, so the rest of the year we all have the responsibility of keeping each other accountable to make things happen. And to encourage each other to not give up on our dreams.

After more than 10 years of performing in prisons, sports events, churches, streets, etc.; we received the 2016 with great news: Last week, we found out that our group was nominated for BEST CHRISTIANS RAP GROUP OF THE YEAR… Let me tell you all something, all these years, we have never thought about doing what we do to win an award. I know there are people out there that love recognition. We do what we do because we believe God called us into it, simple as that. But when you hear news like this…It´s crazy! I was not expecting that, it caught me off guard. I´m humble because we are nominated with groups that we have admired for years. Just for being nominated we already feel like winners. I’m really happy about this experience because once again I can see God´s faithfulness at its fullest. He says in His Word that when you are faithful in the little things, He is going to give you big things. Here is the list of nominees

 I want to end this post by telling you guys the vision that our church has for this year. I have seen how we have been investing a lot of time in people, making disciples and turning them into leaders. We have been sending them out to do God´s work throughout the country. I can testify that we have been doing different outreaches in our city and our country. But I believe this year God is calling us to spend more time reaching the lost of our neighborhood.

That’s why we decided to start a small groups program for our community. We always had small groups in the past, but it was always in the church, preparing leaders for the church, but now that those leaders are prepared and equipped it´s time to send them out to do the work.

We are spending this entire month on leadership training. We are showing videos of a leadership conference we went to last year. And also analyzing the streets and homes where we are going to have these groups. I´m excited. I can’t wait to see people from our church take on this challenge. We had our first meeting last Saturday and we had almost 30 people come to hear what this plan was about. We have been talking to them one on one, telling them what God is calling us to and how we can see them involved in it. Many have listened to this call. In the month of December all we did was PRAY about this. In January we are training and equipping them with information, and in February, hopefully it´s going to be the month where we take action.  

We are planning on having people lead small groups in different houses, key houses of the neighborhood. And to each house we want to send at least two leaders, especially so they can help and encourage each other in the work they are going to be doing. Also we are going to train them to multiply themselves. While one person is going to be leading the group, that person is also going to be discipling another leader of how to lead a group, so when the time comes where the small group is getting too big, they can continue working in that house while the apprentice leader moves to another location with another apprentice by his side.

Pray for this please because I believe God is going to do amazing things. Pray for our church, we want God to use us to reach the lost, but in order to have different results we have to try different things. You guys know that change is never easy, but little by little God is doing His work. By next month we want to be able to start at least 8 small groups in our community. We don’t want quantity we want quality.  I’m excited about this, thanks for your encouragement and for always praying for us. Thanks for your financial support also (we going to need it now more than ever with baby G on his wayJ) we are going to keep praying for each one of you and I hope to see you all down here soon, God bless!