Troy's two and we are expecting baby number two - coming February 2019! Please be praying for a healthy pregnancy, for us as we continue to raise support for our growing family and adjust to life in ministry with two little ones. Troy is really starting to communicate and is doing great in both languages. He loves babies and we are excited to watch him grow as a new big bro! 

This year we celebrated 10 years of God's faithfulness through Cristo Urbano camp, we were able to challenge 250 teens in their faith and 11 of them made the decision to get baptized! Our main mission for this camp is to reach out to the people who don't usually go to church and this year 70% of the campers were non-Christians. Throughout the last 10 years, God has used this camp to plant seeds in the lives of over 2,500 youth from all across the island! The most encouraging thing for us to see is individuals who came to Christ through camp are now preaching, sponsoring camp and helping lead worship and small groups. As a result of this camp, we have also helped launch other Christian rappers and break dance groups ministering to kids in other parts of the country. 

The teams that have come to serve alongside us this year have been a huge encouragement to our family. Troy fits into our family perfectly and loves having people come to visit as much as we do! If you would like to join a team, please let us know. Lenae had a new role of overseeing the media interns this summer. She was really thankful for their time and talent and grew and learned a lot from this experience. 

Last year we started studying a discipleship book called Rooted. We invited 15 small group leaders from our church to check it out with the leadership first to see if we liked the book. That led us to launching 17 groups from our church and over 100 groups from other GO churches around the country. Months later, hundreds of Dominicans are being discipled by this amazing tool. We keep hearing amazing stories of peoples' lives being changed, several people getting baptized and a lot of Christians being convicted to read their Bibles more. Through this study, our GO and church staff feel more connected and know how to better pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

After five years in the making, we finally released our new album Rimas 3R. It was the most challenging project that we have done because in this stage of our lives, we are all married and have kids so we don't have the time that we used to for music. Still, we wanted to make sure that we did something special for our fans. This album of 13 songs is something that everyone can enjoy. If you want to check it out, it is available on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. GET IT! https://open.spotify.com/album/2UNi76... ALSO AT https://itunes.apple.com/mx/album/rim...

God is doing incredible things through GO Ministries! We are so blessed to get to be a part of it, we want to invite you to be a part by coming down and serving alongside us in the Dominican, praying, or financially supporting our family!

All our love and prayers,

Isaias, Lenae and Troy Gabriel

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We are enjoying our time in the states visiting family, friends and supporters for the holidays! We had a great time in Virginia and are looking forward to our time in Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania! It is always great to meet with different churches and help them plan their mission trips to the Dominican to serve alongside us!

We are excited because in January we are going to start our first session of the small group study Rooted with our entire church! For the last few months we have been preparing for the launch of this devotional series, please be praying for everybody involved.

Thank you for all of your prayers for our Cristo Urbano camp this summer! It was awesome! This year we hosted it at a new camp and we were a little worried about the attendance since it is further away but it was actually our highest attendance with 350 teens! A lot of new people came and 20 people came forward wanting to learn more about the plan of salvation and we got to celebrate four baptisms! Six more kids got baptized in the two weeks after camp! Every year is a challenge to raise the $5,000 for camp expenses, we appreciate everyone who helped out with those additional funds. We absolutely loved having the youth group from South Side Christian Church help at the camp and are excited to have them back again in July for next year’s youth retreat!

Our Cristo Urbano basketball team has also been a blessing for our church. This team started last year and the main purpose of it is to reach out to kids who aren’t Christians. Out of the eight non-Christians on the team, six of them have gotten baptized this year! Other players from our neighborhood who have never been in church have shown interest in joining our team because they have seen that not only are we talented but we also want to live life differently. We were a part of a summer tournament with 11 other churches and we won the championship!

We also got to have a family day at our church with games, food, fun and fellowship! Our church was encouraged to invite one person who doesn’t usually come and they did a great job welcoming everyone and making them feel at home! Our mission was accomplished because they felt encouraged and want to come back again! Two more couples from our youth group got to go through the love and respect video series with us and they are excited to start it with their friends!

Thanks a bunch for all of your prayers and support! We have a lot of projects coming up in 2018 and are looking forward to seeing what God has in store! This has been the year that Central Church has grown the most and we pray that next year through the Rooted study we continue to make more and more disciples!

All our love and prayers,

Isaias, Lenae and Troy Gabriel

Going to the church planting conference earlier this year, helped me become a better leader for our church because now the mentality is not “let’s grow our church but instead it is let’s grow His kingdom”. One of the main steps that we took to grow the kingdom of God in our community, was to enable the church to start small groups. We began the year with 10 small groups and now looking towards the end of the year, we have around 25 small groups throughout our city. God has been good and faithful. We have seen how our church has new faces visiting every Sunday. Our challenge is to allow those visitors to plug into these different groups so they can continue their growth in Christ through community. There is a big chance that by early 2017 we are going to have more than 30 healthy small groups all over the city of Santiago.

With some of the new programs that they have started in the church this year, we have overcome some traditions of a 30+ year church. It wasn’t easy because once the church has established some traditions like: when to meet, where to meet, what days to meet, setup of the services, who can lead and who can’t lead, it is difficult to break that mold.  But thanks to the leadership of the church, we have been able to come together to make some changes and move forward with the new direction of the church.

One of the things that I have been really excited about is to be able to have a few couples’ groups in our church. We stared a few “Love and Respect” groups, one at my sister Samira and Tim’s house and another one in our house.  The great outcome of that is that the couples loved it so much that many of them are starting their own “Love and respect” small groups at their house with their friends. I never saw this coming but God has a great sense of humor. Sometimes we think that our plans are good but God’s plans are always going to be better than ours.

Our church continues to grow and we continue to delegate leadership roles within our congregation. For this 2017 we plan to start a COLLEGE MINISTRY, and also we are going to break in groups the youth group; we are going to have a few people leading each group (high school, middle school and college.) And it makes me really happy that many of these leaders are going to be kids that grew up in my youth group, so I know “they get it” they know what we are trying to do. They know that our model of ministry always has been TO MAKE DISCIPLES THAT MAKE DISCIPLES. SO PLEASE keep these things in your prayers because now as a teaching pastor I love what I get to do and I always try to be the guy that pushes people to reach their potential in ministry. So I’m rooting for my crew, they know I have their backs.  

 On another note, I was very blessed to be able to go and perform a concert at JOHNSON UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA. Thanks for that opportunity, even though Angelito and Albania couldn’t get their visas for that event we were really happy to know that our music keeps growing outside our country. Recently I dropped a new video of a song I dedicated to my wife, Lenae, hope you guys like it. Also, just today, I confirmed the dates for CRISTO URBANO camp in 2017. Don’t forget to pray for this event that for so many years has been changing kids’ lives all over the country and don’t forget to give to make this possible. Also keep praying for our next album RIMAS 3R…it’s coming soon. 

SUMMER UPDATE 2016

We just started working on our new album Rimas 3R which stands for Rhymes that Redeem, Renew and Restore. We are hoping to have it done by next year to continue ministering to the youth through music. 

This year for the youth retreat, we invited our first international rapper, Manny Montes. We are excited to celebrate our 8th year for our Cristo Urbano youth retreat. This year we are expanding the camp to people who have never attended before. We have been talking to different churches and leaders who have never been before, getting them excited about what is coming.

Our goal for this year is to have at least 15 solid small groups around the community. We just launched this program the first week of March with 10 small groups. We divided small groups around the neighborhood and each small group has two leaders and one or two apprentices. The goal is for the leaders to disciple the apprentices and to multiply the small groups in the future.

One of our goals for 2015 was to empower the youth group so they can reach others in the community. We are very proud of them for stepping out of their comfort zones. And in this year they are all continuing stepping up into leadership roles. It has been great to see how many people in the church, not only the young adults, have started leading people in small groups. For many of these groups I have been working on the curriculum and equipping them in January and February through leadership training.

 So in this last 3 months, it’s been super cool to see lives being change in our community through these groups. It’s priceless! Now not only do we have people becoming Christians but they are also receiving the proper follow up within their groups. They have their leaders within their groups that they can trust with individual conversations that are going to help their walk with God become stronger              

We are adopting the vision of church planting so not only are we getting our people involved in small groups but also some of those leaders are looking to plant churches. It is a blessing to jump into this vision with the church and it has been neat to see the church embracing it and wanting to expand the kingdom.

 Also, as you guys know, this year has been an interesting one for me and Lenae. Being apart for so long was not easy. You guys know that during her pregnancy (because of the zika virus) she has been in the States since February. I thank those of you who prayed for us and were always finding ways to encourage us during this time.

Our little guy was supposed to come on July 7^th, but one night on JUNE 19^th, while his dad and his granddad where watching LEBRON JAMES winning game 7 of the NBA FINALS, our little guy  decided to come to the world, 3 weeks earlier, to make us super happy. TROY ANTHONY GABRIEL was born the morning of JUNE 20^th-19in -7lbs at 9:01 AM.

We are so thankful for this kid, I couldn’t be any happier. I really don’t have words to describe the feeling… I hope you guys can meet him soon, please keep praying for us as we try to get his passport so we can go back home soon. I already got my ticket to go back on July 28^th so I can finish up preparing CRISTO URBANO camp. But Lenae still hasn’t been able to get hers because we are waiting on the baby’s passport. I hope he can get it next week so they both can go back home the 28^th with me. My family and friends back home can’t wait to see him. Thanks for everything you guys do for us, and may God bless you.   

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!

 

SUMMER 2015

The end of the summer has arrived. It has been a fun ride for us, it’s always humbling to be a part of God´s work in Dominican Republic. In the last few months we have had over 40 groups of missionaries from different parts of the United States, that have come down to help us accomplish God´s purpose for our island.

It has been fun to have so many people helping us work in areas like construction, medical clinics, sports events, camps, training, nutrition centers, and so many other outreach events. We are really thankful for the work that you all have done here. It has been a great encouragement for all our missionaries and local leaders.

During this time, we have witnessed several lives being changed. We have seen people coming down on trips and surrendering their all to our Lord Jesus. A lot of people have been baptized this summer and not only that we have seen how so many

Christians have felt the call of missions in their own communities and their churches. We want people to leave this place wanting to serve those around them, just like Jesus did.

This summer God also allowed me to see some of my spiritual kids grow their faith and mature in their spiritual walk. One of them is a rapper named Manny. I´m really proud of everything God is doing in his life because I have been able to see God´s work in him since day one. This is a kid that accepted Christ at our first Cristo Urbano Camp, 7 years ago. It’s crazy that 7 years later God has allowed him to release his first album and also to perform at the camp where he was once ¨just a visitor¨. This year God has called me to empower him with his music, so we have been helping him in every way we can for him to get exposure and for him to grow in knowledge for his God given music ministry.

We did his release party in our church back in June, and we had a full house. People loved it and we were very proud. Also a lot of churches around Santiago are now calling him to perform in different places. We are very proud because I have seen that he doesn´t look at music as a way to gain recognition but a way to bring the Gospel to people.

In the meanwhile, I have been finishing my solo album that I started 10 years ago. I believe it´s time for the world to hear it. It has been a fun process because I love music. Our group is also preparing new music, we have been writing new stuff. Lord´s will, our new album´s name is going to be RIMAS 3R, which the 3 R´s makes reference to REDEEM, RENEW AND RESTORE.

I don’t know exactly when it´s going to be ready but in the meanwhile, I do know that my album is going to be ready by the end of the year. The name of it is going to be LA RECOPILACION, which translates to The Recompilation. Because it is a recompilation song that I have done in the last 10 years. It’s going to be interesting, I still have two more songs to record. But many of the older songs, I have been making new music for it and in some cases, changing a few lyrics. I know when that project its out, you guys are going to love it. Especially now that in this ¨LA RECOPILACION¨ album, I’m going to have two songs in English, so people like you, that have been supporting me since day one, can appreciate it a little more. It’s going tobe a small form of appreciation.

Another great testimony of the things that God has done during this summer, is the outcome of our annual youth retreat CRISTO URBANO. During the last few hours before camp many things were going south. It took patience, determination and faith that God was in control. Every time God is about to do something great, the devil tries to get in the way to take our eyes off the goal. One of the things that had me really worried was that the morning of the day when camp starts, I woke up with the news that one of our busses coming from Jimani (city at the Haitian border) was stopped by military for passport check up and out of 30 people, around 15 didn’t have their ID documents up to date, so the entire bus was sent back to Jimani (8 hour drive.)

I was really sad, especially when I heard that they had a lot of new comers that were excited about coming to camp but were not able to. They had kids crying and torn apart.

We were able to bring to camp only 7 of them, and they loved it. We sent gifts like shirts and cds to those who couldn’t make it because there was nothing else we could do. The good news is that I talked to them a few weeks after camp and they said that they loved their shirts and cds and that they appreciated that we thought of them. They also told me that they are already working on their documents so they can make it next year.

The camp was a success. Even though we had some trials and tribulations along the way, God showed up. Our challenge to the kids was to become fishers of men. We encourage them to not just be believers and become disciples. I have been hearing lots of comments of kids that took on that challenge. Now they want to make a difference in their communities. It was also AWESOME to finish camp with 6 people getting baptized.

This summer has truly been a fun ride for me and my wife. God continues surprising us, he keeps showing up. His faithfulness is always there and any time we need a word of encouragement, he sends somebody to meet that need. I´m thankful for everything He has given me and thankful for those who have been there behind the scenes supporting us. May God bless you and please keep us in your prayers.   

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.