Christmas Time in Barahona

December is a month full of activities in the ministry and church here, as I know it is in your churches as well. It is a great opportunity to reach out, to involve our church members in service to the community and to fellowship together as believers. 

As with every year, we have Christmas activities for the sponsor children and this year our youth group kids were able to participate in the activities and serve the children. They helped set up, helped prepare and serve the food, and they performed puppet shows and a drama. They were a huge help to our ministry team at ICC as it is a lot of work putting on activities for the 250+ children in the sponsorship program! 

At church we had a Christmas Day service. It was another opportunity for our youth to participate. We had all the adults and children together and had puppets, drama, Christmas choir and teaching from the Word. It was a nice time of fellowship for our church body. The videos of some of the songs sung by the choir are on our Facebook page. You can watch them here!

After Christmas, the youth group boys went on a 4 day retreat to a town in the middle of the country, Jarabacoa. They spent those days in Bible study and fellowship. It was a great time for them to strengthen their relationships with the Lord and with each other. They came back with stronger bonds. There were 10 guys in all who went. None of them had ever traveled to that part of the island and it was a blessing for all of them, including Jared.  

As I sit back and think about the activities we had and the things the Lord did in the month of December, I realize just how much the Lord is working in our youth. As we serve here day by day, many times we don't see the big picture, or any progress. But as I examine the month as a whole, I see the fruit the Lord has brought forth in our teenagers. They by no means are perfect and still have a lot of growing to do, but the Lord is showing Himself faithful to work in their hearts and their lives and they are not the same kids they were a year ago, or even 6 months ago. God loves these kids so much and is pouring into their lives week after week and day after day. 

Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for praying for our church, our community, our ministry, and our youth. The Lord is working. Please keep praying... 

God bless.