School of Music Starts up again

Last Tuesday, our little group of musicians were proud to start up the school of music for this school year. Most of all the kids have come back and are trying to shake off the rust from the couple months free of playing. There is one kid named Junior in specific who at the age of 12 has begun playing with our Spanish youth band behind the drumset. It’s been very exciting to see him from the start and even more exciting seeing him help teach some of the new guys some of the basics (even though they may be 6-7 years older than him).
We’ve also been able to hire a new guitar teacher this year named Lardwin who plays guitar with me at our English Service. He attends one of the bigger churches in the area and is a regionally renown guitarist. We’ve been very excited to have him with us and it’s allowed us to expand our amount of students. It’s amazing how God has been blessing us down here.
My current plans are to take a one month break from the Dominican Republic from September 21st thru October 18th. I will spend a couple days in Costa Rica learning from the Christian Surfers ministry over there and then head back to California for a couple weddings, seeing old friends, and fundraising opportunities. Please let me know if you would like me to come speak about what God is doing in the DR at your church or small group. I am currently trying to plan a couple more fundraising opportunities.

Santo Domingo Trip with Papito

On Monday, August 2nd a local Christian Surfer named Papito and myself took a trip to Santo Domingo to meet up with a mission team from California doing ministry within the surf community down there. Papito was able to share at a local youth group what God has been doing in the DR among the surfers and how God has impacted his life personally. Papito is one of our most faithful members of Christian Surfers at Playa Encuentro and is currently ranked #1 in the national rankings. This trip also allowed us to make contacts with many pastors in California whose hearts are moved by the surfing community in the Dominican Republic.

Nagua, RD Competition

This past weekend the Surf Community in the Dominican Republic united for the fourth national contest to make the national team. It was a weekend of poor waves, but bringing everyone together held enough joy that sustained the positive atmoshpere. We were blessed to host a bible study Sunday morning before the finals right on the beach with a large majority of those competing. Isaac, a local surfer to Nagua shared his testimony. It was a huge blessing hearing from him and connecting with him in order to impact our national surf community. We were able to make a lot of other connections as well in uniting Christian Surfers around the entire country. Its a true blessing to see God moving nationally through a ministry that started on one simple beach.

Noah's Arc Surf Flick PC

About 3 weekends ago, myself and 3 other local surfers from the north coast went to the far corner of the country (Punta Cana) in a rental car to assist our brothers in putting on a christian surf flick for their local surf community. It was a full weekend of activities. About 40-50 local surfers got together friday night to watch the movie and yours truly performed an acoustic set after the movie. It was great to see nearly the whole community of surfers together in a Christian setting. Then the next day everyone got together at Macao beach for a BBQ and a local Pastor formally blessed the Surf School/Shack. Our friends at Macao beach are our first contacts in creating a national network of Christian Surfers here in the Dominican Republic. Please be praying for Rafaelito, Gustavo, Jesse, and Armando as they continue to influence their local community of Surfers for Jesus.