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.

Change in support

As of July, 2010 my support will be run through Christian Surfers North America. I am still working under New Missions, however Christian Surfers NA will be processing my funds for me. Thank you all soo much for your support and continued assistance as I’m here in the Dominican Republic. Please see my donate page on my website for more info. www.dmmissions.com

wow its been awhile

I am so sorry i haven't been in touch better the last couple months, but it has been busy.

In order to give ya guys a better idea of what i do down here, i created a quick flick that you can view if you go here.

School of music - Has been growing and I'm currently paying one and sometimes two student teachers to help with the lessons. There is a section about our school of music coming out in a New Missions newsletter soon. I'll definitely keep you posted on that.

Christian Surfers - we're currently working on our official affiliation with Christian Surfers International. Cal Fisher of CSI just visited us and slowly, but surely we're forming a network around the whole country of Christian Surfers. We're currently seeing anywhere from 10-30 surfers meet weekly for a bible study. We had a BBQ last week and had over 50 in attendance. There is a lot of excitement amongst us to grow our ministry here as well.

Upcoming travel plans - I will be in Cleveland, OH for Jesse and Ashley's wedding from May 17 - 24. I will remain in the DR for most of the summer as growth and other people's travel plans are increasingly making my presence here a necessity. I hope to return to California in August.

Walking on Water movie premiere

On Thursday, February 11th our community of Christian Surfers held a movie premiere at Colegio Nueva Vida in Sosua, Dominican Republic. The movie premiered was Walking on Water which is a newly released christian surf flick. My friend Michele Raymundo came down from Christian Surfers Encinitas to assist us with the event. We created flyers, handouts, and provided transportation to and from the event from three different communities. The event was sponsored by five different local surf/kite surf schools and apparel companies. The event showcased all 5 sponsors, surf photography by a local artist, two local surfboard shapers, and a local rock band. Food was provided at the event for a low cost and the movie was shown through a HD projector and killer sound system. A local christian surfer within our community named Jesus was able to share the good news of Christ after the movie.

All in all, over 100 individuals from the local surf community were able to make it out to the event. However, the triumph in which we are more grateful is that one local surfer gave his heart to Christ. His name is Gabbie and when Jesus invited people to accept Christ, Gabbie came running forward. Gabbie is a surfer we have been loving on intentionally in the past 6 months or so. Gabbie came to a place in life where he was ready to just throw all his pain and loneliness to the ground. He came to the movie premiere all dressed up with the goal of accepting Christ as his Savior that evening. I was almost in tears at the beauty of the moment. In front of all his peers and the surf community he accepted Christ and is currently becoming involved in the local church.

The success of this event has lead to showing the movie in two local schools and plans are being made to premiere the flick on the east coast of the island as well in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. God is doing great things in the surf community here and our group of christian surfers is becoming more and more internationally renown through different organizations and visiting surfers.