Sunday found us up bright and early again, and in the van to Villa Mella. We had been invited by Abel and Pastor Jacinto de la Cruz to share in their service with music. It was a different worship experience than the small village church. Iglesia Bautista Quisqueyana is the largest Baptist church in Villa Mella, a suburb of Santo Domingo. There are larger churches in the city itself. This church has a membership of about 500, and Sunday attendance of about 700 thanks to the tireless evangelistic efforts of the church. This summer they have conducted 24 Vacation Bible Schools with the help of mission groups from the U.S. They have a strong visitation program and ongoing discipleship classes for those who make decisions. They are ultraconservative for the culture in their music standards and are unique in the stands that they take - music to the glory of God. We were privileged to be able to share in the service with music that God has given to us.
If the church had walls, we would say they were "bursting at the seam", but it is a pole-shed, metal roofed building with open sides. They keep adding chairs, then standing room only when those are full. The people on the edges just hope it doesn't rain! The church is in a building program and has purchased a piece of land (fully paid for -- a miraculous story in itself due to the price of property). The new church is near the end line of the metro train, and will be highly visible. It is supposed to seat 3000 indoors, with air conditioning! That is probably 5-10 years down the road, so in the meantime, they will squeeze more and more people under the roof..............
Our music consisted of all our piano & strings, including Noelle on the mandolin and AnnaBeth on guitar playing "Oh How I Love Jesus", a trumpet & cello duet by Mason & Daniel --"Onward Christian Soldiers, Noelle & Kassidy singing "Because of Grace", and the whole group singing "For me to Live is Christ" in English and Spanish. They finished up with Kassidy on piano & Lisa & Noelle on violins playing "Power in the Blood". Our kids did all this in humility and totally for the glory of God, yet received much praise of men as people expressed how they were greatly blessed.
The church also had special music as the children's choir sang, and the children's string group played (accompanied by Abel on trombone and a 12 year old piano player who has been playing for 8 months!). Of note is that none of them used any music- they never had any because of cost and unavailablity, it was all taught verbally and memorized. Amazing!!
After an hour and 15 minutes of music, the offering was given (not taken) as the people filed to the front to give their offerings to the Lord. The message was brought by a guest preacher who was retiring from a pastorate in Puerto Rico. His message was about the brevity of life, and redeeming the time for the Lord. They use the Reina Vallarta version of the Bible, which is comparable to our King James.
After some time visiting, we headed back to camp for the noon meal and an afternoon of rest-- or play as some of the kids needed- but a different pace than we had been on all week.
We also were blessed to share some of the same music in the evening service, and Kassidy and Noelle sang "Going Back" instead of the other. The team also did a skit about resisting the lies of the devil, that was quite pointed in its message. The church was packed - probably a couple of hundred-with the congregation being about half American and half Dominican. A work team had arrived from the U.S., so we had a number of English speakers. It was probably a predominantly saved crowd, unlike the meetings during the camp week.
David preached on "Abiding in Christ" and what it means to be a branch on the vine, and included fruits of the Spirit as evidence of that abiding. It was a powerful message. It was made more powerful as we heard every word twice. Dario was translating, and he is the best there is. He puts the same passion into every word as it is given by the speaker. Dario has a lot in common with David - a highly intelligent computer programmer on whom God has placed His hand. Dario feels called to preach the word of God and has been greatly impacted by David & Justin this week. In the DR, someone with computer skills can move into the upper echelon of income and society --but Dario is on the edge of forsaking all that to serve the Lord. Please pray for God to make His calling and pathway clear. Someone will be needed in the future to take over the shepherding of this work in Juan Tomas.
Praise be to God for His working in Juan Tomas, and allowing us to be a part.
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