Dawn on New Years Day 2012 in Santo Domingo

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We believe that there were over 400 people in the ICC parking lot last night…people from all walks of life, economic status, age and size.   Every year we are amazed by how God covers the place with peace and joy despite our differences and the challenging circumstances that many are facing.  The Cena Navideña (Christmas dinner) is truly a night of celebration and brotherhood, and members of our community can’t understand it.  But, we pray that our “light” during this season will shine brightly and challenge the Colonial City to seek out the true reason for celebration at Christmas time.

The Wemmicks were small wooden people. Each of the wooden people was carved by a woodworker named Eli. His workshop sat on a hill overlooking their village. Every Wemmick was different. Some had big noses, others had large eyes. Some were tall and others were short. Some wore hats, others wore coats. But all were made by the same carver and all lived in the village. And all day, every day, the Wemmicks did the same thing: They gave each other stickers. Each Wemmick had a box of star stickers and a box of gray dot stickers. Up and down the streets all over the city, people could be seen sticking stars or dots on one another.

The pretty ones, those with smooth wood and fine paint, always got stars. But if the wood was rough or the paint chipped, the Wemmicks gave dots. The talented ones got stars, too. Some could lift big sticks high above their heads or jump over tall boxes. Still others knew big words or could sing very pretty songs. Everyone gave them stars.

Some Wemmicks had stars all over them! Every time they got a star it made them feel so good that they did something else and got another star. Others, though, could do little. They got dots.

Punchinello was one of these. He tried to jump high like the others, but he always fell. And when he fell, the others would gather around and give him dots.  One day, Punchinello met a Wemmick named Lucia who didn’t have any dots or stars.  He asked her why, and she told him to go see Eli in his workshop to find out.

When Punchinello nervously entered the workshop, Eli called Punchinello over by name and explained that the stickers would only stick if they were important to him.  But, Punchinello shouldn’t think that the stickers from the other Wemmicks are important because he was loved and accepted by his creator, Eli.  What Eli thought of Punchinello should be more important than what the other Wemmicks thought about him.  Punchinello was astonished by this idea, but wasn’t sure if he could change.  Eli encouraged Punchinello to come by his workshop every day to be reminded of how special and loved he was.  As Punchinello left the workshop that day, one of his gray dots fell to the ground.

The Abriendo Camino students were fantastic Wemmicks, giving out stars and dots based upon their performances.   At the end of the play, Pastor Jose Figueroa addressed the audience, asking them if they could identify with Punchinello as much as he could and challenging them to look for acceptance and love in the Creator during the holiday season.   We have turned Christmas into a time of giving and receiving things in order to feel better about ourselves by making good impressions on others, but we always go away feeling empty.  Jesus Christ came into this world to give love and hope to all who would accept Him, irregardless of how we measure up.  Our perspective can be changed if we accept the Heavenly Father’s invitation to spend time with Him everyday and be reminded of who we are in His eyes.

The evening closed with the students singing “Happy Birthday, Jesus” and a lively celebration dance, giving the parents plenty of photo opportunities.   Here are a few of our favorite pictures of the evening:

Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God!
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God!
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.
Then what could stand against.

Please join us in prayer that God will make the next 16 years of ministry for Iglesia Comunitaria Cristiana filled with supernatural manifestations of God’s reconciling and transforming power in our community!

We were able to get away to a resort about an hour out of Santo Domingo for this special weekend.   Nothing clears the mind and relaxes the body like the sound of waves hitting the sand and the rustling of palm branches in the wind!  Our key themes for the weekend were dealing with the departure of a beloved leader and spiritual father, adjusting to changing roles and responsibilities, coping with change individually, resolving conflicts Biblically and developing greater team unity and teamwork.

We all left the retreat truly marked by what we learned and experienced, and we can’t thank the Redeemer team enough for all that they invested in us over a few short days.   There is no doubt that we will be a better church and a better leadership team as a result.  Here are some photos of our incredible time together!

After a severe beating from the police one day, Altagracia decided that she did not want to panhandle on the street or drink anymore.  She would rather stay at the church and keep herself busy with cleaning the Albergue restroom (if anyone makes a mess, they won’t hear the end of it from her!) on her hands and knees and keeping an eye on the activities in the church parking lot.   Since that day, she has kept us on our toes with her quick wit and great sense of humor.  Altagracia is a bit of a local celebrity at ICC.  She loves to meet visitors and have her picture taken.   So, we hope that you get the chance to befriend this special lady someday soon!

However, when we arrived a few hours before the service to get everything ready, we discovered that our generator, which we must use for every church service in order to have sufficient electricity and to ensure that we don’t experience blackouts if the electric company decides to randomly cut the power from the street, was not working.  A few critical belts had broken and could not be purchased until the next morning.  So, the musicians and sound technician began moving everything from our auditorium to the patio space that is typically used as our Abriendo Camino School’s playground.  To make things more challenging, the sky was cloudy, and we expected that it wouldn’t be long before it might rain.

But, the team decided to press on, and they prayed that God would hold back the rain until after the service.  And, He did!  We squeezed over 100 people into the patio, with most of our young people sitting behind the musicians on the stairs leading up to the 2nd floor of Abriendo Camino, and the rest in every remaining space.  Even though it was a bit stuffy and cramped, it was amazing to see our ICC family worshipping God together in such close quarters.  Sometimes extraordinary physical proximity forces us to get more “real” with each other, and thereby become more vulnerable and open to what God wants to do in our lives.   We believe that God doesn’t allow anything to happen by accident; and although we don’t always rejoice in the stress of quite so many last minute changes and perceived inconveniences, that is when we really see Him at work.

The first person led out into the warm, Caribbean waters was an elderly gentleman suffering from Parkinson’s disease.  He had been a proud military officer during the time of the infamous dictator Trujillo.  After years of his wife and son sharing with him from the Bible and encouraging him to come to church, he finally listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit and decided to turn his life over to God.   His son helped him out to where Jose and Robert were waiting in the water.  This moment was the answer to years of prayer.  His wife and her two sons were beaming with joy!

We love to see families and married couples take the step of baptism together.   We were blessed to have a stepmother and her daughter and a single mom and her 13 year old son make this decision this weekend, as well as a married couple.   This couple came to the church as a result of some evangelistic members of ICC who have a business relationship with them. The wife has since become one of the regular cooks in our Hermanos de la Calle soup kitchen.   They own a bus company, and the husband donated the services of one of their mini-buses to help us transport alot of our congregation to the event.

The last individual to be baptized was a personal trainer from our New Creation Gym.   While we were driving to the beach, he mentioned that he was disappointed that no one from his family was able to come to be with him during this important moment in his life.  Although we shared his disappointment, we assured him that he would be surrounded by his church family.   As this young man was heading back in to the beach after being baptized, a shout of celebration went out and a group of our teenage boys who regularly work out with him at the gym, began rushing towards him.   They literally pounced on him before he could get out of the water and gave him a group hug in the ocean, followed, of course, by tossing him back into the water and splashing everyone within reach.

Even though we experienced some rain showers during the event, we are overflowing with joy over what God has been doing in these lives and the chance to celebrate Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection on Saturday.  It was truly a day of rejoicing!