February - Reaching the Youth of La Vega

Please pray for this weekend and the next three weekends in February for the "United For Him" event.  We are asking the Lord for great weather, and a wonderful move of His Spirit among the young people attending. Please pray that all financial needs for the event will be met.

Elias Castillo

"Unidos Por El" (United For Him), is the youth event that your missionaries have been very involved with for the past four years.  In fact it is Mitch Martinez and Elias Castillo who are the executive producers of this faith venture.  It is a series of Youth Concerts every weekend in February, which have been organized to create a Christian alternative to the wild Carnival Festival which seems to envelope like a dark cloud the city of La Vega every year. . The spirit of partying, and promiscuity is promoted all weekend long.  Violence and vehicle accidents are par for this event.  Concerned that even children were being drawn into this event, we networked with area youth pastors and began coming together for a clean, spiritual, counterbalance for young people. From a couple of hundred young people, we have grown to over two thousand in these four years.  From Contemporary Christian music, to Christian Rap and Rock, there is something for every one in the family.  I am attaching a link to a video made at the 2010 event which explains the need. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqIokjOqdjI&list=UU5wtXYwH2S5-GWx0RtJGx2g&index=3&feature=plcp

This year we expanded from a Sunday only event to include Saturday nights.  Our school, La Vega Christian School, opens it's campus on the weekend for the 25 plus Christian artists which will perform here in the month of February, and the expected 3000 plus attendees.  This year, every Saturday the events will include a local church worship band, a national Christian artist, and a special message from an outstanding Youth Conference speaker. Sundays activities include performances by at least 5 different Christian artists or bands.

This event is free.   That doesn't mean that there are no costs.  Last year the event cost $9000.00 US to put on.  This year we believe that for $12,000.00 all needs will be covered, remember we are adding four more days to the event.  Last year about 60% of the funds came in after the event had started.  Mostly from help from three major churches in the US that were touched to give us a hand.  This year, again, we find ourselves searching to see from where the help will come.  I made personal appeals at churches in the US last year, but this year I am not there.  If you think that you or your church would like to help support this event, please contact us at http://dominicanmissions.org/    and you will find information on how the funds can be sent.  We believe God is reaching out to the youth through this event.  

Some of the young tech guys at the TV production studio put together the following short collage of videos shot at the event last year.  

http://vimeo.com/35863310 

The "Unidos Por El" event will be broadcast by Vegateve on Ustream (1 hour delay) in February every Saturday at 7:00 PM, and Sundays from 4PM until 8 PM.  I have included the link below to the internet channel.  This series of concerts will also be broadcast in La Vega, and in the two major metropolitan areas (Santiago and Santo Domingo) in the Dominican Republic on Aster Cable TV network.

http://vegateve.com/PlayerV3/   

Currently we have raised $3000.00 in funding and still need another $9000.00 before the event ends.  

God bless, Mitch Martinez