Unidos Por El / United For Him Event a Success!

It seems that the event is getting better and better.  Our largest crowds ever,  from the first day when Isabelle Valdez sang, to our last night with Edgar Winter leading the youth to a commitment on their knees. [Please visit the link above to Facebook to see a video of the closing call] As I looked out from the stage at this crowd, I was touched by the seriousness of their faces.  400 young people kneeling on the grass for over an hour, praying to God.  Many with tears running

down their cheeks.  90 young people signed a list to each lead 10 people to a commitment to Christ throughout the remainder of this year.  That last Sunday we saw over 2000 people attending at one time.  For the first time we had three buses drop in, one from Ranchito, and two from Santiago.  The word is beginning to spread.  Our goal is to see Christian youth inviting their un-churched friends to the concerts instead of visiting the carnaval celebrations.

Debbie's favorite nights were Saturdays, as after the worship team and the guest musicians ministered, we had a different speaker share the Gospel message to the young people.  The messages were outstanding.  Ricky Gell, Gemuel Delgado, Otoniel Bonilla, and Zoila Garcia challenged the young people to live for God.

The good news is that we have paid off all debts for the event. The Lord came through again this year.   These concerts were offered free and depended completely on donations.  We are thankful to people like Ted Krupski,  Felicidad and Alec Pyron, Living Waters Worship Center (Green Cove Springs, FL), Calvary Academy (Lakewood, New Jersey), Ryan Pauly from Transition Ministry, and Calvin Fortner (Greenville, SC), for their contributions.  There were also some local area businesses that helped to

sponsor the event, such as: Ingsecom, Blady Beato Auto, Supermercado Vega Real, VegaTeVe (a local TV channel), La Vega Christian School, Amaury Publicity, Tirosh Publicity, and others.  We sold t-shirts, hot dogs, bean pudding, ladies headbands, and more, to raise some extra funds.  When everything was tallied, we had $200.00 left over, which hopefully will go to Elias Castillo who donated 8 nights of sound equipment, lights, lasers, and fog, and platform.

Later I dropped in on the Carnaval parade in town to take some photos of the gruesome costumes and the

crowds.  It was a sad sight later that night to see young people, obviously drunk, walking around in a daze. We are trying to make a difference here in our city.  At the very least we are protecting the church youth from the bad influence of Carnaval, if they choose to be at United For Him.  Pray for the youth of La Vega, that they make the right choices in their lives.