Fellowship Sundays

Once a month the congregation gets together to enjoy a fellowship evening. This also works as an opportunity to invite friends and relatives for evangelism opportunities. We always meet new people and have many opportunities to witness. There are usually several activities going on at the same time - the men play dominoes, the children like to play games, the women may play board games or work on preparing the meal. The evening ends when a typical meal is served for all. These get-togethers are very well attended, over 100 people at the September one.

Cholera
The cholera outbreak in Haiti has officially recorded about 300 deaths. We have talked to some people who have actually been in Haiti - they say the number is actually much higher. Many are dying in the countryside without being "officially" registered as a cholera death. Here in the DR we are hearing on the news how to prevent the disease - washing hands, washing fruits and vegetables, don't buy food on the street. There have been some "rumored" cases of cholera here in Santiago, but health officials have yet to confirm that these cases are valid.

Christmas

"Se acabó el año". Christmas trees and decorations are in full swing here and have been for over a month now. The stores are full of Christmas merchandise and a night time drive is lit up with beautiful lights all over the city. Seems like everyone is anxious for the holidays!

Fellowship Service

Leaders of Haiti's two official religions, a Catholic bishop and the head of the Voodo priests - joined Protestant ministers for a prayer service near the National Palace. A Muslim preacher also attended. (Haiti Press)

A Day of National Mourning was declared for Feb. 12. Catholics, masons, muslims and voodooists were all invited to participate.

A voodoo priest said to the congregation that the earthquake was a time to unify all faiths. (Haiti Globe)

A woman sang a song honoring the snake spirit.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

It is always surprising that people who talk about the Scriptures as the truth can believe that joining together with those of other faiths is pleasing to God. The entire Old Testament teaches us how God patiently tried to teach his chosen people to remain separate, to guard the truth as their most precious treasure, to not mix it with the pagan practices they saw around them.

When we see the massive crowds of people all joined together, people of all faiths joining in a worship service, it does fill us with emotion and we want to feel satisfaction at people coming together working for the good of man. We know, though, from Scripture that these types of joint services are not pleasing to our faithful God. His truth is not to be contaminated with false teaching. He still calls on us to guard his truth and to keep it pure from false teachings.

Daniel faced a test when the king built a statue and ordered everyone in his kingdom to bow down before the statue. Daniel, in faithfulness and worship to God alone, refused to join in any kind of worship contrary to God's will. He refused to obey the king's orders even though it meant a death sentence for him. He put his service to God above the friendship of men.

What can we think, then, when we see these massive groups of people joining together in an ecumenical service? It causes us great sadness. In their desire to seek peace with men and obtain God's favor in ways contrary to God's will, these leaders and their followers are rejecting the peace with God that He wants to give them through faith in Jesus. And if they do not repent and trust only in Jesus as their Savior, in the end they will bring the wrath of God down on themselves. That would be a far greater tragedy than the earthquake. We pray that the hearts of the people in Haiti would be opened to know the truth of the Scriptures. Rona Abraham (our Haitian pastor) is currently in Haiti doing exploratory work to begin mission work there. Please pray with us that God would bless his efforts and bring people to believe the truth of his Word. God will not share his glory with another and he will not be mocked.

Fellowship Nights

In an effort to reach out to others, the Moca congregation has initiated a series of Fellowship/Game nights. Some of our members are married to spouses that are not members. Many have parents, brothers and sisters, and other family members that are not members. Everyone is encouraged to bring their friends and neighbors along also.

We are getting together on Sunday nights to offer members a chance to bring others who are not members of the congregation to spend time with us and give them an opportunity to get to know us. Our desire is to show them our Christian love and open doors for them to speak about spiritual things.

We play games, talk, eat and enjoy our time together. Dominoes is always a favorite and a common card game here, "Casino" is also popular.

So far, these gatherings have had an excellent attendance. Many members are bringing their family members and we have also seen many new faces. It is our hope that by providing opportunities to spend more time with others, there will also be many more opportunities to witness to them and tell them about the hope we have.