Cienfuegos En Fuego

When your fiancé has zero responsibilities at his church and you're in the country on the same weekend, you take the opportunity to pop in on the DRLM's newest preaching station: Cienfuegos. 

If you said "church planting" to me before I moved to the DR, I'm not sure I could have articulated what it looked like. The answer is what Josh & I witnessed yesterday morning. The first time I remember visiting Cienfuegos, Santiago's largest sector by far, was in May 2022 with a short-term team. We participated in an interactive devotional for local volleyball players, led by then-seminarian Rafael Flores. The caption of one of my photos includes the line "The hope is to begin services of the Word soon." 

Two seminarians, a VBS, a rented space across the street, a designated pastor, visits, music classes, kids' escuelita, and an eyeglass clinic later, it's "soon." Each Sunday at "10:30" (read: just before 11), a group that's already outgrown the aforementioned rental gathers in a school multi-purpose room for a modified order of service. Seminarian Jesús Barceló functions as a human alarm clock, knocking on doors to wake people up and remind them. With the Rev. Carlos Schumann out of town, Jesús then led the entire service. Counting his family, Josh, and me, we were 14, though Jesús listed a handful of regulars missing for whatever reason. 

Everything was typed out. Jesús explained that "P" corresponded to him and "C" to the congregation; a dog-eared sheet of short, simple songs accompanied the order of service. 

The interactive message was on Luke 18's "The Pharisee and the Tax Collector."

When it came time for the prayer, Jesús went from person to person asking if they had any special petitions to add. 

After sharing the peace with everyone, we shared cake and juice. In talking further with Jesús, I learned that the congregation has a BIG next few weeks. December 21, they'll bus to Pueblo Nuevo to join the mother congregation for its Christmas lunch, and December 28, the adults will begin catechesis for ~45 min. after each service. 

Pray for Carlos, Jesús, and all involved in discipling this community that so desperately needs the Church and the Savior who promises to be found there. 

Until next time, blessings in Christ!