Hi everyone. Merry Christmas and happy New year! Jonathan invited me to his school to see an end-of-year presentation. He played a minuet by Bach and did an excellent job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SokAHTj-qbg

Since I lost my most advanced students this year, we had to keep our presentations simple, and yet it turned out very well.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVBn35vEkkU


Fortunately, I have someone else who wants to start violin next month.

The Bible workshop that I teach on Saturdays has gone well and grown considerably. Often, the young men cannot fit into the office for the class.

Overall I feel it's been a challenging year for my music ministry, but I'm praying God will bless and surprise us in a whole new way in 2014.

This past month has been good. I enjoyed very much my time up in Canada for my brother's wedding and getting to know his in-laws.

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We also ministered in my uncle Gary's church Evangel Temple and also in Toronto Gospel Lighthouse. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and and thank you very much for your continued support. Shortly after coming back, we spent the American Thanksgiving with our great missionary friends here and good food.

CPC Ministries has a new member: Marisol Reyes! She is Raquel's older sister and has just decided to take up the violin for church ministry.

(Marisol on left and Raquel on right)

On to the Christmas presentations. . .

I've set up group classes every Saturday afternoon so we are always working at playing together and can discuss ideas for new presentations. Thankfully more students showed up this time for the monthly presentation. Luis, the dad of one of my younger students is very proud of how is son Jonathan's technique is improving. His sound is much stronger. I'm still making arrangements of our church songs. Joaquín is practicing them up and should be playing several of them with the band soon. I can't wait for the day our church has its fully-developed string section ministering in every service, because I believe that musical creativity is one of the most important ways to reach the lost. Pray that God develops our faith and opens our eyes to His amazing plan for us. Also continue to pray that our neighbor living above us will no longer get in the way of our ministry of praise and worship to God.

P.S. I'm getting ready to visit Canada for my brother's wedding on Nov. 9. I haven't been there in over 10 years. I'm sure it'll be nice to see my family up there again.

Well, the band is back. Last Saturday we had a youth service in which I was glad to play my electric violin. Last Sunday, the band played for the whole song service and did a great job. I'm really glad that we are training musicians in our church. On Sunday I also did a mini presentation with a couple violin students. Here's a video someone took of it:

Perpetual Motion (the first tune) turned out funny because for some reason, they kept speeding up.
I felt bad that a lot of my students couldn't make it to the rehearsal because they had other things going on. I pray that they can make it next time.

Starting a couple of weeks ago, I have had Joaquín take over the teaching of music theory to the other students. Since I've done so, the attendance in that class has improved much. I think this is an important part in the progress of this ministry: delegating responsibilities. This way the more advanced students who worked hard to get to where they're at feel more useful and valuable.

The acousticizing of the church building is almost finished, so we should be starting up band practice and musical presentations soon along with preparations for Christmas. It´s been a major renovation. The whole process has taken about 2 months. Honestly, it´s been challenging with the growth of the music ministry completely on hold for a couple months, so there isn´t quite as much to tell right now although its been a necessary time of personal growth for me in discovering more of God´s will for my life and for the congregation. My cello classes are going well; they will help me give others a very good start on the instruement. I am sure that the best in our praise and worship is yet to come.

This past month much of the music ministry has been put on hold until we finish acousticizing which should take a week or 2 more, although we are continuing to prepare new songs to sing. Several weeks ago I was giving a violin class to one of my students at the church as I always do on Friday afternoons when Germán, our neighbor on the floor above us, walked right in the building with a threatening attitude and complained as usual. (There was a steel worker renovating the whole window frame at the front, so at the moment the church building was completely open to the sidewalk.) I'm glad there was a friend of mine there at the time to help me deal with him. We pushed him out of the building. He did not get violent, but would not stop banging on the door. I called 911 five or six times, but the police never showed up. Finally he decided to go back to his apartment, and when my dad arrived we went to file another report on him. I thank God for protecting me and my friends at that time. It just goes to show that the devil isn't only bothered by our church services, but that he can't stand the musical development I provide for my students for them to use in the ministry. In the beginning of September we have another mediation with Germán. Pray that it will end the conflict with him permanently. God bless!

For the past several weeks, I have been returning to Tecson (where I studied sound recording and mixing) to learn to use a computer program called Ableton Live. This is a very versatile, professional software that is used to produce electronic music. The classes are 2 and a half hours every Saturday afternoon. I will definitely be using this in my recordings and other areas of my work as I develop a unique sound for my music.

Tomorrow we will be having our first youth service in a long time. It's been organized by the youth in our church, and we will have a guest speaker come in from the Bible college. I'm thrilled that I´ll be able to play the violin. I've been wanting someone to take over the singing for a long time now, and it's a good chance to motivate my students and show them what I want them to be doing in a couple of years. Keep praying that we'll reach the lost here through God's presence manifested in our music.

I've begun working on arrangements of all the songs we do at church for my students to play when they return to the band. The idea is that whatever the band plays, the violinists always have something prepared for them, and they're not struggling to blend their sound with the rest of the band's. Since we have over 120 songs in our repertoire, this will most-likely be a year-long project for me. After the arrangements are completed, I will probably organize them into a progressive study method.

Last Saturday we had a great presentation. The violinists did a few songs from Suzuki Book 1. Raquel played the bass line of Hillsong United's Kingdom Come with the band on her cello and did an excellent job. Having a cello play with the bass really adds an interesting color to the band's sound.

A real answer to prayer: God has provided Joaquín and his brother a better place to live where they can practice freely. Thank you so much for all your prayers and financial support. Continue to pray that God's calling will be confirmed in the lives of my students, and that He will raise us all up as leaders in reaching the world and developing His kingdom through music ministry.

This past month while my Dad has been up there raising funds, we've had some excellent services in which the presence of God has really challenged us as a church. The guest speakers have really ministered and so have our Bible school students in their preaching as well. God is raising up some amazing ministers among us here.

You may have heard on the news that La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires was flooded in the beginning of this month. Many people died and many more lost their homes and all their belongings. There was also a fire in the nearby YPF refinery. Several people in our church including myself have felt a real burden for the people there, so we had a team travel to an AG church there to take food and other supplies and help in its distribution. This was also taken as a great opportunity to evangelize the area. The pastor of that church, Sergio Morales, is one of the many people who came to know Christ as a result of my great grandfather Fred Clements' ministry in Henderson. It was a real blessing to get to know our brothers and sisters in the Lord there and work with them.

Centro Cristiano Manantial de Vida, the AG church in La Plata that we helped out

Arriving in La Plata at the train station

The food we took

In the past several months, my 3 most advanced students have had to discontinue indefinitely their participation in the church band and also much of their practice at home. Stefanía has returned to Paraguay with her family for a while. They felt it was necessary so they could win their relatives for Jesus there, even though all of them prefer living in Buenos Aires and being a part of our church here rather than living in their small hometown in Paraguay. Pray that they do win their relatives and neighbors there for Christ and that they can return here next year. However, also Joaquín and recently Débora have had to stop mainly due to their university and high school education. Joaquín is also having problems with his neighbors who complain about the noise even during the day. I've been depending on these 3 to help me motivate the younger, less-experienced students of mine. Please pray that God will provide a better environment for Joaquín and his brother to live in and that He will show all my students the way to balance the hard work in music ministry with the rest of their lives in order to be prosperous and amazingly successful in everything they set out to accomplish, primarily His calling on their lives.

Kids are back in school. We've started up violin and cello classes again and we'll soon be playing for Easter. I feel this is the beginning of a new season in my life and ministry. Pray that God leads and directs us and gives us His wisdom as we move forward in His plan for us.

This past month there was a homeless guy who came into our building. His name was Javier. He didn't come to beg for money or even food. He asked for us to pray with him so that God would help him forgive his father for abusing him when he was a child. This man's life has been wrecked with drug and alcohol abuse, but we could see that he has a heart that's sensitive to the things of the Lord. After the service, a friend and I stayed with him at the church to talk and pray with him for a while. We called an ambulance and went with him to the hospital because we thought he was suffering from alcohol withdrawal, but when we got there, they told us he was actually suffering from the effects of cocaine. We left him there for them to treat him as necessary. I had often seen this guy on the street around our church, and was praying for an opportunity to reach him. I'm glad that prayer was answered. We haven't seen him around since we left him at the hospital, but I believe he'll have a great testimony.

Hi everyone! Sorry I couldn't update last month; it´s that I was very busy furnishing and moving into my new one-room apartment just around the corner from the church! Thanks to your continued support, I have finally been able to move out from under my parents' roof, and it is so convenient to live right where I work. I have been provided with everything I need and am having no problem getting used to it. Something intriguing: Apparently I can't get any hot water from the plumbing in the building, so I have a gas water heater on the wall, but it's not a tank that fills and empties. The flames heat the water as it passes through a series of pipes inside the device. The gas fitter said I can't mix hot and cold water in the shower or sinks because it will ruin the device, but fortunately I manage to get the water to a comfortable temperature with the dial on heater. 

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Summer is finally almost over here. People are coming back from vacation, although a couple members have left indefinitely. Pablo Huertas, a very good guitarist who has helped us significantly in our music ministry here has decided to return to his hometown of Puerto Madryn down south, and Stefanía Landín, one of my best violin students, and her family have felt it necessary to return to Paraguay for at least a year to be with their family there. They will be greatly missed. Even so, my music ministry here continues full throttle as I still have several dedicated violin and cello students and plans to execute. God bless!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It´s been a good year, full of God's blessings, challenges, and surprises. The Christmas music turned out great. We did special arrangements of O Holy Night, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and Joy to the World. All the violinists and cellists played Silent Night together. Everyone really enjoyed it.

We also had an all-night Christmas party at the church for everyone who wasn't going away to see family which was quite a few, and we did the same thing for New Years. I thank you very much for your continued financial and spiritual support. May God continue to fulfill His dreams in and through us, and I wish all of you a very happy, blessed new year.