As I drink coffee (the best coffee in the world, Santo Domingo!) and I listen to Noelia playing her guitar in the balcony of our tiny apartment, I find myself in the middle of yet another small storm in our country, this time named Olga (it turned out that it wasn´t that small). It’s been only a month and a half since the country was beaten by Noel, a storm that took us totally by surprise. The frightening thing about this is that the morning of that storm, I was taking some friends to the airport at 5am, and the waves were crashing right into the highway… But how would I have figured that something like this was going on? Usually there are storm alerts, but this time our weather authorities did not deliver solid news about the magnitude of this storm. After its crossing, it left destruction and even death; 155 communities were left without communication, more than 29,448 people in government shelters, 71,549 people evacuated from their homes, 85 deceased and 45 disappeared, plus more than 20,000 affected homes.

In El Círculo we were helping the communities of Sabana Perdida and Guaricano, and together with other churches we helped communities in Barahona, delivering clothes, food, blankets, towels, cleaning goods, etc.. In the face of such catastrophe I must confess that I was pleasantly surprised by two things:

1. The whole country was thrown into action-mode to help out. It was as if we were a large house where everyone understood that repairs were needed, as if all of us were a family and it was time to go out and help those brothers and sisters that were suffering.

2. The Dominican church fulfilled its role: by giving up their church buildings as shelters, by sharing their offerings to those in need, by making their homes available to those who needed a place to sleep. There were also sad stories about Christians helping. For example, one pastor went out in a boat in search of people who needed to be rescued, but unfortunately crashed into a house and drowned.

You can imagine that when it rains, even when whole communities are being evacuated, the bitter taste of destruction is still being felt by all Dominicans.

Aside from the storms and catastrophes (not only here, but also in other parts of the world), we have continued our normal course. Noelia came back home from Argentina, so if you’re reading this, you’ll know that I survived. We’ve been married now for one year and three months, and our relationship is every day being strengthened, as we get to know each other more and more. For El Círculo, this December and January will be two of the busiest months we’ve had in a while, including the fact that we are moving forward with our “LET’S BUY A BUILDING” campaign. We will also be completely in the streets: a medicine run in Cotuí (where we have a Community Center), in January we’ll be distributing boxes from Samaritan Purse among the children of Cotuí and of the Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital. Each of the small groups is involved in some form of mission: a Christmas dinner at the leprosy center, shoes for the children of the batey, and in February we’ll have the CinPlugg, which is an acoustic concert where we’ll premiere a band of strings (violins, violas and cellos). How healthy is it to be so busy?

We will begin our new year at peace, in prayer: 24-7 is a week where we’ll have a prayer chain for 168 hours (24 hours during 7 days), each hour we’ll have boys and girls praying for our country, for you, for El Círculo, for the Lord’s Church in the Dominican Republic.

Some prayer requests:

1. For all activities during the month of December and January, specifically for 24-7 and for the CinPlugg, so that God may be glorified fully.
2. For us (Fausto and Noelia), so that God may grant us wisdom, courage, and faith, that we may be obedient to His calling.
3. For next year’s goals.
4. For the new leadership that is being raised up in El Círculo.
5. Thanks for His provision.

God has blessed us greatly, and as we end this year. we would like to thank all of you who have been a part of this blessing in prayer, and some of you even financially, but all of you have some part in this and in one way or another have been here observing us and being with us. To all of you… Thank you!!!

Fausto & Noelia Liriano