Puerto Rico Mission: January 13, 2024

The new year is off to the races so to speak. Actually, in Puerto Rico, Christmas celebrations officially end on the 15th of January. However, most everyone begins to put everything away after January 6th, Three Kings Day. I have been told THE Christmas for people our age and older, for a LONG time, was Three Kings Day. Certainly, since we have lived in PR (1970-2024) we have seen it transition more and more to Dec 24-25, I suppose due to commerce. Nevertheless, all throughout the day parades were organized in most every town. The "Three Kings" dressed in their royal regalia, riding horses, preceded by floats, lively bands on flat beds and people "whooping and hollering", gave out candy and gifts to children along the route. Generally, they ended up at the town square and did more gift giving. We stayed home! 😄. As for the Reece household, all the Christmas paraphernalia went back in the closet this past Thursday. We hope you had a good Christmas. We certainly did.

Concert Dec 11

The church has had a couple of events since we last wrote. The upcoming concert we mentioned last time came and went. The musicians played and sang music as traditional as you can imagine. They did a beautiful job. After the service we celebrated Christmas with a church dinner. The crowd was good and spirits high. It was a good day in so many ways.

"Kings" and gifts for the kids

Two Sundays later, the church celebrated Three Kings Day a few days early. Every child eleven or younger received a gift from the "Kings"...three church members dressed as the "Kings". The kids were thrilled. Everyone got candy and we all shared cake and soft drinks and water. After church Mary and I visited the church members who were absent to give their kids a gift the "Kings" had left them. Later in the night we ate with close friends and listened to people shoot a plethora of fireworks way into the night...even though fireworks are illegal in PR. The police look the other way for the one-night of lawlessness 😆.

Over part of the holidays our church attendance was way down. Four families were in the States, and four families were fighting flu and COVID. Others were in different parts of the island visiting family/friends. I fully expect attendance to return to normal now that the holidays are over.

Good attendance

The results of our ministry sign-up event, held the end of November, are ramping up and moving forward. Some are preaching, and many are teaching adults, youth, and kids. Others are leading the song service, involved in the prayer ministry, visitation, benevolence, decorations and so forth and so on. I did not do an official count but I am sure 90-95% of the adults and youth are plugged in to one of eighteen different ministry opportunities in our congregation. As a note of interest, our congregation is composed of fifty family units and ninety-four individuals.

I believe this is all for now. May the Lord add His blessings to all. See you next time...Lord willing of course. I have added a few photos below.

Johnathan and Mary Reece

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