Evangelize and Disciple

 

Willie sharing a message with the players and parents in village just outside of Santiago.

 

 

 

The fabulous 4 waiting to preach and teach and love.

 

 

Luis explained the significnce of John 3:30 and "HR 10"

 

 

Miguel teaching the boys about pitching.

 

 

FCA and Go Ministries eating dinner together and sharing about their faith and struggles.

 

Willie teaching about hitting.

 

Hector Luna hits a walk off homerun to beat Licey 8-7. 

 

 

 

Jodi and I had a wonderful night as God parents of William Jesus Martinez.  We are honored to be friends and supporters of the Martinez family.

Cooling off in November

 

This is the Aguila (Eagle) at the Aguilas game. Kyle Bradley's seats are awesome.  Kyle, Will and I got to spend Thanksgiving together.

 

 

This is a cigar factory.  Kyle, Will and I got a great tour.  These guys work hard.

 

 

This is a picture of Abel and I.  It was awards night at the field in Boca Chica and I had the honor of handing Abel his MVP award.  Go Pats and Go Dawgs!

 

 

Wyman's team won the championship.  The Mayor handed him his award.  Of course he ripped the ribbon off the medal within 10 minutes. 

 

 

Our newest leader in FCA DR is Ariel Eusebio Benitez.  Ariel has been assigned to the Juan Dolio team and he does a great job of sharing Jesus with the group.

 

 

Celebration dinner in the Perez house with all the people that are a part of the ministry.  I made rice for the first time and it was delicious.

 

 

Everyone that has visited the ministry knows that Niccolo's is the first stop for dinner.

 

 

The beauty behind the ministry.  Mis negras!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Picture

 

The Heart and Soul of FCA Dominican Republic

We try to have a dinner for our families every other Saturday.  Usually we eat la bandera (arroz, habituelas y pollo), but sometimes we can get Willie to make dumplins.

Blessings in Autumn

 

Enjoyed meeting at Burger King with Ron Bishop from SCORE International. He carries such a energenic and caring presence.  We are so thnakful to have a great partnership with SCORE here in the DR.  Together we can do so much more than separate.  Thanks be to God.

 

 

Robersi Lara spent 4 days with us and may spend more time with us in the future.  He loves Jesus and wants to disciple coaches in the Dominican.  We celebrated his birthday with tasty cupcakes made by my wonderful wife.

 

 

I am so amazed by the work of our Lord.  He is so good.  This house is going to be for the Prez Family.  We are almost finished.  Windows, doors and some electricity.  The Perez parents have 6 beautiful kids. 

 

 

God has blessed us with 4 (10-13 year old) teams that are made up of kids from SCORE  churches.  Our first team started last October in Juan Dolio.  We now have San Pedro (El Penon), San Jose and Santana.  This is a picture of Miguel sharing a message with the San Jose and Santana teams. 

 

 

I love teaching English to these guys.  Ariel, Miguel, Yeurelin, Amandi, Elvin, Nange and Willie are great students that are improving every time.  The Rosetta Stone Program has been a blessing.  Thanks go out to those who donated computers and the programs.

 

 

 

 

 

FCA Dominican Republic: A New Year

Some of my favorite times are when we just laugh and have fun after Bible study.  Every Tuesday at 2pm we usually have about 15-20 young men from 14-19 years old.

This is a very special picture to us.  Our two Dominican Pastors are on the left and our USA Pastor is on the right.  Omar, Craig and Tito.  We love them all.  They are servants.

Here is Tito leading the Thursday morning Bible study of about 35 young men.  He always starts with Praise and Worship.  I love that about him.

Marcus from The Bridge Church in Lawrenceville (our church) is helping Amandi with his English lesson on Rosetta Stone.  There is nothing funnier than hearing a man repeat the audio speaker by saying, "I am a girl."

Tito and Marcus giving testimonies in front of Team Cedeno at the Avenida.  They spoke about a man's role in the community.  It was so cool to hear them talk about what it means to be a Dad.  I reaffirmed my commitment to Jodi after in front of everyone.  It was really cool.

Jake Alexander from North Carolina Wesleyan playing Peek a chu with the kids on the street.  The boys from UNC Wesleyan really did a great job of loving on the kids in each village.

Our first service in our new church.  La Iglesia de la Gracia (Grace Church).  I love waking up Sunday mornings and praising Jesus with these people.  No rock band, no million dollar building, no air condition, just true praise, worship and study. 

Joel the umpire did a great job.  He spent the whole week with us and the North carolina Wesleyan group.  He may be just a teenager, but he knows the game and loves to serve.  He told me he would much rather preach, disciple and serve in the community.  I told him he is and he doesn't even know it.

UNC Wesleyan.  Kyle Bradley is a great man and disciple of Jesus Christ.  He is a missionary in Santiago, DR with Go Ministries.  He brought this group to Boca Chica and allowed me to be a part of it.  Thank you, Kyle.  You are a good friend.

Ariel and Yeurelin studying a little English.  We are 5 strong right now in our classes.  We have class Wednesdays and Friday from 2-5pm.  They spend about an hour and a half on Rosetta Stone and the rest I stand up in front and teach.  It is fun!

How cool is this picture.  That is FCA Boca Chica All Stars playing in San Pedro against a Christian All-star team there.  Meeting God in Baseball set up a tournament with teams from Santo Domingo, Boca Chica, San Pedro, Hato Mayor and La Romana.  All the teams are coached by disciples and the players are part of a Bible study program. 

Funny picture of the month.  Jodi had to get on the table to take a head shot of Miguel.  He is 6'8" or taller.  He is trying to get a visa in order to come with us to Atlanta in December/January.  Please pray for him.  He will be at the Embassy interview November 8th.

This was a small house.  It is now the design for a future house for the Perez family (Yeurelin) that is over twice the size of the older one.  I am so grateful to have such amazing donors that step up every time we ask for help. 

One of the most exciting things we are doing right now is our discipleship program.  Every Thursday morning we meet at our apartment.  We are using the BILD program from the United States and Jorge Safren from Meeting God in Baseball is leading the program.  We have had two weeks already and it has been a huge blessing.  Thank you MGB and Jorge.

The brain trust.  Craig, Joe Garcia and Randy Saxon leading our meeting to build Yeurelin's home. 

One of the young men that comes to Bible Study, Abel, had his 15th Birthday party at the Francos apartment.  The Francos have taken Abel under their wing for the past 8 months.  It was a lot of fun and the cake was great too.

This was a coaches Bible study on a Thursday night.  Bob Wiedemann and Brent Slade attended and that was really cool to have them there.  Also in attendance was JoJo Catrini, a former student of mine that came down to serve for a week.  JoJo is a marine officer (grad of the Naval Academy) and had 3 weeks off and decided that coming to the Dominican to serve was important.  How cool is that.  That is the American Soldier who loves Jesus!



Show them love...show them Jesus!

FCA Dominican Republic - June

Luis with his girls.  Luis is an amazing dude.  One thing a lot of people do not know about Luis is that he spends 3 days per week with these girls teaching them how to play softball.  He also takes care of the field every day with about 5 kids from the neighborhood that have mental or physical disabilities.  Luis shows them love...he shows them Jesus!

Lindsay Emerich and Kyle Hess with Miguel at the airport.  Lindsay spent one month here (June) in the DR and showed em Jesus.  Kyle is currently in the DR (July) and showing em Jesus.  Miguel is always here showing em Jesus.  I love them all.  They are a joy to spend time with and I am blessed.

There may be nothing better than getting two different cultures/languages in the pool together.  Language and culture go out the window.  It's all about chickin fights.

We got a little bored with baseball on a 95 degree day, so we got the cones and played a little bowling with the softballs.  You have to be creative with 10 year olds.

Thanks to all that helped us with computers and the Rosetta Stone program.  We are week number 3 now and progressing.  Lindsay loved helping the guys with their pronunciation.

Coach Joe Hudak gets thrown out of a game for arguing a call with the umpire.  The whole thing was staged but I am not sure that the umpire truly knew that he was joking.  Very funny.

Linday cooking platanos with a little help from Willie.  Willie can flat out cook.

Good things seem to happen under a tree.  After a hot baseball game, we find some shade, share some testimonies, and listen to the Gospel.  Thank you, Paul Austin.

FCA Atlanta and FCA Boca Chica after a game at Ozoria field.  It was so amazing to hear Dominicans and Americans share their testimonies.  So cool!

You want to hear the "real" Gospel?  Listen to Bill Emerich.  He does not water it down for the lukewarm.

After a week of serving in the DR, the Emerichs did not want to go to an all-inclusive hotel for R&R.  They decided to go to San Jose and dig a trench for a water pipe so that people can drink clean water and not have to walk a mile for it.

Is there anything better than a bilingual Kindergarten teacher showing up to church and volunteering to teach about Adam and Eve.  The answer is no.  Suzanna, thank you so much.  You were amazing!  The kids of San Jose loved it.

Devin Stanton may have gift-wrapped 3 baseball state championships for his coach, but the best gift he ever gave his coach was surrendering his life to Jesus Christ.  I am still so excited for Devin.  I am also extremely thankful that he would come visit me in the DR and serve in the name of Jesus.

Bible studies keep getting bigger and bigger.  Thanks be to God.  Thank you to Serv International for supporting this ministry with food for these young men.  Some of these young men receive lots of food for their family.

Bob Wiedemann leading Bible study in the DR.  Language cannot get in the way of Jesus.  He is much bigger than that.

Pretty cute ladies enjoying some lunch.  My little girl is getting so big.

Picture of the month (maybe of the year).  20+ men sharing their hearts under a carport in Boca Chica.