Community Transformation: "If you build it, they will come"

Does this phrase not get overused in the baseball world today.  I mean, it is right up there with "if you build it, they will come."  I am right there with you in my tiredness of hearing those phrases. Every time you see a beautiful field, complex or facility someone eventually uses them.  I bet it has happened several times where multiple people say it at the same time. Annoying!  
I am so sorry for having to do this, BUT, let me just once use them the way they were meant to be used. I promise it is for a good reason.  I would not use them if it weren't really a unique and significant situation.

The Unique Place: The baseball field at the village of San Jose, Dominican Republic
The Setting: The community has not had a church, usable baseball field, or athletics program in decades.  All of the children under 15 have never played a baseball game on their field and for the most part, hardly ever play any type of organized athletics. 
The Opportunity: Every Tuesday and Thursday (and sometimes other days) me, Jodi, Ezequiel, Luis and Javier go to San Jose to clean/cut the grass on the field, pass out uniforms, cleats and gloves, and play baseball for a few hours.

We have had a steady flow of about 50 people from ages 4 years old to 30 years old come play baseball on the field and take part in practices.

We have yet to break up a fight (miracle in a DR village).

We have had several adults from the community come and watch and sometimes instruct the kids.

We have three young men named Jimmy, Jayson and Frances that have become the coaches and help with instruction and encouragement.

We have a coach from Boca Chica, Luis, serving in the name of Jesus Christ.  Luis has even worked with the young ladies in the village on pitching a softball.

We have two 17 year olds from Boca Chica spending 3 hours each day serving in a communioty that they did not even know about 3 months ago.

We have a field that had grass up to my knees that is now playable and a work in progress.  We hope to burn baselines and base areas so that we can play a game in the near future.

Best of all, we have seen a community thrive more and more each day.  Almost everyone wants to be part of the baseball experience (50+ people attend each day we have it).  Almost everyone wants to be a part of the church (first service Sunday had 80 people attend).

Today we showed up to the village to show some people around.  I took my glove out of the truck with a tennis ball and within 2 minutes we had a game going on in the street.  The teacher from the school sent the kids outside to play for recess (30 minutes).  There was an excitement and buzz in the community that would give everyone goosebumps for a week.  I was so overjoyed by what I saw.

Community Transformation!

I hope evryone that reads this blog will get an opportunity to come here to the DR to see this place.  I promise that you will not go home the same.

It took some hard work to cut the grass in San Jose with a small mower.  Luis was the man for the job.

Ezequiel hitting some fungos to the youngsters.  These kids come to play and have fun every day without fighting or making things difficult.

 Luis showing the girls how to pitch a softball.  There are some very talented young ladies in San Jose.  It is fun letting them play with the boys on the baseball field.

Jayson, one of the younger men that wants to help teach the kids how to play.  It has been awesome to see these guys get excited about serving the kids in the community.  He is wearing my glove and it is a "Glove for God".  Each color represents a part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Some of the kids just want to play a little wall ball before they go back to school.  I do not blame them.  Wall ball was a Mike Shaheen favorite as a kid.

I just sit back in awe when I watch these kids play a pick up game.  This land was cow pasture just weeks ago and now is a place where these boys have so much fun.

This is how we get to San Jose.  Thank you to everyone that made it possible to purchase this truck.  When it rains, we use a little bit of 4x4 and we get there.

Bible study with Coach Cedeno's team on Tuesdays at 10:30am.  I love being able to share with these young men.  They are so patient with my spanish.

Dinner at Rosario's house with the coaches in my Bible study.  Elizabeth Eubanks from Baltimore also joined us for a little dumplings in sauce.  I love hanging out with these guys.

Ok, picture of the month time.  I miss out on having one in January, but this can easily take the place of two months.  This was Grace's first visit to San Jose and what does she do?  Of course, she picks up a baby pig.  She is so cute!