Great day for Baseball!

                          September 2, 2011 - Today I decided on my day off from spanish class to take my three amigos (Ezekiel, Wynan and Javier) and go out to the batey El Penon in San Pedro de Macoris in order to play baseball, fellowship and hear the Gospel.  We packed up the Kia Rondo with bats, gloves, balls, some uniforms donated by Mike Brady at the Walker School, and a large cooler of water.  A few weeks ago I prayed about taking the three young Dominican men under my wing.  It was clear over several nights, God was telling me that it is important that we as believers need to be discipling (feeding).  The kingdom will not multiple without it, and we are shown how to feed others in the Gospels and in Paul's letters.  With these three guys I have an opportunity of a lifetime.  They listen with open minds and hearts and really want to love those around them.
                        I sent several text messages to the Pastor of the batey during the week without hearing any response.  Here in the DR, that is not unusual.  We cannot take that as a "no" or a sign of rudeness.  Most Dominicans cannot afford sending text messages at will.  The no response often means "yes".  And I took the no response as a yes.
                     It took about 30 minutes to gather up all the kids that could possibly play.  Because we had 16 or so teenagers and 16 or so little kids, I had to split them up into two games.  I gave the little ones some bats and some tennis balls and told them to play in the corner of the field.  Then, we split the teens into two teams along with my 3 amigos and started to play some baseball the way it was meant to be played.  The day was beautiful (88 with a breeze) as well as the background of the field.  In Georgia we call it God's country!   After playing about 10 innings of baseball, I asked Pastor Maximo to share the Good News with the young men and women.  It was a wonderful sight.  Several boys lifted up their hands for a life with Christ and others said they would read the New Testament that I gave them. I will pray that God planted a seed in their hearts today and some day they will come to know the Savior of the world in a personal way.

     They played stick ball like it was game 7 of the World Series.  Those shirts were donated by Mike Brady at the Walker School.

That batting cage must have been given by a professional team or a church years ago. It is a good backstop.

That L-screen is made of fence.  I threw the first few innings and felt perfectly safe behind it even though my head was above it.

Pastor Maximo praying before preaching the Good News.  Everyone wants to hear good news, right?

My 3 Amigos in the background taking it all in. Wynan, Javier and Ezekiel were great today.  They were the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.  I believe that I discipled them better by just taking them to serve than if I spent 2 hours preaching to them. 

Rule Number 1: Always preach in the shade.



And the cutest kid award goes to... She sat their and watched the baseball game and then listened to the Gospel with a smile.