How I was blessed this weekend:
Saturday: A new baseball team from Andres (Boca Chica) came to the Highlands in order to start a relationship with me and our organization. I had just enough baseball clothing and cleats to fit them all up. We did not have enough gloves, but that did not matter, the outfielders used the gloves while the infielders used wooden "softhands". I had one of our facilities guys from the Highlands, Elvin, preach the Gospel and 4 young men from that group made a decision to accept Jesus into their heart.
I also picked up Bob Wiedemann from FCA in the afternoon and we spent some quality time together figuring out our short and long term plans in the Dominican. I was also introduced to some friends of Bob that are looking to do ministry here in the DR with the possibility of partnering with FCA.
Sunday: Bob and I went to church in the capital (Grace was sick) to a church that I call the "North Point of the Dominican". It was a great time worshiping the Lord for who He is. After church, I took Bob shopping for food in the the capital. That was an interesting experience. Two clueless guys roaming a supermarket with a long list. When we arrived at the house, the Patriots were on. That evening we had a dinner meeting with another young man that is interested in coming to the DR with his wife in order to serve the community. It was interesting driving that night. I found out what the Dominican is like on the last weekend of every month. I was told by someone after the fact that pay day is the last Friday. All I can tell you is that it looked like mardi gras everywhere. It took us about an hour to drive 15 miles to get to dinner. Liquor stores turned into bars that spread all the way into the streets. Driving was scary because there are no street lights. I just prayed while driving that I would not hit anyone. Thank you, God.
Monday: This was one of those days that comes along every so often. A day like this is like a perfect golf shot up the middle of the fairway during a tough round of golf. It keeps you coming back for more. I woke up praying for a day that would be significant to many people. It was! I picked up Bob Wiedemann at the hotel at 9am and we headed to Juan Dolio to meet up with some friends. One of those friends, Cristian, is a 16 year old young man that Bob has developed a good relationship over the past few years on his mission trips. Cristian is a believer, but does not have a lot of encouragement or support from others in his community. Bob and I had the opportunity to sit down with him and talk about servant leadership. We used John 13 and the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus. I read the verses in spanish, Bob explained, I translated, and it was wonderful. Cristain has been helping me coach the 8-12 year olds from his community every Wednesday and Saturday. He has been improving, but I felt like he really thought that leadership was "telling people what to do." Through the way me and the other coaches do things, and now more importantly with the guidance of Jesus Christ, I believe Cristian "gets it." What a wonderful moment! Cristian agreed to follow us the rest of the day....and boy was that a great choice. We did go by a colegio (private school) in Juan Dolio to visit Gabriela and Rachel (also friends of ours from past trips). It was great to see them and talk about their futures in college.
In the afternoon, Bob, Cristian and I met up with Steve and Gonzalo. Steve has a ministry in Kenya and is looking to possibly branch out into the Dominican. He has a big heart and a passion to feed millions of people with food and more importantly with the word of God. Gonzalo works in Steve's ministry using food as a means to evangelize, disciple and plant churches. He just developed that kind of community in Monterrey, Mexico and is now living in the States as a coordinator. He is a very talented man that has given his talents to the Lord in order to glorify Him. We set out for the village La Brisa in San Pedro de Macoris in order to meet up with my friend Yuly Pozo. Yuly (Julie) is one of the coaches that I am trying to pour into here in the Dominican. He has a lot of influence (240 young men and 400 people) in the community and he turned his life over to Christ in July when Bob Wiedemann shared the Gospel with him. Since then, Yuly has struggled a bit in the same way Cristian is struggling. It is very hard to change when no one else is changing around you or even supporting your change. We all sat down with Yuly for about 1 hour talking about Jesus and why we love him so much. It was clear to us that Yuly has a tough time with forgiveness/grace. He believes that he must do something to gain salvation. He had always been told that he must do stuff in order to be "Holy." Bob spoke, I read from the Spanish Bible and Gonzalo translated it all. We explained to Yuly that the battle has been won. We told him that there is nothing that he can do. It is done...finished! Jesus paid the price. We are now free to live with the Holy Spirit guiding our lives, not sin. I cannot begin to tell you what those words did to Yuly. He went from a man with slumped shoulders and watery eyes...to a man that looked like he was floating on air. Praise the Lord. God, you are amazing.
That's not all. We capped off the day with a trip to the orphanage called Fundacion Ninas y Ninos de Cristo in La Romana. Los Ninos de Cristo is an orphanage of about 100 girls and 10 boys. Our FCA trips each summer spend a day here at the orphanage with the girls playing sports or just talking about life. These girls are wonderful. We spent 20 minutes talking with the leader (amazing woman) and another hour playing volleyball with the girls. It is always hard to leave Los Ninos. There were nothing but smiles and laughing the whole 45 minute ride home. It really does amazing things to your soul to meet those young girls. It also makes you want to take them home with you and care for them...but that is a whole different story. We finished the whole day by picking up my family at the house and going to Niccolo's Pizza in Boca Chica. It is the best pizza ever. Niccolo is an Italian (from Italy to the DR 10 years ago) that ships his dough, cheese and sauce to the DR from Italy. We met Eddy Jesus and enjoyed talking about how amazing the day was together with each other.
I hit the ball around with these girls. They laughed at me a little bit. Volleyball is not "my thang."
All out, full court volleyball with the gang. My team won. Not that that is important.
Our cheering section. It was a packed house at the Fundacion (aka: da Fundy).
In an amazing moment of the day, a Dominican mariachi band came up to our table at Niccolo's and started playing. The fact that we had Gonzalo (Mexican) made it really providential. Gonzalo grabbed one of the guitars and played a Christian praise and worship song and the mariachi band loved it. Amazing!
Not trying to advertise beer, but we all agreed that this was one of the most amazing sights of the day. As crazy as the picture looks, it does not do that billboard justice. It looked like a monster sized cooler of El Presidente dropped from the heavens. It is bigger than the Dallas Cowboys jumble-tron.
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