First of all, we have arrived safe and sound back in Houston. The last time I wrote was the last day of camp so I have a few days to write about, sorry about the delay.
June 13th
We visited a village to pass out candy to the kids. Kids do not get candy on a regular basis, another one of those things we take for granted. Wow – what a humbling experience. The village was very poor. I have never seen anything like this in my life. The houses were built from scrap wood and metal they had found. They had no electricity or running water and the sewer line was running through the village. I was so saddened by the way these people live, and it truly made me realize what a blessing and privilege it is just to be born in the U.S. The kids were so excited to receive candy. Slowly, we had a following of little children as we walked thru the village. We ran into one of the grandmas from our baseball site. She’s a matriarch in that village. She invited us into her house, a great honor in the Dominican. She thanked us for all our work and said she would work hard to continue to bring the word of God to the children. She walked with us and explained about the village. They have their own stores, churches and school – all within this small village with narrow, winding dirt roads. As we were walking, we came to a friend of hers who had cancer in her chest and it had spread to her head. We stopped and prayed with her. It was very sad and no one had a dry eye after that.
In the afternoon we went to run a practice for the older boys that we had taught during the baseball camp. It was so great to help them. Another reality set in when we showed up to practice and they did not have enough gloves for everyone. They had five baseballs, and one bat. In the U.S. we can’t even think of holding a practice with that amount of equipment. Some kids in the States have more baseballs in their personal bag than this team of 15 kids. This group had called their own practice. Their coach was holding a practice for the younger team at a different site. The coach has to keep most of the baseball equipment with him – rather than passing it out to the kids to keep individually. If the kids keep it individually, there’s a very good chance that older children or even young adults will take it away from them and sell it. But that doesn’t stop this group of older kids from calling their own practice daily with the little equipment they do have in their personal possession.
More to come later. I hope you are enjoying our blog, and pray that you have a wonderful God-blessed day.
God Bless,
Carlos
June 13th
We visited a village to pass out candy to the kids. Kids do not get candy on a regular basis, another one of those things we take for granted. Wow – what a humbling experience. The village was very poor. I have never seen anything like this in my life. The houses were built from scrap wood and metal they had found. They had no electricity or running water and the sewer line was running through the village. I was so saddened by the way these people live, and it truly made me realize what a blessing and privilege it is just to be born in the U.S. The kids were so excited to receive candy. Slowly, we had a following of little children as we walked thru the village. We ran into one of the grandmas from our baseball site. She’s a matriarch in that village. She invited us into her house, a great honor in the Dominican. She thanked us for all our work and said she would work hard to continue to bring the word of God to the children. She walked with us and explained about the village. They have their own stores, churches and school – all within this small village with narrow, winding dirt roads. As we were walking, we came to a friend of hers who had cancer in her chest and it had spread to her head. We stopped and prayed with her. It was very sad and no one had a dry eye after that.
In the afternoon we went to run a practice for the older boys that we had taught during the baseball camp. It was so great to help them. Another reality set in when we showed up to practice and they did not have enough gloves for everyone. They had five baseballs, and one bat. In the U.S. we can’t even think of holding a practice with that amount of equipment. Some kids in the States have more baseballs in their personal bag than this team of 15 kids. This group had called their own practice. Their coach was holding a practice for the younger team at a different site. The coach has to keep most of the baseball equipment with him – rather than passing it out to the kids to keep individually. If the kids keep it individually, there’s a very good chance that older children or even young adults will take it away from them and sell it. But that doesn’t stop this group of older kids from calling their own practice daily with the little equipment they do have in their personal possession.
More to come later. I hope you are enjoying our blog, and pray that you have a wonderful God-blessed day.
God Bless,
Carlos
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