June 18-21, 2011

In an effort to help get the blog up to speed faster, I’m going to combine a few days together. June 18th was the final day of camp. It certainly did not start out as planned. This is why flexibility is EXTREMELY important in the Dominican :). Once we arrived at camp Stacy and Lisa soon realized that the medicine we needed was left at the hotel. So I rode a “moto-concho” (motorcycle or scooter for hire – the primary means of transportation for the many that don’t own vehicles) to the hotel to pick up the medicine, only to find out that the meds were at Pastor Rivas’ Church. On the way to the hotel Alfre informs me that it is a law in Sosua to wear a helmet. Even though 80% don’t wear helmets – you are taking the chance of a ticket if the police choose to pull you over. Hmm….so once we got to the hotel I got two baseball helmets for us to wear  --- good enough to be legal! So off to the Church we go to pick up the box of medicine. I get this box of medicine and wonder - how am I going to carry this on the moto-concho? - because I’m holding on with both hands. Good thing Alfre put it in the front with him. This whole trip took about 1 ½ hours, but we did get the medicine back to camp and Praise the Lord we were still able to get all the remaining kids parasite medicine in the short time left at camp.

Now just to write that ‘I took a moto-concho’ doesn’t seem like a big deal UNLESS you have actually been in the DR and seen the driving. They don’t really have a concept of “lanes” here. You could be driving on a 2-lane road, but have 2 cars and 2 moto-conchos all together – so in effect they have made it a 4-lane road. And the moto-conchos weave in and out and do just about anything they think they can with their small moto-concho. And don’t forget that stop signs are simply suggestions – hardly ever observed. So it really is quite an experience in itself :)!

But enough about moto-conchos as I’m trying to get the blog caught up. The next day we handed out candy in the villages. A couple of us stayed at Alfre’s house during this time to put up the new tin on his house (actually his sister’s house). Praise the Lord Sarah was able to raise enough money from the group to buy the tin. It was a blessing to be able to help Alfre with this as he has worked so hard to help the children in the baseball ministry.

On the 21st the AIM group’s trip was concluded and they flew back home to Houston. We are staying along with the Vigil family for a couple extra days to do some follow-up work with Checo (AIM’s Director here in Sosua) and to also visit the southern part of the island. We’ll be spending a week and a half in the city of San Pedro. This is where the Vigil family will be moving next summer. We are feeling called more and more into mission work here, so we are also excited to see the ministry in San Pedro and check out the area. You can check out their website at: www.drvision.org.

God Bless,

Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

June 17, 2011

The third day of camp started with only a few kids in attendance. Most of the kids had finals or testing at school to see if they would move to the next grade. So we spent the day visiting the school and meeting teachers and school officials. We were also able to see the house of Alfre, the Dominican coach at our site. Sarah King, one of our site members, had previously visited his house and noticed how bad one side of the roof was, and she was determined to get it fixed.  The roof was in need of major repair -- gaping holes in the tin must make a mess each time it rains.  We are going to ask some of our team members to help us collect enough money to add new tin. 

Once we returned back to the baseball field the camp time was almost over so we served lunch for the kids and had Bible Study. Our Medical team at the site was really overwhelmed with sick kids needing attention. Dr. Ramsey was at our site to help some of these kids and also to show Stacy and Lisa how to administer parasite medicine and vitamin A drops.  Intestinal parasites are a huge problem in the Sosua area.  This area has alot of poverty; so out of necessity many will drink the tap water.  The tap water is not safe for drinking; it causes intestinal parasites and the majority of the children and adults deal with this on a daily basis.  The parasite medicine we're distributing will keep the parasites away for 4-6 months.  The parasite medicine, vitamins, and baby formula distribution is a huge part of our trip this year.

 After camp four of our American boys played another exhibition game against a Dominican team at La Union. Cody had so much fun playing against the boys he helped teach last year. After that game we played in a coaches game of softball. I was an honorary Dominican Coach because I am so dark, just kidding. It was fun and this was the first time that the Dominican coaches had done anything together, so they are learning that teamwork is a key to the success of their program.

God Bless,

Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

2nd day of camp...

June 16, 2011


Today went much smoother, and more as planned. All the baseball stations went well and I was even able to teach some baseball. I love teaching baseball – it’s definitely my passion and a God-given talent. We counted the children today and we had a total of 94 attend camp at our site. After camp my wife and I visited the site we were at last year, La Union. We had made so many good friends there that we had to go back to visit. We brought clothes, shoes, and necessities for a family that we really got to know. We have so much at home that it was our pleasure to give them just a little bit. The happiness of the Dominicans is overwhelming; they have nothing according to Americans but in reality a lot of them have far more than most Americans. And by that statement you know I’m not talking about money or material things. Most Americans won’t understand that concept unless they have visited a poor area outside of the U.S., or had the privilege to go on a mission trip.

God Bless,

Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

We are behind on the blog...but we're getting there!

Okay…so we’re a little more than 1 day behind…more like a week behind. :).  This past week has been SO extremely busy and we just haven’t had the time to update the blog. But we are working on that now that camp is over.


June 15, 2011

Wednesday was our first day of camp and needless to say it was chaotic. This year we are at a site called La Cienega and I’m the site leader. As a site leader I was pulled in a million different directions and it was quite a growing experience for me. We had a plan and in the Dominican the plan is always flexible! God gave us all the strength to get through the 1st day of camp and still be able to teach some baseball. Most importantly we were able to reach some kids spiritually. We had 25 kids come to Christ and that’s what we want; we always want “one more” for God’s Kingdom.

The Dominican coach at our site is a young man named Alfre. Last year he was an assistant coach at the camp, and this year he is a coach of his own league. It’s awesome to see how he has grown over the past year – spiritually and in his leadership skills. He is only 27 years old and truly has a heart for these children and for God. To me, it’s very cool to see how we can bring a group of children together to help teach them baseball and at the same time, use that sport to preach the Gospel and get these little souls saved.

Today our group was also interviewed for two local TV stations. The stations wanted us to explain why we are here and what we are doing. I thank God for giving me the strength to give the interview in Spanish. After camp our young 11-14 year old American boys played a game against a Dominican team from Los Castillos. All of the boys, and the adults, thoroughly enjoyed that!

Our site is also one of the sites where a nutrition program was implemented. Stacy will elaborate more on this because she was part of that group.  We hope reading our blog will inspire you to "get out of the boat" and listen to where God may be calling you to go.  Enjoy reading about the next few days of our work here in the DR.

God Bless,

Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

We have arrived in the Dominican Republic!!

June 14, 2011

Today we returned to the Dominican Republic and the reception was overwhelming. I really felt like I was returning home. Internet access is very intermittent so far, and we’re busy running the camps, so the blog will probably be at least 1 day behind. We were blessed to have a great flight and we are so excited to be working with the Dominican children again. The people were overjoyed to see us return and many of them met us at the airport. It was an awesome feeling and we will definitely enjoy spending time with them this week and teaching the word of God.

Thank you so much to all of those at home that prayed / are praying for our trip, and to those who donated equipment and/or finances. Keep reading the blog to see how you are also blessing others, thru our work here.

God Bless,

Carlos & Stacy

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

Busy, Busy, Busy

It’s hard to believe in 4 weeks we will once again be in the Dominican Republic (DR) – where our lives were forever changed last June. So much has been going on, we apologize for not updating the blog regularly. We will be updating it on a regular basis now. In our personal life, Carlos and his dad have been spending countless hours renovating the building we purchased at the end of the year. A picture is below. You could hardly see the outside of this building when we purchased it. Damaged from Hurricane Ike, it had sat empty for 2 years and looked like a sad little neglected building. Well Carlos and his dad have done an awesome job – inside and out – and our first tenant moved in May 1st. We are so excited! Even more excited that the tenant is a ministry group. I am continually amazed at how God works. In the Blink of an Eye Ministries is their group name. They work with individuals (especially teens) and their families dealing with substance abuse.

We have also been extremely busy raising funds for this year’s trip. One of the very popular items we have been making and selling is baseball cross frames. You can see pictures here at: www.facebook.com/positivemessages. We have joined forces with the Vigil family on our fundraising and that’s made it quite fun and exciting! We even hosted an event at Clucker’s complete with a Silent Auction. And we’re raffling off an iPad2 and a trip for 2 to Costa Rica!! Lots of new, exciting stuff for this year’s fundraising!

We are also feeling led deeper into the mission field. Carlos may have an opportunity to travel with AIM to Cuba in August to help kick-off an AIM Baseball Camp there. And we are collecting clothes and other items for some of the people in the DR that we developed relationships with last year. In fact, the gentleman from Cuba, Rudy, has been dealing with citizenship issues between Cuba and the DR. Several years ago he traveled illegally to the DR to find work to help support his family. Over the past year he has worked very hard to get approval to return to Cuba to see his wife and children. He now has approval to travel freely between the 2 countries so he will still be able to help with the AIM Ministry in the DR as well as set up the same program in Cuba. The last time he had to travel from Cuba to the DR he had to sell nearly all of his clothes to leave money with his family to live on while he would be gone. So Carlos has made it his personal mission to collect shoes and clothes to bring to Rudy when we return in June. Rudy is an awesome man of God and Carlos really enjoyed getting to know him better back in February. The stories he tells of life in Cuba are just amazing and beyond anything we can comprehend.

AIM has exciting things planned for this year’s trip. Carlos and I will head up a new site, La Cieniga. As of right now, we have close to 100 people confirmed for the first week, June 14th – 21st. AIM will have a full medical team this year as well as a nutritional program for 2,000 kids. If you are looking for a family vacation spot and would like to take a family vacation with a purpose – check out http://www.aimissions.net/. We still have a few spots available – and I promise you – it will be a life-changing experience! There just aren’t words to describe a mission trip – especially unique baseball mission trips like this – I think it should be on every family’s To-Do List. In addition to baseball, we have basketball and volleyball at some of the sites…and even if you’re not a sports family, there are plenty of other places to serve.

Locally, AIM has been invited to help Mission Cy-Fair put on an AIM baseball camp and VBS for underprivileged kids here in our community later in the summer. We will share more details when we have them, but this falls right in line with implementing mission work here in our own community as well as continuing abroad.

Well, that’s enough rambling for now. In closing, I would like to add some prayer requests. Please keep our family and the entire AIM group in your prayers as we prepare for this awesome undertaking. Please pray that we will follow in God’s will, He will pave the way and provide the funds for everything that needs to be done, and that our missionaries will raise the needed funds to go on the trip. In our own family, please pray that God will send the right tenants to our building in La Porte. We have 5 more offices available for lease. We need prayers for Carlos, Jr. He is 16 and experiencing typical teenager behavior. He has recently decided he doesn’t want to join us on the mission trip this year. We are very saddened and disappointed as he wasn’t able to go last year and we were really looking forward to him joining us this year. But we are keeping faith that God is in control and He has a better plan. We are also praying that maybe there’s another child God wants to travel with us this year. Please pray for God’s will as we work thru all of that. And thank you for following our family in this journey!

May God Bless,
Stacy Gauna

March 1, 2011 - Tuesday

Today we left bright and early to make our way south to San Pedro. We came to San Pedro to visit Marco, who has started a baseball ministry there. It was awesome and Marco and his team is doing such a great job. The vision of the ministry that he is a part of is awesome. We will be writing more about that ministry in the coming days. We saw a 46-acre tract of land where they will soon start construction on a complex to include: 3 baseball fields, 3 basketball courts, a school, a church and administrative offices. Checo was able to go to San Pedro with us, and it was very inspirational for him to see what has taken place in San Pedro.

We watched Marco run a practice and he was great. He had about 50 kids and his practice ran very smoothly. He has instilled discipline in the kids and it definitely shows. We are very excited that AIM will be able to send a team to San Pedro in late June to conduct a VBS/baseball camp.

I can’t put into words how this trip has affected me. I truly feel God calling me into baseball ministry. I am anxious to return home and share all these wonderful things with my wife and family.



February 28, 2011 - Monday

Today we visited a village in the mountains with some other missionaries that were from Canada. They came to the Dominican to bring clothes and school supplies for the children. The church we visited was built in 3 three days and it was amazing.

The afternoon was spent in Cangrejo watching some older boys from all the leagues pitch, catch, and hit. It was great day of baseball. After we left there we went to La Union to visit friends from last year. We were able to see some of the fruits of our labor from last year’s mission trip, including the joy of seeing how $10 of medicine changed a young boy’s life. You might remember him from our posts last year, his name is Ricardo.

Tomorrow brings another full day of activities. We will visit Puerto Plata and host a coaches clinic for all of the Pro Play League coaches. The last thing we will do is watch a girls’ softball team play.

God Bless,
Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

Feb. 27, 2011 - Sunday

Today was Independence Day for the Dominican Republic. They celebrated their 167th anniversary of independence from Haiti. Many parades and celebrations were planned for the day.

This morning we left for Mocca, a beautiful city in the mountains. Pastor Rivas’ sister lives there, and we also planned to visit Pastor Rivas’ brother in jail there. Once there, we had the opportunity to meet Pastor’s parents and some of his brothers and sisters. He has 17 siblings! Stacy would not have been able to handle the drive to Mocca. The roads are extremely curvy and filled with large potholes. Talk about holding on for your life! Pastor told us our visit would not be complete without trying the pork and yucca. And yes, for those that know what a picky eater I am, I even tried the yucca! The pork was very flavorful, and the yucca tasted like a potato. I have truly enjoyed all the Dominican food I’ve eaten on my trip. In fact, Stacy claims I'm not really Mexican, that I must be Dominican :).

In the evening, we returned to Sosua and attended Pastor Rivas’ church. He’s a very gifted Pastor and speaker, and he delivered a very passionate sermon on focus. We were also blessed to have 6 missionaries from Canada join the service. They were bringing clothes, school supplies, and backpacks to some of the orphanages.

We witnessed a street fight on our way to church, just proving to us that we need to get the Word of God out to these people more, especially the adults so the young children have a Christian example to follow.

This evening also brought another first for me - a ride in the back of a safari truck. There was nothing smooth about that ride! Tomorrow we are headed back to the mountains and hopefully I can get some pictures. We will also be visiting La Union, the site we had last summer. After that we will be headed to Congrejo, a site from last year. At each site from last year we are interviewing the coaches to see how things are going, to see what they are doing, checking their needs, and we are also checking to see how many Bible studies are being done with the kids.



God Bless,
Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

February 26, 2011 - Saturday

Today we started our day in La Cienega, which will be a new site for our mission trip this year. This site has two wonderful young men as coaches, Alfre and Alexi. This site really needs your prayers. They are just getting started and have a great need for equipment and funding. When I say site, it’s similar to what we think of as our local Little League, but on a much smaller scale. Each league charges a small fee of $3/month for the child to play, but most families can’t or don’t pay. At La Cienega, only about 5% of the kids actually pay monthly. Amazingly, the coaches don’t turn away the kids that can’t pay. Their hearts are truly there for the kids and the Lord. They just make do with what they have, they don’t complain – and they have a smile on their face each time you see them.

In the afternoon we headed back to Los Castillos to watch a newly formed women’s softball league. It was awesome, the women love softball just as much as the boys love baseball. Dominicans play baseball and softball with a passion that American kids don’t have. Personally I love that passion, it reminds me of the way I was taught to play by my father. It was give 110% or don’t play.

I have been so blessed to join Ben Vigil on this trip. He is a great teacher to me in baseball and spiritually. I have a new brother…thank you Ben.

My day is done and I am exhausted. Be prepared for God to do great things. Open your heart and listen…you never know where God will lead you.

God Bless,
Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

Back to the Dominican!

February 25, 2011

God is swinging doors open for the youth here in the Dominican Republic. Ben Vigil (AIM's local director) and myself arrived in Sosua yesterday afternoon. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I felt like I was back home. It's an awesome feeling I can't describe. It's like God is shouting, "Yes my servant, this is where I want you."

We will be here for 1 week, and the purpose of our trip is to visit the different sites where our mission group (AIM) will be hosting camps this summer and help the Dominican coaches prepare for the camps. Today we visited the site of Los Castillos. This location has only one Coach (Gary) for about 103 kids. Can you imagine having to do that?? What a huge challenge, and Coach Gary is doing an incredible job. We also had discussions on how to distribute some of the equipment that is still left from last year's summer trip. (Praise God we still have some cleats and gloves to distribute!!! That in itself is a huge blessing.) Since the purpose of AIM is to minister through the game of baseball, we came up with a plan to require the kids to attend a certain number of bible study sessions in order to "earn" the cleats or glove they want. Our prayer is they will want to continue the bible study sessions even after they receive their equipment.

We also visited one of the villages today. Even though I remember last year's trip like it was yesterday, it is still so humbling to visit the people in the villages. And this time it was very cool to see some familiar faces! Their welcoming smiles and kind words warmed my heart. Even more humbling was our visit to Pastor Rivas' school. Thanks to lots of hard work and generous donations, a picture of the new school under construction is posted above. The DR has some strange rules about school. If you don't have a birth certificate, you can't attend public school. Since many of the children are born in the villages, they don't have birth certificates. Pastor Rivas runs a school here in Sosua for the village children. In fact, they are in need of crayons, chalk, pencil sharpeners, and construction paper. That boggled my mind as I thought of the abundance of those items just at our house alone.

We are also visiting with Rudy, who is heading up AIM's work in Cuba. We thought we had challenges in the DR --- Cuba definitely poses challenges. Rudy currently has 4 teams set up, but right now they play baseball with no shoes on and no shirts on, they just wear their school uniform shorts. It is very expensive to bring equipment into Cuba. First, as an American it's tough to even get permission to go into Cuba. If you do get permission, you can only bring 60 pounds of stuff per person and that weight includes your own personal items. After that each extra pound costs $12.00USD. Please pray for this new venture in Cuba. There is such a great need for the gospel to reach these people, and we know God will continue to open doors there.

So far it's once again been a very overwhelming trip. I am so happy I had the opportunity to make this preparatory trip with Ben and I pray that I keep my heart open as God is leading me along in this journey. God makes great things happen.


God Bless,
Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

February 14th

Wow…sometimes my head just spins with all that is on my to-do list. I’m overwhelmed, yet at the same time when I pause for a minute to take it all in, I smile. How I never could have imagined I would where I am in my life right now and my walk with the Lord. Never doubt it when people say, ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ It is so very true.

On Friday morning, we had the privilege of attending Gilmore Elementary school in League City for their baseball enrichment class, ‘For the Love of the Game.’ Here are a couple pictures above. I was able to run thru some baseball drills with them and have a lot of engaging conversation with 5th grade boys! What an awesome group of kids! This class meets once a month, and I can’t wait for the next one! I truly felt “in my element” as I was working with the boys. Stacy commented afterwards that I had a ‘glow’ the whole time I was there. Last month, our AIM founder Fred Billings and his youngest son Beau spoke to the class. In addition to learning about baseball, this group also wants to give back to the community. They have set up an AIM collection box for baseball equipment and they’re getting the whole school involved in collecting equipment for our trip in June.

I’d like to share a quick story to show you how our wonderful God works to bring people together. Enrichment classes are fairly new at Gilmore Elementary. Last year, a teacher at the school, Ms. Troutt, noticed that most of the classes were tailored to girls…scrapbooking, sewing, cooking, etc. So she decided to have an enrichment class tailored to boys…and chose baseball. When the group first met, Ms. Troutt explained the group would meet to discuss baseball and learn more about baseball…but she also wanted their group to find a way to give back to others and the community. She asked the kids if they had any ideas on how they could do that. One child raised his hand, ”We could give our old baseball equipment to kids that don’t have any.” The group, and Ms. Troutt, loved that idea. But how would they connect with these kids that don’t have any? A volunteer mom said, ‘I think I might have something for you.’ She flipped thru a bunch of misc. information in one of her folders and pulled out an AIM flyer. She doesn’t remember how she came to be in possession of that flyer, or why it had stayed in her misc. folder of information…but it was there. Last spring, AIM distributed flyers explaining our mission and need for equipment to give to these Dominican children that don’t have any.
Ms. Troutt called Fred Billings (his information was on the flyer). He and Beau came and spoke to the class and we got the approval for a collection box. Ms. Troutt also told Fred that she doesn’t have any real technical knowledge of baseball, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to teach these boys baseball. Did he know of anyone thru FCA that might be able to come to the school once a month and help out? Well…that prompted Fred to call me. If you remember, I was recently approved as an FCA Huddle Leader. I just hadn’t had the time to make the phone calls and try to set up meetings. This school is located in League City…about 20 minutes from my house – a perfect fit.

Go back and connect all those dots…that’s God working. There is a reason for everything…He has a plan. And while we go thru our daily lives…He’s ahead of us paving the way for things that we can’t even begin to imagine yet. Keep your faith!

Also, please pray for Ben Vigil and myself as we will soon be traveling to the Dominican to see what still needs to be done before the mission trips, and to hold a couple clinics for the Dominican coaches.

God Bless!

Carlos

Happy New Year!

January 25, 2011

Happy New Year! We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! It has certainly been a while since I have posted, and we’re definitely staying busy! Since returning from the Dominican Republic I have really felt called to work with young athletes right here in our own community as well. I was able to get my feet wet locally by holding a football conditioning camp last summer. I have also done some personal training with local young athletes and incorporated a bible study into our workouts. This week I will start giving some local kids baseball lessons. This has been such an awesome experience for me. I feel God working and I’m growing closer to Him each day.

A couple months ago, we found a small, fixer-upper commercial building for sale in La Porte. It would be perfect for our Christmas lights business, with a few offices to rent out --- AND --- a place for me to set up a batting cage! How awesome is that?! I am very anxious to see how this develops – I’m excited about the opportunity of working with young athletes in our own community, underprivileged kids, and leading these kids to God at the same time. I was recently approved to be a leader with the FCA – Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Their resources will really help me in this venture. I can’t put into words how excited I am about everything that has happened since our mission trip. To feel like you finally understand your calling in this world and what God wants you to do – that’s an amazing feeling. To watch God bring people into your lives, direct you on His path, open doors in ways that you never could have done on your own --- that’s amazing.

And of course we are staying in touch with our AIM group. The website has been updated, www.aimissions.net, and we are planning some awesome things for our trip to the Dominican next year. We also have someone working in Cuba to get baseball missions started there. The dates for the Dominican trip have been set for June 14th – 21st, and June 28th - July 5th. Ben Vigil and I are going to the Dominican in February to evaluate the progress there.

Stacy and I are going to do a better job of updating this blog on a regular basis. We hope each and every one of you are doing well!


God Bless,
Carlos

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)