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