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)

Last couple days of camp...

June 14th
Monday was nice and relaxing. In the morning, we walked to El Batey to watch the older boys play a game. It was really great to be able to see them play as a team. They lost 1-0 on a solo homerun. They were able to use the (so generously donated) equipment our group brought with us on this trip. After the game we invited a few of the players to go to the beach. At the beach we surprised them with a trip on a glass bottom boat. They really enjoyed it! Unfortunately, Stacy managed to get sea sick; but other than that it was a very enjoyable experience and we saw some beautiful fish, sea urchins, and coral reef.

June 15th
Our last day in the Dominican Republic. We did a little souvenir shopping, and we spent quite a bit of time getting ready to go back home. I did receive a surprise; a few of the older boys from our site came by the hotel to tell us ‘adios’ and they presented me with a bracelet that said, “Todo lo puedo posible en CRISTO” and “Que me Fortalece” (Phil 4:13). They gave me this to remember them by and I will always remember them. They changed my life – this whole trip changed my family’s life. The flight was good, but it was sad to know that it was over. Saying goodbye to our new Dominican family and our new AIM family was very hard to do. But we are all going to keep in touch. Our site director is even having a BBQ this Saturday – and we are very excited!

We are so thankful to our Lord God that we have been given the privilege of being born in the U.S. We are so thankful we had the wonderful opportunity to travel on this mission trip. This has changed our lives and is the 1st of many trips to come. The way the Holy Spirit worked within the lives of everyone involved is incredible. I am excited to follow the next step in God’s plan in this journey we call life. I also urge you – if you’ve never done a mission trip before – consider it. There are all kinds of Christian mission trips available, domestic and international. Pray about it. It will change your life in a powerful way.


God Bless,
Carlos

June 17, 2010-Back Home

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