A Life Worth Following

I want to start out by thanking each one of you for all of your prayers.  We continue to have significant moments together as a team and significant moments with the Lord.  Since the beginning, we have prayed that the Lord would significantly impact the lives of our players through the course of the summer.  We have prayed that this would be the best team each one of these guys would have ever played with on the baseball field.  We have prayed that this experience would change their lives forever.  Well, I believe that God has answered our prayers because the change is evident in each one of their eyes.  For that we are very thankful to the Lord because when you serve Him, new things come up all the time.

When we woke up yesterday, it just seemed impossible that things could get better.  However, things got better.   

We began the day at a local high school.  This school has 1500 students in the morning and 1500 students in the afternoon.  The school officials greeted us at the gate of their complex and escorted us to their auditorium to conduct an assembly with 500 students for about an hour.  We began the assembly by playing a fun eating game with the kids.  We chose 8 of them to come to the front to have a candy eating contest.  It doesn´t matter if you are in the United States or Nicaragua, when you see someone cramming any kind of food in their face as fast as  you can, it is always pretty funny.  Also, our guys had a lot of fun standing in front of all these screaming girls because here in Nicaragua, our baseball team are kind of like Rockstars.  We may have to do some de-briefing when we get back to the states because these guys are getting used to all the girls whistling at them.  As the guys were standing on the stage, the volume level of the room got especially loud when we told the had all the guys who did not have girlfriends to raise their hands.  After this experience, we may have a hard time getting them to come back home.  I promise I will do my best talking them into getting on the plane.  I can be pretty persuasive so don´t worry about it. 

After our ice breaker time, we shifted gears with the students and Chase Roten, Lee Tunnell and Sydni Sullivan shared testimonies about their walk with the Lord through a translator.  It was amazing that these school officials allowed us to stand and share the message of Christ so clearly and so boldly.  Everyone of those giving testimonies did a phenominal job communicating with the kids. After our team shared, we were very blessed because Oscar (The missionary working with us) wrapped everything up by sharing Justin´s story and the gospel with every one of the kids.  There were over 300 kids who raised their hands indicating that they prayed to receive Christ.   The principal of the school came up to the microphone after the assembly and told us that we were always welcome in their school any time.  Oscar concluded his time by calling Juliann Sullivan to the front of the crowd for an introduction and she recieved a very loud standing ovation from all of the students.  This was all very amazing.   

OK, what I am going to tell you next is going to require more de-briefing when we get home.  As soon as the assembly was dismissed, the kids rushed to the stage and had their pens out.  They were wanting our autograph.  Even my 8 year old son was handing out his autograph.  Tyler King and a few others were signing girls shirts along with their notebooks.  It was so much fun.  

After leaving the school, we had a very significant private moment with the leaders who are with us in Nicaragua.  We had the opportunity to go see the facility of The Rose of Sharon church.  This is the church where we will be leading worship on Sunday.  The pastor of the church is an incredible man with an incredible story.  I have a goal to share his story with you later in the week.  He is a true giant of the faith and understands how to live a life worth following.  I am glad that our boys have been able to rub shoulders with him.  

As we gathered at his church, we stood in his sanctuary and the Lord led him to bless us through His words.  Oscar, the 31 year old leader of their sports ministry, was also with us and we took the opportunity to bless him.  I shared with him how much he blessed us by so eloquently sharing Justin´s story.  This provided the perfect moment to present him with my red Ambassador jersey.  I told Oscar how much it meant to us that he would share Justin´s story and the gospel so clearly with every one that day.   When this jersey was presented to him, Oscar broke down into tears and told us all how impacting this story had been in his life.  Monday was the first time he had heard it and because of his love for baseball and his love for the Lord, his walk with God has been strengthened by Justin´s life and the lives of the Ambassadors.  It really was a significant moment for us.

When we finally got back to the house, we had time for lunch and then we were off to the day´s baseball clinic.  The clinic was going well and lots of kids were being blessed by the Ambassadors.  All of a sudden, the English teacher from the High School came up on his bike.  I was trying to help Logan Brumley, Cody Dyvig, and Robert Kizer translate infield skills into Spanish when Harry rode up. 

I told Logan, ÖK, you have to handle this because I need to speak to this guy.  Logan and the guys took care of things while I spoke with Harry.  Harry told me how he had seen us at the school earlier today.  He wanted to talk to a pastor because he needed to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Religion just wasn´t cutting it for him and he needed to know how to have a real relationship.  I had the opportunity to pray for Harry and he accepted Christ into his heart.  Earlier that day at the school, Robert Kizer felt impressed to give him a bracelet and presented one to him along with a tract called ¨Steps to Peace with God¨.  After Harry prayed to recieve Christ, Harry told me that he wanted to hear some stories of our players.  He has a daughter and he wants to be a good father, is there a story that he can hear that would encourage him.  Right then, I looked up and there was Lee and James Tunnell.  Lee began to share with him from a fathers heart about raising HIs son and God tremendously used Lee and James to speak into Harry´s life.  This was another amazing experience. 

After the clinic, we cleaned up and headed back to the field for our second game.  Yesterday we won pretty handily.  It was obvious as this game got started, we were in for a little dogfight.  Their first batter stepped up and hit a triple but then we settled in and allowed him to stay on third for the rest of the inning.  We had some good hits in the first inning but they also made some pretty good plays in the field.  We finished the first inning and we were scoreless.  During the first inning, we were joined by a youth group from Waco Texas who had unknowingly promoted our clinic for us.  It was really good starting a greaty baseball game with Americans in the crowd supporting us.  However, in the second inning, rain drops the size of quarters (that may be a little exageration) began to fall.  We were rained out. 

We rescheduled last nights game for today at 5 p.m. so tonight we will play a double header.  We are going to get some good baseball games in today. 

We came back to our base camp for a little grub and some more testimony time, then we settled in for some Mafia, Scum and other card games.  It was a great night. 

We had a slower morning this morning which was good for everyone.  We needed a little rest.  Today, we are going to visit a hospital which will be a moving experience for all of us, then tonight we will play some great baseball. 

There is an old song that says Ëvery day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before¨.  My grandma used to sing that a lot.  This week, I began to understand that a little bit more. 

Keep praying for the Ambassadors.