A Life Worth Following

This is a very strange moment for us.  We are sitting in a third world country in the midst of poverty unlike any place in the United States and I am able to get on the internet to communicate to everyone back home.  At this moment, we are essentially on the border of Honduras and Nicaragua in a town called Somotillo but instantly, I can communicate with everyone back home.  It is very strange. 

I want to begin with something that I left out of the last blog.  I was so excited about all the things that I wrote about, I left out an entire part of our day on Thursday.  So much has happened in such a short time, it is very difficult to remember all the incredible stories. 

After we left the little Bible Study where my son Eric shared the story of David and Goliath, we visited a local high school.  We split up into 5 groups and went to two individual classrooms to share our testimonies.  This experience enabled every one of the Ambassadors to stand before a group of students and share their faith.  It was truly amazing to be invited to a local school to share the gospel so boldly.  As I have observed the team this summer, every one of them have become bold witnesses for Christ.  I am so proud of each one of them. 

Yesterday was an interesting day for us.  The majority of the team stayed back in Leon and continued our work in that city.  It was a great day for all of them.  The began the day by going door to door in a neighborhood sharing the gospel.  A group of guys walked up on a basketball game and very quickly joined in the action.  The rule was that they would play for 15 minutes and if we won, the Nicaraguans had to come watch us play.  For a little while, we forgot we were baseball players and started to bring it to the basketball floor.  We should have played for 10 minutes because we were killing them early but since we agreed to play for 15, the Nicaraguans came a way with a victory on the hard court.  Even though we lost, the guys came to the baseball game any way.  It was fun.

In the afternoon, we had a great clinic in Leon and since we were in the same place for so many days, we decided to play games with them. Lee had the opportunity to spend several hours with a team working with their pitchers and Coach V worked the clinic. We shared the gospel again and more kids and adults prayed to receive Christ.
It truly is amazing here. People are simply open to the gospel. It really is different than things are at home. In a place like this, it is not hard for people to realize that they are in need. We have so much stuff in the United States, it blinds us to our real needs. We have seen a lot of poverty here. In reality, there is a lot of poverty in the United States as well, it is just spiritual poverty. I am so glad that the Lord has allowed us to utilize baseball to share Christ with people. I have discovered that on the baseball field, you can effectively communicate the love of Christ with a person who comes from wealthy background just as well as a person who has nothing in this life. Every where we go, people are coming to Christ. It is amazing.
OK, now I am going to move to a little baseball. Last night, the Nicaraguans utilized some of their recruiting skills to try to beat us on the baseball field. There is a former AAA pitcher who lives in the area and they asked him to come and start for them. Our guys were excited for the challenge and there was a lot of excitement as we took the field last night.
We were starting Tyler King and two good teams were ready to play some baseball. As we arrived to the park, we were so amazed at the crowds that were coming out to watch us play. Another 3000 people showed up and crowded around the park. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened. Jarod Freeman accidentally pulled a foul ball down the right field line and into the crowd. A ball struck a man in the eye brow cutting him pretty good. James Tunnell came up next and came close to hitting some folks down the left field line. After that, some folks decided to move out of the way. However, the majority stayed put because they wanted to watch the baseball game.
Needless to say, the game was a little more difficult for us but we were still able to pull out a win, 11-2. As of last night, we were still un-defeated in Nicaragua.

Now, I am going to move the the second group. Yesterday morning, 14 of us loaded up on a school bus and made a two hour trip to a smaller town called Somoltillo. Somotillo is a smaller village that sits close to the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. We were invited by Pastor Diomedes and a man named Walter who is the leader of the baseball federation for this part of the country. Pastor Diomedes is an incredible pastor who has started over 30 churches in the mountains in Northern Nicaragua and if you add up the membership of all of those churches, it would total over 3000 people. His is an incredible man with a huge vision for the people of Nicaragua. Walter, is a man who openly tells folks that he is not a Christian but he is so excited we were willing to come to Somotillo to play.
We left Leon yesterday around 10a.m. and started the adventure to Somotillo. It was a bumpy ride but it was also an incredible adventure for everyone who came with us. Our goal in Somotillo was to conduct a baseball clinic on Friday afternoon and then play a game on Saturday morning. It was exciting for all of us. Coach Savedra was going to head up the team and I was going to get to coach first. (I was pumped because it was my first baseball game.)
The clinic was incredible and many people prayed to receive Christ. After the clinic, the local TV station came by and interviewed Raul Corpus. He was on the 6p.m. news in this area. In addition to this, Raul, on the prompting of the Holy Spirit, took the opportunity to share Christ with Walter. Walter opened up to Raul and told him that there were many struggles going in his life. I was so proud of Raul and his bold witness for Christ.
After the clinic, it was amazing. We drove to a river which borders Nicaragua and Honduras and went swimming. Every one of our guys now have the opportunity to check on Honduras on one of the countries we have visited throughout our life time because we waded across the river and stood on Honduran soil. It was an awesome trip into the jungle of Central America.
We came back for an incredible dinner and walked through town to an ice cream place. It was an incredible journey.
This morning, we got up early because they told us we were going to play an 8 a.m. game. When we got to the field at 730, they had pushed the game back to 9 because the local radio station was going to broadcast the game to over 50,000 people who live in this part of the country.
The radio station was here and the game began. The people of Somotillo had recruited the best of the baseball players in the area to play us. It was like the local boys had the opportunity to play the Yankees. It was a good game and it was my first experience coaching and yelling at an umpire. We had the opportunity to experience a little home cooking so I had the opportunity to communicate in Spanish with an umpire that he really needed to call equally for both teams.
I let him know that I was upset but I did not kick any dirt on him or throw anything at him. (I wanted to, I just didn´t)
OK, I am really needing to get on the bus right now so I will simply say, we lost the game 8-2. We actually scored a couple of more runs, they just did not count because the Nicaraguan strike zone was not in the same place as our strike zone. However, that is OK because the real reason we were here was to share Christ. I just had to be reminded of that a few times.
It was a fun game in spite of our loss but very quickly, I have to tell you what happened in the end. As we shared our story and presented the gospel, we experienced a holy moment on the field. Not only did the home plate umpire give his life to Christ (He needed to get saved for a lot of reasons) but also Walter, the commissioner of baseball prayed to receive Christ. I don´t have time to go into all the details of this because we have to go back to Leon right now and everyone is waiting for me. In spite of our first loss on the baseball field in Nicaragua, we still won the spiritual battle because we stood on a field and experienced grown men going from death to life. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that we have had the opportunity to come here and see thousands of people come to know Christ.
God has been so good to us.