January 2015 Update

The past couple of months have been a trial of patience in working cross culturally, thousands of miles away to try and complete the fields. As you may or may not know, things in Nicaragua tend to move slower than in the United States. At times it has been frustrating, but we hold firm to the promise found in Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Although we have had setbacks with almost everything involving the construction of the fields from leveling, fencing, painting, irrigation, grass, etc. we know that God’s timing is perfect.

Field Update

As of right now we have 4 dugouts, 2 backstops, and 4 fence lines finished. Thanks to the team Stan recently brought down we now have a professional irrigation system to water the fields. We are in the dry season here in Nicaragua, which lasts until the end of May. The installation of this irrigation system is going to allow us to sufficiently water our fields until the rain comes. Now that we do have such a good system in place we are going to be able to plant grass. Unfortunately, the grass will need about two months until it is ready to be played on. At first we thought we were going to be getting sod which would have allowed us to play on the fields in about 15 days after it was installed. This is again another example of how things have gone so far, a test of patience.

 

Ministry/League Update

Although it was disappointing to learn how long the grass was going to take to grow, the good news is these next two months are going to give us the time needed to lay down a solid foundation that is essential to have an awesome league for the kids. The idea of the league is to find the balance between developing kids spiritually and as baseball players. We believe we have a great plan in place to succeed in this. We are working with the pastors to find youth/young adults who will serve as chaplains for each team and we already have good group of coaches who are willing to serve. During the week Stan was here we were able to advance quite a bit. Like was previously said, they installed a professional irrigation system that works wonderfully. They also conducted two one-day camps, one in the community of Santa Matilde (our second biggest community) and one in our home community of Candelaria. We also did our first true sign-up in Candelaria and we had over 100 kids come and sign up! It looks like instead of starting out with 12 teams we might have 16 teams! Over the next few weeks we will be completing our sign-ups in our other communities of Santa Matilde, Nuevo Amanecer, La Isla, and Polsotega; along with picking teams; and beginning practices and discipleship. It is exciting but there is a lot of work to be done!

  Drills during the camp

 Baseball signups

Prayer Requests

We want to thank you again for the donations you have pledged and we also ask for continued prayer for the ministry down here. We know that prayer is a powerful tool and as you do pray we ask that you keep these requests in mind:

1)   That the grass will be planted and will grow without any further complications

2)   That we will find the right people (coaches, chaplains, helpers, etc.) to help create the foundation needed

3)   As we begin with practice devotions and discipleship, ears will be opened to hear and hearts softened to receive to what God has to say.

Thanks again and blessings!