New Song Nicaragua Sports Ministry: September 2015 Update

Another month has gone by and even though the rain has picked up a bit, we haven’t had any problems getting in a lot of baseball. During the first Saturday of the month the eldest group again had the opportunity to showcase their skills. The teams of Nuevo Amanacer and Santa Matilde had a double header at the New Song Field. In the first game Santa Matilde did not have much of a chance because the pitcher for Nuevo Amanacer brought the magic. He pitched a no hitter while also tallying 10 strikeouts. It was an unbelievable performance as Nuevo Amanacer took the first game 7-0. Santa Matilde looked to have bounced back in the second game being only down one run after the 3^rd, but that is when it started to unravel as the errors and walks began to tally. Nuevo Amanacer captured the second game to win 12-5. As for the other two other teams, Candelaria and Fe y Esperanza, they squared off in the community of Fe y Esperanza. Candelaria took the first game handedly and unfortunately a second game was not played due to an incident that happened after the first game. The communities that we are working in are very poor communities where education levels are not very high. With that we tend to see traits of petty theft, lack of respect and in general bad attitudes amongst the kids and sometimes the parents we are working with. After the game there was a dispute of a missing glove, which then escalated into a big scene. It was decided to not play the second game and to have everybody just go home. Fe y Esperanza (faith and hope) is the newest church plant for New Song Mission. In that there is not quite yet a foundation of Christian men or women who are available to help as coaches, chaplains, etc. Due to these reasons among others, it was decided by the Pastor of that community to suspend his teams from playing in the league in January giving him time to raise up people who will be able to provide the leadership and guidance needed. It was very disappointing because the Pastor has been a big proponent for the sports ministry up until this point and sees the huge potential that it has to impact his community. This lack of Christian leadership especially among men has been one of the biggest obstacles we have had to overcome, but in that it is also one of our biggest goals and focuses to impact the hearts of adult men and women through sports. We ask that you keep this in your prayers and that God will give us wisdom and guidance and that hearts will be softened amongst the people.

As for the second weekend there were only two teams that participated in the 9-10 age group and that was Candelaria and Santa Matilde. In the first game, Candelaria jumped on the opposition early thanks to patience at the plate and preferring to be walked instead of chasing bad pitches. Candelaria led 3-0 after the first. Santa Matilde could not get anything going in the second either as they were not able to find a way to score, but Candelaria again found themselves making noise on offense. The floodgates began to open up when Candelaria had the bases loaded with only one out and their clean up hitter, a 10 year old girl, up to bat. Little Yelly did not back down from the situation and hit a bases clearing double. From that moment Candelaria did not look back and ended up winning 13-0 after the game was called after the third. The second game of the double header began like the first game ended, with Candelaria lighting up the scoreboard. Candelaria posted a ridiculous 9 runs in the top of the first inning, but Santa Matilde answered in the bottom half of the first. Having already had their ace pitch two innings in the first game the coach of Candelaria decided to give the ball to another pitcher to see how well he could manage. He did not manage well as the pitcher surrendered 5 runs. The score stayed 9-5 as the teams went to the bottom half of the second. The coach let his pitcher start the second hoping to see an improvement. Unfortunately, Santa Matilde continued their hitting and knocked in 2 more runs. The coach decided to call on his ace to get his team out of the jam. The Candelarian stud stood tall and got his team out of the second inning without giving up anymore runs as the teams stood deadlocked at 9-7 heading into the third. The teams battled back and forth until the sixth and final inning. The score was 11-9 and it was anybody’s game. Candelarian came up to bat for their final turn and they made the most out of it. They were able to bring in 4 runs to push their lead to 15-9. Candelaria marched their closer out to the mound in the bottom of the sixth and he struck out two out of the four batters he faced to give Candelaria the win and the sweep for the day.

What an action shot!

Girl Power!

The final weekend of the month included the little ones from the three communities of Candelaria, Santa Matilde, and Nuevo Amanacer. The first game was between Candelaria and Nuevo Amanacer. This particular Candelarian team has been one of the best coached teams so far and it shows. They do not make many errors, which is HUGE for little ones that are in this age group. They also can smash the ball of the tee. Up next was Nuevo Amanacer and Santa Matilde. The last time these two teams met, Santa Matilde took over a close game and dominated the last two innings so Nuevo Amanacer was looking for a win. One could tell that Nuevo Amanacer has improved over the past month as they did get the win that they were looking for. It was a close game throughout but the improvements in the players on Nuevo Amancer were good enough to propel them to victory. For the third and final game Santa Matilde was to take on Candelaria. The best game amongst all the teams in the previous month of August was the meeting between these two. Candelaria made an amazing comeback in the top half of the last inning only to see Santa Matilde win on a walk-off single in the bottom half. With memories of their gut wrenching loss still on their minds, Candelaria played some inspired tee ball. They were sharp fundamentally in the field and as always they brought their big boy bats. Candelaria easily took care of Santa Matilde as they finished undefeated for the weekend. After going undefeated in the first weekend they played, the youngsters of Santa Matilde headed back home winless knowing that they would have to improve in practice.

This is why here team bats so well! Rosita does a great job with the little ones!

Nothing like cold water on a hot day!

As you can tell it was once again an eventful and fun month here in Nicaragua. The kids excitement level is at its highest now that we have completed two months of games. We are also having more adults and youth starting to become more interested in helping as assistant coaches and chaplains. Although we still lack quality chaplains for each team, we are making progress in this area as well and that is a huge blessing! We are also grateful and excited that our fields are really starting to come together. We hope to share extensive before and after photos of the fields soon. As always thank you all again for your support financially and in prayer without this all these things would not be able to happen. As stated previously please pray for wisdom and guidance as we continue to work and figure out what is the best way to be affective with this ministry. And as always pray that hearts will be softened and that God’s will will be done. Thanks and God bless!