Game day in Santo Domingo

Today we all got to witness some baseball history at the oldest stadium in the Dominican Republic. We played against UTESA (Santo Domingo Technical University) at Estadio de La Normal in Santo Domingo. We faced a fair share of adversity today with a hot sun and a comebacker that took our starter out early on. We went on to "balk" the tying run in late in the game. The umpires' reasoning for the balk was that our pitcher held the ball in the set position for too long. He then changed his reasoning to shoulder movement after our coaches explained that there was no rule on holding the ball in the set too long. They went on to score again in the bottom of the 9th inning to give us our first loss. Realizing we had to turn our attitudes around quick for our testimony and gospel sharing was tough although it really put things into perspective. We all understood that the game was nothing compared to our true goal down here, to share the gospel. One of our players shared a great testimony that lead into a Spanish message of the gospel shared by one of the Dominican players on our team, Miguel. His passion for what he was sharing was so great that even the guys on our team who don't speak Spanish were moved. Today was an overall great experience, even after a tough loss. I continue to be thankful and amazed at what God can do!

Iglesia

First Sunday down in the DR which means the first church service in Spanish! Today's service was just like any service at home with worship time first, followed by a sermon from the lead pastor. Unlike the majority of people down here, the pastor spoke clear and slow enough for somebody like me to understand a good amount of his message. He preached about having a strong personal relationship with God and how He blesses you in different ways during your life. No matter how rough the circumstances, it's important to have a good relationship with Him. 

After the service we had lunch then left for our second and final game at the stadium in Santiago. Today's game was the closest of all 3 we've played but we still came out on top. After the game we had another guy share his testimony and took pictures with some of the guys we connected with. It's been a blast playing against these young studs! Tomorrow we are playing against the Go Ministry team. The team should be a few older and better than the group we played all weekend. After the game we will head back to Santo Domingo to stay in a hotel for the next 10 days. Already having a blast in this country... Excited to see what the new week has in store.

Santiago -> Santo Domingo

Today we played our 4th and final game in Santiago. This game was against the Go Ministry team at a field a little ways away from where we were staying. The team was made up of some older players with more experience and they battled with us. We held on late and ended up winning, managing to stay undefeated through the weekend. We had a blast with Go Ministry while we were in Santiago and it's obvious that God is doing great things there. 

After the game we loaded up the guagua (Dominican Spanish for bus) and headed back here to Santo Domingo. We will be stationed here at the Jose Contreras hotel downtown for the next ten days. Tonight we got to head over to the closest supermarket La Sirena to buy some snacks to hold us over while we have downtime at the hotel. Tons of great experiences and more to come!

Estadio Cibao

Today was one of the longest days we've had so far. We woke up early for breakfast then journied out to a large area of farm land outside of the city. Go Ministries owns the land and is planning on transforming the old yucca farm into a large sports complex with a few baseball fields and basketball courts. The area is in it's beginning stages so we were actually the first American group to work on the land. Half of us cleared out an area they will use for cookouts and the other half spread out sand for one of the baseball fields. We had a lot of fun with that, especially when some of the players from the DPL (Dominican Prospect League) came to help us. They stuck around after that and came with us to a church in a rough barrio across town. In the main floor of the church was a big room where we fed a lunch to a bunch of young kids. We played with them for awhile there then went upstairs into the church to hear the lead pastor speak for a few minutes about the journey of that church. We also enjoyed a nice view outside the window.

After our time there we came back to the place we are staying to eat lunch. After lunch we headed to the big stadium here in Santiago. The stadium belongs to the professional team here called Las Aguilas Cibaeños. Plenty of big leaguers have played there including Miguel Tejada, Al Alburquerque, and Melky Cabrera. The game went well and we won for the second day in a row. After the game, one of our guys shared his testimony with the opposing team in English while a translator helped communicate his message to the DPL players. 

We then left the stadium with some of the opposing team and came back to eat dinner and head to a Dominican Christian rap concert with them. The group is named Cristo Urbano and they performed in a small church in a rough part of town. They were very entertaining especially because of how they got the crowd to dance and sing with them. 

Gigantes y Nacionales

Today is the first big birthday in June that I'm missing. Ceej turns the big 18 today and I am wishing him a happy birthday in thought. 

This morning we had a light hitting sesh in the cages. After that we watched a few innings of the Dominican Summer League game between the Giants and Nationals. A lot of the players seemed very young but you can tell that their raw talent will be ready for the minor leagues soon. 

Boca Chica

It's only the 3rd day here and I feel like the team has already bonded really well. We have a lot of chemistry in our time off the field and on it. This is a great group of guys that I'm excited to get to know better over the next month. During our discipleship time we have continued to work on our testimonies which we hope to share with the team we play with this weekend. We are headed to Santiago Friday morning to play a series against a developmental league team. We will also spend some time with them off the field. I can't wait to use my Spanish to hopefully connect with them and share some of my faith with them!

Today we traveled into Boca Chica to play at a field in the center of town. A bunch of kids from the neighborhood were at the field and they watched us practice. Some of them hung out on the fences and a few even in the outfield behind us while we had an intrasquad scrimmage. It was a great experience to see how much they love being around the game and how important this sport is to them. It definitely makes me appreciate the gift God has blessed me with to play this amazing game. 

First practice

The first full day here in the DR is a hot one but God has blessed us with a nice breeze to keep us cool. Discipleship after breakfast went well as we had a lesson on Evangelism and how to spread the gospel the right way. After that we had our first practice where we hit in 4 groups for about an hour and a half. The fields at this complex are a lot nicer than I expect fields on the outside to be like. The playing surface here would rival some nice fields back home, especially some in the north. 

Just a fun side note about the complex: There are plenty of Latin ball players here and they all stay near us and take English classes in the classroom connected to our living space. They are on a strict schedule so we don't get to spend much time interacting with them but from the short conversations we've had so far they all seem to be in the age range of 17-19. It's fun to wonder if I could be walking past the next Pablo Sandoval or Jose Reyes when I'm on my way to breakfast or the pool. We've also learned some typical Dominican slang phrases to say so we don't get bored of the typical "¿Como estás?" The ones we've used most so far are "¿Que lo que?" and "Dios te bendiga" which translate to what's up and God bless you.