New Ministry!!!

Hey all! So James and I have been doing a lot of talking and discussing recently and some things have changed. It's very exciting, but going to add a lot of work!!! So yeah, here we go...

The main thing i'm gonna be focusing on at this point is this new program that we're starting. It's called the 144 Program. It's pretty much totally “my baby” in the words of James, so yeah, it's like all up to me to come up w/ all the details like the mission, vision, teaching curriculum, training program etc....so to give you an idea of what it is, i'll just tell you the mission statement I have for it at this point (although, i'm not totally sure i'm happy with it, so I might change the wording, but it at least gets the point across)....

Mission: The 144 Program, a holistic training program, assists young Colombian athletes who show special potential in their sport to have the opportunity to play at the next level through physical training in their sport, academic training through English classes, and spiritual training through the Word of God.

So in other words, we're looking for the young athletes who show a lot of potential and working with them to develop their skill to the point where they can get a scholarship from (ideally) a college in the US, allowing them the opportunity to
a. get out of the slums
b. be a good example to those whom they are playing against
c. be a good example to all the rest of the people from their high school or neighborhood who would no doubt look up to them at that point, since it is very rare for a Colombian to be good enough to go on and play in the US.
While helping them develop their skill, we would be teaching them English and in that time, be able to go through the Bible with them (as a “English-teaching tool”), thus leading to that whole “good example” thing I was just talking about.

The reason it's called the 144 Program is b/c we are looking to eventually get 144 kids sponsored for the program for $144 a year. We already have a few in mind for the program whom I will be working with starting possibly as soon as next week, but obviously, we have a long way to go to both reach 144 kids, as well as get the donations to reach that many kids. The even longer-term goal is to get a few people down here focusing on all different kinds of sports and starting this program for baseball, softball, volleyball, etc....

But yeah, James has pretty much left most of the details up to me, so i've been spending a decent amount of time the last 2 days thinking about the mission, vision, and how I wanna go about the whole English teaching thing. It's really exciting, but obviously is going to be A LOT of work! So please pray that:
a. first and foremost, God is glorified in this program and His blessing will be on it
b. that I'll be able to figure out all these details and put them together in a well-thought-out way.
c. that He will raise up supporters for these kids
d. that when we do get to the point where we are reaching that many kids, we have the energy/resources to do it!
e. however else you feel God leading you to pray about this ministry – it needs to be doused in prayer :)

But....
That's still only one of the ministries going on here. James is still very busy as the head coach of the professional team (hence, handing over the major responsibility of 144 to me), but I am also still there at both the morning and evening practices. On top of that, we still have these other ministry opportunities floating out there (like the one I previously mentioned at Mamonal) that we would love to be able to tackle. But all in God's timing, you know? :)

Oh, and my roommate (for now at least – that is also subject to change) has moved in. He's one of the professional players. He's Colombian but spent his whole life in Northern Jersey, so he pretty much only speaks English....which is fine with me! :) He's not a Christian though, so there is yet another ministry opportunity for me, right here in my own apartment!! So pray that I am able to uphold a good, strong testimony in front of him (well....i want to uphold a strong testimony always....but you get the point). He's a really cool guy though, and we've gotten along very well thus far (even though he is a yankees fan....).

Ok, well i've bored you all enough at this point. :) Thanks for your prayers! Love you all!!!

Camp Week

Hey everybody!

Wow, what a week! As I mentioned before, the team from Southeastern University arrived on Monday, and then Tuesday was the first day of camp. The morning camp was being organized by Opportunity International and we were just partnering with them for the week to help them run the camp. Unfortunately they were only able to get a few kids to come (despite getting around 30 kids to sign up). So tuesday and wednesday morning, we had like 7 kids there. So on wednesday morning, the team from Southeastern actually took that time to get in a little practice, and James was gone picking up/working out one of the professional players. So that left pretty much all the responsibility on my shoulders, but like i said....there were only 7 kids....so it wasn't bad at all. I believe God was really able to work through me and by the end of the time that morning, one of the kids (Bernardo) was very interested in being in a huddle group w/ me (where i would teach him english, help him w/ his basketball skills, and most importantly....share the gospel with him). So that was very encouraging.

Then, on Thursday morning we went to an island just off the coast of Cartagena, and worked with some of the kids there. YWAM (youth with a mission) has a base there, so we were able to work alongside of them. This was an extremely poor area, but James and I were able to go talk to the school administrator, as well as someone from the local church about starting a huddle group there as well. So it looks very possible that they may be my job once a week. (so if you remember from my previous post.....that is now 3 days a week at Mamonal, 1 day at this island, and the rest of the time right here in Cartagena). It's amazing how God is bringing everything together.

Anyway, on Friday morning we were back at the high school working with both the 7 kids who had been there earlier in the week, as well as some of the kids we were able to boat in from that island. After this camp, we had the opportunity to share with them, presenting the whole gospel (not watered down in the slightest, despite being at a Catholic school), and give them all Spanish New Testaments. It was great to see how attentive the kids were!

The kids and us in the Friday morning session

Meanwhile, every afternoon we were putting on a camp for the kids of the Catholic school there in Cartagena. There was a much bigger turnout for these (80 kids or so). These camps went extremely well and every day one of the guys from Southeastern gave their testimony at the end. I did a lot of translating for the guys during the drills....so thank you all for your prayers for my Spanish! :) Finally, at the end of the week on Friday, James once again had the opportunity to talk to them and hand out New Testaments to them all. Pray that they will read the Bibles and come to us w/ questions and open doors for us to talk w/ them more.

Today is a scrimmage between Southeastern and the professional team here (and i get to play w/ Southeastern). So that should be fun. Alright, well, I have to get going. But i just wanted to let you guys know, that God has really been answering prayer and this week went so well! Thank you all and I love you.

Prayer

Praise: The team from Southeastern University has arrived. There are only 8 of them....but still...they will be a huge help!

Prayer Requests:
1. Tomorrow morning (tuesday) is the start of 2 different camps that we are putting on this week. One is in the morning, the other in the afternoon. Please pray that the Lord will be working in the hearts of the kids that are coming that they will be receptive to the devotionals that are given at every session. At the end of the week, we will have an "altar call" when we will directly lay out the gospel and see how many kids want to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
2. Please pray for me specifically as I will have the main responsibility of running these camps as James will be very busy with the professional team this week. So please pray that God will give me the Spanish words to say to help control these kids and help them both in their basketball, as well as in their spiritual lives.
3. James and I will have pretty much the sole responsibility of follow-up w/ the kids that do make a commitment to Christ. So please pray that we are able to plug these kids into local churches where they dont have to travel far to get to (as all of them are poor kids). The problem is that there are very few truly biblical churches, so we need to find all the ones closest to these kids that are solid, Bible-preaching churches.

Ok, wish I could update you on more that has been going on, but as you can see, we are pretty busy (just got back from the pro practice like 15 minutes ago)! Love you all, and can't thank you enough for your prayers and encouraging comments on these posts and facebook and email. Praise the Lord for the work He is doing!!!

Mamonal

Yesterday (Thursday) was a long, hot day....but it was AWESOME! We were out in the sun doing a basketball clinic for a school in an extremely poor area about 45 minutes outside of Cartagena, by the name of Mamonal (I think that's how it's spelled anyway...).

(me teaching kids how to shoot)

As we were headed out there, James let me know that this is one of the main areas that I will be spending time. I will be out there about 3 days a week, acting essentially as a PhysEd teacher for these kids. I am very excited, because it is so obvious that they just need someone to instruct them and discipline them and really just give them attention. So you all can begin praying for the kids of Mamonal as I will be spending countless hours w/ them over the next few months. Everyone in the area (adults included) are pretty lazy, as they are just used to getting handouts from the government. So this will be one of the many challenges of working w/ them. But as I said, they are very willing to listen and to learn, so I am very much looking forward to spending more time out there.Today is El Dia de Indepencia (I assume most of you can figure out what that means) for Colombia, so we just had practice with the professional team this morning (and when i say "morning" I mean it started at 10:30 and was supposed to end at 12:30, but since time means nothing here....we did not even get home until 2) and have been relaxing since then. Tonight we are going out and doing some "touristy" things, so I can check out some of the nicer parts of the city.
One other prayer request that I forgot to mention in my previous post is for the camp that we are putting on next week. There will be a lot of kids there and it will be a great opportunity to present the gospel to many children. Southeastern University (out of Florida) is supposed to be coming down to help us out, however we just found out earlier this week that as of wednesday, they still do not have their money raised, nor have they purchased plane tickets, and one of their players still doesn't have his passport. So....we're just praying that they can even come at this point, or else that leaves A LOT of responsibility on the shoulders of James and me. So if you could keep that in your prayers, that would be greatly appreciated!
Well that's about all for now. God bless you all, and thanks again for your prayers and support.

Welcome to Cartagena!!

Hola amigos!!!
Well, I have arrived here in Cartagena, Colombia. It has been a great first 2 days here. I got in to my apartment at about 1 in the morning on tuesday (or monday night, depending on how you look at it). Tuesday we got to check out the area and scout out some good places to play basketball and do some camps. Then at night we had practice with the professional team. Today has been a little more chill....i was able to sleep in and then kind of check out the area. Speaking of "the area", let me tell you about it...
My apartment is on the 7th floor of an apartment building overlooking the Caribbean. I know, really tough, right? I can walk over to the beach (where the water is like bath-tub warm...almost not even refreshing from the 100-degree weather). I am in downtown Cartagena in a very ritzy part of town, because it is really the only safe place for us "gringos" to live. The rest of the city is very poor and dangerous. Today we are helping out a local highschool basketball coach with practice. We will be working out his players. Tomorrow, we are headed to an extremely poor area and doing basketball camps, as a way to begin to build relationships w/ these kids. I'm really excited to continue to get to know people and spend more time w/ James (who is awesome, by the way).
Anyway, that's about all for now! Thanks again for your prayers. Love you all.