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!!!