One Month In...

So God has been moving in really cool ways and opening up doors in huge ways. I wanted to give you an update on what our girls sports site is looking like now.

Mornings: A Local Gym in a community known as Barrio Ballaguer (ages 7-12)
* Group game with all the kids (kickball, dodgeball)
* Focused time with just the girls (volleyball or other sports)
* Devotional time with all the kids
* Scrimmage against some of the locals

The pictures below are of the gym and a morning when we went to a river with the kids. We tried to move this huge log so then we could float on it... yeah it was awesome.





Afternoons: Outdoor court in Barrio Blanco
* Practicing with a girls volleyball team (11-14 yrs old)
* This has been a blast because they just love playing and they have not had a coach in the past so they have been really receptive

Here are some pics of the girls that we have been practicing with. They came over to my house for a pizza party. We played dominos and of course, passed the volleyball outside together. :)





Nights: Hang Out With Mis Amigos!
* Nights often consist of watching local baseball games
* Hanging out with Viance and her family
* Playing volleyball (surprise surprise)
* Playing dominos

Here's a couple pics of Viance and I. One night, we went with some other friends to Santiago to see a movie. I am seriously so thankful to have her as a friend. She is sooo much fun and is so helpful in so many ways.





Well that's about all for now. I have loved this group of American students. They have seriously been such a blessing and I will be sad when they go.

New Friends!

This is going to be a quick one, but I wanted to update you on two really cool things that have happened in the past couple weeks.

1. Girls Volleyball Team- I have been working the past month with young elementary kids. As fun as that has been, my goal would be to work with older girls so that I can teach them volleyball. Just this past week, we discovered a team of junior high girls that really love to play but really don't have any one to teach them. We had a "team meeting" and we talked about they would like to practice more often, have some games to play in, etc. Anyways, by the end of the meeting, we were all totally excited. So now, every afternoon, I will practice with those girls. I am so excited!

2. New Friend- Its a lot harder to make girl friends here. I may have written this somewhere before, but I really wanted to have a girlfriend, who was a christian, who liked sports and also loved to hike/explore. I know that probably sounds picky.. but God brought me that and so much more! Her name is Viance and we have done everything together the past week. She is now helping at the site, which is huge because I can explain a drill to her and she can make sure the kids understand it. Also, she is really good with kids so it helps so much. She also loves volleyball and she definitely holds her own when we play with guys. She always talks trash, so its so fun to play with her. She is also a Christian and goes to my church! This past weekend has consisted of watching baseball together, lunch/dinner at her house, hiking to see a waterfall, playing volleyball, going to a river to cliff jumping stuff, going to church and then going out to eat together! I am seriously soooo thankful to have a friend like her! It was totally a God thing. Okay, well I am heading to bed, but I wanted to give a quick update. Thanks for your prayers! For real, I know thats what has made this past month so awesome!

Take care!

So far so good!

After my first two weeks, it is difficult to put into words my thoughts and emotions. Rather try to put these all these ideas into words, I just tell a couple stories that have kinda captured my last three weeks.

#1: Equipo con las mujeres (Women’s softball team)
One of my main objectives is to be able to use my love of sports to reach women here. Well, I actually got connected with the women’s softball team here. I practiced twice with them and I had my first game today. I think I was more nervous for today’s game than any college game I have ever played. I played third and the first hitter hit a grounder my way and I was able to make the play. In my head, I was like PHEW! So then the second hitter, yep she hit one right through my legs. Of course, all the boys from the baseball site had a good laugh about it. Maybe it was the look of fear on my face, but I think every single person felt it was their duty to tell me how to play. It was kinda got funny. Before every batter, I would have at least two players and three people in the crowd tell me where I should throw it. Oh and I was told to be there at 9:15 because our game was supposed to start at 10. Ha ha ha. Well most of the players on my team did not get there until 10 and the other team did not show up until 12:30. We ended up playing a double header and we got done at 3. So yeah, it was a great day. Next weekend we have a game in the capital (Santo Domingo) which is actually a pretty decent drive. I am so pumped that God opened up this door. I had a girl talk to me after the game who knew I was a Christain and she said, “You know, its just hard being on a softball team. You know, they drink and do a lot of bad stuff.”

#2 Relay Races
Our “girls sports site” takes place in two main locations. We have been really fortunate to have access to a court that is inside in the mornings. We normally work with girls from a nearby school from 9 until 11 and then from 11-12 we scrimmage some kids from the community. The girls from the school range from 4th grade to about 9th grade. In the afternoons from about 1:30-4, we go to a school called Barrio Blanco. At this school we have been working more with younger girls (1st through 4th grade). Okay, so now to my story. It is harder to do a lot of volleyball with the younger kids so we have been trying to come up with gym type games for them to play. So in the morning we did relay races and it ended up working out really well. So we tried doing in with the 1st and 2nd graders in the afternoon. Well, first it took us about 10 minutes just to get them in the lines. Then, I did my best to explain it the same why I explained it in the morning. I meant for one person to go at a time, ya know, and then touch the next person in line, and so forth. So yeah, I go to the other side of the court and when I said GO! I had about 50 girls screaming with excitement all run at same time at me! I am sure the look on my face had to be priceless because I felt so clueless as to what to do from there. Luckily, the librarian saw what was going on and he came out to help.

Lowlights of the past few weeks:
• Feeling clueless of what to do with elementary girls. My experience has been more in coaching high schoolers and college athletes, so second graders is a whole new ball park
• Frustration of not being able to speak Spanish as well I would want.

Highlights
• HUGE interest of girls in the communities we are working in. We probably have interactions with at least 100 kids each day.
• Many opportunities for the American team here now to share Christ with the girls
• Many opportunities to play sports with people here (for real, they would play all day if I didn’t say I was tired) I seriously wake up every morning thinking to myself, “Is this really happening?” I get to coach volleyball and at the same time share God’s love and truth to kids EVERY SINGLE DAY!
• Having the Bethel volleyball team here. It has been such a blessing to have their expertise and help these past few weeks. They have been huge in helping me run drills and think of games to play with the kids. It has been really nice when I feel so clueless as to how to start a sports site, to have them here to keep me on track.
• Joining the women’s softball team in the community
• Daily devotions that we have been able to share the girls in communities that students international has not been able to reach in the past

Prayer Requests
• Continued guidance with the site
• My arm- I think I got some sort of tendinitis in my right elbow from playing so much and now after about playing for 30 minutes, I have pain that shoots from my shoulder all the way through my hand. It kills me to not play some days. Or other days, I just play but then it hurts even worse.
• Ideas of how handle the young 1st and 2nd graders (and patience)
• Spanish- continue learning and picking up the language

Making Preparations

Well, I honestly had doubts that this day would actually come. I booked my flight yesterday and I will leave May 3rd. I am amazed at how stressed out I got about fundraising. However, God continued to remind me that he was in control and his planning is perfect. I am filled with all kinds of emotions: anxiety, nervousness, extreme excitement, nervousness, have I mentioned I am nervous? However, i know that this is where God wants me to be.

I am so excited to be able to use sports as ministry. I hope that I am able to live a life that truly demonstrates incarnation ministry. I just hope I am able to love as Jesus loved. I love the quote from Shane Claiborne's Irresistible revolution that says "being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and declaring to do something incredibly daring with your life." Now, I don't think what I am doing is anymore daring than living here and deciding to life for Jesus as a teacher. However, I hope that they way I chose to live and love is daring. I hope I can move past myself and just give myself to others. Yeah, so a lot of ideas in my head (and a lot of sleepless nights recently). However, there are a couple things I do know. I am supposed to go to the DR and use sports to build relationships with the people of Jarabacoa. I am leaving it to God to lead me from there! DR... here I come. :)

I am close to having full time support in start-up costs but still need monthly support. Pray that the final costs come in so that when I am there, I can be fully focused on my ministry there and not raising support. Also, pray that preparations and connections can be made so that the girls sports site can be established especially as we get summer teams coming.

Crazy God Story!

So this week has been interesting. Over that past few weeks I have been kinda stressing out about the whole fundraising thing. I just feel clueless and I am not sure what direction to go with it. Anyways... so yesterday, I see this old, about 4'8guy sitting by himself in the dining commons. I went over to talk to him and came to find out that he was a missionary in Nigeria for 30 years. He had the most crazy, funny, random stories. Throughout the three hours that I stayed to talk to him, it was cool to see him interact with the people who filtered in and out sitting with us. He prayed for almost every single person, it was great. I also just asked him how he did the fundraising thing and such... anyway about 1 hour or so into the convo, he whips out a 100 bill and gives it to me for missions. Then, as I am sharing this story about lunch a couple of hours later, Jim Ralstin felt like God was calling him to give me $200 that afternoon... THEN... today someone anonymously put $500 in my mail box with an encouraging note... So yeah GOD IS AMAZING!!!! I was just reminded that God is completely in control.

Well, it looks like this is just the beginning of future blogs to come... well hopefully. I went back down and had my interview and everything went really great. I have not been "officially" accepted yet but it really looks I will go back to work in May. I will work alongside Raul (the boys sports site leader) for the summer and then as I build more relationships, try to pull away and start my own site in the fall!!! So, now this just the beginning of a whole new journey, finding support. Pray that God will provide guidance in this because this is something that I have a hard time with and really have no clue what I am doing. Any suggestions?

As I come back to "college" life, I am really nervous. I do not want to just jump back into things unchanged. However, I also want be able to live in the present and ENJOY life here. However, my heart is definitely in the DR and I am certain I will return. However, he also has a purpose in me being here. I am super pumped to assistant coach and spend more time with those girls. I just am having a hard time right now and I just feel I am in one world but my heart is in another.

Processing My Thoughts

Well, I just wanted to get some random thoughts out because I going through one of my mind racing thinking nights.  It's hard for me to explain.  I just feel like I just try to take in so much while I am here and when I finally lay down for bed is when I actually try to process it all.  So here it goes. This is me trying to process my thoughts in a little bit more organized manner. 

So if you didn't know, I am back in the DR.  During the last week of my internship, a job was offered/thought up of starting a girls sports ministry site.  This has been my dream ever since I went to Jamaica with the volleyball team my freshman year.  So when this came up, I totally was all about it.  Seriously, I cannot think of a better thing to do with my life.  I am not going to get into the details about the job, but basically I would start a girls sports site, with a volleyball focus.  

I felt today was one of the coolest days of my life... I know that sounds dramatic, but today was HUGE!  Okay, so first I got to go to the sports site which always makes a good day.   I feel like I am finally really getting to know the kids.  Now that I can understand their Spanish better, I am discovering their individual personalities and how super funny a lot of them are.  Secondly, I dominated at dominos twice in a row.  I know this may not seem like a big deal, hopefully Dave doesn't read this. But anyway, he and Moreno (17 year old Dominican that we have become great friends with) are real good at dominos.  Dominos are a big thing here and I feel like actually understanding the strategy of this game makes me a little bit more Dominican.  So THEN... after siesta we played a game.  The coolest part of the game was that a girl named Mira came toward the end.  She played on our team and I got to talk with her a lot.  She invited me to come to watch her softball game this next Sunday.  Then, her softball team came to practice at 3 (the truck to take us back comes at 3:20).  So she actually invited me to practice with her team.  So of course I agreed and had SOOOO much fun.  But then, the truck came.  And this is where I felt things really changed for me.  

I decided I wanted to stay because I knew Dave could come back and get me when we were going to play volleyball with some guys in Barrio Blanca (a nearby community that we play in every day from 4-6).  Anyways, staying at the field was a really different feeling.  I no longer had a site leader to fend for me, or even Dave to help fend of drunk Dominicans who decide they are in love with the Americana.  (funny story if you want to hear it some time).  Can you see what I mean now that my mind goes on random tangents.  It drives me crazy! It's not like I am even coming up with these great insights on my observations, I just try to make sense of it all.   Okay, back on track. So it felt weird when the truck pulled away.  I felt like I was finally fulling stepping into the culture.  I continued to practice with the team. We had batting practice and I tried to make sense of what the coach was trying to say to me.  I mingled with with the other players.  It's really hard for me to put words of how I felt.  It was just a very different feeling being on my own.  I did not have another intern to talk English with if I needed help saying something.  I did not have Raul or Amy as my "boss" there.  Its also a bit scarier when you are an American girl because its just inivatable that you will be starred at, hissed at or hit on. Although that it just something I have to not get so annoyed with because that is pretty typical here.  But it anyways, it was really fun.  I felt like it is actually becoming life.  I actually have friends that I would hang out with, just like I would friends back at home.  Moreno and Victor, who are friends from the baseball field stayed at the practice too.  They helped facilitate the practice.  I was fun having there to cheer me on as well as laugh at me when I messed up.  Once practice finished, it just seemed really comfortable to just go play dominos with those guys as we waited for the truck to come get me.  All I know... is I loved it! By the end of the practice, Mira invited me to play with her team next Sunday! And thankfully I can still play because church is in the afternoon here. 

But just wait, the fantastic day did not end there.  After practice, Dave and I went to Barrio Blanca to play volleyball.  All of the best players were there along with our other friends Christian and Inoel (Inoel is like five foot nothing but can hit better than anyone I have ever seen... yes ever).  So we just had a blast playing volleyball and even got to play some two-on-two at the end. I guess the others got tired or something... haha. I guess not everyone is as obsessed with volleyball as I am.  So then, Dioni who we play volleyball with invited me to come back tomorrow and put on a practice for some girls in the community.  Okay, I am going to try to sleep now. Thanks for listening!