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Today was an interesting experience for me. We had a joint practice with one team and agame with another, but I was unable to participate in either due to sunburn on
my shoulders (don’t worry mom, it’s not THAT bad). So instead of practicing with the first
Dominican team, I got to sit with all of the young kids living in the village
next to the field. They were a crazy
bunch, and kept asking to borrow my glove, which could be scary at points as I
had to make sure they didn’t just run off with it. I was really able to see true joy in these
people though, because as shoddily dressed and lacking of money as they were,
they were carefree and were content with each other’s presence. All of the people we have come across have
been like this. They all focus on
relationships and really build strong connections with people. With the miniscule amount of Spanish that I
do know, I can tell that they love having us here, even if we only get to visit
each village or team for an hour or two.
Even though I wasn’t able to play, I still gave my testimony to the team
we practiced with and spoke briefly about God’s love for us. This really only struck me a little bit
beforehand but I was really able to see it in everybody we have come
across. The Dominicans really have a
special kind of connection and love for each other, God’s work is evident, and
there are many blessings to be shared.
-Josh
Today was quite a great experience for me. Since of all the rain we’ve been getting
lately, we had to play a double header today, one over in San Pedro and one in
our complex. However, when we got to San
Pedro in the morning, the raining made home plate and the pitching mound wet,
so we had to cancel the game, but the team decided to do a practice for both of
us. There, we practiced hitting and
infield and outfield. The field there
was a field next to a village with a bunch of little kids. The kids were a crazy bunch, they wanted to
borrow the bat I had in my hand and kept wanting me to give them piggy-back
rides. Even though I kind of learned
some Spanish and they didn’t speak any English, I kind of felt like I
understood what they were saying. In the
afternoon, we were able to play our game against a Dominican group. However, because we didn’t have enough
players, we had to mix up the teams since the other team had more than
enough. It didn’t matter who won or
lost, but that we had a whole lot of fun on that field. In the game, I pitched in the 1st
and 2nd inning and played First Base from the 6th to the 8th
inning. After the game, I gave my
testimony about my walk with the Lord and what he’s been doing for me. The Dominicans may not have a whole lot, if
any, money left, but they still love and care for each other and the Lord and I
wish them the best of luck.
-Richie
I knew today was going to be different, from the first thing
that happened in the morning. This was the first morning that we were not woken
up by, “It’s time to get up fellas!” This morning we were woken up by Mr.
Waggoner calmly telling us we had to start getting ready. So right off the bat
it was a different day. For the past couple days it had been raining non-stop
so baseball was not an option, so today the plan was to play a double header.
One game was to be played in San Pedro and one game was too played right here
at the Highlands. However once we got to San Pedro our plans changed once
again. The field was still unplayable, so after playing with the little
children in the village, who by the way can hit pretty hard, we got to practice
with the team there. Their coach taught me more in about an hour and a half
than I have learned the past couple years. The coach was awesome, he knew so
much about baseball and was happy to help us and show anything he believed
would make us better baseball players. At the end of practice Josh and I gave
our testimonies. I talked about attending catholic school, my uncle passing
away, and how important God is to me. After the practice we got back on the bus
and got a warm goodbye from the children of the village who chased our bus all
the way till we got to the road. We got back to the Highlands and had lunch
then Matt, Matt, Sean, Richie, John, Fleming, and I went to the cages to get
ready for our afternoon game. Josh unfortunately couldn’t go because he may
have the worst case of sunburn I’ve ever seen. So after hitting and warming up
the other team arrived and it was time to play ball. Because we had such a
small amount of players, we had to split teams with the opponents. This was a
lot of fun because we got to interact and play with kids from the Dominican
Republic. Both teams played hard and it was a really good game but my team came
out on top! Richie and John gave their testimonies at the end of the game and
we had a lot of fun just taking pictures, messing around, and making jokes with
the kids from the other team. They really liked our shirts so a lot of us
traded with them. After we said our goodbyes we went back for a nice taco
dinner and we had some chill time. We played a lot of basketball and hung out
with Wyman and Grace. It was a really great day and I know all of us had fun
and are now exhausted. Tomorrow we go to Santo Domingo which should also be a
lot of fun. This trip has been great and I will never forget some of the
amazing people I had the opportunity to meet and hang out with here in the
Dominican Republic.
-Ian
Today was a very long and tiring day. We woke up this morning expecting to play 2
games, a morning game in San Pedro and an afternoon game here at the
Highlands. We arrived in San Pedro to a
pretty decent field ready to play a baseball game. However right when we started to warm up we
were told that we would not be playing because they did not want to mess up the
mound as it was still wet from all the rain that’s come down the last few
days. So instead of playing a game the
other team invited us to join them in one of their practices. This turned out to be a really good
experience as their coach was very knowledgeable about baseball and taught us
all a lot in just a short amount of time.
Just from the practice we were able to get an idea of the level that
some of those kids were at and it is probably a good thing we didn’t play the
game as we would have most likely been killed.
The entire practice their were kids from the village running around all
over the field, asking to use our gloves to throw with each other, etc. They
seemed to really be enjoying themselves and the chance to interact with us and
use our stuff, even if it was only for a few hours. After the practice we came back to the
Highlands for lunch and a baseball game on one of the beautiful fields across
the street. Since Josh was bed-ridden
with his sunburn, we were left with 8 players.
When the team got here they arrived with many, many players, so we
decided to mix the teams. The game was a
lot of fun and playing on the same team with some of the Dominicans was really
good. After the game Richie and I gave
our testimonies and we must’ve spent another half hour on the field just
talking with some of the kids. A lot of
them wanted an FCA shirt like we were wearing so a few of us traded shirts with
them and some of us just gave our shirts to them if we had an extra. A couple of the kids could speak pretty good
English so we interacted pretty well with them and it was clear that even the
ones that didn’t speak English enjoyed just talking with us after the
game. Today was one of the better days
as we really connected with a lot of the baseball players from both the team we
played and the team we just practiced with.
It was great to just interact with them and see the pleasure they got
from interacting with us. Tomorrow’s our
last full day here and it’s definitely going to be tough to leave as I’ve seen so
many things and met so many people who have had an impact on me.
—- John
