Softball

As you all know, I received some softball equipment a couple of weeks ago, and now I am excited to share with you guys how this will be used!!

I have grownup around sports, and absolutely love playing softball. What I love more than playing softball is teaching softball. Now I gert to teach it in Spanish! Starting May 11th I am holding 2 softball clinics. May 11th through the 15th I will be teaching the young girls in the church under the age of 14. I am excited about this because it will be a fun time to bond with some of the younger girls and teach them something new.

The following week, May 18th through the 22nd, I will be teaching the youth (14 and older). Please be praying for this week; I will be inviting a lot of girls from the community outside of the church. I really hope to see the church leadership minister to these girls and their families.

After a full week of teaching softball to the youth we will start to form a team. My plan is to hold practices twice a week. Unfortunately I will not be here when they start playing games, but I want to get them well prepared before I leave. You also better believe that I will be keeping track of my girls and that "vamos a ganar!" (We are going to win!!)

Also the leaders of the church a starting up a new men's softball team. They have wanted to start this team for a while, but never had the equipment to start it.

Please be praying for all these activities going on. Pray that God will use them to bring new families into the church and new member into the Kingdom of God. Also, prayerfully consider sponsoring a team or the NewSong Mission Nicaragua sports ministry. If we had two people sponsoring this ministry for $20/month this would be plenty to cover registration fees, umpires, and uniforms.

I am so blessed to be able to use the talents God has given me to glorify His kingdom, and I get to play softball while doing it!

God is good! All the time!

I can't tell you how good God has been to this mission recently. In the past several months there has been a lot of pruning going on. We have been getting rid of the weeds that have been trying to kill this mission, and it certainly hurt to go through this pruning process. However, we knew it had to be done, and now we are beginning to see the good fruit.

One area that needed pruning was in our kitchen staff. We have a beautiful new lady, Rosa, working in our kitchen and she is absolutely amazing. She has been an absolute blessing to the long-term missionaries here. She has truly been serving us through the Spirit that lives in her, and we get a glimpse of God every time we walk into the kitchen. She is always serving us however we need, and she does it with a smile and a song! Thank you Jesus, what a blessing she is to us.

We have also done some pruning as far as the projects going on. Linda has felt led to drop some of the projects, but just this past week God provided us with a huge blessing. We had four guys come down here to begin raising funds for our kitchen. As soon as I saw these guys praying with Linda I knew God was going to do some mighty work on their hearts. I never imagined how big of an impact it would be (don't we always think of God's power as smaller than it really is). They have already gone home, booked another flight, and started raising funds to begin construction on the bakery. They have also already down-sized their cars and condos in order to personally help out!!! GOD IS GOOD!...ALL THE TIME!!!

A third way we have seen the fruit of the pruning is in the worship here at Canto Nuevo. Some pruning had to be done, and someone new was hired to lead worship, Charlie. Charlie is definitely a man of God walking in the Spirit, and when he leads worship the church feels the Spirit moving. This has been such a good thing for the church as well as the Americans here.

One funny way God has shown the fruits of the pruning is with a baby "torro". We have been going through a stressful process of trying to get rid of the goats, and all the while we had this cow that was supposedly "pregnant". It felt like it was never going to have that baby and it finally did! Por fin!! I thought Linda was going to burst with excitement. Of course the kids immediately named it "Tommy Torro", because it definitely looks just like Tommy haha.

God is good! All the time!! I remember saying this all the time growing up in church. My minister of music (who is a ball of ex citement and joy for the Lord) would always shout "God is good!" and we would recite "All the time!" It is is so true. God is good all the time. He is good to us during the pruning, when it hurts the most. And He is good to us when we see the fruit, as we can rejoice in what God is doing. And guys, He is doing so much here! I am so blessed to be a part of it.

Psalm 52:9- " I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, your name is good."

"Thank you God for always being there. Lord, sometimes we don't understand why things happen the way they do, but God you know. And through Your scriptures I trust that you are always working towards my/our/the missions good (Romans 8:28-"And we know that all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to your purpose."). I have freedom in knowing that You have already designed a plan for this mission and for my life. Thank you God. You are good!"

Estoy Emotional!!

"Estas emotional!" (which means you are excited) is all I heard all day yesterday, and I definitely was. After dealing with some unpleasant things going on back at home, Friday morning was a breath of refreshment.

A group of four guys from Florida arrived on the property early Friday morning. They are here to shoot a fund-raising video for our house. They really have a desire to raise the funds to see the kitchen and bakery completely finished. It is always great when we have new people coming in, but these guys were especially exciting for me because they brought all my softball equipment. As soon as I introduced myself, I asked if I could see all the stuff. I was ecstatic!!! So many people from back home were willing to give, and now I am going to be able to start a softball ministry while I am here.

My idea is to hold two separate clinics where I will be inviting girls not only from the church, but also from the community. These clinics will probably last 5 days, and I will be teaching them softball as well as getting an opportunity to bring the word to them. One big part of this ministry is getting new people on the property, and involved with the church. I also have a strong desire to see some of the girls that I am playing with to help out with the clinics.

Lastly, this equipment will also help start an adult softball team for the church. They have been wanting to for a long time, but always only had baseball equipment. As you know, equipment is very expensive and these people have nothing. Now they have the opportunity to get this started as well!

Thanks to everyone who helped get the equipment here. I want to say a special thank you to Coach Peterson, Coach Fagala, my dad, and the youth at Idlewild Baptist. I know that all of you guys really participated, and you have really blessed the people here. As I was going through all the equipment and writing the church's name on everything, I was moved by the names already written on these gloves. They were all names of people I know, and I was just blessed to see people at home wanting to serve God here in Nicaragua. God is using something as simple as mailing an old glove to Nicaragua to change lives. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Matthew 25:40- "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"