update

Hi everyone,

I hope you have enjoyed all the teammates blogs.  We have more to come.  We have played four games so far and lost our first one today 3 - 2.  It was a great game with numerous opportunities for extra runs on both sides. 

I'm sorry there aren't any pics posted today.  Basically, this is the first time I've been on the Internet since arriving in the DR because of our packed schedule.  David Prentice returned home today to fulfill his weekend commitments.  So that means the quality of pics going forward won't be near as good ;-(

Yesterday started at 7:30 and ended at 11:00 pm.  Apparently, the update for yesterday are in David's computer heading for Oklahoma with David.  I'm sure you will read about yesterday soon.

Today, was a "Do Hard Things" day.  We left in the morning to help a local church with clean-up and minor construction (or destruction) projects.  All I can say is that all the young men worked hard on very dirty and sweaty projects.  Nothing special.  No one was watching.  No crowds.  The grass was cut.  We moved over 20 very heavy chain link fencing rolls to a new location.  We dug up concrete, leveled dirt, picked up trash, weed whacked a large fence line, moved 30 ish pews out of the church, cleaned the church's floors and took a tour of the future boy's orphanage on the property.

After lunch, we drove over an hour to San Pedro to play our 4th game.  It was a very good team.  It was a very tight game with grass about 3 inches high in the infield.  The backstop had numerous large holes from years of use without repair.  The pitching rubber was at least 5 inches above the dirt on the mound and the bases looked like foam or cushions.  We played hard but came up one run short.  During the game we shared helmets with the Dominicans because they didn't have any.  After the game we gave them a duffle bag full of baseball equipment.  However, much more than that, we gave them the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We challenged them to start preparing now for life after baseball and receive the greatest gift...Salvation!

The SCORE missionaries grilled us and a medical mission team a fantastic beef, chicken, sausage and ribs dinner.  They waited on our tables in their apartment court yard just like we were at a restaurant.  The food was fantastic and we heard some testimonies from native Dominicans.  Afterwards, we were challenged to fulfill our call from God.  At the end, all of our ball players presented the missionaries with items we brought from the US.

More tomorrow,

Coach Coneby