Softball for the girls!

Doug and the group of guys that he plays with and does Bible study with, recently went to a local girls school to help supplement the softball equipment they already had.

This girls' school has been playing softball for a while, but they needed a few new items. Because of donations from churches and people in America, this group of girls received a new catcher's mitt, a new glove, and two new softballs.

 They were thrilled as you can tell from the pictures.

The boy in blue is Kezito, one of the guys Doug plays with. He made the presentation to the school's game master and the team captain of the girls' team.

Love the joy here!

 

God is doing amazing things!

There was a baptism last week for three guys.  Our pastor at Calvary Church baptized them all at the local swimming pool.  It was an amazing time, and one of the men who works at the pool asked lots of questions and wanted more information on Jesus after that.  We also took our two guards, a friend of the two interns that are here, and a national friend of mine with us so they could see a baptism for the first time.  They were all very interested and had lots of questions.

 One of the guys, Sunday, was led to the Lord by a Fusion team member,

Sunday and his mother Gloria

Sunday and Pastor David

 

and the other two realized they needed to be baptized after spending time with Will and Tyler and hearing truth.  Will and Tyler are two university students who are here with us now from Mississippi.

Richard, they met randomly on the golf course one day,

and Dennis, who has been in a story group with our other team members....they met him on our front porch, but didn’t spend any time talking to him.  BUT he went to their house a few days later and met them there. 

Dennis, Will, Sunday, Pastor David, Richard, and Tyler

Doug explaining things to our two guards, Jeremiah and Patrick

All three men have been meeting regularly with Will and Tyler and learning stories.  Sunday is talking to his brother now, who does not know the Lord, and he also invited another guy, John, to Bible study one day when Will and Tyler were coming.  After hearing the story of the Prodigal Son and The Four Soils, John accepted Christ, too!!

After three weeks of being here, Will and Tyler planned a dinner for their friends.  They invited the three men they’ve been spending time with plus a few extras.  It was a great “meeting” set up, but no one knew.

After dinner, Tyler talked to them about how they would start a meeting, if this was one, and then he asked Richard to share a story, who did so flawlessly.

They then went through SPEAK with the story, and everyone participated.  (Is there a SIN in the story?  Are there any PROMISES? Is there an EXAMPLE to follow?  How

can I APPLY this to my life?  Is there any KNOWLEDGE about God I can learn?)

They then asked Dennis to tell a story, and went through the same process.  Everyone did even better participating the second time.

When asked what the “Church” was, Dennis answered, “We are.  We are the Church right here.”

The "church" after their dinner at Tyler and Will's

Doug has two more students who have overcome a lot of obstacles with family trying to get permission to be baptized, and when school is out, these two young men will be baptized as well.  In the meantime, he spends time sharing with the baseball team and several men around town.

Coach Taylor :)

 

I love seeing God work! He gets all the glory!


NOTE:  For Tyler's version of all of this (and back story and pictures), you can go to this blog.
or this blog

Did you know?

Four members of Istrouma Baptist Church came to Arua last month.

They had a couple of nights here coming and going to and from their journey to a town north of here.

Doug and Kylie drove them north and stayed with them while they were there.  Kylie informed me that they had a bunch of "boring meetings," but that was just her take on things ;)



Istrouma has a sports ministry and lots of connections with teams, and they graciously brought a LOT of baseball equipment for Doug's ministry here with the students.

Caleb immediately put on the catcher's outfit until he saw the batting helmets, and then, not only did he want one, but the girls wanted one, too.

Our children have actually been to an Astros game, but they don't really remember it, and I think this was the first time they had really seen these.

So...they decided to put them on (backward) and watch "Star Wars" and pretend they were either Darth Vader or a storm trooper.

Did you know that batting helmets resemble Darth Vadar's helmet...apparently.

Go figure.

 

 Well, it didn't stop there.  They wore them as they got ready for bed.  

I had to take a picture of this because I was cracking up as they brushed their teeth.  

They couldn't even bend over to spit because their helmets kept banging the little shelf that's attached to the wall in our bathroom.

 And it didn't stop there.

All three of them came tot he breakfast table the next day wearing them.

Caleb - always with the faces...

And, of course, you know the rest of the story...

They continued like this the rest of the day during home school.

Someone, PLEASE, tell me what the fascination is with a batting helmet because I have yet to figure it out.

What are they doing?

That was the question Doug and I heard all night on Saturday the 25th.


We took the kids to a Houston Astros game, and spent the night teaching them all about baseball (with what little I know). Karis wanted to know why certain guys stood in certain places. Caleb wanted to know why guys were way out in the outfield by themselves and if people were getting hurt when the foul balls came their way. I don't know what Kylie asked about because she was in Doug's lap, but I did see all three experience "The Wave" for the first time and enjoy clapping to the "organ" music. Caleb actually gave me a semi-real smile as we entered Minute Maid park.


















What a guy.



















Minnie ears at a baseball game. Gotta be girls.