What a day! We spent the afternoon at the ball field where we held a baseball clinic. Several of our guys, Dave Altopp, Jeff Siegel, Jacob Harris, Bill Cashion, Tommy Holtzclaw, and Jim Havlik together with four of our Venezuelan interpreters worked with several Venezuelan professional baseball players. The clinic was held for boys from about 4 through 13 or 14. I'm not sure how many kids were out there...probably a couple hundred or so. They were divided by age and each group rotated around the HUGE field to different stations teaching the fundamentals of batting, catching, pitching, etc. It was SO much fun! I took about a hundred pictures plus some video. After the skills training, all the boys and their parents were invited to the center of the field where each trainer gave his Christian testimony. Then Bill shared the plan of salvation using an EvangiCube...a wonderful witnessing tool for children. There were about 100 decisions made and many more seeds planted in the lives of these children as well as their parents! Afterward, all the guys were autographing the kids' balls, gloves, hats, even their their t-shirts! I was even asked for MY autograph!!! The official photographer whose only claim to fame in the area of baseball is playing baseball with Caleb in the backyard!!! And by the way, they had a little team playing as we were finishing up our testimony time and all the kids on this team looked to be about 3 or 4, maybe 5. And they could play! They don't mess with t-ball around here...they go straight to baseball!
Afterward we took all the ball players to eat and had a wonderful time sharing with fellow brothers in Christ. We went to a wonderful chicken rotissirie place...there were were 18 of us and we had 8 (EIGHT) chickens, plates of boiled yucca and fried yucca, salads made with lettuce and tomato, hearts of palm, and avocado. It was all WONDERFUL!
When we got back to the hotel, a woman came to speak with Jeff Siegel. Jeff is a Jewish believer who had the opportunity to win Fidel Castro's son to the Lord. Jeff is an awesome guy! He has asked for the opportunity to be able to speak to Chavez. This woman who came works very closely to the people who can make this happen. If you haven't prayed for anything before, you must pray now! Pray that the opportunity will take place. Can you imagine what will be in the future of Venezuela if Chavez becomes a child of God? And Jeff is the one who could do it! He has an awesome testimony and is passionate about winning the lost to Christ. And because of his baseball background, he has connections in high places!
We have heard many wonderful reports after getting back to the hotel. One of our Texas hispanic pastors, Cesar, reported that his team has led about 30 people to Christ over the past two days. It is estimated that there were about 100 professions of faith on Sunday in the churches where our team members worked. There is no way to tell every story. Just know that the Holy Spirit is working here because of your prayers. Please continue to pray.
Another big day is planned for tomorrow, so I will close. I am sitting here by myself in the middle of the back lobby in the ONE AND ONLY place where I can connect to the internet! It is like a ray of sunshine...a ray of internet connection!
As you pray for what I have already mentioned, pray for the travel of the rest of our group coming in on Wednesday...the house church planters. Gail Graves, the head of this team, arrived today.
Thank you for your prayers...they mean SO MUCH!!!
Love to all
Diane
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