Hello from the Dominican Republic

It's 10:30 on the close of our first day here in the DR.  Today was mostly a traveling day.  We met at the church this morning at 3:15 AM to head to Atlanta for our flight to Miami and then to Santo Domingo.  The flights went well and we had a great time of laughs and cutting up together.  We are pretty tired and tomorrow starts early at 6:00 AM.

We have a team of 4 guys from Sixth Street here in the DR to do baseball clinics with SCORE International.  We are excited but unsure about what is in store for us during the week.  Most of the kids here in the DR believe that baseball is their ticket to a better life.  We are here to work with them on their passion and also to share with them the love and story of Jesus.  Tonight we had an opening worship service and heard a testimony of a young man playing AA ball and an inspirational message from SCORE's founder, Ron Bishop.  We also broke into our groups to talk about our work tomorrow.  There are several minor and a couple of major league players here in addition to some high school and college coaches.  I am excited to see three of my guys who get to mesh their passion and talent for baseball with the mission of Jesus.

Another highlight tonight was getting to see and talk with one of my baseball heroes, Ron Polk.  As a lifelong MS State fan, I grew up watching Coach Polk in the third base coaches box.  He is a true ambassador of the game.  It was great to see him singing worship songs tonight and sharing with his unique brand of humor.

That's about all for now.  Time to go to bed.  Hope to update tomorrow afternoon or evening.