Monday, October 7, 2013

Leadership Development Complex


Note : Please excuse the formatting, I cannot figure out how to get rid of the shadow box behind the text!

This is the overhead satellite view of the land.
At the end of this blog post, there are 2 videos including a helicopter fly-over scan of our land!


Here is a layout on the piece of land that we have purchased!




The Dominican Republic is not an easy place for kids and teenagers to grow up. In a culture saturated by premarital sex and underage drinking, it is an uphill battle for a teenager to try to get a head-start as they enter into adulthood. Unfortunately, the role models that Dominican boys and girls see, are largely involved in these problems. There is a generation growing up without a father (as of 2008, over 40% of households were single-mothers) and even worse, the “father-figures” they see in the street are teaching them to abuse alcohol, to abuse drugs, and to abuse women. Unfortunately, it is a vicious cycle that repeats itself as boys turn into men that leave their wives or have children outside of marriage, and girls become pregnant as early as 13.  In fact, 25% of all pregnancies in the DR occur with girls between the ages of 13-16. Who is influencing the next generation in the DR? Who is molding the next generation of LEADERS in the DR? If nothing changes, then it will just continue the way it has and it would be a dark future for the Dominican Republic.

Who are you? What made you the way you are? What do you value in life? What are your hopes, dreams and goals?

These questions lead to another question. Why? Who had a prominent role in impacting and molding your life, that you can trace back to seeing how you ended up where you are. For many of us that person is a father/mother or family member. For some of us it is a coach or a youth pastor. What do you do when those people are absent or not doing their job?

The Leadership Development Complex (LDC) is something that has been put on the hearts of the leadership and staff of GO ministries and through a lot of prayer, sweat and tears it is ready to launch! GO Ministries has purchased 2 cornerstone pieces of land (25 acres) and we are ready to build.

The LDC is designed to reach the youth where they are at, and strategically help prepare them for the future through specialized training in: Sports, Seminary/Bible education, Vocational training/mentoring, Business, and Music and the Arts. 

Our goal through the LDC is to give kids the options that many of us enjoyed in our upbringing in the US, and one of those avenues is through sports. It is so dangerous for a child to put all of their eggs into the ‘basket’ of success in sports. In the Dominican Republic, all of the kids have seen the success that Dominicans have seen in the US, as there are over 95 current MLB players who come from the small country of just over 10 million people. This leads to boys dropping out of school and devoting every aspect of their life to their dream of playing in the MLB. This also leads to a high rate of steroid abuse and age fraud in young Dominican players. Through our specialized training, kids in our sports academies will not only receive top notch instruction to develop as an athlete, but they will be receiving English, bible, and vocational training to help them use their best developmental years in a positive way. Our athletes will also be surrounded by Godly examples and Christian men/women who have devoted their lives to reach these kids for Christ and to give them a brighter future. Sports is a key way that we can reach these kids for Christ and to have a brighter future. The LDC is designed to hold 2 professional sized baseball fields, 4 little league baseball fields, 1 professional sized soccer field, 1 half sized soccer field, 8 covered basketball courts, 4 volleyball courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a basketball/events arena, residential dorms, weight rooms, classrooms and kitchen/eating area.

Our ‘Seminary of the Americas’ is another crucial tool of our goal to develop leaders serving all across the country. The Seminary will operate as a four-year program. The first three years will be in the classroom following an extensive curriculum to give them a broad, wide-ranging education in theology, while the final year will be mentored field instruction, as the graduating class figures out where they will launch into ministry. The seminary is not only for aspiring pastors, but it is also for church leaders/pastors who want to build a stronger theological base, or for worship leaders who want to learn more about how to effectively lead their church in worship. The seminary facility will provide instructional pace, a computer lab, library, conference area, laboratories and a residential living space for students and their families. One of the core values of the Seminary is to help educate the future church on the value of running churches as a team and less as one individual. Emerging local leaders in Latin America will have an opportunity to receive quality theology, ministry and community development training at the ‘Seminary of the Americas.’

The Kingdom business aspect is an exciting way to help make the LDC self-sustainable. Throughout the complex, there will be businesses set up and run through the ministry that will funnel the profits back into the project in order to help pay for the operational costs of the LDC. Not only will these Kingdom Businesses lead to a healthy and self-sustainable model, but they will be key in training up leaders to run the businesses and to work within a company. Many of these businesses’ will be strategically located on the main road with a lot of foot traffic. The buildings are designed to have the street-level unit operating as a Kingdom business, but there are also units on the 2nd and 3rd level that will operate as apartments to rent out and bring even more money into the ministry for operational costs.

The vocational training plays hand-in-hand with the Kingdom business. As we develop leaders through Sports, Music and the arts, or through business training, they will then have opportunities to develop their skills through our businesses. Each of our vocational training sites will have a Christian leader whose job will be to teach, mentor, and disciple those that are training in their craft. The potential for these sites is huge as we could work through wood working, welding/metal work, leather work, mechanic/auto body, entrepreneurial training, masonry, electrician, plumbing, etc. 

This is a big vision. On a daily basis the complex will serve more than 1,000 kids through sports/music and the arts/vocational training, 60 pastors/church leaders and their families through the seminary, 20 local business owners through the Kingdom businesses, as well as hundreds of Americans through short-term missions. The opportunities are endless, and the leaders that are formed at the LDC have the potential to impact hundreds of communities and thousands of people. This will be a launching pad for leaders not only for the Dominican Republic, but also for Latin America, and ultimately across the world.

The LDC is a place where current leaders will be pouring into the future leaders of this country in order to turn things around. We have a big goal, of breaking the old cycle of abuse, lack of education, and poverty; and turning it into a cycle of loving and committed parents, educated and moral business men, and hard-working/dedicated members of society. It is a big goal, but we are ready.  

For more information on how you can get involved or if you would like to connect me with anyone who would be interested in partnering with this kingdom project, please email me at : 

Kyle.Bradley@go-ministries.org


Videos :

Here is a video with more information on our Baseball Academy, live from Jupiter FL at Spring Training with the St. Louis Cardinals.


Here is the helicopter flyover. Very cool, thanks to Hunter Abrams for his work on this video!