Thursday, I had the amazing opportunity to speak with the Wheaton College Baseball team. Coach Husted invited me to speak at their first baseball chapel of the year! It was fun talking to a few of them afterwards about their experiences in the Dominican Republic. In a small world story, I actually coached one of the kids at Quarterback when he was a sophomore at Phoenix Christian HS and I was in town visiting! Dave Tokar and Jesse Laizure were coaching there and I was in town so I worked with him for 2 days, small world.
Friday was a loooooooong day. I left early morning to have a few meetings in Indiana, building some relationships and hopefully starting some new partnerships with college basketball programs! It was a great day, I also got to see a few "Dominican" friends over at Taylor which was good as I'm missing the DR even after a few short weeks. 8.5 hours driving in one day is a little bit tiring, but well worth it!
Saturday was spent relaxing and carrying on a great tradition with Mike McKevitt and Chris of our annual "video game challenge." It has been evolving each year and this year it came down to a dominating performance from Chris in Putt-Putt fighting through sickness to take the win. We had a blast as always. That night I spent some time with the Trautwein kids (field director for Kids Alive in Jarabacoa) and went to the Wheaton Football game with their son Luke. It was great to spend some good time with him, even though he had to sit through a lot of conversations with people I don't see often! That's what happens when you get to 1 game a year... It was a blowout 66-0 but it was fun to connect with a lot of old friends. Also, got to see all the guys from the Wheaton Football spring break missions trip in action on the field! Here is me and Andrew Lindquist who interned/lived with me in Santiago for 6 weeks.
Sunday I had the opportunity to give the benediction at all 3 services at Glen Ellyn Bible. Always great to connect with friends and supporters from GEBC and it was a great service celebrating the 70th (!) anniversary of the church. I then drove across town to a get-together with College Church's spring break trip from this year. They are such an amazing group and their commitment to GO and to Hato del Yaque is beautiful. I ALWAYS enjoy my time with this group! It didn't hurt that we had a great Bears game to enjoy as well ... I finished off the day with a visit my Uncle Scott and Aunt Debbie and connect with them for a while. They are a huge reason why I am in the DR now, and I always love to connect with them. I'm beyond blessed to have such a supportive family.
Now, as blessed and busy as all this seems .. behind the scenes was tough. My grandfather, whom I am very close to, suffered a stroke. Thank God he had already been put in the hospital for pre-stroke symptoms when it happened! I really have not experienced much illness or death in my 27 years, and honestly I am learning how to deal with things like this. My initial reaction is to just pretend it isn't happening..to just ignore it. I had another long car ride Monday morning to Lincoln, IL (5 hours round trip) and I prayed before the trip that this would be a good time to really pray and process what is happening. I love my Grandpa so much, but I really didn't want to go visit him because I just didn't know what to expect, I don't like unknowns and uncertainty. I am so glad that I did. At first, it was very difficult to see my, normally energetic and full of life Grandfather, looking very frail and hardly able to speak. After, I got over this initial shock we had an amazing time! We laughed and laughed and laughed .. at times I didn't know what we were laughing at but there was such a peace about the whole situation. I don't think I can remember a time recently when I've had more fun than in that 45 minute visit with my Mom, Grandma and Bop. He is a fighter and I know he will bounce back, but it was tough to see him unable to communicate when he is such a relational person. I know this will be a tough thing for me to be out of the country for, but I will be praying for peace and for continued healing until my next trip home in December!
It's been a long night, and I've gone through a few scrapbooks to find these gems!
Thanks for sticking with me through this long post .. I am going to try to embrace technology and post more through my iPhone straight onto this blog so I don't go months without posting again! May God bless you all. Please shoot me an email, I'd love to hear from whoever is reading this and hear how things are going!
Kyle
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