Carnival -- 2 years of thoughts rolled into one blog post!

Sorry that this post isn’t very fun and won’t have a lot of pictures of cute kids and sports in the DR .. but this topic is something that has been developing in my mind and I have been processing for about 2 years now. I LOVE the Dominican culture, that is probably obvious given that fact that I’ve lived here for about 2 and a half years and plan on being here for a while! But sometimes I tell people that there are 2 things that I really don’t like about this culture – Elections , and Carnival.

Carnival is a huge celebration in the DR and in other latin American/South American countries. It involves some combination of costumes, alcohol, satan worship, more alcohol, dancing, lots of drunk driving and yeahhhhh more alcohol. My first year I had a very limited scope of what Carnival entailed, just seeing the mini version in Constanza. This was pretty watered down and just a big excuse to party for about 6 weekends straight. Lots of cars with huge speakers, big beer/rum advertisements and lots and lots of people. Not too out of the norm though, just lots of partying.

2 years ago for some reason I found myself more aware of what was going on around the country with Carnival. I was a little more independent and saw Jarabacoa/La Vega/Santiago in small parts and how they celebrate. I learned that each city has little differences in which demons/characters they dress up as in the parades and other things like that. I also realized how huge this was in the culture here. I also realized I didn’t like it one bit. There is so much darkness and so much evil you can really feel it during the month of February in this country.

I was out of the country last year for Carnival, but this year it makes me sick! Today was the first parade day for Carnival, which will last for all of February. It makes me so sad to see all the girls wearing next to nothing trying to “impress” and desperate for any attention from the “men” in the country. What makes me even more sad is seeing how early this starts, as girls as young as 8,9, or 10 years old are following the example set by the women/teenagers in how they dress and dance and act.

Recently a study came out that 25% of all pregnancies in the DR are girls between the age of 13-16 years old, and sadly that wasn’t a huge shock to me. That is about right with a lot of what you see in the poorer areas of the country. I’ve seen it too many times to kids I care deeply about and it hurts everytime. The cycle of poverty is so deep here sometimes it seems impossible to make a difference. Sometimes I get depressed or frustrated with deep the issues go in the country. 

The other night I was driving through my neighborhood on a typical weekend party night, it was lined with hundreds of people drinking and dancing and who knows what else. I remember thinking that this is just one small part, of one city, in one of the smaller countries in the world, and it seemed impossible to make a difference. It was an overwhelming moment. I felt like someone would have to be SuperMan to come in and even make a small dent in a place so lost and filled with sin. Then I realized that God already sent someone to do that and it’s already done! He sent his only son Christ Jesus to defeat the power of sin and death over 2000 years ago and He is the only one who can save Santiago or any other city and I will keep dedicating myself to serve and play my role in His redemption story. 

Please, please join me in praying for the DR this week. God's placed some very specific prayer requests on my heart for this month.

-Jess Gates' Volleyball team in Jarabacoa. These girls will deal with all sorts of temptations and choices this month, and I know it won't be easy. I'm praying that God will give them the strength to turn from everything their culture is throwing at them this month.

-The kids in Hato del Yaque. Similarly, I can't imagine how crazy Carnival gets out by our Church there. The kids will no doubt be surrounded by all of it and pray that God would protect them and give them opportunities to get away.

-All of the kids involved in our Baseball/Basketball ministry in Santiago. Especially our older kids, it's hard to turn from temptation when you really don't have to leave your small street to find it. Girls wearing next to nothing will be throwing themselves at these kids and please join me in praying that God can speak to our guys and that our Coaches can be examples for them and speak wisdom/guidance into their lives!

If you made it this far thanks for taking the time to read through all this! It's been sometime that has been on my mind for a long time and it felt good to get it all out! God bless.

New Year for the Baseball Academy!

2013 is going to be a HUGE year for our Sports ministry. We opened up our practices on January 7th, and our coaches have enjoyed having lots of new faces as well as almost all of our players from last year!

Our oldest age group (roughly 15-19 years old) has seen some of the most amazing spiritual and physical growth in the 6 months I've been there. Multiple kids have accepted Christ and many others have been much more active and interested in going to church. I see this as a direct result to having our 4 coaches being able to spend lots of quality time with them due to the smaller group size. One of the biggest blessings/encouragements to us in this new year is that we have almost doubled in size with this group by adding 15 new kids! These kids came over from a local coach who took a job as a regional scout for the Toronto Blue Jays, and he told all of his players that they should look into joining with our program because he believes in what we're doing! 

Please pray specifically for this group of guys and our coaches, that even with the increase in numbers that there will still be great spiritual growth and also on-the-field growth as well. I am so excited to get back on Saturday to see our guys and catch up and start sharing the great vision we have for 2013!

God bless

Some of our new players, gearing up for the first practice of 2013!

G.O. Baseball Academy January Launch / Bible Drive

Friends and Family,

OK I have been waiting for this for a long time and it's finally ready! We are setting up a "Bible Drive" trying to organize around 300 bibles so that every kid in our Baseball and Basketball Academies can have their own brand new bible when we launch our new Academy structure in January! We will be offering an age-appropriate 12 week course for them on the Theology of Redemption (don't worry ... it will be age appropriate!) and we want them to have bibles to use as resources both in class and at home if they want to keep investigating more. This is really what we are all about as a ministry, please join us as we attack this goal! Follow this link to see how you can help, the bibles are very cheap all around $4-$5.

G.O. Baseball Academy Bible Drive Wish List
 

Please check out the TAB above on the blog, or follow this link for more information on our new plans.

G.O. Baseball Academy January Plans

There is still a lot that needs to happen between now and January, so please continue to pray for the ministry as we continue to work towards the exciting start of the New Year! Please contact me if you would like to help us out financially with this project as well.

God bless,

Kyle

DR Teen Pregnancy Stats

This is from the Listin Diario, a newspaper in the DR. So sad. Please read though, it gives some insights and supporting stats as to why we do what we do here in the DR. All the more reason for us to ramp up our sports ministries for girls soon too!

"According to a study by Don Bosco Boys and Girls Center, teenage pregnancy rates are as high as 23% in five areas of the country. The findings were released at a press conference by public policy and education specialist Karina Corvalan, and Candido Encarnacion, coordinator of the Center's social affairs department.

Eighty-seven pregnant teenagers aged between 12 and 19 were interviewed for the study, which concluded that they were more likely to become pregnant when they were from areas of poverty and with a low level of education. The pregnant girls came from the poorest neighborhoods of Barahona, Mao, Jarabacoa, La Vega and sectors in Santo Domingo of Cristo Rey, Maria Auxiliadora, Villa Juana and the 12th kilometer at Haina.

The study showed that 57.6% had had their first sexual relationship between the ages of 12 and 15, 34.1% between 16 and 19 and 3.5% between 10 and 11.

20% of the partners of the pregnant girls were also teenagers but 80% were adults, a cause for both alarm and concern, said the researchers. According to the study 39% of the pregnancies were accidental, and 61% planned and accepted by both partners.

Corvalan revealed that the teenagers viewed becoming pregnant as a way of improving their living conditions and getting out of poverty, because the father of the child would provide for them. For the same reason the girls' parents also supported them as they considered having the child as an advance for their daughter."

GO Site - Hato del Yaque

Hato del Yaque is about 30 minutes away from Hoya del Caimito (which is where I live and our ministry is "centered"). I fell in love with this town the second I got there. I think it is because in many ways it reminds me of Constanza, it is way more laid back and slower paced than in Santiago and there is a ton of poverty. The church there has gone through its ups and downs over the past few years, but Pastor Elido is a great Godly man and I am excited for where the church is going. Hato del Yaque is a dark place, and seems like a really tough place for kids to grow up in - but the Church has a ton of outreaches to the youth through Music, sports, and events.

 These pictures are taken on a field that GO Ministries purchased and we are in the process of turning it into a baseball field! I love it. Its got a long ways to go and is by no means a perfect piece of land for a field, but what a great way to reach the kids through something they love. It is also great because it gives us a nice field to do events of just play with the kids when we have groups out there.

Love these kids! Waiting patiently for a mini VBS presentation from the group.

One of my first friends at Hato del Yaque, she definitely keeps things interesting whenever she's around!

Dorothy Sayer's group worshiping outside in the streets outside of the Montan family's house. This family is largely responsible for keeping the church alive through some tough times! A great example of a faithful family.

This is the daughter of one of the nutrition center's cooks. We have a love/hate relationship .. I love her and she runs away from me! But in the end of the day she's my little buddy.

Here are a few pictures of the littlest kids in their sunday school class. It was great to be in Hato del Yaque for a Sunday to see all the different age groups break up into their individual Sunday School classes.

A few of my favorite kids at the nutrition center. I have really gotten to know a ton of the kids at this site and look for any opportunity to pop over and visit if I have some free time. I know that God is doing awesome things through Pastor Elido and all of the leadership in the church.

GO Site - Batey 9/Batey Cuchilla

I got a little behind in my blogging this summer (no excuses!), so I am going to post a few blog posts about my time spent at a few of our sites. It may not be in chronological order, but it will be fun to share about a few of these places that have become so special to me in just a few short months!

 I didn't do a good job of taking a lot of pictures (surprise), but here are a few that I took during the week. Starting with the seemingly endless number of cows that were ALWAYS in the street. The Bateys are a series of little villages that are built around the Sugar Cane fields. They are about 95% haitians living in them, and a majority are mistreated workers from these fields. There is a long history of abuse and mistreatment from the cane field owners and the living conditions and poverty are very tough.

 These are a few of my new favorite kids in the whole country! They wanted me to come visit their house, so I came one afternoon after we had finished a medical clinic and when I got there they were all really excited and were actually baking me a cake! Obviously those who know me well know that is a GREAT way to earn a special place in my heart...what meant the most to me is that it wasn't just baking a cake, but it was so different seeing them "bake" it in a rice bowl on a charcoal fire in a tiny kitchen. Not sure if these pictures do it justice but it was incredible. I've visited a lot of houses and families in the DR, but this is one I will never forget.

3 Kyle's at the medical clinic! Never thought I'd see the day in the DR...

This is my new little friend Esperanza from Batey Cuchilla. She is sweet little girl, who lives in maybe the smallest house I've been to in the country. Her name in Spanish means "hope" and what a great name when it seems like there is no hope in these Bateys, to know that our ultimate hope comes from Christ Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross.

One of my favorite parts of the whole week was our final day when we had 2 church services! In the morning we went to Batey Cuchilla and were part of a very vibrant (and hot!) service in a small, small church. GO partners with Pastor Francisco with his church and nutrition center, and he had a very powerful sermon and 2 ladies came forward and dedicated their lives to Christ!

At night, we had a final church service with Pastor William and all of the kids and people we had gotten to know that week piled into the church. We had a great time of singing and dancing and Pastor William gave a great message. We also had the chance to share a bit about what the week had meant to us and I had the chance to really share with the group about the hope that we have and why we sacrifice so much to come serve and live in community with our brothers/sisters in the bateys! It was a powerful and emotional night.

God is doing some amazing things in the Bateys and I look forward to many more trips and developing these relationships even more in the future!

My Summer Orientation and Haiti Trip

This week involved a lot of "orientation" type learning for me. I have been busy working hard with helping to facilitate teams, but this week was a cool opportunity to get out and spend 2 days each at our sites in Hato del Yaque and Phaeton, Haiti.

Hato del Yaque is about 45 minutes from Hoya del Caimito and there is a great pastor who we partner with named Elido. I loved getting to know the kids in the area and what was especially interesting to me is that we recently purchased a field just down the road and we were starting to build a baseball field there! We started digging the trench to put in the backstop and I'm so excited to watch those plans unfold. I got to meet a few of the kids who play at the current "field" and they are so excited to have an actual baseball field.

I have been to Haiti 5-6 times now, but it is incredible how intensely it affects me every time I go there. The poverty is incredible, and there is such a difference in the kids. The kids there usually aren't really wearing clothes and are noticeably malnourished and have hernias or other very visible health issues. It is intense. GO is already active in partnering with a church/pastor in Phaeton, and has some amazing plans that are already in motion BUT it is so clear that no matter what we "do" in Haiti, they need Christ first and foremost. I'm sure I'll touch on this a lot more in future posts about Haiti, but it is so clear that good and evil are on a collision course in Phaeton ... but we have God on our side and I know that no matter what struggles/hardships we encounter in ministry there that we much trust and glorify God in every manner. Not an easy mindset to have, especially when considering the severity of issues that could arise, but I know God will be holding our hands every step of the way.

Here are some pictures from Haiti - I'll put more up on Facebook including some from Hato del Yaque