Let's Play Ball!

For some time now, Byron and I have been dreaming about putting on a baseball camp to reach the local youth (specifically boys) and tell them about Jesus. Last week (June  10-14), we were able to put on the camp, and it was so cool to see a dream and a calling form the Lord become a reality!

There is so much that I could say about the camp, but I was thinking that maybe a quick recap of the week's events might be the best way to go. And, if you have specific questions about the camp or if I left out a detail that you're interested in, just leave a comment below (or email us: byronandemilyj@gmail.com), and we'll make sure to talk about it in our next post!

Monday, June 10:

Painting Foul Lines

Explaining the Rules

We were so nervous about the first day of camp. Our biggest fear was that the camp would turn out to be a total flop, that no one would show up, and that the time of all of our volunteers would be wasted. However, it quickly became clear that these fears were doubts being planted in our minds by the enemy. 

Byron's Translator, Lena

We showed up to the park at 5pm, and there were already 5 or 6 boys waiting for us. As we set up the baseball diamond at the park (we were given special permission to spray paint foul lines even, which was really cool), we had more boys start showing up. By the time we were ready to play, we had enough boys to have two teams of 9, and as we started to play, more boys showed up, watched us play, and then joined in. It was such a cool experience to see all these boys come out for the baseball camp. They understood the rules pretty quickly (we did leave out some rules though, because baseball can be really confusing if you tell all the rules to someone that's never played the game before), and we had a ton of fun playing baseball for about two straight hours. 

After the game ended, we gathered up the boys and they stood in a circle and listened to Byron talk about the Lord. Byron gave the Gospel message and talked about how God isn't waiting for us to become something special or to become a priest or pastor to have a relationship with Him, but He wants to know us right now, exactly how we are. It was really cool to see the boys listen intently to Byron. We also gave all of them Gospel tracts with Byron's email address on it, just in case the Lord might prompt them to look at it later and then they could contact Byron with questions. 

All in all, it was an awesome first day and we had a total of 22 boys show up!

Tuesday, June 11:

The weather was great and we had a ton of boys show up for camp! This day, it was impossible to count how many boys were actually there because a lot of them came and went. If we had to guess, we'd say about 30 boys showed up all together. 

This was a little bit of a discouraging day because we had one glove break and another glove was stolen. It was really unfortunate that this happened because we had to confront the boy about it (of course, we did this in love), but after we confronted him about it, he left the field and never came back. We prayed that we would see him again so that we could show him grace, but the Lord didn't bring him back to the field. We know we did the right thing in confronting him, but it's always hard to do the "tough love" thing. However, we were encouraged by this verse:

"Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." - Hebrews 12:9-11

After the day ended, Byron shared the Gospel with the boys again. This time, they expected him to speak (kind of like a football team expects their coach to talk to them after a game), and all sat down attentively at Byron's feet. It was really cool to see, and to know that the boys were choosing to stay after the game finished and to hear the Gospel again.

Wednesday, June 12:

The whole week leading up to camp, it rained like crazy in Ternopil. We fervently prayed that there would be no rain during the week of camp, but it rained really hard on June 11, and we got totally rained out. We decided to go for plan B, which was to bring the boys back to the church building and watch The Rookie in Russian and play indoor games with any boys that decided they wanted to come back to the church. 

Despite the rain, 10 boys showed up at the field, and they all wanted to come back and watch a movie about baseball with us and chill with us. The Lord totally knew what He was doing in letting the rain come because it gave us the opportunity to really get to know these 10 boys and start building a strong relationship with them. After the movie, our friend Edward gave a short message about pursuing things of the Lord with your life.

*Sorry, we didn't take any pictures this day : /

Thursday, June 13:

This was a really special day for us because it was also our 4 year wedding anniversary. On our last anniversary, our home church (Calvary Aurora) prayed for us and sent us off on the mission field. And on this anniversary, we were here in Ukraine, serving the Lord and sharing the Gospel with the local youth, praise the Lord!

We actually had 45 boys show up for baseball this day, and we ended up having to play with three teams cycling through because we only had 10 gloves. It was a really good day and very encouraging. One couple from our church blessed the boys with homemade lemonade this day, and it made the kids feel so special - I have seriously never seen anyone so excited about lemonade before... It was super cool!

When Byron shared the Gospel again (He also shared his testimony about baseball, which the boys were really interested in), and other adults and kids who were not involved in the baseball camp came over and listened too. We were able to give all of them Gospel tracts, praise the Lord again!

Friday, June 14:

We had great weather for our last day of baseball, and we had so many boys show up, we had to have three teams again (but unfortunately, we never got a very accurate count of how many boys were actually there.). After the game, Byron shared the Gospel one last time, and we gave all the boys ice cream (they were REALLY excited about this too!). After the game, we invited them to join us for a picnic (For the American readers, Ukrainians really like picnics. You go into the forest, build a fire, and cook your own meat and play soccer.).

Saturday, June 15:

We had so much rain this day, it was ridiculous. As Americans, we were ready to call off the picnic because of the rain, but Ukrainians are hardcore, and they wanted to go ahead with the picnic. We had 35 people total at the picnic, and it rained 80% of the time (we were there for 5 hours.). The picnic was really important because it solidified our relationships with the boys, but it was really hard for Byron and I because we were exhausted, soaking, and covered in mud. Also, one of the boys had their cell phone stolen during the picnic, which really bummed us out, and we didn't know who stole the phone, so we didn't have an opportunity to confront the thief. Overall, it was a really messy day, but as Byron and I prayed through our discouragement, we were reminded by the Lord that ministry is messy, and working with people gets messy, and if the Lord gave up on us every time we made a mess (or sinned), He would have turned away from us a LONG time ago. So, we realized that we needed to give ourselves and the boys an extra measure of grace, and to not lose sight of why we're doing what we're doing. 

Because of the rain, and a few other reasons, we weren't able to talk to the boys about God much at the picnic, but we were able to get to know them on a deeper level in hopes of having a continued relationship with them.

*Our camera was dead this day, so we don't have any pictures from the picnic : /

Followup:

This Thursday, June 20th, we're having a followup baseball game with the boys. Please pray that a lot of boys come out and that the Lord gives Byron a special Word to speak to the boys. Pray that the boys would accept salvation and want to have a real relationship with Jesus. Pray for the two boys that stole - that they would repent, but would be drawn to that repentance by the loving grace and mercy of the Lord.

Thank you guys so much for all of your prayers, donations, and encouragement concerning this camp... The Lord has been so good and faithful through this all! We love you guys!

Blessings,

Emily