Friends and more friends

Monique and I are home now in Friday Harbor, thanks to friend Mike Martin who went beyond the call of duty to pick us up at 12:15 a.m. at SeaTac. Thanks so much Mike! I continue to reflect on friendships in this blog and on Facebook. On the way to the airport yesterday we got to do something I've wanted to do for three years now. My brother Jim is a professional baseball scout working in So. Calif. for the Boston Red Sox. Here in the Dominican Republic, baseball is the number ONE sport. All the kids play baseball and dream of being in the Liga Grande one day. (MLB) In the Dominican they do not have a draft system like in the U.S.A. A prospect is discovered by a private scout, who acts as an agent for the player, taking the kid in to his baseball school and developing him, so that one day the agent might sign him to a professional contract with one of the major league teams. All the major league teams have baseball academies near Santo Domingo. Yesterday, thanks to David Cuevas, COTN-DR Venture team coordinator, and a lover of baseball, we visited the Boston Red Sox academy and saw a game before flying back home. I'm pictured with David and his son in front of the academy office. We had a great time! The next photo is with my friend Pablo. Pablo and I, along with others, have gone into the bateyes to tell our fatherhood stories and we've seen God open the hearts of the young people to share their stories too. We find healing together in the love of Jesus, and lean into the Father's love for us. Monique and I are pictured with Franklin. He works in the COTN office and invited us to his church last summer. This summer we were invited to do a marriage conference there. The conference spanned over three evenings once a week. Franklin did all the translating and also helped us out by translating all of our other conferences. He is a great friend of our family. After our marriage conference at Templo Biblico, we had a photo taken with Julio and Maritza and a young couple from the church. Julio is the pastor and his wife Maritza is the director of Happy Little Faces, Felices Caritas, a school for handicapped children in Barahona. It is the only school of its kind there. Last but not least, the girls are pictured with Manuela, our dear friend and cook at Casa Batesada. She is a special friend, someone who has served our family in so many ways.