Beisball

I'm in the Dominican Republic for a few days showing the Jesus Film in neighborhoods around San Pedro. Not far from where we are working are developmental camps for several Major League Baseball teams. Today we drove past the facilities for the Tigers, Blue Jays, Brewers, and Braves.

These camps are for young men ages 16 - 21 who are hoping to make it into MLB. Each camp may have 60-100 young men but there are several times more than that playing ball all over the island.

We can barely drive 15 minutes without seeing kids playing ball in a vacant lot, a run down ball field, or even in the streets. Today we visited the village of Monte Cristy. Our host pastor leads a church in the village along with one in a nearby town. The church in Monte Cristy runs a nursing home for elderly people who have no family members to look after them. The staff takes care of them from the moment they move in until they die. They take care of the funeral, too.

Southern Baptists from Georgia built a medical clinic years ago that is staffed by doctors provided by the Dominican government. A doctor and nurse come to the village two days each week. We stopped in during the lunch break to meet them. They had already seen 20 patients this morning. The doctor is a family practitioner and she told us that it has been years since a dentist has been to the village and she is not aware of an optometrist every coming there. The village has a great need for medical teams to come alongside the clinic and provide basic services.

Across from the village is the road leading to the baseball facilities. We drove in because two or three of us are baseball nuts. We stopped alongside the road and peered through the chain link fence, under the scoreboard, through the right field fence and watched an inning of Tigers and Blue Jays. No numbers of the jerseys. Only one umpire - and he was dressed like the coaches. But a bunch of guys who love the game and hoped to make it to the show.

Hustle. Sound fundamentals. Teamwork. These guys know that if they don't make it here they'll never make it to the next level. For some of them, this is their hope for a better future. Others just dream of being the next Sammy Sosa or Pedro Martinez.

We drove to the next complex and were able to sit behind home plate. We had the attention of every one in the park. Six white guys... We stood out. We sat on concrete bleachers and watched another group of Tigers and Blue Jays. These must have been the older or more advanced teams. They had numbers on their uniforms. They had three umpires in uniform. Most of them wore their pants up to their knees like real baseball players do.

I wondered how many would make it and how many would become stars. Probably just a few out of the 60 or so players involved in the game. I bet they all thought they would be one to make.

Not everyone will be the next slugger or ace pitcher. But as long as they have the dream they should follow it. Great opportunities are lost when the opportunity is ignored or mis-managed.

Everyone in my church has the potential to be a slugger or an ace. Not in baseball but in the Great Commission. We have opportunities every day to share with someone how they can trust Christ for salvation. I'm afraid that we let too many opportunities slip by. Many we don't even notice.

What is at stake is not a contract or fame but eternal life for people we pass by in the market, at school, and in the home.

While I was watching the game, I could smell the fresh cut grass from the next field. And I thought how I could spend a lot of time doing just this.

Is my interest in sharing the gospel that great? Is yours? Can you think of spending lots of time just helping others know Jesus?