AIM Dominican Mission Trip: Day 2

As Day 2 arrived, we all met downstairs to a eat a wonderful breakfast and listen to our morning devotional given by Russell.  Outside the hotel, our Dominican friends were waiting for us to load up and take us to the Bella Vista site.  

We all loaded up into the truck and were ready to go!  Our site would be one of a few that would hold all four sports on the site.  We had baseball, softball, basketball, and volleyball equipment loaded and ready for camp!

This is one of a lot of photos I took as we were going through the city on the way to Bella Vista.

Soon, we were in the country.

And then we arrived at Bella Vista!  I quickly understood why the town was named Bella Vista!  This is the outfield of their baseball field (I love the horse tied up in the very back!)  The mountains are covered in sugar cane, palm trees, and tropical plants.  Gorgeous is an understatement!

We greeted all the kids and formed a huge circle where our Dominican friends held the VBS portion of the camp.  They sang songs, prayed, and at the end asked if any of the kids would like to recieve Christ in their hearts.  We had 25 kids come forward!  We all gathered around them, and had a translator translate a prayer for them to pray to accept Him.  It was an awesome way to start our day!

We broke the kids up into smaller groups by ages, and began stretching.  We also gave each group a colored wristband so we could tell who belonged to each group.  

After stretching, our group began teaching the various baseball drills.

As one of the photographers on site, my job was to take a photo of each kid at the camp so we could give them a picture of themselves that we placed into a baseball card template.  This activity took up my whole day on day one.  Here is a photo of one of my favorite little boys at the camp.  (I love his smile!)  

This is Alfre!  He is the man that helped me line up every kid, pose them, and help me get the shots I needed quickly.  I couldn't have pulled off the day without his help!  He is awesome man of God, and you'll be hearing a lot more about him in this post as well the rest because he quickly became friends with me, my mom and my son Christian.

The day was long, hot and sweaty, but a ton of fun!  At lunch time, we served hot dogs and juice to all the kids and coaches.  

All day long I could hear the sound of moving water behind the trees of the baseball field.  I asked Alfre, in my broken Spanish if there was a river back there.  He said, yes there was and after the camp was over for the day he would take us back there and see it.  I was very surprised at the beautiful sight of this river and lagoon!  Kids were swimming and diving down into the water.  We took our shoes off and dipped our feet into the moving water.  It was cold and refreshing after a long, hot day!

We came back out to the field and while we were waiting for the bus to take us back to the hotel, Alfre crushed some sugar cane for us to drink.  It was a very sweet tasting treat!  We all took turns drinking.

About this time, we all loaded back onto the truck to take us back to the hotel.  I was so hot from being out in the heat all day that I was looking forward to swimming in the ocean when we got back in.  I decided to be brave and jump off the cliff ledge!  

Yes, it was a long way down.  Yes, I screamed.  No, I didn't do it again!

Christian jumped in after I did and we swam around and snorkeled for a little while.  Everything was fine and dandy until Christian brushed into a sea urchin while trying to get out onto the steps.  He had a few spines in his leg, so we got out and nursed the wounds.  

From there, I had to get to work on collecting the photos from all the other site photographers.  Six other women and I all worked very diligently to upload all the photos from the day, drop them into a template I made in Photoshop, print them as a 4x6 photo, and then cut them into baseball card size photos.  We actually got a good rhythm down and were able to get all of the photos done that had been taken that day.  We were only missing a few groups from each site, so I was very pleased with our progress!

This is the template I made for the baseball groups:

(Remember my little cutie-pie from up above?!)

From there, I called it a night and went to bed!  It had been a very long, productive day!

AIM Dominican Mission Trip: Day 1

I had planned on writing a blog post everyday of the mission trip while I was in the Dominican, but I quickly found out that being the person in charge of collecting all the photos from seven different photographers everyday was not a quick and easy task.  So instead, I'll write these posts from my memory of each day.

These are some photos of the equipment donations before we left.  We spent three days packing and sorting all the equipment to meet the 50 lb. weight limit on all the bags for the airport regulations.

Day 1 of the mission started at the Houston airport where my mom, my son Christian, and I, along with 99 other volunteers boarded our chartered Continental jet to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.  With us, we carried over $150,000 worth of donated baseball, basketball, and volleyball equipment to host a four day mission camp for over 2,500 kids.

This was Christian's first trip on a plane, as well as the first time to leave the country.  He was very excited!

We were up in the air for awhile, when the pilot came on and said that we were passing over the Gulf oil spill. I was almost brought to tears at the sight of the red-orange tint across the water.  I could clearly make out the color even at such a high altitude.  The picture below shows the ships at the main site.  My camera didn't pick up the oil itself good enough to post the pictures I took.

Soon enough, we were passing over the clear waters of the Caribbean Islands. 

We arrived at the airport and went through customs with ease.  We had Dominican friends there to help us load up the luggage and equipment to take to our hotel.  We all loaded up into various vans and buses, which took us to the hotel.  

I was instantly in awe of the plants we passed along the way from the airport to the hotel.  (I'll start another blog post on all the plant life I encountered later.)  Within 10-15 minutes, we arrived at the hotel.  

The grand staircase below is the first of many awes at the Pier Giorgio Palace Hotel.

This is the view from our balcony.  A beautiful pool with gorgeous gardens surrounding it.  The white tent like structure is the dining area which over looks the sea.  It is a very beautiful hotel!  

Me and Christian

After everyone had their luggage and rooms arranged, we met downstairs in the dining area.  We were greeted by Pastor Rivas, who is one of two men that helps coordinate things for us down there.

Next, Jose Checo greeted us.  He is the man that coordinates the baseball leagues and all the AIM mission stuff in the Dominican.  Before he left, he sang us a song that he wrote.  Even though it was in Spanish, we all quickly had the tune stuck in our heads.  You could hear people humming the tune all week long!

The words to the song are as follows:

El Diamante Real En El Basball

Hay un Diamante Real en Baseball

En Jesuscristo el Salvador (Repeat)

El te da vida

El te da paz

y Disciplina

En Libertad (repeat)

Querido Atleta

Busca de Dios

En esta tiempo

de baseball (repeat)

The song actually carries on a lot from there, but that was the part that we all learned in Spanish!  

It translates into English like this:

The Real Diamond In Basball

There is A Real Diamond in Baseball

In Jesus Christ the Savior (Repeat)

He gives you life

He gives you peace

and Discipline

In Freedom (repeat)

Dear Athlete

Search for God

At this time

in baseball (repeat)

I think I just got the song stuck in my head again just from writing it here! It really is a great song, and the kids loved to listen and sing it during the camp VBS.  

After our greeting we had some time to look around the hotel, and the kids decided to jump right into the sea for a nice swim before dinner.  This is Christian before he jumped off the cliff ledge at the hotel!

And this is him jumping!

These are the stairs leading back up to the ledge.  The kids would jump off here and go snorkeling too.

Soon, the sun was setting and we were getting ready for dinner where we would meet our Dominican coaches and VBS helpers for the camp.

These were our lovely chef's and servers!

We had a wonderful dinner, and met everyone in our group, including the Dominican helpers.  We were given a few last minute instructions and then we were off to bed since our day would start early and be full and long tomorrow!

A Little Luck Is All You Need!

Without even meaning to, and certainly by surprise, I found a four leaf clover today!  I've wanted to find one my whole life, and there it was just staring me in the face as I just happened to look down!  How lucky is that?!

What makes it even crazier is I had just congratulated a friend of mine yesterday on finding one herself.  I told her I was so jealous!  And what-a-ya-know, not even a day later, I find one of my own!  I've been so excited all day!

A Bit O' History From Wikipedia:

The four-leaf clover is an uncommon variation of the common, three-leaved clover. According to tradition, such leaves bring good luck to their finders, especially if found accidentally.  According to legend, each leaf represents something: the first is for hope, the second is for faith, the third is for love, and the fourth is for luck.  

It has been estimated that there are approximately 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every four-leaf clover.

...Maybe I should go play the lottery tonight!  I'm feelin' lucky!  

This plant made my day!  How 'bout yours?

AIM: Baseball Equipment Drive

I've mentioned a few times lately that I'm leaving June 8th for a mission trip to the Dominican Republic to hold a baseball camp for 2000-3000 kids.  Obviously that camp would not be successful without donations of used equipment from our community.  A couple of Junior High girls made this awesome video for our equipment drive.  They did an amazing job, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Baseball Equipment Drive Video

If you live in the Houston area and want to help out with donations, let me know and I can make arrangements to meet you, or you can drop off equipment at either of these two business locations:

Buds and Blossoms
14120 Cypress N. Houston
Cypress, TX 77429

or

Emco Press
4935 Milwee St
Houston, TX 77092


Current needs are: old gloves, bats, baseballs, bat/dufflebags, helmets, basketballs,volleyballs, nets, catcher gear, training tools, cleats, and uniforms.

Also, I'm still raising money for my husband and son to join me on this trip.  If you'd like to make a monetary donation, you can send checks made payable to Athletic International Missions in c/o The King Dominican Fund to the Buds and Blossoms address above.

Lastly, if you'd like to join us on this mission trip, please let me know so I can get you more info.  We still need 20-25 more volunteers to join us!

Thanks you in advance for your generosity!

'Frostproof' Gardenia

I've always said that when I die, I want heaven to smell like Gardenia's.  I love their sweet scent, and I am so excited that mine are in full bloom.  My mom had Gardenia's in our backyard while I was growing up, so I'm always reminded of her when I smell them. It's plant nostalgia at it's best!

These Spring bloomers do very well in a partly sunny area and prefer an acidic soil with moderate amounts of water.  The 'Frostproof' variety is a glossy, dark green leaved, evergreen shrub that reaches 3-4 ft.  Its name comes from the flower buds ability to resist damage from a late Spring frost. It's quickly become my favorite variety of Gardenia for it's round compact growth habit.  It's perfect for a low growing shrub in front of taller bushes or in front of windows. 

My favorite thing to do is bring my favorite scent inside.  I pick off some blooms (with the help of my youngest son) and float them in a bowl of water for a day or two.  They will fill a room with heaven in no time!

This plant made my day! How 'bout yours?

The Fruits of My Labor

As I write this, there is a video game blaring on my T.V. that my boys and husband have been playing since we got home from church.  They are in the final stages of a game with a determination to beat it today.  My two-year-old has interrupted this very sentence a few times just to come sit on my lap and see what I'm up to.  Just now, my oldest son walked up to me to stare over my shoulder and see what I'm doing on the internet.  The washing machine is on spin cycle while the dryer is in the final stages of drying the last load of towels (for today.)  All this to say, it's a bit loud in here!  I already retreated outside to walk my gardens, but I'm rethinking why I decided to leave the serenity of my plants to come back inside! Oh yeah, it was those darn mosquitoes!


It finally rained this past Friday after a month without a drop.  I came home from work and sat on my back porch listening to the drops tapping on the tin roof.  I could practically hear my plants rejoicing in the rain as they absorbed every drop.  (Okay, so maybe I was the one rejoicing.)  But, I just love how much greener the leaves are after a good rain!  The rain continued into Saturday and now that Sunday is here with lots of sunshine, all the little garden creatures are out and about again...including the mosquitoes!  But sometimes it's worth becoming a meal to go out and enjoy some of the fruits of your labor!

These Black Swallowtail cat's are really enjoying my Dill

A baby cucumber...

...and one ready to eat!

These somehow never make it out of the garden...I eat them right off the vine!

My Basil

The last of the Peaches on my Peach Tree

These plants made my day!  How 'bout yours?