Wow, what an amazing year it has been in my life. A year full of The Lord opening doors and closing others; at the time it is so hard for us to comprehend why God would put us through these hard times. Although when we get through the trials, we always grow and become a stronger individual. I ask as you read this, you would understand and pray for what The Lord is doing through me and also through you. I hope 1and1 Ministries will touch you in some way to challenge yourself to go out, serve and use your talents to bless our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

About 6 years ago my home church, First Baptist Church-Paragould, put together a mission team to go to Nicaragua. My father and I were apart of the team. I was only 14 years old, but my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to see another apart of the world and experience something life changing. As always, parents are ALWAYS right. The week I spent in Nicaragua is what really jumped started my Christian walk. I was saved when I was 9 years old, and like most 9 year olds I didn’t fully know what it meant. Then 5 years later when I led a group of teenagers to Christ and saw extreme poverty that’s when everything clicked for me and I have been on fire for The Lord ever since. Now that doesn’t mean I have stumbled along the way or am perfect either, the mission trip made me realize the bigger picture and helped me see how to fully live for Christ. At the time, Nicaragua was the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, only behind Haiti. Poverty was widespread across the country; one could see it everywhere they went. The ironic part was, even the people living in the city dump had a smile on their face. They were grateful for every single thing they had and unlike us, never took anything for granted.

Throughout the years after the mission trip, my Dad and I talked about going back to Nicaragua, but just never could find the time. Then God stepped in. This past summer, the Razorback baseball team sent me to Dallas, Texas to play in the Texas Collegiate League. Within my first few weeks of being in Dallas, I was scrolling through my timeline and noticed one of the translators from my Nicaragua mission trip was in Dallas at a Pastor’s conference. I couldn’t believe Melvin was actually only a few miles from me. I immediately contacted him through Facebook, hoping he would remember who I was although we had barely spoken in 6 years. Melvin replied and invited me to come to lunch with him during his conference. I went and was immediately touched. Melvin was in a program put on by Dr. Ramesh Richard called “The Global Proclamation Academy.” This program is one of the many Dr. Richard puts on to reach his life’s mission, “Reaching 1 million individuals.” Notice how he says individuals; the way he used this word spoke to me, because often times I feel we go on Mission and just want to see how many numbers we can tally in the saved column, rather than making sure those people grow and are ready to go and equip more believers.

During our lunch Melvin and I had a great time of catching up and I started joking with him about the World Cup and how I’m sure everyone in Nicaragua is always watching it. Melvin proceeded to explain that soccer really isn’t big in Nicaragua; he said it’s starting to pick up popularity because it’s cheap and easy to play, but if given the choice any Nicaraguan would rather watch/play baseball. Then he went on to tell me about how there is a school in Condega, about 30 miles from where he lives, looking to start a baseball team. I immediately became interested and told him I wanted to come down and take a look into helping them out.

I told my Dad everything Melvin and I had talked about, so we made arrangements to go to Nicaragua this past Christmas break. We made plans with Melvin and he got everything straightened out. Our trip was 5 days long, which was the perfect length. While we were there, we met with Community leaders of Estelí and figured out just what the people needed. When we went to the school in Condega, I was absolutely shocked. These kids were playing baseball in a pasture that had rocks and grass up to your shins, but they definitely didn’t play like it. These kids had skills that most kids in the states could only wish to have. One thing that stuck out the most to me was during warm-ups not a single ball was missed or thrown away and some of these kids were even 8 years old!

After we played a game with them, I taught them a few things that would improve their game, then over lunch we met with the Principal and discussed what needed to be done. This school was established by an European Atheists group, who dropped their funding when the school decided to incorporated Christ into their name. The principal starting working jobs on to simply provide food for the children and pay the teachers. I believe this school is one of the best in Nicaragua, although it is small, the principal helps prepare the older students to take standardized tests to go to University and she also has starting teaching English in the school. She told us she wanted to start a baseball program so she could keep young men engaged and off the streets. We went over with her what needed to be done to get the program started: first the field needed to be leveled, second the kids needed gloves and finally they needed uniforms. Within Condega there was a man, would make the gloves by hand and also put together catching gear, then in Estelí we found a uniform maker.

After our trip, Dad and I set out to raising funds. We knew this would be the most awkward task of all, but The Lord provided. We did a mission report with our home church and because of their gracious giving we were able to raise enough money to buy equipment, uniforms, and level the field. We told Melvin about what God had done at our church and he said that was great, but another man already gave the money to level the field. We used the money given to us, to buy the uniforms, gloves, and since the field was already taken care of, we have decided to put the money towards a backstop and fence.

The Lord is doing amazing work with 1and1 Ministries; we all can see it working. The mission of 1and1 is develop the community, and also use baseball as a tool to minister to young men to build them to be Christian Leaders in their community. Although we are only in Nicaragua now, this ministry will explode throughout Latin and South America; due to contacts given to me by Dr. Ramesh Richard’s GPA program. I ask you to help 1and1 whatever way you can; serve if you can serve, give monetarily if you feel lead, but most importantly pray for The Lord’s blessing on 1and1. Thank you for reading and may The Lord bless you. —Hebrews 12:1-2.