July 6, in My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes about visions and reality. He says, "we always have visions, before a thing is made real". After spending three years in the Dominican Republic working with sports ministry casting visions, God gave us a glimpse of reality this past week. In 1998, a group of 12 guys travelled to Santiago to put on a basketball camp for 40 kids with the hope that the community would catch on and the event would grow into an ongoing ministry opportunity. In 2008, a piece of reality arrived. Basketball camp week turned into an all sports week. We just finished an incredible 4 days of boys basketball, girls basketball, volleyball, baseball and women's fitness. Over 300 boys, girls, men and women participated in the clinics. Through out the week, we taught about the fundamentals of each sport, competition and what it means to use our entire body to glorify it's Creator. The response was outstanding.
Check out the video from the sports week below
Later in the Chambers devotion, he says, "every vision will be made real if we have patience.......in the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality." I'd like to say that the full reality has come to fruition, but the truth is only part of the parched land has become a pool, the vision is still out there, and as a sports ministry, we're still in the valley. We saw amazing potential this past week during the all sports clinics, but a Sports Complex, that is the vision. The ability to reach the entire island and beyond would be limitless if we had a place to host kids from all over for week long sports camps, bible studies, conferences, tournaments, etc... Please pray with us as we seek God's guidance in regards to the future of sports ministry. The visions are huge, so please walk with us hand in hand through the valley as we await the arrival of reality. God's timing is always perfect.
This summer has been incredible and we're only half way through it. Each group that has come to serve has gone off without a hitch and we're overflowed with blessings. Thank you to all that have come, prayed and given in order to help G.O. Ministries grow. We are so very grateful! We hope to hear from many of you as it's always nice to get updated on what's happening at home.