"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Often times when people ask us what kind of ministry we do in the Dominican, they don't understand exactly what we mean when we say "sports ministry". We want to share just one of the wings of ministry that we are involved with via Simon, one of the members of the G.O. Ministries Dominican/Haitian Sports Outreach Crew.

After an 8 year career in the professional basketball league in Santiago, Simon came to us and said he was interested in starting a little business that would be a great opportunity for outreach. Simon wasn't the best player in the pro league, but he was arguably the strongest and most physically fit. So after taking classes and receiving his certificate to become a licensed Personal Trainer, he wanted to open his own gym. He found a guy that was selling some old equipment and his plans were to build the gym behind his parents' house in a rural community called Don Pedro. In this drug infested area, there is a large number of teens and young adults that hang out in the streets without much to do. Simon's dream is to provide for them a place where they can take care of their bodies, as The Bible tells us to in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, as well as present an alternative activity where they can spend their time and energy. He began to build and the response has been wonderful.

Inside this gymnasium you can find a couple of stations for bench press, incline press, decline, dumbells, shoulder press, squat wrack, stationary bicycle, abdominal workouts, two dogs for security, a rooster that runs around and a gecco that arrives in the morning and leaves for lunch in the afternoon. On the mirrors, Simon has written bible verses and motivational quotes such as, "Dios es tu fuerza"..."God is your strength". He has made his gym affordable as it only costs 20 pesos per visit (57 cents). Will, Mike and Eric (other American sports missionaries) visit Simon 3 mornings a week to encourage him and receive a personal workout from the master himself.

As we've said before, the purpose of our ministry is to get behind the Nationals (Dominicans and Haitians) and encourage them to do ministry amongst their own people. Simon came to us with a vision and a passion, so we are standing behind him in his fitness ministry and so are you. Because of your generosty, we were able to provide Simon with some financial aid to get this gym up and running. We thank you and he thanks you!

Simon is just one of eight guys we are working with in the area of Sports Ministry. His passion is to teach the message from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Every Saturday we study a book called The Disciplines of a Godly Man with these young men in order to keep each other accountable in our journey to become men of God. As the year goes on, we will continue to introduce you to these men so you can see who they are and what they are doing. This is sports ministry and we are here to love, encourage, disciple and provide the needs of the Dominican and Haitian men that have a passion for their people. Please enjoy as we take you on a tour of Simon's gym through the pictures below.

Love,
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Will and Audrey

"All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart."

Proverbs 21:2

It has been a very long time since we have updated our blog and once again I find myself apologizing to you all. A couple of people have told me lately that "forgiveness is always on the horizon", so I pray that you feel the same way :)

2008 for G.O. Ministries, Inc., was an incredible year. Everything from the number of people (868) that came down to do short term missions to the enormous amount of people that received medicine at our medical clinics to the thousands of kids that participated in sports camps and on and on and on. We were so blessed to meet such a large number of Believers that make up the Body of Christ and serve all over the globe. In saying all of that, there was one thing that God really taught us through out the year, "all a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart." There were many moments this past year where we (Audrey and I) felt like we were at the top of our game and doing ministry in such powerful ways because so many people were involved. But then one day we were led to the verse in Proverbs and began to ask ourselves...."if the Lord is weighing our heart, what would the result be?"

So many times we get so caught up in the "what" that we forget about the "how" of our activities. There aren't many things easier in the Dominican Republic than grabbing a few basketballs, going to the court and inviting kids to play. Before you know, you have started a camp that then leads to a league. At the end of 6 weeks, the kids had a blast and learned a great deal about basketball. But is that it? Was that really all we were hoping to accomplish? We felt like we did a good thing; our ways seemed right. But after a while we began to wonder, are we fulfilling God's desires or are we simply creating activities that take up time and make it look like we're expanding the Kingdom. Well, our hearts were weighed and it was time for a change.

God has taught us so much this past year about how important it is to seek His guidance before we take every step. Often times we get so comfortable with our own decisions that we just leave Him out of the whole process. Time and time again, His results proved far more amazing than anything we could ever produce. When it came time for God to examine our hearts, I'm afraid He wasn't seeing much of Himself. Please pray that we continue to seek Him before we move forward.

Especially during Christmas, as Believers, our hearts are softened to the needs of people who are without. So we spend time serving meals at a soup kitchen or delivering blankets to homeless people and really reach out to different communities. The prayer that we lift up today is that as we continue to reach out, that we don't just do it because we're supposed to, but that we learn to love the people we are serving. That we take time to get to know them and invest in their lives. It is a powerful thing to be able to provide a physical need for someone, but the rewards are eternal when we take the time to provide spiritual food in the lives of those around us. When our hearts aim to please man, we'll be disappointed, but if our hearts' desire is for God, He will move mountains.

Please pray that God continues to challenge us on the mission field to not only provide activities for the people we work with, but also do our job as Believers, to lift up the Gospel and allow the Word of God to transform us all. Allow Him to lead, because if we are people after His own heart, when it comes time for Him to weigh ours, He'll be pleased.

Much love,

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Will and Audrey

Below are a couple of pictures of Miguel from Hato del Yaque. God really taught us a lot through a few hours spent with this kid as all he wanted to do was sit, play and hug. In a day filled with activities that we were supposed to be involved in, God revealed Himself to us through this little guy.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

Luke 15:20

This is a verse we need to read more often as it portrays the love that God has for his children, the unconditional kind. I love as the story continues in Luke when the prodigal son begins his speech about how he's not worthy to be called his father's son anymore because he's sinned against him and God, but his father isn't even listening because he's calling for his servants to bring clean clothes, food, sandals and the family ring to place on his son that has come home; his son that was "dead and now alive again."

How many times have we been ashamed to turn around and head back home to our Heavenly Father? Only to find that as we begin our journey back to Him, He's already running towards us to embrace us, kiss us, protect us, clothe us, feed us and clean us. This was the message that we shared at our first new worship service for the tigeres (tigers is what they call "street thugs") of Hoya del Caimito.

I was standing outside the church one day wondering why the kids from our camps weren't attending church when I realized that they didn't feel welcome. Someone along the way has planted in their head that they have to clean up before they go to church. So the new worship service alongside the basketball court is called, "Come as you are". 80 people did just that on Thursday night. Some soaking wet from playing basketball, some looking for the prize at the end of the service (we raffled off two tickets to a professional basketball game) and some a little tipsy after having a few drinks on the corner of the street. It was different.....it was church.

The praise band was made up of people who are passionate about music and sharing it with the people that surround them. All are young people from the community that have participated and led sports activities over the last few years. They did an incredible job and you could feel the energy as they worshipped God through playing and singing. We began a series on the Prodigal Son as we're trying to get these young men and women to understand that just like the father ran to his son in the story, God is wanting to do the same to us no matter what we're in the middle of. Something we can all remember daily.

Meet the band: Kerlyn, Isaias, Mike, Kendrix, Romano, Audrey and Goody

We recently had an incredible sports week as well. The Indiana Wesleyan Men's Basketball team came down for a week to do construction, basketball camp and compete in a tournament against teams from the Dominican Republic and Miami. They were outstanding as they were so excited to work in the Hole and dig a 15 x 15 x 15 ft. sistern at the land for our new central church. As far as the tournament was concerned, after a rough first game, they took home the gold by beating the Santiago all-stars in a rematch. They were a joy to watch as many of them have been transformed from young basketball players into true men of God. Thank you IWU for coming and serving here in the D.R. Check out the video below from their week.

http://www.vimeo.com/1509476

Please continue to pray for G.O. Ministries and all that is going on in the Dominican Republic. Pray for the new worship service that we'll have two thursdays a month. We love you all and pray that you experience God running to you as well!

Love,
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Will and Audrey

"And the parched land shall become a pool."

Isaiah 35:7

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

http://www.vimeo.com/1371318

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.

Love,

<><

Will and Audrey

What's goin on........

Hey everyone! We apologize for the delay in updating our blog. It has been a very busy and exciting winter/spring so we wanted to let you know about a few things that have taken place. Here is a run down of some of the latest activities in the Dominican.

2nd Annual Claude LaMaster Inter-church Basketball Tournament

Body of Christ Church

Assembly of God Church

Baptist Church

Hoya del Caimito

St. John United Methodist Mission Trip (Home Church in Louisville)

Click below for a video of the week
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ne31zd80GM

Men's Adventure Weekend (Conference for men of Dominican Republic and Haiti)

"Wild at Heart"

Recreation and Fellowship


Baptism

Communion

Prayer

Worship

Thank you all for being such a huge part of all of these events. God is doing HUGE things inside and through the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We wish we could share EVERYTHING with you all...... He's incredible!

We are in the States until May 27th. We would love to set up meetings and visit. Please email me at will.partin@go-ministries.org with any requests, prayer concerns, information, questions or just to say hello. You are all very close to our hearts as we continue this journey. Please pray continuously!

Love,
<><
Will and Audrey

Online Giving

Hey Everyone! We just wanted to let you know that the ministry has provided an online giving option. As you can see in the right hand margin, a PayPal account has been set up and with a click of a button, you can donate to the ministry. You have the option of setting up a recurring donation or a one-time gift. Please note that if you choose to give online, there is a transaction fee that amounts to 3.2% of the donation that will go towards paying PayPal for allowing us to use their services. Example, if someone gives $100, $96.80 is what will actually be donated to us. Just wanted to let you know this is available to those who are interested.

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Will and Audrey

"The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season."

Psalm 145: 14-15

Like most jobs or new experiences, it usually takes a while to adjust and see results or "fruit". Because we are Americans and grew up in a culture where success is measured by immediate progress, it has been at times difficult to feel effective and useful in what God is doing down here on the island of Hispanola. In a study that we've been doing, we've spent time in the Scriptures that refer to waiting on God. For us, this has been difficult because our personality is to try and make things happen right now and without much help. In 2 Timothy 3: 16-17 it says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." We have experienced the teaching, rebuking, correcting and training of the Word of God.

Over the past year, our Dominican and Haitian sports staff has grown. We packed the 2007 calendar with sporting events (camps, clinics, tournaments, leagues) and had great success as far as numbers of kids who participated. But God placed it heavy on our hearts that we were still somewhat out of focus. Since January, 10 leaders have been meeting every monday to dive into God's word in hopes of being taught, rebuked, corrected and trained in order to be thoroughly equipped for the good work. Seeking to be equipped not for just an activity, but for the spiritual battle that everyone faces every day. Instead of trying to produce our own results, we have been taught to WAIT on HIM.

Simon and Alan

We met a man named Simon Abreu two years ago. Will was practicing with the professional basketball league and Simon played for Club Sameji. Although his 6'4" - 200 lbs. frame may appear intimidating, his heart proves to be gentle, humble and meek. Simon made the personal decision to get baptized over 6 months ago and since then has been struggling through the beginning of his walk. I say struggle because he's recognized the significance of being a Believer and that the path is narrow. Just last week, after 6 weeks of studying, praying and waiting on God to lead us to the next ministry opportunity, Simon started his own basketball ministry in his neighborhood. Because Simon played for Sameji, who won the professional league championship the last 4 years, he has earned a great deal of respect from the kids. 60 boys from the ages 8-20 came on the very first day. When Simon spoke, they listened. Two years after meeting Simon and spending time with him, the Holy Spirit has moved in him and placed him in ministry.

When we wait, God givest us our meat in due season.

Challenge for all of us: Slow down and wait on God.

As much as we'd love to have a sports complex, sports vehicle, 10 new leaders, 40 new camps, 90 more kids in church, the reality is.......it's not up to us. "They eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season." He is very aware of the desires of our hearts, if they are the same as His, in His time, He will provide.

Please pray for Simon and the rest of the sports crew. This new area we're working in is infested with drugs. Pray that basketball will be an attractive alternative. Also please join in praising God for His faithfulness to His word. He has given us our meat in due season.

We will pray the same for all of you.

Love,

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Will and Audrey

Just Ask!

This blog is a month late, and if you know the two of us well, you'll know that Will is the one responsible for writing the entries :) Not only is it late, but it is long overdue as we'd like to extend a HUGE THANK YOU for the year of 2007!!! God moved in incredible ways as He always does. One part we want to share with you is the way He worked through each and every person reading this blog. Provision.

Matthew 7:7-8 says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

We have spent a large amount of time asking, seeking and knocking over the past year and God has met those needs by using His faithful......you! Our last blog stated how much financial support was needed to finish out the year. "For everyone who asks receives." Praise God, we met our goal. Thank you so much for allowing God to work through you to make our ministry possible here in the Dominican. By having the financial resources, many doors have been opened and we will continue to knock and see where God will lead us for the coming months.

Not only has God provided through finances, but the prayers, encouragement and gifts have been abundant. We feel them, we need them and we ask that they continue. Each and every prayer and gift is being put to use here in the D.R. For example, Louisville Slugger sent a large quantity of their 2007 inventory to support our baseball ministry. In doing so, this allowed us to host our first sports camp of the year this past week. A group from Kansas City Baptist Temple came down to do a baseball clinic for 60 kids, play in a softball tournament and do discipleship training for our pastors and women of the church. It was an incredible week as they taught the kids about control. Control your mind, control your body, control the ball, control the play and control the game. The kids heard the message that if you allow Jesus to control your mind, then he will also control your body and your life. Many of them understood the parallel between the game of baseball and a Christian walk as around 40 came forward to learn more about a life with Jesus. Please pray for them as we meet tomorrow morning (Saturday) to aid them in their "next steps".

After a wonderful visit to the States, we have to say that it is nice to be back in the Dominican Republic. Aside from the beautiful weather, we missed our neighbors, friends and co-workers. We thank you for sending us back home. We will keep you updated as ministry happens. We love you and pray that this year will be even more amazing than the last!

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Will and Audrey

Dear Family and Friends. Please take some time to pray for the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Tropical Storm Olga has done quite a bit of damage. We spoke with some friends in Santiago today and they said they've never seen that much water before. One friend said, "there are people on top of their houses and in trees trying to survive". So as you look at the images below, please be intentional about praying for their safety and health. Thank you.

Merry Christmas!! As always, at this time of year, we are anxious to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who support us through your prayers, words of encouragement and finances. The ministry is moving forward in every direction and God is hard at work on the island of Hispaniola. During this time, we ask that you continue to keep the Dominicans and Haitians in your prayers as some have suffered from the storms that have passed through while others are searching for some small way to celebrate this Christmas season.

We are still in the States visiting with family and friends and moving forward on our ongoing fundraising journey. As of now, we are still $14,000 short of our 2007 budget. God has provided every step of the way and there's no doubt that He's going to continue to use His faithful givers to keep us strong on this narrow road. We are so grateful for what you do for this Ministry and we're really excited to see how God is going to continue to use ALL of us to further His Kingdom.

We wanted to capture some Christmas cheer in the faces of the Dominican children, so please enjoy the photos of kids from The Hole (Hoyo de Bartola) and La Mosca (Santa Lucia).

LOVE,
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Will and Audrey

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!