Before heading to the airport on our last day in Nicaragua, we took this group photo of our Lenexa Baptist team.
Good morning everyone!
As I write this update, I (along with many of you) have been waiting with prayerful anticipation for the results of the presidential election. And shortly before completing this, President Trump has been declared the winner. Please continue to pray for him and for our nation and for a peaceful transition.
While we pray about this new era in our country, I’d like to tell you about a fantastic mission trip I got to participate in with Lenexa Baptist Church and Project Hope in Nicaragua. During the trip, our team simultaneously worked on construction projects at the Project Hope base, a VBS for children at Project Hope’s Taellor’s House for children, and a baseball clinic for boys. In each category we accomplished what the Project Hope team needed us to do, and I must admit that we all had a ton of fun doing it together.
I was involved mostly with translations for the baseball team and the VBS team. The construction team got a wall built, a playground painted, and sound panels completed for the dining hall (which made a huge difference in the ability to have conversations without a distracting echo!).
Our baseball team saw 13 boys pray to receive Christ over the three days of the baseball clinic. Each day we did testimonies before the training. Here are a few pics of our first ever Nicaraguan baseball trip.
Nicaragua Baseball Project
In Nicaragua, baseball is about equal to soccer as the most popular sport for kids. At Taellor’s House, last year a team erected a batting net for pitching and batting practice. The Taellor’s House team were runner’s up in a national league championship last year!
On our first day of talks to the boys at Taellor’s House, these 10 boys prayed to receive Christ. On the far left is Selvinth Maldonado, a Lenexa Baptist member and chaplain for the Kansas City Royals’ Spanish speaking baseball players. Next to him is Brian, the boys baseball coach and teacher who is a dedicated follower of Jesus. On the far right is Jason Neland, who is chaplain for the Kansas City Monarchs baseball team. (And if you are keeping score at home, Jason was also on our August Guatemala trip with his family!) The boys loved hearing their stories of some of their favorite baseball players and of their testimonies of coming to Christ.
Kevin Bost makes a point before the training starts. Kevin was the leader of our coaches and planned our schedule each day.
Selvinth Maldonado shares with the boys that what he is telling them is the same thing he told Salvador Perez last week! When it comes to our value before God, we are all the same, no matter how famous we might be.
Rene (green shirt), a Nicaraguan team member who pitched professionally in Nicaragua before a shoulder injury ended his career, shares his testimony of how he came to know Christ.
On the last day, Jason Neland shared a picture of a baseball player he had the privilege of baptizing this past July.
And then Jason brought his friend up on a Zoom call to talk with the boys!
Kevin instructs the boys before dividing up the teams for a scrimmage.
The last day it was fun to see the boys and all the coaches play a friendly game together.
Like we have done on other trips with a lot of pictures, I want to give you our prayer concerns and then show you some pictures of the other things we did below that.
10:02 PRAYER
(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into His harvest fields.)
Pray for the children who prayed to receive Christ, that they will be given increasing opportunities to grow in their new found faith and that the leaders at Project Hope will be effective in their discipleship of these kids. Pray too for our nation and for a spiritual awakening here in the United States and around the world.
ENGAGE
We are in the process of scheduling mission trips for 2025. Right now, I anticipate doing a cowboy trip sometime during the year, a soccer trip in April, and another school evangelism trip in the summer. If you or your church would like to be in the loop on any of these trips, let me know!
INVEST
Thank you so much for your continued partnership in this ministry. Your giving has been strategic for us all of this past year.
You can give through the link below, or checks can be sent to:
Daybreak International, 11628 Oakmont St., Overland Park, KS 66210
Thanks again for your support. Please let us know about any of your prayer needs.
Love y’all!
Steve
PS…Below are more pics! Lots more!
At the start of each day, we’d have a large group experience and then a small group time. During the large group time on our first morning, my good friend, Eduardo Mejia (right), shared a devotion. Mikel, one of the translators, translated whatever Eduardo said in English or in Spanish.
On our third day in country, Mikel had us perform various parts to the biblical story of David getting selected to be the next king of Israel. For some reason he picked on me to be David! In the background left is Justin Pedigo. Behind Mikel is John Bednarczyk, then, Jeff Buckner, and on the far right is Karl Ploeger.
This week in our small groups, we had Project Hope staff mixed in with the Gringos to follow up on the theme brought out in our large group time. Several of the stories and comments bonded our group as we shared with one another.
The wall building team was very industrious this week, getting a new wall built on the mission compound in Sandino. On the left is Mike Meisinger, then Tim Dykman, aka Nehemiah!
For a couple of days, another team helped install a greatly needed septic overflow for the plumbing system at Taellor’s House. The Lenexa team, starting with the tall guy on the left, are Eric Offill and the three Davids: David Wroten, another David from Springfield, Missouri, and David Patterson, also of Springfield.
Eric smooths down the gravel as the last step in completing the septic overflow project.
Emily Hunt moves a ladder over for me to hop up on to paint the top of a playground slide at Taellor’s House. Looking on is Julie Crocker.
The team that finished the sound panel project from bottom left clockwise: David Wroten, Howard Dickinson, Emily Hunt, Justin Hunt, Justin Pedigo, Julie Crocker, Jeff Buckner, and Emily Ploeger. (Somebody is hiding behind Jeff!)
On one of the VBS days, Rhonda Reinhardt shares with the children as I translate for her.
In the background, Emily Hunt tries to follow the motions to a favorite song of the children.
Doing the world famous chicken song!
Craft time!
Jason helps pass out paper plates for an art project.
Patti Horton helps a boy glue some beans to his paper. On a side note, on this trip, Patti and I realized that she and her husband were a part of a church we started over 30 years ago!
Rhonda poses with a little boy proud of his artwork.
Fun days with children in Latin America almost always involve a piñata!
On Thursday night we had a big celebration together with the teachers and parents and families. Here, Kelly Hughes gives the teachers a gift from our team.
Karl Ploeger and his daughter Emily give a bag of food to one of the families. Taking their picture is Tammy Stearns, one of the missionaries dedicated to the Project Hope operations.
The last day with Taellor’s House we had a fun morning of competitions with the children. Here, each team passes a football in a relay race.
After the football, the same relay was done with wet sponges!
Here, the team squeezing out the most water from their sponges wins! Wendy Bost helps a girl funnel the water. Emily looks on.
After one last water balloon fight, most of the kids were soaked and happy!
The last day, the team got to spend a couple of hours at the beach.
Jason, Selvinth, and David explore some tide pools.
At the Oasis Church in Sandino, I just happened to be wearing a “Legendarios” (Legendaries) men’s ministry shirt I got a couple years back. And it just “happened” to be their Sunday for recruitment for an upcoming Legendarios men’s retreat coming up in November! It’s like I got the memo or something! What fun!