Stuart, FL

I've fallen a few days behind on the blog due to a busy schedule and a weak internet connection at the hotel the past few days. I'll get everyone caught up on the past 3 days very shortly.

I wanted to let you know that the 1st group of guys has arrived in Stuart, FL and the 2nd group is ten minutes from departing Freeport as I type this.

We had a great time in the Bahamas and are really excited to start the Florida part of our trip. The Nassar's have everything set up and the view here from the back of their house is amazing.

Thanks for following and I'll look forward to updating everyone shortly.

Tuesday

Hopefully the blog posts aren't getting boring to read....I've basically just been summarizing each day as we go along and trying to throw some interesting things in once in a while. As you can see we have been keeping the guys really busy with practice, clinics, and the course work that they have. They have had a great attitude about everything and have found the energy every day to get done the things that we need to. We have had 7 good practices, 6 good clinics, and according to Dr. Jenkinson are keeping up with their course work very well.

Today was a typical schedule....practice from 9:00-12:00 followed by lunch and a clinic from 1:00-3:00. This clinic was at the Freeport Gospel School that we have partnered with on our trip. It was a great group of kids and one of the more upbeat clinics that we have done.

Zach Vander Laan, who has been a painter at home in the summers led a crew of guys who painted their playground during the clinic. I had a chance to meet the principal of the school and he was really excited to have that work done. He said it's something that they have wanted to do for a while but haven't had the manpower to get it done.

After the clinic/painting the team had class in one of the classrooms at the school. Class was from 3:30-5:30 tonight and afterwards the guys went to the Port Authority for dinner in small groups and were on their own until we got back together at 9:00.

At our devotion time tonight we heard a devotional titled "Believe to Achieve" and heard from Ryne Otis, Matt Kirkendale, and Mike Nassar with their 3 H's.

So, another great day here in the Bahamas is over. Today is supposed to be the same 75 degree day with plenty of sun and the guys will get a bit of a break in the schedule with no clinic scheduled. Adam Sparks scheduled a boat to take a bunch of the guys out snorkeling, and I'm sure the others can find something to do out on the beach in the afternoon.

I'll check back in after class/practice tomorrow.

Monday

So the picture thing does not appear to be happening on my computer for whatever reason. We may just have to do a picture book of some type when we get back and post it online. Sorry for the technical difficulties, I know many of you are looking forward to seeing pictures.

We started today with class out by the pool from at 8:30. I think Dr. Jenkinson was happy to get them first thing, instead of after a long day of practice/clinics/etc. This class has proved to be a good amount of work for the guys, but I respect how hard Dr. Jenkinson has worked to make this a legitimate academic course where they can learn instead of allowing it to be a "joke" class where they just hang out on the beach.

After class we had practice, with the pitchers working out and lifting weights at the YMCA with our trainer (Adam Sparks) and the position players doing some defensive work out at the field before getting a lift of their own in afterwards.

From there we had a quick lunch of Subway and headed off to do a clinic at a local school. This was by far our smallest clinic and it probably didn't require all 27 players to be there but the guys did a good job of working with the kids. The fact that it was a perfect 75 degrees probably didn't hurt. Landon Anspach shared a testimony with the kids at the end of camp.

The nice thing about having class in the morning is that after the clinic was done, we were done with organized activities for the day until our devotion time at 9:00.

We got to hear from Landon Anspach, Jordan Coffey, and Stryker Salyer tonight on the 3 H's and as always it's great to hear more about what makes people who they are.

Looking forward to another great day tomorrow. It stands to be another busy day.....we will leave here at 8:30 and not return until after 6:00. We'll check back in with all of the information tomorrow night.

Saturday/Sunday

OK, I'm going to get everyone caught up on our weekend. I have been pleasantly surprised at how many people have been following the blog online. Thanks for the many emails and well wishes.....sorry if I haven't had the chance to get back to all of you quite yet but I definitely intend to.

On Saturday morning we had our best weather of the week. It was easily in the mid 70's with beautiful sunshine throughout the day.

We had our normal morning practice from 9-12 and got through the 2nd group of pitchers throwing bullpens and our hitters got some defensive work in and went through hitting stations.

Dan ran over and got us some Subway to eat at the field before our clinic, which turned out to be the biggest/busiest of the week. I am going to attempt to post a picture after this blog post of our team mixed in with several of the kids that was taken after the clinic. We started out with about 30 kids at the listed start time of noon, but as the clinic went on we were quickly reminded of what "Bohemian time" means.....

By 12:30 we had 120 kids at the clinic. It made for a challenge to fit them into the stations that we had set up but our guys were up to the challenge and it ended up being a great experience for all of us.

At the end of the camp the local coaches asked me to speak to the kids about the importance of academics to the kids who hope to pursue college baseball in the U.S. When I asked how many wanted to go to college in America, I was shocked to see about 90% of the kids raise their hands. I was proud to tell the kids in attendance that in the past 5 1/2 years at Taylor we have never lost a kid to eligibility/grade issues. It is a testament to the current players and graduates to have that type of record at a school with the academic demands that Taylor has. It is also a challenge to our current team to keep that streak alive.

After the clinic we returned back to the hotel and the guys had some time to grab dinner before settling in to watch the Colts take it to the Ravens. We took the evening off from our nightly devotion time.

On Sunday everyone had the chance to sleep in a little bit before we headed off to our base Church (Freeport Gospel) for the 2 hour Sunday morning service starting at 11. What an experience that turned out to be.....I think the the 1st thing that impressed us was how much they truly love being at Church. It seems in our country we like to keep Church on a strict clock, it was obvious early in the service that there is nowhere else that they would rather be. The second thing was that all the women in the church wore big hats......a little thing but it was obvious that these women went all out for Sunday church.

The people of the church were very welcoming to us and the pastor (Randy's brother) gave a great sermon about Nehemiah and his people building the wall. He challenged us to Pray 1st, set a watch 2nd before taking any action in our lives. It was a powerful sermon and really struck a cord with a lot of people in attendance.

It POURED Sunday afternoon, which turned out to be a blessing because it gave the guys time to study in preparation for the 2nd test of the course. I'm sure if it had been 70 and sunny that would have been a more difficult task.

In the evening Randy and Carolyn had the whole group over to their house for a great meal out in their back yard and time to relax outside by their pool, play ping pong, pool, or watch some of the football game on TV. It was a great experience to be out in the community again and spend some time with these 2 great people.....we couldn't have had this trip without them. I plan on doing an entire post on these 2 later in the week and all that they have done for us.

During our meeting time we heard from freshman Sean Ford, Ryan Dykstra and Taylor Luna.

I think that brings us through the weekend and up to Monday....more on that tonight and I hope to get that picture posted shortly of our team with the kids from the clinic.

Thanks for your prayers, things are going great so far!

Friday

Sorry that this post is a day late....busy day and late night on Friday.

We started once again with a practice from 9-12 at the baseball complex here. We were attempting to get the 1st 8 pitchers through their bullpens and since the only mound is the one on the main field we were going one at a time while the position players were doing their work in the outfield and hitting on the 2 other little league fields located right next to the main field.

Steady rain made things a little difficult but we were able to get through most of it before the periods of heavy rain started right as the final pitching group was on the mound and the other guys were getting their running in for the day.

We were able to get finished with most of what we had set out to do.....

After returning from lunch the guys had 3 hours of much anticipated beach time and the rain stopped just in time to give them a great afternoon in the sun.

Several of the guys played sand volleyball games, many played football on the beach, and others rode the waves in the ocean. All things that their classmates and families are not doing back at home.

Coach A and Dan took all the laundry to a local laundry mat and to the surprise of no one Coach A quickly made friends with employee's in there. He is quickly becoming an island favorite among certain demographics.

Dr. Jenkinson held class from 5-6:30 at the school we are partnering with and afterwards in a long-standing Taylor Baseball tradition we were able to locate a Wendy's to have dinner.

Following dinner, we attended the Junior Junkaroo event here on the Island. I will attempt to describe it, but until we get pictures up it's very difficult to understand how big of a deal this event is. If there are 45,000 people on the island, I think you could easily say that 25% of them were in attendance.

It's a celebration where all of the schools (over 50) put together elaborate costumes, music, and dancing and move up and down the streets similar to a parade. It lasts over 6 hours and let me tell you these kids can dance.

It was as much, or more fun just being out and around the local people watching them do something that they enjoy. Several of us remarked at how different this even would have been had a similar tradition in the U.S. For starters they didn't charge for parking, they didn't try to commercialize and sell t-shirts, hats, etc. It was just a great night for the people celebrating with their kids.

Thursday

Today was a very busy day for all of the guys.....they handled it very well and I think when we look back on things it will be one of the more enjoyable/impactful days.

We started with a workout at the local YMCA at 10:00. Some throwing, conditioning and a chance to lift weights in the weight room. It was a nice place and is the center of a lot of the athletic activities on the island.

After a brief lunch and free time period, we set off to do two clinics.

For anyone who hasn't been involved in doing camps or clinics it can be a long and time consuming day that takes a lot of energy. The team handled it incredibly well and put on two outstanding clinics for the kids.

The first one was offered to us the night before at our first clinic by the P.E. teacher at a larger Catholic High School in the city. We had 60 kids come out for an after school session. We had them rotate between Infield/Outfield/Hitting/Pitching stations and the players were 100% responsible for running their stations.

It was a great environment, with the band practicing in the parking lot for the Junkaroo (more on that tomorrow) and several of the kids who weren't involved in the clinic sitting by the field watching.

There were over 80 kids total for our 2nd camp at the baseball facility. We have had some kids come to all 3 of the camps, and definitely had some different kids come out for this clinic.

These kids here are so much different than the ones we come across during our camps throughout the year. They come out there and are so excited just to be on the field and around the college players. There typical response to any suggestion or question by the players is "yes sir" and they can't get enough of their instruction and attention. I think that we could have camp for 12 hours a day and they would stay out there all day.

It was an incredibly spirited clinic and several of the players were creative and came up with fun ways to teach the kids baseball skills. One great idea was Caleb Stertzer having the pitchers do a form of "knock out" with throwing strikes in a pitching drill. Once it got down to the final 4 players the whole group of 40ish pitchers was watching and cheering for their favorite guy. You really had to see it and it's too bad we don't have video of it.

Brent Kimbro gave a testimony after camp to the kids there and just like the night before with Nathan, the kids were very attentive and hung on every word that he had to say.

At our meeting tonight, Coach Atkinson shared a devotional and we heard from Zach, Derek, and Chuck about their 3 H's. You can imagine they are pretty tired and ready to head to bed after a long but productive day.

We are still working on the picture thing for the blog and hope to have a bunch of them in some form or another tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks again all of your prayer and for following our blog. It's a been a great trip so far and we are all looking forward to tomorrow.

Tuesday Update

Today at practice we were joined by a local 17 year old boy named Alex who heard about our team being here to practice in the paper and on TV (more on that later). Alex showed up in full baseball gear ready to practice, and it was fun to have him with us. I think everyone was struck at how respectful he was of all of the players and coaches and the obvious passion he has for the game.

After practice Dan and I went to the airport to pick up our final team member, Landon Anspach. Landon has been back at Taylor working on his senior seminar class for his major. It's good to have all 27 of the guys here and working out together and sharing this experience.

After a couple of hours of free time on the beach the team had class at the school with Dr. Jenkinson. He will hold three more class sessions before the second test of the class which will take place on Sunday afternoon.

From the class the guys had to hustle over to our first clinic of the trip. We had 60+ kids come out and they were all very enthusiastic and looking forward to not only working with the players on improving their game but also getting a chance to hang out with some college baseball players.

After we were done with the clinic, Nathan Hillery spoke to the the group of kids and shared his personal testimony with them. Nate spent the summer with an Athletes in Action Baseball team in the New York League so he had done this type of thing before during that experience. He did a great job of explaining his spirituatl journey and what he has done to make his faith his own.

For dinner, Randy and Carolyn took the team out to a Fish Fry on the beach. It's a local restaurant that had a lot of character and it was nice to get out away from the tourist area and spend some time out in the country with the people here.

At our meeting tonight we heard from Juniors Ethan Houts, Brody Rathman, and freshman Luke Hofsommer on their 3 "H's"......another great time together as a team.

One of the biggest surprises so far on this trip has been how welcoming and excited the people are to have us here. We've been here 2 1/2 days and already we have been on the front page of the local sports page, mentioned on the local news, and had a film crew come and take footage of our practice and do an interview with me on the field.

It's very humbling to have them so excited to have us, and it provides a great platform for us to fulfil our mission here and share the love of Christ with these people.

Thanks again for all of your prayers.....things are going really well and we are doing our best to accommodate the MANY requests that we are getting for the guys to come to the local schools/leagues/teams to either do work projects/clinics/or speak to the kids.

Eathquake

Several of you have emailed and asked if the earthquake had any effect on us.

It did not.

There was a brief Tsunami warning for the Bahamas but it never really included us. Where we are is directly east of Florida, so we are way north and in an area of shallow water that is not at risk.

Thanks for all of your prayers.....we'll have much more later in the day. Just wanted to let you know we are all safe.

We had a beautiful day today reaching 65 degrees at its warmest but we quickly learned that our expectations for the weather are much lower than the local people here. The guys met a local man at lunch today and he informed them that he had 7 layers of clothes on. The man and several other locals couldn't believe that the guys would wear shorts and t-shirts in such cold weather. Needless to say, we are very excited about the weather.

A little recap of our day....we started with practice from 9-12 at the local baseball complex. Coming off a full day of literally no sleep, 2 flights, and adjusting to a new place I was very pleased with the energy level at our practice. They adjusted to the facilities well and we had a good 1st practice of the new year.

After a quick lunch (with the freezing locals) we headed back to the hotel where Dr. Jenkinson held class by the pool, something I'm guessing their classmates in Upland, IN were not able to do today.

We had our 1st introduction today to the school that is associated with our base Church. 16 of the guys spent the afternoon taking down the incredible Christmas light display that the parents of the kids literally spend 2 1/2 months putting up. It was a big help to the school/kids/parents to have this taken care of and also gave the guys a chance to interact with several of the kids who are involved with after school programs.

We plan on posting pictures tomorrow and you can check them out and see that it was a pretty involved project and required several of the guys to climb up on the room to remove the lights. We only wish we could have seen it all lit up at night, the principal told us the night of the program is the highlight of the year for the school.

It was an interesting experience to spend time doing what mind seem like a "mindless" activity....but I was thinking that although it might seem like a little thing to spend the afternoon taking down all of those lights, everyone who is associated with the school will know how much work it was and also who did the work. If we did a good job doing it that will be a reflection of our group and our motives down here, if we did a poor job that will also be a reflection of us. I am confident that it will be the former.

We will be returning to this school to speak at their assembly, repaint their playground, and also to run a clinic for all of the kids at the school during their Physical Education class. It was nice to have an initial interaction with them and have them get to know us some too.

Tonight at our meeting time Dan Rychener shared a great devotional that he had prepared called "mission trip or vacation" Dan challenged us all to be a servant and to approach this trip with the right motives and a heart of service. It was a very timely and appropriate message for all of us as we get started doing the missions component of our trip.

One other thing that we started down here was having each player speak to the team for 3-5 minutes at their 3 H's.....Brody Rathman brought this idea back from his experience in Latin America with the Athletes in Action Baseball group.

Three players each night will share their 1. Hero 2. Highlight 3. Hardship. It's a great opportunity for the guys to get to know each other better and what things have made them who they are.

Another great thing that happened today.....we had another man offer us his Ford F150 pick-up for us to use on our visit free of charge. This makes our transportation so much easier. To illustrate on any given trip we have had to make at least two trips to get everyone to where we are going. The baseball complex is a solid 15-20 minute drive and so getting the whole team to practice can take up to an hour and makes it very difficult for us to stay on schedule as move from practice to various ministry opportunites and to class.

Adding this truck allows us to transport all of our equipment without taking up any seating space in the vehicles. We will now be able to transport our entire team in 1 trip. It will be a HUGE help for us.

I should point out that our drivers have had to adjust to driving on the left side of the road in a strange city. It has definitely provided some interesting moments, but we wouldn't be able to do it without the help of Dan Rychener (parent of SR. Wade Rychener) and Adam Sparks (Athletic Trainer).

Like I said earlier, we plan to post pictures tomorrow so please check back then.

Day 1

The team started it's day this morning at 1:30 with a quick meeting to go over some last minute details and to finish packing up our team gear in the locker room. Several of the guys took advantage of Dan Bryant's sleeper but on the 3:00 ride to the airport. Our first blessing of the trip: NO CHARGE FOR LUGGAGE! That saved us a lot of $ and made the early morning seem more bearable.

We had two very smooth and on-time flights and arrived in Freeport at noon. The Bahamas Sports Federation met us at that gate and blessing #2: ALL OF THE LUGGAGE ARRIVED! They moved us right through customs and onto a charter bus that took us through a tour of the city complete with commentary from our driver "Teddy Bear"

While Coach Atkinson and I met with TU grads Randy Thompson and his wife (much, much more on them later) and toured the baseball facilities, YMCA, Church, and school that we will be working with during our trip several of the players caught up on some sleep, while others took advantage of the many activities at the resort and at the Lucaya Port Authority right across the street from the hotel and grabbed some lunch.

Before I forget, blessing number three courtesy of the Thompson's: FREE RENTAL VEHICLES!

The team then headed over to the Church to hear a presentation from the Bahamas tourism group and learned a lot about the culture and history of the Bahamas before grabbing some pizza and heading to bed. As you can imagine after such a long day, everyone is really tired but also really excited to be here and have this opportunity.

Tomorrow will start early with breakfast at 8:00 and our first practice of the month at 9:00 over at the Baseball Field.

Thanks for following us on our trip and remember to keep us in your prayers the next two weeks!

Much more to come, including updates from the players.

And, we're off!

Here is our schedule...we meet tonight at 1:30 a.m. in the locker room and leave for the airport at 3:00 a.m. Our flight takes off at 7:00 a.m. and we should arrive in the Bahamas at Noon.

Please pray for safety as we travel! We've got a big group to go through customs and a lot of travel ahead of us before we arrive tomorrow and head out on our tour of the island with the Bahama Baseball Federation.

TU Baseball Blogging has Begun...

In efforts to keep friends and family of TU Baseball informed of up to date information--including the upcoming trip to the Bahamas--we have created this blog.

Please check it often!