Happy Holidays!

Hey everyone,
First I want to say Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to all of you.  As we take time to spend time with our family and friends over the next few days, may we also stop and spend time giving thanks to God.  Without Him there would be no blessings.


As most of you know this has been a crazy year for me and my family.  God has completely changed our path and we couldn't be more grateful.  I am thankful to all of you for your patience as this new journey has caused me to take a step back in our endurance team/ministry.  I look forward to seeing what God does in 2012!


Lastly, after speaking with several of you it appears that our schedules during December is jam packed.  We have decided to move our season ending fellowship to January.  We hope to have a date within the next week or two.  Hopefully this will allow all of us to have a little more "free" time after Christmas to really enjoy getting together and not be rushed. Talk soon!


By His Power,

Mike Roby
FCA Director of Baseball/Softball

A mission trip or a life on mission?

To all who have just returned home from what they perceive as a life changing mission trip to the Dominican Republic and are ready to make a difference by beginning to live life differently, here's your challenge.

"But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in the mirror; for he goes away and right away forgets what kind of man he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts-this person will be blessed in what he does" - James 1:22-25

Many of you over the past week or two, as you have changed your place and changed your pace, have heard the voice of God and have had your perspective changed. You're back home and now your challenge begins. Will you have the faith and the courage to live out what you heard God telling you? Will you be a "doer" of His word and be blessed or will you come home, allow yourself to get caught right back up into your old way of life and be a "forgetful hearer"? Hearing Gods truth is only part of the equation...it's the easy part. Applying it in your life is more difficult because it very often requires sacrifice. However THAT is where the blessings lie. Unapplied truth is just like unapplied paint. It doesn't do anyone any good. The value is in the application.

Pray for strength. Pray for the wisdom to know what to do with what you heard while you were in the DR. Be a doer, not just a hearer and be blessed.

Simply amazed how God chooses to use us in His plan

So...we are now on the backend of week number two.  My family and I have been here now for 12 days and we have had 124 coaches, players and parents form all across the eastern part of the U.S join us here thus far. As I sit here trying to think of where to begin and what to share with you, my mind is overwhelmed. There is SO much God has done and is doing that I want to share, but it's just too much right now. Therefore, in effort to be as concise as possible, let me just share with you what yesterday looked like....just ONE DAY.

* We purchased and delivered food to feed 120 people for a period of 4-5 days in a village we have visited 3 times over the past 10 days. The head baseball coach of this village, Coach July Bozo, gave his life to Christ when we visited him and shared the gospel with him last week.  FCA has officially "adopted" this village and these people and we will continue with weekly ongoing ministry and discipleship through our on the ground staff, Mike Shaheen.  We shared the gospel with the entire village yesterday (over 400 people) and had well over 20 people give their life to Christ.

* Two baseball teams and one softball team spread out and traveled to separate villages to compete against Dominican teams and evangelize.  One of our teams was invited to play on the Dominican Air Force base against their national team.  We were greeted by a marching band along with the general and chief of command of the entire Dominican military. Although we lost the game 5-0 and were "no hit", I was blessed to have the opportunity to share the gospel with the general, members of his staff, and all the members of the coaching staff and the players.  Praise God that 35 people made a decision to give their life to Christ. Results from the other 2 teams were similar and God has opened doors for ongoing ministry through all three of the coaching staffs and players of these teams as well as with high ranking government officials.

* After dinner, we took our entire crew of 65 on a five block walk to the ocean where we baptized 15 young men, young women and coaches from our group who wanted to take the next step in their faith journey by professing publicly that Jesus Christ was their personal Lord & Savior and celebrate their new birth.  Also among that group was one very special Dominican 15 year old boy who has befriended and become very close with my 15 year old son Nick over the past year.  An incredible ending to another amazing day here in the DR...probably the most powerful day that I have spent here in the last 3 years.

Perfect Timing

Week number one here has just come to a close and 57 people comprised of middle school baseball coaches, middle school baseball players and some parents are returning back to Atlanta forever changed. At 12:30am this morning, a brand New group of 65 high school baseball players, softball players, coaches and parents arrived safe and sound. We all visited a church in San Pedro this morning and now everyone is at our FCA Baseball facility in Boca Chica on the practice field. Everyone is tired and ruining on fumes from the late arrival last night, however at the same time they are all marveled at what they have already seen and experienced thus far.

I have over 1300 pictures from this past week alone and testimonies of God's work in the hearts of each and every person who joined us here for the last 7 days.  I will post those picture on a photo sharing site as soon as I can, however I want to share a personal story of mine here to illustrate how God's perfect timing and His perfect plan.

Many of you know my story of how God used Julio Franco to radically change my life and lead me back to Him four years ago.  I have reached out to Julio SEVERAL times over the past 4 years via text message, phone call, email and have actually had a hand written letter delivered to him.  I wanted him to know how God used his simple act of obedience on January 22nd of 2008 as he shared the gospel at an FCA event that I attended to forever change my life, the lives of my wife and children and through my story, thousands of  others for His Kingdom.  Julio has never responded back to any of my attempts.  However it never bothered me because I knew in my heart that he and I would connect one day when God wanted it to happen.

Yesterday morning I accompanied one of our baseball teams to the village of Consuella, just outside of San Pedro, to compete against their village team.  It's the village that Julio Franco was born in and grew up in.  When I stepped onto the field I saw one young man taking ground balls at 3rd base.  My interpreter told me It was Josh Franco a rising junior in high school and Julio Franco's son. I had the opportunity to speak with Josh for a while and he told me that he and his family had moved back to the DR for a year so that he could train here, avoid the Major League Baseball draft system and sign here in the Dominican.  Josh told me that his dad would be out on the field in about 30 minutes.  Imagine how I felt at that point.

God's ordained timing, just as it always is, was perfect.  Julio and I got to spend close to 3 hours together talking about life and our love for Jesus. The morning climaxed with me sitting on a bucket and sharing the gospel with the team he is training here and on the very same field that Julio  played baseball on as a boy.  All the while, Julio stood behind me and translated.  Eight high school aged young men responded by giving their life to Christ.  Julio had a smile on his face that was priceless. Personally...I was (and still am) in awe of how the God of the universe chooses to orchestrate His plan.

This story is just one of many that have been experienced here over the past week.  We have 76 high school coaches and athletes arriving here tonight who at this point have NO idea as to how God is prepared to move in their lives if they will "be still and know that He is God".  Please pray for them....as well as for my family and I as we head into week # 2 here.