Category Archives: Ways to Give

I Love Baseball Summer 2011 Update!

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Thank you again for your support of the young Dominican

Interim Head Coach Máximo Ortiz (left) with new ILB Director Ruddy Suero.

men in the I Love Baseball® (ILB) program. We’re excited about the changes we have made in the last few months and the progress we hope to make throughout the year with your continued partnership.


Highlights from the First Half of 2011:
  • Earlier this year, we bid farewell to our former head coach, José Carrion, who left to pursue new opportunities. Filling in for Coach Carrion until we find a permanent head coach is assistant coach Máximo Ortiz. Máximo is a former baseball player and track athlete, as well as an inspirational Christian leader. We’re glad to have him on our team.
  • In March, we hired our first ILB program director, Luciano “Ruddy” Suero. Ruddy (pronounced “Rudy”) comes to ILB after ten years with Plan International, a like-minded organization. He is also an accomplished baseball player, and we are excited to see more advancements with him on staff.
Stay up to date on all that is happening with ILB by joining the Facebook fan page.
Your partnership is making a big difference in the lives of the young men in the ILB program. Thanks to your support, each of our sponsored players receives breakfast and lunch each day, a good education, spiritual encouragement, and a chance at a bright future. Read a story about one of our sponsored children, Dilson Alcantara Suero, by clicking here.
Areas in Greatest Need of Support:

Sponsorship
For just $32 a month, you can provide one of the young men in our program with hope for a better future. Click here to sponsor a player.

University Program
One of our players, Salomon Trinidad, has a partial scholarship to the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, but still needs about $250 per month in support. Click here to support Salomon.

Full-time Head Coach
We are still seeking a full-time head coach. If you are able to partner with us to help provide a $400/month salary for the new head coach, click here.
Thank you again for all your prayers and support! We would not be able to care for these young men without your partnership.
 
Ben Holman
I Love Baseball® USA Coordinator
benholman@ilb.org

Winter 2010-11 Update with Video

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Dear Friends and Supporters of I Love Baseball®,
 
Thank you again for all of your support for the young men in our I Love Baseball (ILB) program this past year. This year has been a good one for Children of the Nations and I Love Baseball, and we look forward to building on our success into 2011.
Please take a moment to enjoy this brief video on the lives you have touched through support of this program. Your partnership has a real impact on the young men in the ILB program, and we’d like to give you this opportunity to meet the boys who are being transformed through ILB.
 

Again, thank you for your prayers and support. If you would like to make a year-end gift to I Love Baseball, please contribute via our website or send checks to: Children of the Nations P.O. Box 3970, Silverdale, WA 98370. Donations must be postmarked no later than December 31 or received online by midnight to qualify for a 2010 tax deduction.

 
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about getting involved, visit our website; www.ilovebaseball.org, or contact me at benjamin@ilovebaseball.org, or 206-369-1429.
 
Thank You!

Ben Holman
I Love Baseball USA Coordinator

A Few Pesos of Hope

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On the eve of one of our major league tryouts, God sent a storm that brought me and several of our players into a church and out of the rain. There were lots of striking things about that night (I wrote about some of them here), but the thing that stuck with me was one of players putting the little money he had into the offering plate. I have to confess that I have mixed emotions about this player.

I have been sponsoring “Colon” for the past year. He is one of our most talented players, but he is a bit of a rogue and his own poor decisions have prevented him from potentially signing for a lot of money. I want the best for him, but I fear what might happen to him with that kind of money and his questionable decision making. However, that day in the church I saw the good side of Colon. I saw him with his guard down. I saw him when he isn’t trying to be the man and feeling the need to show everyone how cool he is. That little moment in the church gives me hope for him and I pray God shows me how to bring that side out of him more.

Rooting for ‘Fry

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As I watched our players try out this week, it was with mixed emotions. Sufry Thumb is the kind of kid you root for. He is the kind of kid you would do anything for. You want the best for him because he deserves it . He isn’t the biggest kid on the field but he is strong and fast. He works relentlessly and never complains. He is always respectful and never talks back. ‘Fry is probably the best player on our team but he doesn’t expect to be treated differently. He is humble and treats all of his teammates with respect from the best to to the worst. ‘Fry isn’t technically our captain but he is the one that sets the tone for our team. His is the example I want all of our other players to follow on the field and off. When he isn’t at practice or at school, he is working hard on his own, doing extra work, running or lifting weights. His passion has started to rub off on his teammates, particularly some of our younger players who are the in the worst situations. They are always following him around. When ‘Fry is doing extra work in the evenings, they are right there with him. When ‘Fry is lifting weights at home, they are there with him. Every time I’ve been at Fry’s house since I’ve been in the DR, our most at risk player has been there, watching, learning.

So it is with a little sadness that I cheer for ‘Fry and pray for the best. ‘Fry is our silent leader and I don’t want to lost his hard work and dedication, the example he sets for the rest of his teammates, or the mentoring he is giving to some of our players who need it most. But I couldn’t be more excited for ‘Fry as a player or as a person. As he closes in on his goal, he has begun a relationship with Christ. And as he has started to read his Bible everything that is already good in ‘Fry has been confirmed and started to grow. He reads his Bible with the same passion, dedication and joy that he plays baseball and that has been an inspiration to me and you can see the excitement in his eyes and hear it in his voice as he tells me what he learned in his reading.

I don’t really have a closing point. This post brings several questions out of me that aren’t really related. Are you the kind of person the people that know you best are rooting for or are they hoping you fail a little bit so you will be humbled (because we have a player like that too)? Do you read your Bible with the same passion you do the thing you love most? Do you read it like it is God speaking to you? Like you have been invited to play a role in a story that is so much bigger than you? Does that get you excited or do you read your bible “dutifully”?

Broken Hearts and Empty Stomachs

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I was heart broken last week after two months of sweating and working day after day in the sun with our baseball players to learn that on a daily basis the majority of them show up at practice with an empty stomach. There is no food in their homes to eat for breakfast. Those that do have food, have bread and coffee. Try and think back for a moment to your days as a high school, college or peewee athlete. Now imagine training day after day on an empty stomach. Imagine working for or five hours every day in the sun with no fuel and never complaining. If you never played sports, imagine going to work every day and not eating until lunch. How cranky would you be? And you aren’t running in the sun. That is the reality for our kids. It crushed me for that for the two last months I had been ignorant of this problem and that somehow how our program hadn’t already done something to solve it. I couldn’t sleep. I spent the night crying and calling out to God to protect and strengthen our kids.

I still can’t understand how something hasn’t been done sooner but I’ve vowed to make sure something is done about it. For the time being I’ve resorted to buying bread, peanut butter and Gatorade every morning on the way to practice with my own money, but the long term solution is finding more sponsors for our kids and making sure that that money gets directed to our kids basic nutritional needs long after I’m back in the United States and can’t buy breakfast. I’ll get on my knees and beg if that is what takes because my heart break for these kids.

So sponsor a kid already! Your money isn’t going to bats, balls and gloves. It is going to make sure our kids have the basic nutritional necessities they need to survive and grow much less train to become professional athletes. It is going to go to making sure they have the basic educational opportunities they need to have a choice about what they are going to do with their life.

We have 4 different levels of sponsorship:

Single………………………… $32/month
Double……………………….. $64/month
Triple…………………………. $96/month
Home Run…………………… $128/month

Please sponsor a kid and get everyone you know to sponsor one too. Family, friends, enemies, acquaintances, whoever! Shoot me an email chrissulli@gmail.com and I can tell you all about our different kids and help you pick the one that right is for you. They have truly amazing stories and God is doing an amazing work in their lives. They need our prayers too, but in this case we have the opportunity to be a part of the answer to those prayers.