When we first arrived in Santo Domingo, we dove head-first into the Kids-at-Risk ministry at our church, which was an outreach soccer program for kids living on the streets and in tough barrios. Now, a year and a half later, the kids are a little bit taller, play soccer a little bit better, and feel much more comfortable hanging out at the church. It has been awesome to look back through the photos from early 2006 and see the difference -- a few of them have even been baptized and most of them have bigger smiles than they did back then.The main leader of the group (in the red shirt to the right in the photos) has become one of our best friends here in the DR... and he is leaving on Thursday to go back to his home country, Venezuela. It's been wild to get to know him -- a model, professional soccer player and someone with a testimony of God's grace showering down on his life. It's also brought about many a conversation about communism vs. democracy... as Frank is a huge Hugo Chavez fan and sees that many of the changes he has had have been positive for the country.
Anyway, we are soooo sad to see him go. Last night we celebrated Frank with the kids on the soccer team with songs and raps about him and a passing of the baton to the other leaders of the ministry.
Frank with some of the girls from my team Our shoeshine boys rapping
1 comment:
I'm so sorry to hear that Frank is leaving because his is one of the names of your friends that I've heard often. What a blessing to have known such an interesting person, with such a different background, who is also a part of the body of Christ!
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