Johnstein!

No...we're not expecting a baby (but it got you to this post, right?). Since you're already here, please keep reading. There is a big announcement in this post :). One of the details of our next stage in life has now been figured out. Michael will be joining the staff of an organization called Global Youth Baseball Federation or Global Baseball for short. With this decision Global Baseball will be our new "sending" or missions agency. They will receive and manage support donations and then pay Michael's salary from the support funds. Global Baseball is a 501c3 that has been working since 1997 to support baseball programs in areas of the world that may not have access to resources or funds to develop their teams. What is so great about the mission of Global Baseball is that they purposely and intentionally go beyond baseball to help the communities they serve in. They are currently active in Cuba, the D.R, Ecuador, and Israel; leading and organizing 8-10 missio...

Every year ICSV sends a team of students and staff to serve in Romania. Last year, a new tradition was started of doing a talent show to raise money to fund a special project or gift to help the kids at the River of Life center. Last year, the event raised enough money to purchase a number of bikes for the kids. This year's event was a smash success! Great food, entertaining and talented acts, and some great opportunities to help raise funds for this ministry. Justin perfomed along with the "band" that he is now in, named Ate Hundred Chickens...or 800 Chickens...depending on who you ask. Kailyn was "double forking" the Filo noodles... Good sized crowd waiting for the show to start One of the trip leaders, and organizers of the evening, working hard Kailyn is done with the noodles and is now using her forks to play drums like her big bro... And...here's Justin playing some Blink 182 with his friends. Justin and a co...

At the beginning of January, we had the opportunity to drive to Hungary to check out an indoor baseball tournament. This tournament was put on by Terry Lingenhoel, a missionary with OM who has been implementing a baseball ministry model for the last 15 years in Hungary. We hope to be able to do similar things in Kosovo. The tournament format is a very unique approach to the problem of cold weather and small gyms. Games are 24 minutes long and consist of two innings so each half inning is 6 minutes. Since the focus is on maximizing the amount of swings for the offensive team, the coaches pitch to their teams. Teams are able to score points on offense and defense. Since teams earn offensive points for all hits (singles=1, doubles=2, etc) AND runs, and defensive points for outs (unlimited since innings are timed) the action is fast paced and the games high scoring. It was interesting to watch...and while it worked in a different way, it certainly gave the players a lot of swings and d...