Personal Testimony to Baseball Turmoil

 Recently, the original organization I was going to join up with and I split ways.  I'm not writing this blog post to recount the events in which that all occurred, but to share with you how God is presently at work through all of this.  The cutting of ties with that organization and the feelings I felt at are certainly important, but their importance is resigned to the fact that because of them, the absolute devestation that seemed invevitable, are proving to be the source of another one of God's unpredictable and astonishing way of working in my life as well as every life of my teams and their families.

I have shared with my Bible study that I am leaving for Arizona tomorrow night to have surgery on Tuesday and I got an email tonight from on of my friends in it.  They know I coach baseball and I have shared with them my request to pray for the team and I  every week it seems before the split ever happened.  He wrote tonight to tell me that the group was praying for me.  I was planning on writing back a short thank you, but instead I shared with him what I can attest to being God's work in the team and I's lives.

Thank You Brother.

Your words mean a lot to me and I'm blessed to have so many people praying for us!  I'm sorry I wasn't there Wednesday and hope y'all still were able to make it without me - ha!  Thank you for your prayers for my baseball team as well.  I'll tell you more about it when I see you again but in short, I am no longer with the organization I had expecting to be joining.  This is with complete support of every parent and baseball associate from my two teams.  It was an unexpected and very unfortunate turn of events that came with what seemed to be devastating consequences to me, my teams and my players.

I am going to be completely honest with anyone that asks... God is taking care of us!  The 14U team will no longer be playing together and being this late in the game with tryouts for all organizations almost over, I was fearful that these amazing young men would have a hard time finding a team that they could continue to develop with, that suited their skill levels and actually cared about them.  God has found them all (but one) a team.  The one kid who doesn't, I'm confident will have a team yet will next weekend when he's back in town from boy scouts.

The 11U team was in the same boat but not to as great an extent.  Returning from my original team will be my two best players.  The talent level aside, those two kids also have exceptional parents and families that I have wonderful relationships with.  Two is not an insignificant number, because really only five were going to move on to a more competitive schedule and commitment which was the direction I was planning on taking my teams.  I was only going into the spring season with the expectation of keeping only four players.  When the kids are this age, I would say this is generally the case when making a decision whether they really want to pursue playing a sport or if they just want to play rec.

The 11U team is already at 8 and from meeting with and evaluating the players (and parents) coming to the team, we actually have a really strong bunch!  The parents I have met aren't crazy and are so supportive!  The kids are talented and I see a lot of potential in them.  They are just the kind of kids I want to coach - good kids and good players.

God has blessed us and is working His plan throughout all of this.  Yes, it hurt a ton but I already see Him at work.  The 14U team and I had developed a very special relationship and established almost a family-like culture.  Since the move away from the organization, it has only gotten stronger.  I can't wait to see the kids continue playing baseball and to see them around.  I was with a couple 11U's yesterday and saw the 14U's fishing at the same park.  One by one they showed up.  I didn't realize it until after practice, but every single one of the core members of that team were there!  It was a very heartfelt moment for me and I still feel the happiness I got from seeing them all together still.  We all had burgers tonight before my trip which they organized.

God is doing amazing things in my life and I know He is as well in the rest of the Dallas Shooters' lives.

Thank you for your prayers and I can't wait to see you guys again!

- Rob