Spring Camp Begins

Our spring camp has started! Today, we met at the stadium and took the Enagic bus down to our new practice facility for spring training. These are just a few pictures of our scrimmage game we had this morning. Everyday, we will be having seat batting scrimmage games to determine roster positions. It's a little hard to believe, but our team is carrying 16 pitchers this year. There will be no cuts, yet, only 8 guys will be able to be on the active roster. This means that 8 guys will be inactive bench players for the beginning of the season. It's all in the Lord's Hands! I'm looking forward to some real good competition. So far, these guys have come out to play! Please continue to pray for the Lord to stir up the hearts of these baseball players towards Him.

WBC Japan

This is Seiichi Uchikawa from the Yokohama Baystars. He played on the Japanese World Baseball Classic championship team. He is real famous in Japan. Last Tuesday night he was signing plenty of autograph's and meeting fans at the Baystars camp opening ceremony. I was blessed to be in attendance.

The Yokohama Baystars

On Tuesday night, I was invited along w/ a few guys on the team to attend the Yokohama Baystars opening ceremony for spring training here in Okinawa. Every February, pro teams from mainland Japan come to Okinawa for training camp because of the warm weather. We were able to watch the ceremony as the players came out onto the stage at the ANA hotel in Ginowan. Afterwards, there was food and time to meet the players and take pictures. The top picture is a picture of a few of the Enagic guys. The two pictures in the center are of the few Americans the Baystars have signed to play here in Japan. The second picture from the bottom is former major league pitcher Chris Bootcheck who played for the Los Angeles Angels and the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had asked me what brought me to Japan and I was able to share about what God is doing here in Okinawa. He then shared with me that he was also a Christian and did a lot of ministry back in the states with other Christians players around the majors. He mentioned that he had a lot of free time while he's here and was interested in coming to church. His field is only 10 minutes away for the Calvary Ginowan. Please pray for our brother that he would be able to witness to the Japanese players while being apart of the team. God is good and working through His people!!

The Week of Pain

This week, we were able to move back into the stadium down in Itoman for morning practice. Practice was normal as usually for the first couple days. Hamada san, our trainer from mainland, was down in Okinawa for only a few days. He put together a pretty tough running menu for all the players. Like always, the pitchers and hitters each trained in separate groups. The running was pretty intense! A lot of sprints in a long period of time. Afterwards, we finished the day doing a variety of ground exercises that tested out your core strength. It's more than just physical strength. It's a struggle between mind and body! The body wants to give up first because it's so tired, but, the mind must tell the body to press on. It's the same thing in ministry. The body wants to quit because of all the hardships involved in daily ministry and all the service required to maintain stability. If your mind is weak, you will give in to the flesh and quit so easily. 1 Corinthians 9:24; Hebrews 12:1.

Bus Advertisement?

The other day when I was on my way to practice, one of the Okinawan buses pulled out in front of me. To my amazement, there was an advertisement for Enagic water. So while driving, I tried to take the best picture that I could. Well, it didn't turn out so well, but I was pretty excited to see the team company on the back of a bus. The Lord was just reminding me to keep ministering to these guys faithfully.

Training begins

Yesterday began the official start of training. Any kind of training was cancelled early in the morning due to the rain. Instead, we had an opening meeting about the team structure for the upcoming season. Enagic will not release any players, yet, they will start the games off this year with starting players and bench players. This is because of the 6 new incoming players. Out of all 6 new players, 4 of them are pitchers. This means that only half the pitchers will be eligible to pitch during games. Only 8 guys will be on the starting roster and will be eligible to come into games in relief. Well, the only way to make the top eight would be to train hard and take it one step at a time. Either way, being here is completely of the Lord.

Today's practice went well. It was extremely cold! The winter months are fairly short here in Okinawa, since the weather is periodically cold and warm. February will be a slow training month, since our spring training games don't start until march. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you look forward to see what the Lord has in store here at robs field of dreams! God bless u!

Shinnenkai

Yesterday afternoon into the evening, Enagic company had their Shinnenkai. This is the opening celebration to bring in the new year. Many of the big wigs of the company including the owner, gave opening statements and speeches about the upcoming goal for the company this year. There are 3 departments involved in the company: The Kangen Sui(main water business department), The Sola technical school department, and the baseball department. Many of the managers from other international stores in Beijing, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Europe and from mainland Japan attended as well. I was blessed to be able to give an introduction of myself and a speech later on in the night. It was just quite interesting being there for my first time in any type of business event. I was able to share my faith and why I'm here in Okinawa. It was a wonderful start to the new baseball season and what the Lord desires to do through Enagic baseball. God bless you! 2010.

Pictured below is my coach. He is a Christian, and he is a big part in how the Lord allowed me to be part of the team. Please pray for him. His name is Hiruyama san. When talking to the guys during the baseball season, he always used a Christian perspective when speaking about game related situations. It was awesome!