We had a beautiful day today reaching 65 degrees at its warmest but we quickly learned that our expectations for the weather are much lower than the local people here. The guys met a local man at lunch today and he informed them that he had 7 layers of clothes on. The man and several other locals couldn't believe that the guys would wear shorts and t-shirts in such cold weather. Needless to say, we are very excited about the weather.

A little recap of our day....we started with practice from 9-12 at the local baseball complex. Coming off a full day of literally no sleep, 2 flights, and adjusting to a new place I was very pleased with the energy level at our practice. They adjusted to the facilities well and we had a good 1st practice of the new year.

After a quick lunch (with the freezing locals) we headed back to the hotel where Dr. Jenkinson held class by the pool, something I'm guessing their classmates in Upland, IN were not able to do today.

We had our 1st introduction today to the school that is associated with our base Church. 16 of the guys spent the afternoon taking down the incredible Christmas light display that the parents of the kids literally spend 2 1/2 months putting up. It was a big help to the school/kids/parents to have this taken care of and also gave the guys a chance to interact with several of the kids who are involved with after school programs.

We plan on posting pictures tomorrow and you can check them out and see that it was a pretty involved project and required several of the guys to climb up on the room to remove the lights. We only wish we could have seen it all lit up at night, the principal told us the night of the program is the highlight of the year for the school.

It was an interesting experience to spend time doing what mind seem like a "mindless" activity....but I was thinking that although it might seem like a little thing to spend the afternoon taking down all of those lights, everyone who is associated with the school will know how much work it was and also who did the work. If we did a good job doing it that will be a reflection of our group and our motives down here, if we did a poor job that will also be a reflection of us. I am confident that it will be the former.

We will be returning to this school to speak at their assembly, repaint their playground, and also to run a clinic for all of the kids at the school during their Physical Education class. It was nice to have an initial interaction with them and have them get to know us some too.

Tonight at our meeting time Dan Rychener shared a great devotional that he had prepared called "mission trip or vacation" Dan challenged us all to be a servant and to approach this trip with the right motives and a heart of service. It was a very timely and appropriate message for all of us as we get started doing the missions component of our trip.

One other thing that we started down here was having each player speak to the team for 3-5 minutes at their 3 H's.....Brody Rathman brought this idea back from his experience in Latin America with the Athletes in Action Baseball group.

Three players each night will share their 1. Hero 2. Highlight 3. Hardship. It's a great opportunity for the guys to get to know each other better and what things have made them who they are.

Another great thing that happened today.....we had another man offer us his Ford F150 pick-up for us to use on our visit free of charge. This makes our transportation so much easier. To illustrate on any given trip we have had to make at least two trips to get everyone to where we are going. The baseball complex is a solid 15-20 minute drive and so getting the whole team to practice can take up to an hour and makes it very difficult for us to stay on schedule as move from practice to various ministry opportunites and to class.

Adding this truck allows us to transport all of our equipment without taking up any seating space in the vehicles. We will now be able to transport our entire team in 1 trip. It will be a HUGE help for us.

I should point out that our drivers have had to adjust to driving on the left side of the road in a strange city. It has definitely provided some interesting moments, but we wouldn't be able to do it without the help of Dan Rychener (parent of SR. Wade Rychener) and Adam Sparks (Athletic Trainer).

Like I said earlier, we plan to post pictures tomorrow so please check back then.