Almenara Baseball Camp 2007

February 2007

Dear Friends and Supporters,

     I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. As you know, much of mine was spent running the second ever Almenara Baseball Camp. It is with great happiness that I report to you that this year’s camp was a great success—even more so than last year’s. The program was such a success, in fact, that we became celebrities. The program was visited by the largest television station in the state, Globo. And on Saturday, January 27th, the report aired all across Minas Gerais and we were on TV!

     During the month of January, the Almenara Baseball Camp served 120 kids from Almenara, Minas Gerais. Around 40 girls (4 teams) attended in the mornings and 80 boys, (8 teams) attended in the afternoons. Each day we conducted a church service with songs and a message of the Gospel. And each kid received a hearty snack too. At the end of the camp we handed out a uniform, a hat, a baseball and a glove to each of the kids. As a result, if you were to drive through the city of Almenara this week, chances are that you will see a pick-up baseball game on the streets!

    The Almenara Baseball Camp was run by 17 local teenagers who acted as the coaches, umpires and equipment managers of the camp. They worked hard, earned good money, and learned to become professionals at what they did. It could be said, perhaps, that they had even more fun than these kids.

     As important as it was to have the program run as smoothly as possible and to have the kids be respectful, we emphasized this year that it was way more important that these kids knew that we loved them. And that our love for them was the result of God’s love for us in our lives. We dealt with a lot of wounded and rebellious kids this past month. These kids may not hear a lot of positive things at home and may not receive a lot of hugs. So we did our best—by the grace of God—to demonstrate to them that God truly did love them unconditionally and that they mattered. This was the over-arching theme of the baseball camp. And I hope it remains as such for years to come.

     Thank you so much all of you who contributed to this endeavor. Whether it was prayerfully or financially, the truth of the matter is we, at Missão Luz do Vale, would not have been able to do any of this without either. Your support is what made all of this possible. And we thank God so much for you.

May God bless you,

Addison Quale