"Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice."

1 Chronicles 16:8-10

As we spend time preparing for the summer, we pray for God to reveal Himself to us in new ways knowing that He is at work in our lives and the lives of those around us. We had the privilege of working alongside many different people that came down here to fulfill the command found in Matthew, to go and make disciples of all nations. This year was a little different as we had more groups come to partner with our sports outreach. Through basketball (boys and girls), baseball, volleyball, flag football and whiffle ball, we were able to spend time with hundreds of kids. Our sports staff is learning how to evangelize through building relationships and that's exactly what took place this summer. So we wanted to take this opportunity to praise Him and tell of His wonderful acts while giving Him glory and rejoicing along with those who seek Him. We hope you enjoy the pictures below of the ministry that took place over the past 3 months.

Basketball Camp with Eastview Family Group

Flag Football with CPC

Girl's Basketball with Banta

G.O. Basketball Week

Volleyball with Pathways

Baseball and Basketball with Shepherd of the Hills

We also finished our 4th annual G.O. Sports Outreach Summer Basketball League. This was a huge success as kids learned how to play as a team, grow as a team and realize their importance in the body of Christ. After six weeks of Bible studies, practice and games, the boys experienced what it means to cared for by their coaches......men who have become role models and faces of Christ in the community of Hoya del Caimito. Below are some pictures and a video of this year's league.
Click on the link below to watch 2009 G.O. Sports Outreach Basketball League:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs8V6XSmqu4

We hope you enjoyed sharing a piece of this summer with us. We are blessed to be here!

With love,

<><

Will and Audrey

"This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

John 15:8

The last two months have been filled with fruit. There have been countless reminders of what God is doing on the island of Hispaniola so it's only fair that I share them with you all.....the people that so faithfully support and encourage our ministry.

For the third straight year, our home church in Louisville, Ky, came down for a week long mission trip at the end of March through the beginning of April. Throughout the week, we talked a lot about the large steps the church has taken in over seas missions. When we decided to move to the Dominican Republic 4 years ago, everyone was asking what our needs were. Of course we had many prayer concerns and monetary needs, but the one thing that we remember asking of everyone was to come down to the D.R. and experience it. No matter how many pictures we show or stories we tell, it's just not the same as someone physically walking the streets, hugging the Dominicans/Haitians, sitting in the homes, smelling the coffee, riding in the cars in crazy traffic, feeding a kid in a feeding center, eating ice cream at Bon or working alongside our Dominican and Haitian staff in the hot sun. So after almost 4 years of living on the island, we are praising God for the fruit He has provided in answering our prayers and our requests.......people are coming down to serve and experience the Dominican Republic. Thank you to all that have come, will come and for those of you that cannot, thanks for praying for the people that can. We are encouraged every time we see a familiar face and so is our Dominican Family.

St. John United Methodist Church, Louisville, KY

Sports Ministry is making huge strides in the training of our work crew both spritually and in leadership. We have continued to study R. Kent Hughes' book The Disciplines of a Godly Man and the response has been....fruitful. Pedro, Romano, Jose Luis, Simon, Alan, Alexander, Kerlyn, Wilson, Eric, Mike and Will are learning what it means to be Godly men in our homes, work, relationships, mind, devotion time, worship, church, leadership, giving, witness and ministry. Please continue to pray for this journey we are on.

At the end of April, we tested a new area of sports ministry and it was a success. A group of 11 men from Illinois came down to help us with a football camp.....American football! We knew we were in for a ride when the kids looked funny at the ball, then picked it up and tried to throw it like a baseball. We started from scratch and by the end of the camp, we were ready to call the NFL about a couple of new Dominican prospects. The kids loved it and caught on very quickly. Two kids that particpated in the football camp are now new Believers and are attending the church. God's fruit.

These same men from Illinois held a men's conference in a city called La Vega. There were close to 150 Dominican, Haitian and American men that attended and it was incredible. The topic for the week was "Breaking the cycle of Sin". In the Bible, it gives many examples of sin being passed on from generation to generation and gaining power on the way down. Many people today struggle with the sins of their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers, but it doesn't have to be passed on to our children. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" We celebrated that promise all weekend long.

Group from Illinois

The final fruit we want to share covers the entire G.O. Ministries organization. Every four yearsour ministry takes a few days to look back and see what God has done. We call it the Celebrationof Partnerships. All 61 of our Dominican, Haitian, Columbian and Mongolian workers and their spouses (about 100 total) made their way to Puerto Plata (northern coast of D.R.) to meet up with our North American Partners that support the ministry. We worshipped in 3 languages, participated in Beach Olympics, ate together, swam together and celebrated together what God is doing through His unworthy servants. It was an incredibly refreshing time as we took this opportunity to get to know one another on a deeper level and sing praises to our King. Thank you to all of you who play such a huge role in expanding the Kingdom.

group photo from the celebration of partnerships

G.O. Staff

egg toss competition

human pyramid competition


Please pray for us as we head into the summer months and host many short term mission teams. Pray for safe travels and that we will not get in the way of what God has laid out for us. We'd love to hear from you, so don't be afraid to toss an email our way!!

With love,
<><
Will and Audrey Partin

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Often times when people ask us what kind of ministry we do in the Dominican, they don't understand exactly what we mean when we say "sports ministry". We want to share just one of the wings of ministry that we are involved with via Simon, one of the members of the G.O. Ministries Dominican/Haitian Sports Outreach Crew.

After an 8 year career in the professional basketball league in Santiago, Simon came to us and said he was interested in starting a little business that would be a great opportunity for outreach. Simon wasn't the best player in the pro league, but he was arguably the strongest and most physically fit. So after taking classes and receiving his certificate to become a licensed Personal Trainer, he wanted to open his own gym. He found a guy that was selling some old equipment and his plans were to build the gym behind his parents' house in a rural community called Don Pedro. In this drug infested area, there is a large number of teens and young adults that hang out in the streets without much to do. Simon's dream is to provide for them a place where they can take care of their bodies, as The Bible tells us to in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, as well as present an alternative activity where they can spend their time and energy. He began to build and the response has been wonderful.

Inside this gymnasium you can find a couple of stations for bench press, incline press, decline, dumbells, shoulder press, squat wrack, stationary bicycle, abdominal workouts, two dogs for security, a rooster that runs around and a gecco that arrives in the morning and leaves for lunch in the afternoon. On the mirrors, Simon has written bible verses and motivational quotes such as, "Dios es tu fuerza"..."God is your strength". He has made his gym affordable as it only costs 20 pesos per visit (57 cents). Will, Mike and Eric (other American sports missionaries) visit Simon 3 mornings a week to encourage him and receive a personal workout from the master himself.

As we've said before, the purpose of our ministry is to get behind the Nationals (Dominicans and Haitians) and encourage them to do ministry amongst their own people. Simon came to us with a vision and a passion, so we are standing behind him in his fitness ministry and so are you. Because of your generosty, we were able to provide Simon with some financial aid to get this gym up and running. We thank you and he thanks you!

Simon is just one of eight guys we are working with in the area of Sports Ministry. His passion is to teach the message from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Every Saturday we study a book called The Disciplines of a Godly Man with these young men in order to keep each other accountable in our journey to become men of God. As the year goes on, we will continue to introduce you to these men so you can see who they are and what they are doing. This is sports ministry and we are here to love, encourage, disciple and provide the needs of the Dominican and Haitian men that have a passion for their people. Please enjoy as we take you on a tour of Simon's gym through the pictures below.

Love,
<><

Will and Audrey

"All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart."

Proverbs 21:2

It has been a very long time since we have updated our blog and once again I find myself apologizing to you all. A couple of people have told me lately that "forgiveness is always on the horizon", so I pray that you feel the same way :)

2008 for G.O. Ministries, Inc., was an incredible year. Everything from the number of people (868) that came down to do short term missions to the enormous amount of people that received medicine at our medical clinics to the thousands of kids that participated in sports camps and on and on and on. We were so blessed to meet such a large number of Believers that make up the Body of Christ and serve all over the globe. In saying all of that, there was one thing that God really taught us through out the year, "all a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart." There were many moments this past year where we (Audrey and I) felt like we were at the top of our game and doing ministry in such powerful ways because so many people were involved. But then one day we were led to the verse in Proverbs and began to ask ourselves...."if the Lord is weighing our heart, what would the result be?"

So many times we get so caught up in the "what" that we forget about the "how" of our activities. There aren't many things easier in the Dominican Republic than grabbing a few basketballs, going to the court and inviting kids to play. Before you know, you have started a camp that then leads to a league. At the end of 6 weeks, the kids had a blast and learned a great deal about basketball. But is that it? Was that really all we were hoping to accomplish? We felt like we did a good thing; our ways seemed right. But after a while we began to wonder, are we fulfilling God's desires or are we simply creating activities that take up time and make it look like we're expanding the Kingdom. Well, our hearts were weighed and it was time for a change.

God has taught us so much this past year about how important it is to seek His guidance before we take every step. Often times we get so comfortable with our own decisions that we just leave Him out of the whole process. Time and time again, His results proved far more amazing than anything we could ever produce. When it came time for God to examine our hearts, I'm afraid He wasn't seeing much of Himself. Please pray that we continue to seek Him before we move forward.

Especially during Christmas, as Believers, our hearts are softened to the needs of people who are without. So we spend time serving meals at a soup kitchen or delivering blankets to homeless people and really reach out to different communities. The prayer that we lift up today is that as we continue to reach out, that we don't just do it because we're supposed to, but that we learn to love the people we are serving. That we take time to get to know them and invest in their lives. It is a powerful thing to be able to provide a physical need for someone, but the rewards are eternal when we take the time to provide spiritual food in the lives of those around us. When our hearts aim to please man, we'll be disappointed, but if our hearts' desire is for God, He will move mountains.

Please pray that God continues to challenge us on the mission field to not only provide activities for the people we work with, but also do our job as Believers, to lift up the Gospel and allow the Word of God to transform us all. Allow Him to lead, because if we are people after His own heart, when it comes time for Him to weigh ours, He'll be pleased.

Much love,

<><
Will and Audrey

Below are a couple of pictures of Miguel from Hato del Yaque. God really taught us a lot through a few hours spent with this kid as all he wanted to do was sit, play and hug. In a day filled with activities that we were supposed to be involved in, God revealed Himself to us through this little guy.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

Luke 15:20

This is a verse we need to read more often as it portrays the love that God has for his children, the unconditional kind. I love as the story continues in Luke when the prodigal son begins his speech about how he's not worthy to be called his father's son anymore because he's sinned against him and God, but his father isn't even listening because he's calling for his servants to bring clean clothes, food, sandals and the family ring to place on his son that has come home; his son that was "dead and now alive again."

How many times have we been ashamed to turn around and head back home to our Heavenly Father? Only to find that as we begin our journey back to Him, He's already running towards us to embrace us, kiss us, protect us, clothe us, feed us and clean us. This was the message that we shared at our first new worship service for the tigeres (tigers is what they call "street thugs") of Hoya del Caimito.

I was standing outside the church one day wondering why the kids from our camps weren't attending church when I realized that they didn't feel welcome. Someone along the way has planted in their head that they have to clean up before they go to church. So the new worship service alongside the basketball court is called, "Come as you are". 80 people did just that on Thursday night. Some soaking wet from playing basketball, some looking for the prize at the end of the service (we raffled off two tickets to a professional basketball game) and some a little tipsy after having a few drinks on the corner of the street. It was different.....it was church.

The praise band was made up of people who are passionate about music and sharing it with the people that surround them. All are young people from the community that have participated and led sports activities over the last few years. They did an incredible job and you could feel the energy as they worshipped God through playing and singing. We began a series on the Prodigal Son as we're trying to get these young men and women to understand that just like the father ran to his son in the story, God is wanting to do the same to us no matter what we're in the middle of. Something we can all remember daily.

Meet the band: Kerlyn, Isaias, Mike, Kendrix, Romano, Audrey and Goody

We recently had an incredible sports week as well. The Indiana Wesleyan Men's Basketball team came down for a week to do construction, basketball camp and compete in a tournament against teams from the Dominican Republic and Miami. They were outstanding as they were so excited to work in the Hole and dig a 15 x 15 x 15 ft. sistern at the land for our new central church. As far as the tournament was concerned, after a rough first game, they took home the gold by beating the Santiago all-stars in a rematch. They were a joy to watch as many of them have been transformed from young basketball players into true men of God. Thank you IWU for coming and serving here in the D.R. Check out the video below from their week.

http://www.vimeo.com/1509476

Please continue to pray for G.O. Ministries and all that is going on in the Dominican Republic. Pray for the new worship service that we'll have two thursdays a month. We love you all and pray that you experience God running to you as well!

Love,
<><
Will and Audrey

"And the parched land shall become a pool."

Isaiah 35:7

July 6, in My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes about visions and reality. He says, "we always have visions, before a thing is made real". After spending three years in the Dominican Republic working with sports ministry casting visions, God gave us a glimpse of reality this past week. In 1998, a group of 12 guys travelled to Santiago to put on a basketball camp for 40 kids with the hope that the community would catch on and the event would grow into an ongoing ministry opportunity. In 2008, a piece of reality arrived. Basketball camp week turned into an all sports week. We just finished an incredible 4 days of boys basketball, girls basketball, volleyball, baseball and women's fitness. Over 300 boys, girls, men and women participated in the clinics. Through out the week, we taught about the fundamentals of each sport, competition and what it means to use our entire body to glorify it's Creator. The response was outstanding.

Check out the video from the sports week below

http://www.vimeo.com/1371318

Later in the Chambers devotion, he says, "every vision will be made real if we have patience.......in the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality." I'd like to say that the full reality has come to fruition, but the truth is only part of the parched land has become a pool, the vision is still out there, and as a sports ministry, we're still in the valley. We saw amazing potential this past week during the all sports clinics, but a Sports Complex, that is the vision. The ability to reach the entire island and beyond would be limitless if we had a place to host kids from all over for week long sports camps, bible studies, conferences, tournaments, etc... Please pray with us as we seek God's guidance in regards to the future of sports ministry. The visions are huge, so please walk with us hand in hand through the valley as we await the arrival of reality. God's timing is always perfect.

This summer has been incredible and we're only half way through it. Each group that has come to serve has gone off without a hitch and we're overflowed with blessings. Thank you to all that have come, prayed and given in order to help G.O. Ministries grow. We are so very grateful! We hope to hear from many of you as it's always nice to get updated on what's happening at home.

Love,

<><

Will and Audrey

What's goin on........

Hey everyone! We apologize for the delay in updating our blog. It has been a very busy and exciting winter/spring so we wanted to let you know about a few things that have taken place. Here is a run down of some of the latest activities in the Dominican.

2nd Annual Claude LaMaster Inter-church Basketball Tournament

Body of Christ Church

Assembly of God Church

Baptist Church

Hoya del Caimito

St. John United Methodist Mission Trip (Home Church in Louisville)

Click below for a video of the week
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ne31zd80GM

Men's Adventure Weekend (Conference for men of Dominican Republic and Haiti)

"Wild at Heart"

Recreation and Fellowship


Baptism

Communion

Prayer

Worship

Thank you all for being such a huge part of all of these events. God is doing HUGE things inside and through the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We wish we could share EVERYTHING with you all...... He's incredible!

We are in the States until May 27th. We would love to set up meetings and visit. Please email me at will.partin@go-ministries.org with any requests, prayer concerns, information, questions or just to say hello. You are all very close to our hearts as we continue this journey. Please pray continuously!

Love,
<><
Will and Audrey