On one hand, Carlos Lara acknowledges how random it was that he ended up in a small Tennessee city taking part in for a summer time collegiate league crew in 2021.
“I used to be supplied the chance to play in what I assumed was Nashville and I mentioned ‘sure,’” he instructed Sports activities Spectrum. “It wasn’t even one thing that I looked for or needed.”
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After taking part in at Division-II Palm Seashore Atlantic College, he was largely wanting to make use of his summer time league expertise as a springboard to switch elsewhere for his further 12 months of eligibility earned from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the end, his aim was to be drafted by a significant league crew. Something lower than that meant his baseball profession — and by extension, his life — was a failure, he thought.
The crew he ended up taking part in for that summer time was the Full Count Rhythm, operated below the umbrella of Full Count Ministries in Hendersonville, simply north of Nashville. He was loosely conscious that it was a “Christian crew,” however he didn’t give that a lot thought nor did he analysis a lot concerning the crew.
It didn’t take lengthy for him to appreciate there was one thing totally different about his new environment.
“One thing about the way in which everybody on the welcoming barbecue handled us made no sense to me,” he mentioned. “It was an odd type of care and heat I had solely ever felt round my household. It actually did catch me without warning, a lot in order that two weeks in I already knew one thing larger than baseball was happening. Little did I do know that God was working in methods I might by no means perceive.”
Between discipleship from his host household, listening to testimonies from his teammates, and the assorted group occasions, his coronary heart was modified. Three weeks after arriving, he gave his life to Christ. It was clear to him then that his summer time plans have been no accident.
“God positioned me on the proper place on the proper time,” he mentioned.
Baseball 🤝 Discipleship
Psalm 27:4 ESV 🙏🏼
“One factor have I requested of the Lord, that may I search after: that I could dwell in the home of the Lord all the times of my life, to gaze upon the fantastic thing about the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” pic.twitter.com/DAEpgJGPUC— Full Rely Rhythm (@fullcountrhythm) June 3, 2024
Tales like Lara’s are why Full Rely Ministries was created in 2012 with a mission to make disciples by means of the sport of baseball. The concept originated throughout a mission journey to Nicaragua when Nathan Davenport, who’s now president of the board, was climbing again down a hill and noticed some locals taking part in a pickup-style baseball recreation.
He shortly realized how widespread the game was within the Central American nation and instantly started planning a return journey that would come with sufficient folks to play a recreation in opposition to the locals and use it as a strategy to share the Gospel.
He rounded up a bunch of former teammates and mates from his church league softball crew. Their common discipleship gatherings doubled as mission journey planning conferences, and whoever signed up first acquired to go. All of Full Rely’s journeys are like that — precise talent or expertise in baseball is just not a requirement.
With 12 guys on board, the group headed to Nicaragua to see their plan by means of. The crew caught with a simple recipe: Play baseball, feed the opposing crew, then share the Gospel and testimonies with them. That springboarded into the ministry now often called Full Rely.
“It was a very fruitful journey of simply participating native folks in Nicaragua,” mentioned Reed Glover, who serves because the director of ministry at Full Rely, and has been with the ministry since its inception. “We actually began out simply doing mission journeys to Nicaragua. After a 12 months or two of taking baseball mission journeys the place we’d go and play in Nicaragua, we simply felt the Lord convicting us that what we have been doing overseas, we wanted to do it in our personal yard.”
To be extra particular, Full Rely has a imaginative and prescient of “each baseball participant around the globe listening to the Gospel, responding to the message and rising of their relationship with Christ,” Glover mentioned. “We’ve the imaginative and prescient that each baseball participant around the globe will get an opportunity to try this.”
Stateside, Full Rely works by means of two principal avenues of ministry. The primary is a few fall wood-bat leagues for top schoolers (one in Center Tennessee and one other in Birmingham, Alabama), which have greater than 30 groups and 200 whole gamers. Groups play doubleheaders as soon as every week and do a devotional through the video games. As soon as the season is over, lots of the gamers be part of discipleship teams, Glover mentioned.
The second is Rhythm, the summer time collegiate crew Lara was part of. Now in its fourth season, the crew brings 40 faculty gamers to city for the summer time to play a 10-week season. Gamers are welcome no matter their religion, however every one is partnered with a Christian host household and a mentor who will disciple them through the summer time.
The entire faculty gamers, in the event that they wish to, have the chance to go on one of many baseball mission journeys to Nicaragua to share the Gospel by means of the sport of baseball.
“We’re very critical about baseball, however much more critical about discipling these 40 faculty baseball gamers whereas they’re on the town,” Glover mentioned. “If they’re a believer, our largest prayer is that we will equip these gamers to return to their faculty campuses and begin and lead discipleship teams for his or her teammates.”
Lara credit his host household, Mike and Kim Hayes, for being an influential a part of his journey towards accepting Christ as he stayed with them in each 2021 and 2022. He credit his journeys to Nicaragua for equipping him to “face the world” and serving to him study to place his religion in Jesus. This, in flip, has helped bear fruit in his relationships, he mentioned.
“If it wasn’t for the obedience of the folks at Full Rely to make use of their love for baseball as a device to unfold the Gospel, I in all probability wouldn’t be capable to share this story with you,” Lara mentioned. “I realized and skilled so many issues whereas I used to be a participant at Full Rely which have utterly saved my life. … This ministry is really one in every of a sort.”
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