Saturday

The team left this morning from New Mexico and arrived this evening. Team members are; Jesse Harden (leader), Claire Meyer-Hagen, Gabe Town, Lauren McAuley, Taylor Potter, Tyler Baker.

Sunday

Jesse reports from DR: Hi! We just got back from meeting our hosts, lunch, setting up for two camps, swimming and eating again!

The 2 courts are very nice. We will have an outdoor court for the morning camp, 9-noon and a covered court for the afternoon camp, 3-6:00P. We expect about 80 to 90 kids total and we’re ready. Everything seems set up well.

The team is doing well. We’re all excited to get started, meet our kids and encourage them.

Monday

We just finished the first day of camps. We had about 80 kids, 40 at each camp. The kids are pretty good at basketball; most of them have played it seems and the skill level is higher than I have seen at Hoops for Hope camps.
Kids at both camps are really engaging with the drills as well as the talks and small group time. It was a good first day of building relationships. I invited one of the translators to share his story of finding purpose as he grew up an orphan in the same neighborhood. The power of a testimony from a man who many of the kids knew was powerful.

Tuesday + Wednesday

We’ve had two solid days of camps! The kids here have a pretty high level of skill. Three or four of them can dunk easily and many have great shot and ball handling skills. I’ve invited one of these FCA coaches (also a translator) to share his story today because it fit perfectly with the build up of purpose, plan and part. The kids responded really well in small groups.

Thursday

We finished up both camps today. It was an incredible week with these folks in the DR.