September 9, 2010

Blessed. by Alan Perez

On July 22, a Thursday we arrived home to the Dominican Republic. We had a great welcoming from my family, who cleaned and organized our home and even made a sign with balloons welcoming Amelia and Stella home. Our G.O. family pitched in and put together a basket of food for us. We were blessed!

It was a great feeling to arrive home (around 10pm), but shortly after we got there we started to realize that many things in our house were not working- phone, car battery, our backup battery inverter, water pump, cable, and we had no propane for our stove. After traveling since 4am (and moving an army of bags!!) we were thinking once we get home to just throw everything inside and go to sleep, but I finally went to sleep around 5am after calling people and fixing things in our house.

It would be just 6 hours later at 11am that I was going to have my first basketball practice with my team for our sports ministries summer basketball league. Honestly, I was thinking to cancel my practice, but I talked to a friend of mine who also is a coach and he said that my team was so excited that I was going to be their coach and they were looking forward to spending time with me.

Friday at 9:30am I woke up and while I was going to practice I was praying for God to not let my lack of sleep or how tired I felt not let me stop to give 100% to those kids and to help them find truth about Him through my time with them. I wanted God to show me things about myself too and my relationship with Him and my family.




After spending 3 weeks with my team God showed me that we all have different needs, dreams, and emotions. Every Friday after practice I spent time sharing with the team about how I spent my childhood. I shared with them things that brought tears to my eyes and joy at the same time. I got to know them better and to understand that each one of us have different needs. I tried to put myself in their situation and show them sympathy and mercy in the same ways God shows me when I fail.





Being a new dad of twins, God has shown me something new. I have to make every moment that I spend with my wife and daughters special and to try and understand my wife's heart and to always let them know that they can fail 100 times and I will always be there for them the way God has been their for me and for each of us. It is a big blessing to be learning these things from God and to serve Him and my family in this way.

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