Baseball Opens Doors for Discipleship in Guatemala

Although parents living in an area of Guatemala City known as Zone 3 would love to see their children take part in organized sports, they often lack the resources to make it happen. Many of their children have never even had a baseball glove on their hand.

Meanwhile, in a starkly different part of the world, Bill Culhane was making plans to sign his son up for a baseball league in fall 2012. But God had plans to use that baseball season to bring the sport to the Zone 3 children in Guatemala.

Culhane soon found out that one of the other player’s father was a missionary with Christian Reformed World Missions in Guatemala, Joel Van Dyke. Van Dyke was on a home service visit and his son was also on the team.

“God wanted me to be at that field to meet Joel,” said Culhane.

Culhane and Van Dyke shared a passion for working with youth — Culhane as a baseball coach for the West Michigan Express and Van Dyke on the mission field.

This led them to further possibilities to work together. Eventually, they came up with an idea that would benefit young people in Guatemala and North America: a week-long baseball clinic vision trip.

“To do an entire week of baseball during the rainy season is a bit crazy,” said Van Dyke. “But we live on the edge of crazy here in Guatemala and we felt God leading us to this opportunity.”

The clinic, in partnership with Unlimited Potential Inc., provided an opportunity for all 13 members of Culhane’s team along with 12 of their family members to share Christ’s love through the game of baseball with youth in Guatemala.

“We made some very meaningful friendships that week,” said Culhane.

Many of the players shared their testimony with the kids and families in Guatemala at the end of each training session. The team also served as witnesses to some of Guatemala's national teams when playing against them one evening.

“Our team is not an explicitly faith-based organization,” explained Culhane. “So it was a great way to get people who might not regularly go on mission trips involved in serving others.”

He was especially encouraged when one of the parents who had expressed doubts about the trip shared his thoughts with the group after the first day in Guatemala City. “He knew why he had come on the trip,” Culhane said. “All of his doubts had vanished.”

Members of the trip who were not involved in the baseball clinics served in other ways, working in a school/daycare center that CRWM supports. A doctor in the group was also able to serve at a medical clinic there.

“So much has happened as a result of Bill and I meeting,” said Van Dyke.” I think we now see only the tip of the iceberg.”