Summer Break

I’s hard to believe but the year is almost half over.
We are coming to the end of the second baseball season.
This Saturday we will celebrate again with awards and
a hot dog feed. The kids will take a break for a couple
months from baseball and we will head back to the states
to visit our family.
We have been told that there is a wealthy man here in Cabo who
is planning to give us land to use for a field. We are anxiously
waiting to hear more from him. This would be wonderful for the kids.
Please pray with us that this will become a reality.

We will be driving the baja so we would
ask for your prayers. It takes 3-4 long days of driving to get
home. We pray for no car problems and safety on the road!
Most of our time will be in the Portland area working to get
our house up for sale. We will also spend time in Seattle with
Katey, Corey and Ezra. We hope to get in a camping trip as well.
The time will go quickly and then we will be back for the fall.

Enjoy the 4th of July! We will be celebrating my ??? birthday at
my brothers home in Tustin, CA.

Many Blessings

Kathy

Summer is on it’s way!

As the temperatures rise, we realize the summer is on it’s way. We have begun to use the air conditioner at night and are contantly out of cold water and ice cubes.
Our sons, Joey and Danny are here visiting and have the pleasure of sleeping upstairs in the palapa.
Both are covered with bug bites! They have stopped counting. The only one not affected by the temperatures
is Annie, who seems to have no temperature guage. She can wear jeans and sweatshirts when it’s 90 degrees out, go figure!
The good part is the evenings and the mornings are a mild 80-85. I know you wish you were here. We haven’t seen rain here since last fall. It is a challenge to keep the plants watered. The other good thing is the clothes dry quickly on the line.
We have enjoyed have part of out family together for the past couple weeks and will miss the boys when they leave.
There is no holiday here so it is business as usual today.
Hope all of you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Kathy

NO FIELDS FOR KIDS!!!!

We are faced with many obstacles as we move forward with our work. With a population approaching ¼ million people in Los Cabos, there are no baseball fields for kids . We are looking for land to purchase or lease that is privately held and close into the city where most of the kids live. Currently, we play at the local adult baseball stadium that has many events that conflict with our schedule. Often times we are spending time cleaning up someone else’s mess and waiting for the field to clear so we can play. Long-term, we see the potential for 8-10 fields in the Cabo/San Jose area to meet the needs of this growing community.

We also are in need of more volunteers to coach the kids and help run the league. Through all of the struggles, we sense that our vision of Giving hope, Reaching families, Inspiring kids and Praying and playing together is being fulfilled.

Thank you for supporting our work and encouraging us with your prayers and resources.

Mike and Kathy

grip update

GRIP International UPDATE May 07

Last Saturday was a very fulfilling day as we completed our first 8 week season of CaboYouth Baseball League. It was thrilling to see most of the kids that signed up completed the season and were able to improve on their baseball skills.

Several “life lessons” were taught each week through the game of baseball. For example, one of our younger players had a serious problem with not being able to hold onto the bat after making contact with the ball. Our rule is… if you throw your bat …you are out and you have to run a lap around the field. On one occasion, the bat landed on two little girls that were participating with us. One of the girls was injured, and after a trip to the hospital and a lot of tears we were able to get the two players together to reconcile what had happened. It was a perfect opportunity to talk about forgiveness when someone hurts you and what the correct response is. Thankfully, the injured girl was doing fine by the end of our session. Each week we are able to teach “little life lessons” that will be useful as they face a life of challenges.

As you can see from the smiling faces in our pictures, these kids are having fun! We were able to give each one of them a gold medal for participating in the first season of baseball in Cabo San Lucas. As we awarded them the colorful medals, tears of joy came to me seeing the huge grin on their face from their accomplishment. Many Moms and Dads came to watch their children participate. We will start our next 8 week session this week and will hopefully have more teams participate as we continue to add new boys and girls.

Mike and Kathy

Let the games begin!

Last Saturday was a very exciting day as we did sign-ups for our first baseball season this year. . It was great to see lots of girls as well as boys. We will start with 4 teams of kids ages 9-12. We also have parents who will help organize a tee ball league for the younger kids ages 5-8.
Games will be played on Saturdays following a training session that Mike will lead. All ages and skill levels are welcome to participate.
Our first game will be this Saturday March 3rd. and we hope to have a great turnout to cheer the kids on at their first leage game.

Stay tuned!

Back in Cabo

Hey there, after a long silence we are back down in Cabo San Lucas. We had a fabulous trip, taking in many sights along the way. My 2 older brothers joined us as well as a friend from Portland. We brought a 2nd vehicle down and appreciated the extra drivers. The weather was perfect and the traffic was minimal which made for a much easier trip.
We are glad to be here and now just settling in and preparing to get baseball going on Saturday.
Hope you all are enjoying the New Year.

Blessings, Kathy

Happy New Year!

Dear Everyone,

Well, one more day before we enter a new year. The past year was an adventure and I can’t wait to see what the new year holds. I love new beginnings, we all need another chance to try to do things right. There are so many things we will be doing differently this coming year. I would also challenge you to let things from the past be laid to rest. That means forgetting the pain, dissapointment and hurt you may have experienced in a relationship or a life situation. The only way I know how to do this is by forgiving and forgetting. You may say, “they don’t deserve my forgiveness”. That may be true but it is the only way to be free. You will be suprised at how your feelings will follow you act of will. God will also bless you for doing the right thing!
To all who read this and more, may your New Year be filled with abundant blessings!

In His Grip,

Kathy

Joining the 21st century

Yes can you believe it? This is my first experience with a blog (whatever that is). I know Mike thinks he will be doing all the blogging but he acuses me of having too many words. This will be a good place to use some of them up. So to you who will be reading our blog, I will give all the details and Mike will give the facts.
As some of you may know I have been a full time mom for the last 27 years so I am not used to the business side of the world. However this having been the first year of doing Grip full time I can tell you it has been extremely challenging for me to balance the domestic work I am used to with running a business/ministry. I’m sad to say my family doesn’t have those lovely homecooked meals every night at 6pm. And the chocolate chip cookies are nowhere to be found. But hopefully as we learn how to manage the details of Grip International I may be able to return to my first love of domesticity. Wow what a word! That just means I will once again be cleaning toilets, washing dishes and doing laundry regularly and maybe Mike won’t have to load the dishwasher and mop the floors anymore. I really feel this has been a great stretch for me personally. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but I’m learning a few things. My next trick will be uploading a photo to this blog.
I suppose I have blogged way to long, you know I don’t have a clue what the blogging rules are. Forgive me; I am sure I will learn soon enough from my 5 lovely children who will tell me.
I guess it’s time for me to run and wrap some Christmas gifts and think about planning for the Christmas celebrations ahead.
I wish each and everyone of you a very special Christmas. Don’t get lost in the craziness of it all but make some memories that will keep you through the year ( I’m talking to myself).

God bless one and all!

Kathy

light the fire

christmas is almost here….the fire is lit…the soup is on the stove…the candles are lit…friends will be coming…how do i say thanks to loving friends who have been so loving, faithful, encouraging through lifes struggles…maybe a fire will warm the outside, and turkey soup the inside. i hope you find this season to be one to say thanks to friends who have been there for you. we can shop for days and think of the finest gifts for each other, but somehow a hug…a kind word of thanks…a little note “hits the spot.” family is home, we are bringing in the holidays with our friends and loved ones. Merry Christmas and may the Christ child show himself to you daily.

mikey

December Newsletter

We just sent out our December Newsletter to the folks. If you are interested in a PDF copy of it click here. In the future if you are interested in receiving a copy of it please send us an email.