Stories from the Field

December 2004

Baseball, Candy Canes, and Christ

From IMB CompassionNet Daily Prayer

The Heartlanders Team writes: “Sunday, November 28, is Fan Appreciation Day for the Nippon Ham Fighters, a professional baseball team based in the strategic urban city of Sapporo, a city of more than 100,000 people—1.8 million, to be exact. The coach, or manager, of the team is an American Christian who has worked hard not only to strengthen the skills of the Fighters' team, but also to share with the players about His Lord, Jesus Christ.

Working with the Heartlanders Team members Carlton and Cornelia Walker, other Great Commission Christian missionaries and local churches, the Candy Cane Project has snowballed in a matter of days. People will be at each entrance of the stadium to pass out candy canes attached to cards on which will be written the Candy Cane Story, translated into Japanese. This is a God-sized endeavor to reach every one of approximately 30,000 fans that will attend the Appreciation Day.

Coach H, while in the United States during a seasonal break, is recording a Christmas CD, which he will autograph. Another Heartlanders Team member, Chris Winans, was asked to write a song to be included on Coach H's CD. Pray for prayer teams to be raised up for this project. Praise God for Coach H's calling to see the Japanese come to know Christ and his willingness to work with missionaries already in place to see this happen. Pray for all those involved with seeing this project through. However, our deepest desire, in the midst of all the details, is to see the people of Japan be introduced and come to know the ultimate ‘Coach,’ with whom the game of life can be won.”
Check out more at http://www.heartlanders.org/