La Tribu de Jesus History

Franklin Duran and Jose Luis Osoria met in Santiago, Dominican Republic after Franklin had given up hope of his baseball career. A friend had invited him to come and participate in a different baseball program. After a few meetings, Jose Luis officially invited him to come to play baseball with his small makeshift academy. Jose Luis ran a much different baseball program than others throughout the Dominican Republic. Baseball was part of the agenda, but so was the Gospel and discipleship. Franklin initially came with the hope of extending his baseball career, but he also heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time.

A growing relationship began to develop, and Jose Luis discipled Franklin and several other young ballplayers. Franklin later became a coach and served alongside Jose Luis with a different ministry. Together they continued to live out the vision to share the gospel and disciple young men through the influence of baseball.

Years later, after Franklin moved to the United States and started a family, God was once again tugging at their hearts to reunite and start a new academy in order to reach and disciple the next generation of young baseball players in the Dominican Republic.

In January 2022, La Tribu de Jesus baseball academy was born. This time, Franklin and Jose Luis recruited three young men that they had previously discipled to help begin the program. Today, La Tribu has 30+ boys between the ages of 10-14 who are regularly part of the baseball discipleship program. Each week they study God's word together before or after practice. La Tribu has also intentionally engaged the families of each ballplayer through home visits and family events. Only God knows what the future holds, but we are already seeing Him use this game to transform lives and grow the next generation.