Mark WiedmerHarry "Tornillo" Guzman said the same prayer every night for six years in his native Dominican Republic.
"God, please give me a chance to go to the United States," the 15-year-old recalled through an interpreter as he stood on Grace Academy's baseball field in East Brainerd.
He then paused for a moment, looked at his surroundings and added in broken English, "Jesus is good."
It all began a few years ago with a better-than-good idea from Fury Academy 16-under baseball coach Tim Dean.
With the Chattanooga-based mission group SCORE International and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes already heavily involved in helping the Dominican Republic's impoverished youth in their homeland, Dean decided to bring a few of those young men to Chattanooga for a summer of baseball.
"There's more to it than you might think," said the father of two boys - including 16-year-old Fury player John - as well as 7-year-old daughter Rebecca, whom the family adopted from China a few years ago. "There's visas and passports and background checks. It's a lengthy, complicated process."
And that's just for an eight-week visit, which is the amount of time Tornillo, 16-year-old Erickson "Chone" Jimenez and his 18-year-old brother Eric "Eddie" Jimenez - who's too old to play on the Fury - will remain in town before returning to the DR on July 17.
"We've done this once before," said Donna Dean, who's become "Mama Donna" to Guzman and the Jimenez brothers. "They become like your own children. The last time they left, I grieved. After they were gone, my daughter, who was 5 at the time, and I were doing some grocery shopping and she stopped on the aisle where Kleenex was sold and said, 'You need these because you're crying all the time.'"
While the Deans' oldest son Zach (19) also is too old to play for the Fury, brother John is not.
"It's never boring," the Grace 11th-grader said. "One of the biggest things I've learned is how important it is to know a second language. I'll definitely pay more attention in Spanish class now."
There is a lot to pay attention to regarding the Dominican Republic in general. While many homes there lack running water, many do have electricity, so they have televisions, which means a great many of those homes will be tuned in tonight to the deciding game of the NBA Finals between the defending champion Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"And the games are apparently broadcast in English," John Dean said. "They also have smart phones and use Facebook."
One example of the power of the internet: When the Deans visited the D.R. a few years ago on a mission trip to build a home for the Jimenez family, Donna fell in love with the way the locals cooked pinto beans "over an open fire and in a cast iron pot."
Try as she might, she couldn't duplicate those beans when she returned home. Even her houseguests, through interpreter John Johnson - the new high school baseball coach at Howard - said, "Our beans have more flavor."
But not after she contacted Chone and Eddie's mom, Rafaelina, who walked her through the recipe thanks to the power of the internet.
"Fresh cilantro, garlic, tomatoes, onion, a pepper along the lines of a banana pepper, tomato paste and - this is the flavor that helps make it special - bouillon cubes," Donna said. "So I got to watch her make this over the web. It was almost a Paula Deen moment."
Yet technology runs so hot and cold in the Dominican that the first time Chone and Tornillo saw Donna run a load of clothes through her washer, they clapped and cheered because they'd never seen a washer and dryer before.
"They wash all their clothes by hand," she said.
Said Creighton Johnson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Silverdale Baptist Academy: "(Knowing their lives), it makes me appreciate so much more what I have. Just look at baseball only. We have all this equipment. They're trying to hit bottle caps (instead of a baseball)."
But baseball is also a universal language, whether you're swinging at a ball or a bottle cap. Especially in the D.R., which has produced such outstanding major league talents as Pedro Martinez, Sammy Sosa, former Atlanta Brave Rafael Furcal - Eddie Jimenez's favorite because "he proved your size doesn't matter" - Robinson Cano (Chone's favorite) and David "Big Papi" Ortiz, who is Tornilla's favorite.
"They're very optimistic," Creighton Johnson said. "They help get the team up. As ballplayers, they give you a challenge because they're really good."
This seems particularly true of young Guzman, who, according to John Dean, "makes plays in the outfield that make other teams scratch their heads. He doesn't have any weaknesses."
Here's one weakness about their own country's baseball fields they haven't missed during their time in the States: After playing a tournament at the giant recreational complex near Lake Altoona that was partly developed by former Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, Chone Jimenez noted through John Johnson "how awesome the fields were."
Said Johnson afterward: "These kids slide into rocks at home. I've seen it."
Donna Dean admits there are at least a few weaknesses in communication, words lost in translation.
Knowing how famished Guzman almost always is after an evening practice, she asked the other night if he was hungry for some chicken, his favorite dish.
"No, I'm full," he said before patting his stomach.
But after seeing Rebecca eat a piece of chicken, he clearly wanted some.
"He thought 'full' meant 'hungry,'" she said. "Sometimes there is miscommunication."
That miscommunication doesn't exist when asked their favorite American foods, however.
"Hi-C (fruit punch)," shouted a grinning Chone. "Bojangles."
Added Johnson the interpreter: "They love the Bo-berry biscuits."
There also is little miscommunication about the emotions felt by both sides concerning friendship and fellowship.
Asked what he'll miss most about Chattanooga when he returns home, Chone Jimenez said, "The friendships with these (teammates)."
Said John Dean: "Their sense of community is appealing. They all take care of each other."
When Donna texted Rafaelina Jimenez to tell her how much the Deans appreciated her sharing her boys with them, Jimenez wrote back, "We are one family, not two families."
The Deans, Eddie and Chone Jimenez and Tornillo Guzman will celebrate Father's Day today as one family.
Said Eddie of that dynamic through John Johnson: "We've known (Tim) for four years. He's our American dad. They are our family here."
And for these three visitors from the Dominican, two dads are clearly better than one.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com