Fast and furious Thursday....

Well, like I told you this morning this would be a full day and it certainly was. We left the house at 9 am to head over to Colegio Bautista Cristiano, a Christian school of almost 400 in the city. There was a lot of excitement when we stopped by on Tuesday, but nothing like the greeting that awaited us Thursday morning. We were planning to spend some time speaking English with the students, and possibly playing a little basketball. However, little did we know that a scrimmage against their high school guys was going to be the main event of the day! They emptied the classrooms to create a great atmosphere on their undersized outdoor court. Students stood four and five deep around the perimeter to cheer for “both” teams as we played two 15-minute halves. It seems that all of the girls in the school cheered for us because we were the girls’ team, and all of the non-playing guys cheered for us because, well, we were the girls’ team! Despite it being a friendly game, it was dramatic to the end. They tied the game at 35-35 on a free- throw with eight seconds left, and we called timeout to advance the ball to half court. Jenna hit a 12-foot bank shot with three seconds left. After they called timeout, we fouled them with one second left, and held our breath as they missed both free-throws and we won 37-35. We spent about an hour after the game mingling on the court, playground and cafeteria with hundreds of students, talking, laughing, looking at pictures from the game, exchanging email addresses, and facebook names. The girls were very disappointed to leave this school, and would all vote to return if our schedule allows!

Trips across and around town are not as easy as they sound. While we enjoy a nice big bus to meet all of our travel needs, the problem is that it is a BIG BUS – and the streets are extremely narrow and crowded. This brings me to the friendship we have established with Marcos, our driver. He hasn’t left our side since our arrival Monday night. He sleeps in the bus outside the house, and will do so until he takes us to the airport on Tuesday. He will then make the three hour trip home to Santiago where he will see his wife and two children again. Although he speaks no English, he’s the 17th member of our team and we all love him and his sense of humor. His favorite team member is Jenn Renner, because of her fluency in Spanish.

In the afternoon, we made the trip across town for another game, this time against San Lazro at the San Lazro Club. The gym was pretty nice and about 25% open around the sides at the top. The team was not nearly as big as the one from Wednesday, but every bit as quick. Both teams started slowly, but we held a 12-11 lead after the first quarter. Then it began to rain harder and harder, exposing about four or five leaks in the ceiling. We all experienced our first ever “rain delay” at an indoor basketball game! After about 3o minutes, the rain slowed, the court was dried, and we continued play. We played very well in the 2nd quarter, and held a 32-28 lead at the half. They began to press more and more and took a five point lead at 37-32, but we scored the last ten points of the quarter, including a Kate Babcock 18-footer at the buzzer to lead 42-37 after three quarters. We struggled a great deal in the fourth, mostly due to pressure and the heat, and gave up the lead with a minute left, and ended up losing 58-54. It was a great effort by the team. We then took part in th emost important part of the day, the sharing of the Gospel. The girls gave tracts and I spoke for about 15 minutes through an interpreter to everyone gathered at the bench. Please pray that the seed that was sown will bring fruit. One player from the opposing team raised her hand in nee dof salvation, but didn't want to talk afterwards. We will pray the Word will not return void!

We arrived back at the house, showered, changed and raced to church. We arrived and ate our dinner in about 15 minutes, and then led the youth service at IBC. For those of you familiar with Caribbean, the youth service includes young adults into their mid or late 20's. The girls sang in Spanish (which shounds absolutely amazing, even acapella on the bus), Emily and Abbey gave testimonies, and I preached a message for Believers. We then stayed and talked with many in the youth group of 60-80 for an hour or more afterwards. We look forward to coming back here Saturday night for more fellowship.

As I mentioned earlier, we have a bittersweet couple of days ahead. We're looking forward to Hato Mayor and ministering with Northland alumnus Heidi Van Dyke, but on Saturday we will say good-bye to Abbey and Bri as they fly back to Northland for summer school! I'll try to post again on Saturday night. Thanks as always for your prayers! pw