There are not words that can communicate what God allowed us to experience today.
We played our second game at the Coliseum of Comfenalco in front of about 1,000 fans. The majority were students from the school where the coliseum was located. They were full of energy and excitement to be out of school and to interact and watch our team.
The gym was packed. And I do not mean packed in American terms of packed. Those of us from the USA have a personal space bubble. No such thing here. So when I say packed, I mean we had people sitting on both sides of our bench with our players and our coach in the middle and fans sitting directly behind our bench. In fact our trainer didn’t even sit next to the team because it was too crowded.
We began with a basketball clinic for about 45 minutes where we demonstrated drills and brought people from the audience down to let them participate. It was nuts. The place roared during drills and after fun plays in the game. They did the wave around the gym time and time again. Boys from the audience were eager to be selected to participate in our drills and the girls were emotional as they were selected to participate on the court.
The game went well and we won handily. At halftime Brittany shared her testimony as the fans eagerly listened to the story God has penned in her life.
After the game, it was like we just won the National Championship as the floor was rushed and our players surrounded. I was standing across the gym and in seconds our team was no longer visible as the fans had completely “engulfed” them.
We spent the next hour or so signing autographs, taking pictures, giving hugs, and talking about why we came and who we are playing for…Christ.
Later in the afternoon, we took a tour of the city. The emotions were on the other end of the pendulum from what we had known in the morning. Seventy percent of Cartagena is poor, making only a few dollars a day, and we stepped into their reality. Small shacks with tin roofs, dirt floors, trash, dirty water, and scrawny stray dogs made up the scenery.
As a team we are still processing.
This evening we were sent off with a celebration from Riad and the church family here. They showed a slideshow of pictures they took, presented us with a plaque to express their gratitude, and we prayed that this tour would truly be the beginning of something that burns out of control for His glory.
There is so much more that I could write. I wish you could be here with us, but I will finish with a few praises and prayer requests.
Praise:
1. Caitlyn’s finger is healing properly.
2. Our training kit has been found.
3. We have been introduced to a couple key contacts here in the sports world of Colombia.
4. Our team is growing leaps and bounds. The girls were up last night past midnight on their own initiative processing real life questions.
Prayer Requests:
1. That those who heard the message of life in Christ would respond.
2. Pray for William who could be a catalyst to fuel sports ministry here in Cartagena and very possibly Colombia. We talked at length today and are meeting for breakfast tomorrow.
3. Safe travel to Medellin tomorrow.