June 5, 2009; Day 1: Orientation and Our First Game

Today we met for the first time as a team to go through our orientation meeting.

We talked about our goals for the trip as a team, as well as our goals for individual players.

As a team, we have one main goal: To use basketball as a platform to help others and ourselves effectively share the gospel. There are a lot of different avenues where this leads. We will partner with local churches, and help them recruit and evangelize. Other times we will be ministering only to the team we play against, helping to solidify the relationships that full time staff have been working to develop throughout the year.

As individuals, we were challenged to use the talents and abilities God has blessed us with to help build relationships with pastors, churches, opposing players and ultimately the thousands of lost souls that we will share the gospel with over the course of our trip. In addition to opening our perspective to see the needs of another culture, Coach Daniel gave us each 3 specific goals:
1. That we would pray for God to use us to bless the individuals we meet, the churches we partner with and each other.
2. That each of us would have a servant's heart. That we would pour as much of ourselves as we possibly could into the trip.
3. That we would truly "partner" with Buhay Sports and the many churches and pastors we assist. A true partnership far outlasts the duration of the trip, even after we return home, we should at the least remember to pray for the specific people and places we shared the Gospel with.

After discussing our goals, we learned a little bit about the Philippines and a few key phrases that we might need to use. Most importantly: Nasaan and CR? (Where is the bathroom?) We also learned some cultural points, the funniest of which was that time is irrelevant in the Philippines, there is little here that happens on time. It all happens on "Filipino Time."

After our orientation, we had some dinner from Jolibee (Pinoy McDonald's), then we headed to our first game.

In the Philippines there are leagues everywhere. Every subdivision has a league, every barangay, every city... there are commercial leagues, semi-pro leagues, 6 foot and under leagues... the list goes on and on. Buhay Sports sponsors a league near a ministry center that is run by a staff member. The league is called the Buhay Cup. Our game was planned so that the championship game of the Buhay Cup would be during our trip. After the championship game, we played against the Buhay Cup Selection (all-star) Team.

It rained almost all day, and though the court was covered, there were leaks all over the place. Newspapers were placed on the court to soak up some of the water, and to help you see where the court was wet. The game went great with a lot of fun and excitement. Josh shared his testimony at half time and told everyone that giving their life to Jesus was the only way to ever have true happiness. We invited everyone to attend church and Pastor Better LaBuca had an opportunity to share the Gospel.

Before we left we prayed and asked God to really move in peoples hearts. We asked that the Church would be flooded with people that coming Sunday. Please join us in prayer as the Holy Spirit continues to lead people who played in and watched the Buhay Cup to His Son Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow is another day, with more games to play.