June 10, 2009; Day 6: Schedule? What Schedule?

Today we played the University of San Carlos. They had a very nice indoor facility and a very strong team. They are considered the #2 team on the island behind UV. We continued our winning streak in Cebu with a victory over the USC Warriors. We had a great time of fellowship with the players after the game, and Elliot shared a few words of encouragement with them. The coach of USC is a Christian, and does a lot to reach out to his players. We trust that our efforts helped to back up what he tells them on a regular basis. Please keep the USC basketball team in your prayers. We would love to see God move in a mighty way, and use the basketball team to reach the rest of the campus. His is able!

After our first game we spent some time at the mall until our second of three games. We soon learned that our second game had been cancelled, so we decided to go back to our rooms at CCGC and play some pick up games with the youth who use the basketball facility there. Pastor Phillip of the CCGC explained to us that these young men are part of an outreach that the church puts on in efforts to share the gospel with them. We played around with them for a while and then spent a few minutes explaining to them why we had come. Christian shared his testimony and encouraged them to talk to the youth workers if they had any further questions. Each of these young men are in great need of prayer. Please pray for the youth outreach at CCGC, and the workers who minister there.

For our final game we headed out to the Barangay of Banilad. When we arrived we first met the Barangay Captain, who is like the mayor of the Barangay, then we played against the local team. We came away with another win, and more importantly we had a great time of ministry to the crowd and opposing team. Lee shared his testimony and pastor Gary gave the challenge to the crowd. We passed out tracts and received a numbe rof response cards that will be followed up later. Please keep the follow up workers in your prayers.

After the game we went to dinner. We have eaten quite a few times at a nice chicken on a stick restaurant. We then returned home and hit the sack...

June 9, 2009; Day 5: Free Admission

We had 2 games scheduled for today, but our game this morning was canceled unexpectedly. During orientation we learned that the schedule will constantly change, and this is a prime example of that. This late in the game we were unable to schedule another game, so we were given the morning and afternoon off. We all opted to go to the local mall and hang out. Some people went and saw a movie, while others walked around and some just relaxed in the air conditioning.


We headed back to our dorm, then went out to our only game of the day. The game was located in the Barangay of Talamban. A barangay is a small village, there are a handful of barangays in every city. When we showed up to the game, we noticed that they were charging admission. As an organization, we do not allow venues to charge spectators to enter the game, but since our game was the opening game of the night, to be followed later by the championship of an ongoing league, it was understandable that they would need to charge admission to help cover the expenses associated with the following game. We tried to work it out with the organizers but there was not much we could do to forbid them from charging admission.

I was very blessed when nearly every player on our team began to give of their own personal money to try to offset the cost of admission. The charge per person was 10 pesos, but we agreed with the organizers that 2200 pesos (about $45) would be enough to open the gates and allow free admission. It was great to see the player's hearts for these people.

Once we had worked everything out regarding admission, we got started with the game. The team was strong, but we were able to pull out a win. Caleb shared at half time and Pastor TJ, who is in charge of the outreach in Talamban, gave a challenge to each of the players and spectators. We handed out tracts and received a large number of response cards from those who were interested in learning more about a personal relationship with Christ. Pastor TJ and his staff will follow those up over the next several weeks and we hope to have a report soon on what God did in the hearts of the people. Please pray for strength for those who follow up these contacts, that they would take advantage of the Holy Spirit's call on those hearts he led to fill out a contact card.

June 8, 2009; Day 4: Long But Profitable

Today was a long but profitable day. We left our housing at 6:00 am to head to the airport. We flew an hour south to the Island of Cebu, where we will spend the rest of our trip. Cebu City is one of the 3 major cities in the Philippines in addition to Manila and Davao City.

Upon arrival, we met Pastor Gary, who helps take care of the Philippines side of things related to the ministry trips. Working with him on the ground in Manila is also Coach Al Solis. Al is a former PBA player who coaches in Cebu City. Al is one of 3 players in the PBA to accumulate over 1000 3 pointers in their career.

Pastor Gary and Coach Al picked us up at the airport to take us to the place where we will be staying during our time in Cebu City. Pastor Phillip, of the Cebu Christian Gospel Center, has been a great blessing to Buhay Sports over the years. He has always been willing to open up CCGC to help visiting teams who are in the area for ministry. Praise God for always providing partners who will step up and contribute to the team in different ways.

After we got everything unloaded and situated in our rooms (offices with sleeping mats), we met with Pastor Gary to go over a few things. After our meeting we headed to our first game in Cebu.

Living Word Christian Ministries is a big supporter of sports ministries across the Philippines. Coach Daniel and Josh have partnered with them on a number of occaisions. They have a ministry team called the ACES (Athletes for Christ in Excellent Service) who do a lot of the same things that we do throughout the year. Our first game was played at LWCM against the ACES. It was a great opportunity to encourage our brothers in Christ. Devin shared his testimony and encouraged the the other team to stay focused on Christ, who will carry you through the tough times as well as the easy times.

After our game with the ACES, we headed to University of the Visayas, their mascot is the Green Lancers. The Visayas are the chain of islands in the middle of the Philippines, between the two main islands Luzon (North) and Mindanao (South). UV has been the champion of thier league for the last 8 years, and has not lost many games over that time period. We played at their campus, where they had a cool older gym. It was a very competitive game that we were able to pull out in the end by 4. Coach Daniel told us that at some point we would experience bad officiating. I think this was beyond what any of us expected. Blatently bad calls were made throughout the game, especially by one specific referee, who we found out later was a janitor at the school and not an actual referee... I think this was pretty evident all along.

The most important part of the game was the ministry. We had a pretty good crowd and there were a couple of players on the team from the ACES. Coach Al is the assistant coach at UV, so he is able to plug some of the UV players into the ACES team. James shared his testimony and encouraged the spectators and other players to "taste and see" that the Lord is good. Coach Daniel and Josh see these players at various times throughout the year and will continue to try to build the relationship with them with the goal of continuing to present the Gospel. The ACES will also have an ongoing ministry with a number of these players. Please pray for the ACES team as they minister throughout the country, and for the UV Green Lancers. We know God will use our words to make a change in someone... now or down the road.

After we finished dinner, our local contacts were telling us how close we were to the church where we were staying. "Less than 3 minutes" they kept saying. We got lost a couple times, then stopped for gas, only to find out that the first gas station was out of gas. It was pretty funny how less than 3 minutes turned into almost 30. By the time we got back, everyone was ready to sleep... Like I said, it was a long day, but we know that God will use our work to further His kingdom.

June 7, 2009; Day 3: Like Kissing Your Sister

We woke up this morning and went to church at Christ Believer's Fellowship Church. CBFC is held on the facilities of the Arthur Center, the ministry Daniel started to be the center point for outreach in a squatter village and surrounding subdivisions. This was a very exciting morning, because as we were all sitting there waiting for church to start, in walked one of the local players from the Buhay Cup. I am not sure what his name is, but Daniel calls him "The Assasin" because he shoots every time he touches the ball. He played against us in our game on Day 1 and came to church after hearing our group invite everyone to attend. This was so exciting for us because as a seed planting ministry you don't always get to be around for the harvest. Most importantly, we are happy for this individual who followed the Holy Spirit's leading to come to church, but it was also a great chance for all of us players to see the fruit of our labor. Praise God!

After church we drove out to Old Manila, where we played against St. Benilde College. SBC is a member of the NCAA, which is the other top college league in the Philippines. Our game went well, and we battled back and forth. When the final buzzer sounded, the score was 88 - 88. People say that a tie in competition is like kissing your sister... I agree. However, when playing what we call friendship games, we do not play overtime, if it ends in a tie it ends in a tie. After the game, Daniel gave the challenge to the other players to make a decision to follow Christ and to make Him, Lord of their life. We gave them all a gospel tract and invited them to talk with us after the game or sometime in the future when they see Josh or Daniel. We were also thankful to CSB for the generous gift of Jolibee spaghetti meals. A lot of times, teams will provide a meal or snack for us when we come to play. They also had us well stocked on Gatorade! What a blessing.

Our second game of the day was near SBC, so instead of going all the way home and coming back out, we decided to stop for some food and wait for the next game. We all stopped at KFC and enjoyed some American style food and fellowship with each other. It was nice to get to talk to some of the guys and find out more about them.

When it got closer to our game we headed back out toward Jose Rizal University. The JRU Heavy Bombers are one of the top 4 college teams in the country. They also play in the NCAA, same as St. Benilde College. We knew we were in for a tough match and we had yet to play our best team basketball, but we really stepped it up for this one. From the get go, Hudson made some amazing threes, Elliot took great care of the ball and really managed the game, and James made some tough plays inside gathering some crucial offensive boards and put backs. Although we lead almost the entire way, the game was never secure. There was definitely a sense of urgency to play our best for the whole game. We ended up winning by about 10.

After the game, Hudson was given the opportunity to talk to the players about his relationship with Christ. Hudson plays basketball for the Unniversity of Florida, so many of the guys were very interested in what he had to say. After he talked about how Christ changed his life we began to pass out tracts. Some of the players jumped right to the front to get one. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm and while no one stayed after to ask any questions, we are confident that God used our time with these players to plant seeds that someone else down the road will have an opportunity to harvest. Please remember to pray for the players of SBC and JRU. That the Holy Spirit will do something great in each of their hearts.

Tomorrow we leave for the island of Cebu... many more games to play....

June 6, 2009; Day 2: Let the Games Begin

Today we started our first full day of games. We went to the Celebrity Sports Complex in Quezon City to play against the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons.

Many of the colleges here will jump at a chance to play against a strong American team, especially with their season about to start. UP plays in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), which is arguably the strongest college division in the country.

Our game was at 9:30 in the morning, and after finding our way through the traffic to the gym, we worked our way through security, and through the enormous facility to the gym. We are in the middle of rainy season, and apparently it has been raining for the last number of days/weeks, so of course, water had leaked through the rooftop onto the court. At least this time, there were guys with mops to help clean things up periodically, but it still made for some messy basketball with all of the slipping and sliding around...

Being our first competitive game, we got off to a little bit of a slow start. Most of us on this trip had never even met, not to mention played basketball together. We are, even now at the end of our second day, still getting a feel for how each other play. We still played a tough game against UP, and with about 1 minute to go, were ahead by three points. UP got a great look at a 3 pointer and tied it up. Apparently this was their big stud, and despite being their tallest player, he was able to step out and knock down a clutch shot. I won't mention who was guarding (or not guarding) him, but J...osh had a whole list of excuses as to where he was when his man was shooting a wide open shot :).

We still had the ball with about 40 seconds to go, and Hudson dribbled the ball down the court to try to get us an open look. One of the UP defenders reached around and literally hit him across the back. This was not a cheap shot, but certainly a foul. The refs, who also happened to be UP team managers, did not agree and allowed the Fighting Maroons to take the ball down the court to shoot a lay-up. To make matters worse, Elliot hustled down the court to contest the shot, and in going for the ball, fouled the shooter. The refs seemed to think this foul was excessive (it was not) and called a flagrant foul. Giving UP two fouls shots and the ball.

Coach Daniel asked the refs why they did not call the first foul and they had some strange excuse about there being no advantage... I am not sure how the opposing team getting a lay-up is not an advantage, but I guess I don't know all of the rules of basketball as well as I maybe could.

In the end, we had to force them to the free throw line to stop the clock and get the ball back. We were left with 5 seconds to hit a 3 point shot to tie the game. Coach drew up a nice play, and we got a good look, but the shot did not fall. We lost by 3.

After the game, we had a great opportunity to sit down with all of the players and coaches and tell them the #1 reason why we had come. Josh talked to them about our love for basketball and how we came to the Philippines because it is one of the most exciting places in the world to play basketball, but he told them that more important than basketball was our love for Jesus Christ, who gave His life so we could have a relationship with Him. Josh encouraged each of the players to consider who they were living for. Josh and Daniel both live in Manila and have relationships with a lot of these players, and they challenged them to talk with one of us before we left or at a future time. We also gave them a gospel tract that had the plan of salvation. We will continue praying for Josh or Daniel to have opportunities to talk more with these guys.

After we were finished with UP, we headed back to the place where we were staying. On the way back, we stopped at a place called Flaming Wings. Josh really talked this place up on the way there, but it did not disappoint. Great Buffalo Wings by any standard.

Later that evening we had a game in Marikina against some former PBA players. The PBA is the top professional league in the Philippines. This game was done in partnership with Athletes for Life, another organization who is using basketball to help spread the gospel. Josh and Daniel play with A4L throughout the year and help them with other basketball ministry events.

This game was very exciting, and there were probably 1500 - 2000 people there watching us play. We won't talk about the basketball side of things, because we did not play well and lost by 12. The ministry side of things was amazing. Pastor Nester, with Athletes for Life, and a former PBA player who is now a pastor had great opportunities to share the gospel. We collected a lot of response cards from people who want a visit from the local pastor. Please continue praying over the coming months, that as the pastor follows up each of these contacts, he would have many, many opportunities to lead lost souls to Jesus.

We have another busy day ahead of us tomorrow... more to come!

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.

Cebu Trip 2009

It has been an exciting beginning to our 8 day outreach in Metro Manila and then on to Cebu. In our first 3 days we have played six games against some of the top teams in Manila. We have played two community outreach games and four against local colleges. We will be updating with more pictures soon but here is a small sample from our first few days. In our second community game we played in front of over 2000 fans against a selection team of professional players who are also Christians. It was great basketball and a great opportunity to share our faith. Please pray for our guys as cramping and small nagging injuries are starting to come into play.

By Faith