The game started and it was pretty clear that we had the upper hand. At this point we wanted to do our best to keep it entertaining, which usually means sneaking out and getting dunks and doing other fancy things. Today, this was a little more difficult since the goals we were playing on were about 6 inches higher than the regular 10 foot goals. Still we tried our best to interact with the crowd and the other players. One exciting span of plays was when James made 5 3's in a row, in 5 consecutive possessions... the kids standing near the court really loved it!!! At half time, Quinn shared his testimony and encouraged everyone to experience the love of Jesus Christ. We had great results as we handed out tracts and received response cards. Of the 450+ people there we received 199 completed response cards for follow up.
We were scheduled to have three games today, but while we were waiting for our second game to start the rain really began to come down. We sat around and tried to wait it out, but we soon learned that there was a small typhoon passing through and that the rain was probably not going to let up any time soon. We got together with the barangay captains from Barangay Unat and Barangay Bolinao and it was agreed that we would find a covered court and play a combination of both teams. As we talked it through, we realized that the only covered court available was the court we played in the morning. We generally don't play the same venue twice, but due to the circumstances we agreed to play at the town center plaza covered court again so we could minister to the players on these teams and any who had not been at the previous game.
As we prayed before the game, we knew that God had brought us back here for a reason, we prayed that God would bless our efforts and that whoever he had brought us back here to share with, would hear our message and accept Him as their saviour.
The game was going well, and we again had a pretty comfortable lead. Then during the second quarter, Marcus felt something happen in his heel. He hobbled off the court and told me he thought it might be his achile's tendon. Josh called his wife, Val, who is a certified athletic trainer, and has a lot of training in this area. She helped him identify that it was in fact a tear of the achile's tendon and that we needed to get it examined. He was not in a great deal of pain, so we finished the game. Landon shared his testimony at half time and the crowd was very attentive. We passed out tracts and received a few back, but many of the people who were there had already filled them out at the previous game. We know that God sent us back to that place for a reason, and even if we were able to touch the heart of one person, it will have been worth everything that happened.
After the game we took Marcus to the emergency room where we learned that he had torn his achile's tendon. On the doctor's recommendation, we had a cast put on Marcus' leg to immobilize it and prevent any further damage. We are waiting on word from his doctor in the US to determine what should be done next. We are hopeful that he will be able to stay with the team the rest of the trip and continue to help with the ministry side of things. As a team, we talked about the incident and Marcus had a very good attitude about the injury. We know that God is sovereign and that what happened was in His plan. We are all praying that God would use this to give us an opportunity to share the Gospel with someone that we would not have been able to share with otherwise.
Please continue to pray for the people that are hearing the Gospel. Those in the different barangays of Ibajay City as well as those in the many other places we have been this week. Please also keep Marcus in your prayers. We will be making decisions on how to proceed soon, and we could use your prayers for wisdom and discretion as we seek to do the best thing for Marcus and his recovery.
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