If you’ve read my expectations blog, I say that I expect to learn new ways to serve. Already learned a new one, which I’m a little ashamed to say has not come naturally to me. Those of you who know me or my family, know that we’re pretty big into sports. Every single one of us. Even Katy does Special Olympics! You also know that we are pretty competitive. And you also know that I am pretty mean on the basketball court. This weekend, we were invited to join some local girls and play a few basketball games against club and college teams here in the Philippines. Let’s talk about how long it has been since I have run up and down a basketball court…freshman year at ACU. 5 years…I’m probably still in great shape right? So how this worked was we would go say hi before the game, say a prayer with them, play the game (we won all 3…but thats not important), then we would have share time. Each of us introduced ourselves, said where we are from, why we were in the Philippines, and a brief testimony/our story. Afterwards we had a little bit of time to mingle and exchange email addresses or at least names so we could find each other on facebook. All sounds awesome right? Back to me being really mean on the basketball court…I tend to knock people over a lot. For some reason they didn’t keep up with individual fouls so I could foul as much as I wanted! Not a good thing for me. I mean, I felt like I was knocking someone on the ground, helping them up (which is new for me) and saying, “By the way, Jesus loves you.” I never actually said that, but it did make me very aware of my actions on the court. Lets be honest…I still fouled. I have a new nickname in the Philippines…Texas. Jeff, the missionary here, would always yell, “Don’t mess with Texas,” after I scored or fouled somebody. The moral of the story is that I can use what comes naturally to me, like playing sports, to further the Kingdom of God if I would just be intentional about it and open my eyes to see the opportunities. The other moral of the story is “Don’t mess with Texas!”…but you probably already knew that one.
I also wanted to update you on Cedric. He’s not doing so good. He was able to come home for a couple of days, but went back to the hospital last night and is now in the ICU. We’re not aloud to be up there and it is really hard on all of us who have been taking care of him. PLEASE be thinking about him and praying for him. I really appreciate all the encouraging comments and prayers that I know are being lifted up. I’m glad to help you feel a connection to the awesome things God is doing here in the Philippines.
