Yesterday was lots of fun for me, considering the fact I like basketball. We planned to go to San Pablo in the afternoon and hopefully play another basketball game against the youth hanging out there. Upon arrival we found that a group was building homes in San Pablo and had construction stuff all at one end of the court. So our hopes of a full court game were somewhat shot.
Gary, Ashley, and I decided to just shoot around at the other end of the court. Some guys were sitting on the side watching and we invited them to come join us. Through the use of the little Spanish I know and demonstration, I successfully taught 2 of the guys to play taps.
After a game of taps, they taught us how to play their form of 21, which was basically 3 on 3 with a few added rules. Gary, Ashley, and I took on Domingo, Domingo, and Ernesto. It took us a while to get used to their rules of not taking the ball out and no blood-no foul, but by the 2nd game we had the hang of it and took our first Guatemalan basketball game victory!
They did beat us 2 out of 3, but we felt we planted some good seeds with the guys. It was fun to get to know these guys better in a half court setting, rather than them running us to death full court. After we played we invited them to church, and Gary even went back and gave the 3 we played Gospels of John. I pray that they may have seen somthing different in us!
At church last night Katherine preached on the body of Christ and all its essential parts. I taught the team the TBarM Body of Christ WOG skit, which we easily translated into Spanish. The children of the church really enjoyed this one and laughed a lot as Gary, los piernas, did some pretty impressive cheerleading jumps.
After our skit, Katherine explained the importance of all the parts of the body of Christ and of each person that makes up the church. She invited those who wanted to share testimonies or songs or prayers to come up. We had 3 church members share their testimonies.
One of the testimonies that touched my heart was Matteo´s. He shared about being involved in a gang, doing drugs, drinking, and even teaching people how to use knives. Christ got a hold of his life when an evangelistic preacher told him the story of Saul turned to Paul. He felt it was his life story and from then on served Christ. He is faithful in attending church every night now and even leads worship some nights. What an amazing testimony of what God can do!!!
