Okay so many of you may be wondering where I've been and what I've been up to but i had too much fun and I spent the last few days recovering from all the Excitement! Well as many of you might already know i just went to a place called Mindanao ( a Island in the southern Philippines) and together with Uncle Tom (Randall) and a basketball team from California we spent nearly two weeks play b-Ball, sharing our testimonies, doing half time shows on unicycles and handing out tracks for people to sigh up for a bible study course: all while dodging the things listed in the title of this email! so I'm going to try to be concise and yet give you the full story. Here Goes:
OK so first off we rented a jeepney to take us all over the island to and from games. The 3rd night, Denis the drivers helper prayed to accept Christ as his savior. He did it on the way back from one of our night games after hearing the testimonies and pastor's sharing of the gospel! Denis didn't have any shoes either so I gave him mine. There was alot of that going around. Aught to make us be more thankful once in a while!
So basically what we would do each day was play 2 or 3 games and we'd drive into little towns in the middle of nowhere and waaala there was a b-ball court. we'd drive around town people would come, sometimes like 500+ (and few time too many to eve guess) and we'd play against the towns best players. At half time uncle tom and some of my kids from the orphanage would do a unicycle show and then we'd sing, share a testimony and pass out & later collect from the people who were interested in taking the bible study. we collected over 6000+ for the 10 days we were there. PTL and that's all in a heavily Muslim influenced area!
Okay so now about some of the things in the title. Did they get your attention bcuz they were meant to. First, on the way back from one of our night games I was riding on the roof of the jeepney because it just a better option than sitting inside next to 20 other sweaty guys. So anyways, all of a sudden Denis our "jeepney monkey" pops his head up and tells us to lay down so no one can see us.....! "okay sure." Later I learned that that road we were on was the 2ND most dangerous road in the Philippines bcuz of muslim ambushes and accidents of which we saw plenty! also later on once we were what i thought was in the clear we stopped for dinner. and well while we were eating dinner, across the road a guys was assassinated and the the guys who were there to protect us caught the killer. Again most of this I learned after the fact. It gives psalm 91 a whole new meaning huh?
Hmm what else. One morning when we arrived at our game we were greeted by swat like police all holding AK 47s and wearing full camo( for our protection) bcuz the night before 2 guys were killed on the court. oh yeah and there were 4 bombings near us in just the 2 weeks we were in Mindanao. Again didn't know that till after the fact but its all good when your trust is in the Lord!
When Sunday came the majority of the team went with Uncle Tom but a few of the Filipinos including Toto, David pastor Bernard, a few of our boys and myself went to a little "grass-roots" church behind the place we were staying. They had nothing. no walls barley a roof. no doors. a dirt floor and wodden benches nailled together for pews. one lone extension cord powered the old instrument they had, an old beat up keyboard. Toto and I both got the same idea and he stood up to announce that we would buy them a sound system and guitar. When he did that i heard the lady sitting next to the key board wisper, "Thankyou Jesus." They had been praying for it for a long time and it was nothing that they could have afforded! We bought the equipment the next day and gave it to them! Oh man I wish I could be there to hear them this sunday!
EBC a Special thanks to you becuase you provided the money to make this possible. I used about 300 dollars from the thanksgiving offering to purchase the sound equipment. so thanks again
okay just a few more then i'll be done. On the last day of our trip we all went white water rafting in the Cagayan de Oro River. with the recent flooding the river was at stage 4 rapids and 2 of our four boats flipped. not mine we had one lost tooth and several bruised egos but all was good and we made it back in one piece.. that is except for the missing tooth. The next day we left and its a good thing we did because the day after we left the city of cagayan de oro was flodded in waist deep water and the airport close indefinately. Some one big was one our side all the time we were down there! well theres more but i'm tired and fighting off a fever, cough and who knows what jungle viruses so i'm going to bed night ya'll
brian
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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