Follow-Up

Athletes in Action never sends a team where follow-up is not possible. It has been neat to be on the foreign country side of a short term tour. We are able to address interest that was shown during the tour. This last tour definitely opened up many doors at UDLAP, the school that hosted the tournament. New relationships were formed and old relationships were strengthened on the UDLAP women's basketball team during this 2-week intentional time period.

There were a few girls who faithfully showed up to each event we hosted. One girl in particular expressed interest in learning more about the AIA Principles (Audience of One, Inside Game, Holy Sweat/Wholly Surrender, Hurtin' for Certain, Victory Beyond Competition). She goes by Momo (short for Monica). She is interested in learning how to put God first in her life.

Marnie, Katie, Erica, and I have already gone over the first two principles with her. She comes to our meetings with the pre-game exercises complete--eager to learn. Today after going over the Inside Game principle, Momo said that she used to pray that the ball would go in the hoop, but now her perspective is changing. She knows that's not all that God is concerned about. The new perspective is that we would play for His glory as a thank-you response.

Marnie, Katie, and Erica leave for the States on Monday to visit family and support raise. I (Mandi) leave on Thursday. We are trying to be intentional with the time that we have left. Tonight we are going out to Texas BBQ for dinner in celebration of the 4th of July. Some of the UDLAP girls and their coach will be joining us. Tomorrow night we are going to have a bonfire on our roof (if it doesn't rain) and Friday we're going to visit the orphanage with the UDLAP girls who are interested.

Happy 4th of July!!!

A De-brief, but not Brief

 The last day with the girls' basketball team was full and fun, thus why I am writing this blog a day later. We went to church at the Casa Verde. The pastor was American, but the sermon was in Spanish. He spoke slowly enough that some of us Spanish-learners were able to keep up.

This is the entrance to Casa Verde. The church was called Mosaico.

We accidentally showed up 30 minutes early. Since Mexicans usually show up 30 minutes late to everything, we were the whole congregation for a good 45 minutes.

After church, one of the captains from the UDLAP basketball team, Mo-mo joined us for a tour of downtown Puebla. She has been faithfully attending many of our events. God is tugging at her heart. We are going to meet with her this week and go through the AIA Principles. Many of the girls down here are Catholic, so talking about God is not unusual. However, they lack the personal relationship with Jesus. Praying that this will click in Mo-mo's life as she desires to know more and meets with the AIA girls.

 The afternoon flew by with tacos, juice, churros, and market shopping.

For the basketball tour's last hurray in Mexico, we went to a unique restaurant called Pampas. They had an extensive salad bar buffet where you would fill your plate. The meat came to the table on these long skewers (shown below). There were so many choices, and you could eat until you were satisfied. The meal cost 20 America dollars here, when in America the equivalent restaurant would probably be $60!

 It was overwhelming at times having all these waiters surrounding your table with more food. We got to try salmon, turkey sausage, cow tongue, some kind of intestines, lots of chicken, and more. No one left hungry. :)

 Shelley, Mo-mo, Marnie, and Erica enjoying their meal.

They brought out a roasted pineapple covered in cinnamon for dessert. Delicioso!

Supper was followed with de-brief at John and Natalie's house. We filled out evaluations of the tour and ran through what was to be expected with the return home. 

This tour has opened up more doors at UDLAP. The coach at UDLAP posted the following message on Marnie's Facebook page:

"I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart all of the team from ATHLETES IN ACTION that came to our campus, entered my teams and my life and had an opportunity to teach all of us a thing or two about not just basketball but life.

Thank you for kicking our *** twice, but more importantly teaching my girls a few lessons off the basketball court as well.

NEXT SEASON!!!! LETS DO IT AGAIN!"

  

The coach is not a Christian. In fact, he was closed off to Christians for awhile. Now, however, he invites the AIA girls to all his practices and has a great respect for them. This tournament has only added to the credibility of Athletes in Action. 

The de-brief ended after we circled the room 9 times encouraging each girl. It was a great exercise, but it lasted until 2 am. We then returned to the dorms to pack up and leave at 5 am for the airport! Not quite a brief de-brief. :)

This next week on the Mexico-side we will be following-up with some girls who expressed interested in the AIA principles. I love how AIA only sends out short term mission projects where follow-up is possible and will take place.

Thank you for following the 2012 AIA basketball tour!

Champions for Jesus

It has arrived. This is the last full day that the basketball tour is in Mexico. The last two weeks have both flown and crawled by. God has been moving! It's been exciting to watch Him grip the hearts of those on our team and some of the Mexican athletes. He is not limited by the time crunch of a 2-week tour!

So, I have to catch you up to speed. This will be a re-cap the last two days of the tour.

Friday morning we had team time in the morning. Katie talked us through some points from the book "God Space." We talked about four ways to start safe spiritual conversations that allow the Holy Spirit to work: noticing, serving, listening, and wondering. So many people have built up walls when they find themselves in a conversation where the Christian is trying to "convert them." It's important to go into a conversation without an ulterior motive. They will be able to tell if you are authentically interested in them, or if you are only trying to convert them. God is the One who prepares the hearts for the Gospel message. This book walks you through different conversations and being able to see the Holy Spirit's leading in conversation and responses that will communicate love and cause interest.

The team played their third game in the tournament in the afternoon. We played the final university of the tournament, UMAD. We won by about 20. This secured our spot in the championship against UDLAP the next day.

Here are the four teams that competed in the tournament: AIA, UMAD, UDLAP, and Tec.

Praying before the game. 

In the evening, we had another movie night. There were about 20 girls who joined us for pizza and a movie. It's hard to believe that the week is almost over. We're starting to develop great friendships with some of these girls. I'm glad that Marnie and Erica will be here next year to continue investing in them.

 Getting ready for the movie night with some UDLAP girls.

As the title implied, we won the tournament. This is quite the testimony. The following in an insert from Katie's blog that explains the significance:

Initially AIA was planning on sending a team down here, made up of about 10 athletes, a coach, a discipler and team director.  What ended up actually making up our team was much, much different.

We had:

2 athletes

a discipler, Soccer player who dressed out for us

a team leader, Rower and Speed Skater who also dressed out for us

the Mexico team (Yost, Erica and me)

a 16 year-old Mexican basketball player

an ex-college Mexican basketball player and good friend of ours

So basically our team of 9 was made up of only 4 people who have ever played a collegiate basketball game in their lives.  And we went undefeated against three college teams that have been playing together for years and practicing together for nearly a year.  

 

Katie went on to say how this is not to brag on us, but on God. He brought together this odd assortment of a team, and led them to victory against three organized college teams. There was definitely a buzz around the tournament. When God's at work, people notice.

 

 Erica was out with a knee injury from the last game. She was a great sport and assisted the team from the bench.

 Our #4 had a fan club.

 Amy puts up a shot during the championship game.

 Our team with the trophy.

Something to lay at the feet of Jesus. This trophy was not won for our glory, but for His.

We invited the teams to a pizza party at Casa Verde after the game. The pizza was followed by a bonfire with lots of praise singing. Karli shared her testimony, and Marnie shared more about the focus of our tour.

 Playing games with the girls at the pizza party.

 This was the first time having s'mores for many of the girls.

 

 Singing the night away!

 

Audience of One

Our AIA girls won their second game of the tournament today. They played the team that is hosting the tournament, UDLAP. It is neat to hear the players talking about how God is changing their attitudes of the game. They are not playing basketball for themselves, rather for an Audience of One. The AIA principles that were taught throughout the last week are being reviewed and applied on the court.

 Karli puts it up for 2.

 Jessica played on the AIA team two years ago with Katie, Marnie, and Erica. She agreed to play with the girls again as they lead this tour from the Mexico-end.

 Erica loves this game and it shows! :)

We have really gotten to know many of the UDLAP players. After the game five of them joined us for supper at Monchis. A few more showed up when we were getting ready to leave, so they came back to the apartment with us to hang out.

 The burgers and sandwiches were HUGE. Shelly's not sure what to do (below). 

There was quite a few spiritual conversations/Gospel sharing today! Praise God! Thank you so much for your prayers. The girls that came home with us after supper joined in praise singing in our living room with Katie playing the guitar. After singing the song "Audience of One" by Big Daddy Weave, Katie and Erica shared the meaning of the song and the reason behind AIA bringing a team to Mexico. It is so encouraging to see the girls take every opportunity to share their faith!

We're finding that our most successful outreaches have been the impromptu hang out times. God has been organizing these and opening up conversations that are directed toward Him. It's such a privilege to be a part of His work. :)

The Tournament Begins

Today was the first day of the tournament, our main outreach event. We had time in the morning to be tourists. The team had their first bus riding experience as we rode the bus to the entrance of the pyramids in Cholula. However, everyone was able to sit down on the bus, so they didn't quite receive the full experience. :) We slowing made our way up the pyramid to find a magnificent view of the city and a beautiful church.

The team gathered in prayer before their game against Tec (below). Seven gringas and two Mexicans make up the team with quite the mixture of basketball backgrounds (ranging from no experience to college experience).

It was a fun game to watch! The score was always close, but AIA came ahead in the end. Ganamos! The following is text from Katie's blog for a player's perspective:

We won our game, in a pretty exhausting 65-71 victory.  It is such a blast playing with these girls against some really tough competition.  We are all attempting to transform our minds into thinking about sport as an opportunity to worship.  We have talked a lot about a “thank-you” response: playing with a broader purpose in mind, for eternal glory, and giving our 100% all the time because God has given us the ability and passion to play this game.

We stayed around to cheer for the teams playing the second game and mingle with the girls from Tec. 

We had girls from each of the three universities in the tournament join us for dinner. Abbey and Katie were able to share the Gospel with three Mexican athletes! We also handed out some bracelets with the Gospel message and were able to explain their significance.

After flautas, we gathered at a common area in our dorm to watch the Lion King. It was Abbey and Karen's first time seeing this Disney classic. Despite the glitchy internet and thunderstorm, the evening was a success! It is so nice being so close to campus. It's easy to invite girls over. Also, each opportunity we get, we walk across the street to campus to see if we'll run into anyone we know.

This glorious view is looking down the street we live on, Camino Real. God's Creation never ceases to remind me of His glory!

Today was a pretty full day. The team's time here in Mexico is winding down. Please pray for energy as we keep up this sprint to the end. It was so encouraging to have so many girls come to our outreach event today. We plan on having something each night. Pray for continued boldness in having spiritual conversations and for girls to come to our outreach events. Thank you!

Victory Beyond Competition

Popo decided to finally show face today. What a glorious sight!

Today was the last day before the tournament. In the morning we had breakfast and team time in the caf. Katie spoke on the last AIA Principle - Victory Beyond Competition. This principle focused on living with an eternal perspective and using our talents for the Lord completely and immediately.

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I wouldn't have a single bit of talent left and I could say, 'I used everything You gave me.'"
                                                                                                       --Erma Bombeck

The girls practiced with the UDLAP basketball team and then joined most of the team for lunch in the caf. At 4 o'clock we left to go help at a basketball camp. Two girls from UDLAP were able to join us.

We partnered up with a missionary family who focuses on reaching a poor neighborhood in Puebla. They organized a 2-hour basketball camp that we led. 

 (above) Katie and Marnie lead the kids in a cheer as they get ready to switch stations. 

The kids cycled through five different stations, played dribble tag, and participated in a dribble relay. Amy is leading the kids through some defensive drills in the picture above.

I (Mandi) shared my testimony, and Marnie translated. The kids sat attentively, and the rain held off until after the story. Praise God! The kids wanted to keep playing, even after the scheduled 2 hour camp was over. They were so precious. :)

Week 2 Begins

Time sure has flown by! This is the last week that the basketball team is here. We have many outreach events planned and want to be very intentional with the time that we have left.

After morning practice with the UDLAP girls and grabbing Subway at the school caf, we dispersed throughout the campus to enjoy lunch with Jesus. It was a good time to review the last week and what God has been teaching us. The pic above is a view of the pond on campus.

Today we moved into the UDLAP dorms. We're in an 8-person suite with four bedrooms, a common kitchen/living room area, a bathroom, and a washer and dryer. The dorm is right across the street from the main campus. It is going to be a huge blessing to be able to walk to campus rather than the 30 minute commute from our apartment.

Katie was sick today, so Natalie stepped in as the team's coach for the evening scrimmage with UDLAP. Natalie has never played basketball in her life, but she gave the coaching position 100%. Sarah commented on Facebook, "Natalie just gave the best pre-game talk known to basketball: don't let them score, stay on your man, and get it in the hoop. Go team." Our team won the scrimmage...maybe Natalie has found a new calling. ;)

After the evening scrimmage, we went out for tacos at La Suprema Salsa. Three UDLAP girls came. What a great way to end the day!