Most of you know that Feb 17th I fly up to the main Island of the Philippines which is called Luzon. I took a direct flight from Davao City to Manila! Here, I was greeted by a some great smiling faces from a Pastor that I have been talking with for over a month. This was to take part with the Crossfire Ministry trip that would be traveling all over the Luzon.
We started off the trip in Manila only to meet and greet the rest of the team. This team consisted of Jamie Johnson and Randy Sheperd the two co founders of the ministry Crossfire. I know and met this both this summer doing a basketball Jammin for Jesus that happend yearly in Greenfield, IN. Well, along with them they brought 12 other people are apart of there ministry (this also included Deep Ministries - Dan and Shan doing kids games).
Cabanatuan City for about three days - While we stayed here at this great resort, we were able to play one of the Pastor's team and one group that invited us. This group is called Christian Sports and Youth Development Center In (CSYDCI). We also were able to do a clinic which is where Dan and Shan planned a big role and helping with kids games with them for a few hours. And then we would come in and share a little basketball and mostly Gospel with them!
Our stay in Cabanatuan was lovely, and we are also able to divide the groups up and go to two different church services. The one I went to, I was able to share a short testimony and people were so nice, sweet, and giving! They were very humbling to host us has there guests!
We are also able to play two games while we stayed in Cabanatuan City, and both games were very physical, very very fast pace, and pretty packed house. It was exciting, and great to be able to share the Gospel with so many Filipino people!
After our great stay in Cabanatuan City, we traveled about 6 hours up a beautiful mountain into a beautiful, and to my excitement actually a cool almost cold temparature wise play in the Philippines! This great place was called Baguio!
Baguio for two nights – While we were here we played two games and one of these games was one of the best for the whole trip. This was a great game versus the Baguio University select team. This was a great game, and the University gym was packed. Through the half time gospel you could hear a pen drop the people were so quiet, listening, and opened to hear the Lord's Message!
Then we moved on to city on the China coast called La Union. While in La Union we played another game and after the game we went to the Mayor of the city house and were able to visit, share, and build relationship with the other team and community!
We traveled back to Manila – this time back in the city of Manila we had a days rest of games, though we had an orphanage visit, we were able to do some kids game with them do some basketball clinic with them, and share much of God's love and words for them!
Then the last game was in Manila, against one of the Semi Professional teams. This league is called the PBL, and it was a very hard game, though we were able to share. The crowd was small, and the pastors said it's very hard to really do these types of games in the manila because of the city being so big. Though, the Lord is Good all the time and saw us through the whole trip!
