Day 7 - Final Day

Day 7 - Final Post

Today began unlike most days so far, after 8:00am. We hit the markets in Antigua after a quiet breakfast around 9:00am. The markets in Antigua may never be the same after the Prep boys were finished. By 11:30, Jaime arrived to pick us up and bring us back to Guatemala City for an afternoon of relaxation followed by our last game. We checked back into the dorms from earlier in the week, had pizza delivered, and settled in for a nice afternoon nap/hangout time.

At 4:00pm, our ride arrived to take us back to Prepa for our much anticipated rematch and meet up with the girls' team. Prepa had claimed to have a few more players coming for this encounter and they did not disappoint. The Prepa team resembled a Guatemalan Junior National Team with several players over 6'4 and quick guards. The girls played first and were able to pull out a 10pt win against a talented select girls team from the area. Between games Georgia, Cade and Richard all shared about what God has been doing in their lives and the changes they have experienced and feel called to make.









After all the gifts were exchanged and testimonies shared, the big game was ready to take place. Prepa started a line-up that equaled ours in size (a first for the week) and looked like they were out for revenge early by taking a quick lead. However, their American counterparts eventually settled in and took a double digit lead into halftime. As the second half started, it became apparent that both teams were very determined to win but our guys began taking their game to new levels. The game quickly got out of hand as the 3rd quarter became a jump shot and defensive clinic by the Americans. Ryan, Thomas, and Austin made shot after shot while defensively the team dominated the quarter led by emphatic blocks by Josh and Thomas. By the early 4th quarter, the lead had reached nearly 40 points and Prepa was forced to wave the white flag and begin subbing out their better players. The effort and result from the game were the perfect ending to a great week of basketball but more importantly it was the culmination of a week were our guys began cheering for each other in every phase of the game.

Of course, in Guatemala the evening doesn't end without an amazing meal. Jaime set up a last meal for the team at a local restaurant that is most accurately defined as the Guatemalan Texas de Brazil. As trays of meat and sides were brought and served to the team, the guys were able to begin reflecting on a week of hard work and challenging moments. When we arrived back at the dorms a team meeting to debrief took place. This meeting lasted over an hour as the guys shared their favorite experiences from the week, lessons learned, attitudes changed, and spiritual depth gained. Most notably, the amount of comfort, blessing and convenience we experience daily in our lives was recognized by the team throughout their time in Guatemala. Also, the impact people like Jaime have had on many of the guys was overwhelming to hear. Now it is off to bed for a few short hours as the ride to the airport will arrive at 4:30am local time or 5:30am CST. What a great trip it has been and it is apparent that God's hand has been at work along every step of the way. Viva Mississippi!




Adios

Day 6 - Travel, Panajachel, Antigua

Day 6 - Travel, Panajachel, Antigua

Friday was a travel and relaxation day for our group. We began day at 6:30 with breakfast at Pollo Campero and soon left the mountain city of Quiche. The sites out of the mountains were breathtaking and we stopped often for a quick picture. After a 2+ hour drive from Quiche to Panajachel, we arrived at our destination and the beginning of our adventures for the day. Panajachel is located on Lake Atitlan and is a big tourist town on the lake. As a result, they have several things for travelers to do and our group chose the biggest rush of them all, the Zipline. Our guys decided they wanted to the series of ziplines through the mountains around the Lake. Needless to say, it was a great choice! The guys had a blast flying through the jungle on the ziplines and being able to see each other have fun and get outside of many of their comfort zones. By the end of the trip, the guides were mainly referring to our group as "loco gringos." As a special treat, several of the kids from the orphanage in Solola that our team has built a relationship with were able to come down and also go on the ziplines with our guys.






After the zipline, we were given some time to walk around Panajachel and grab a quick lunch before
heading to Antigua for the evening. Another 2 hours in the vans, including more incredible sites, and we arrived at our destination. Antigua is known as a tourist city and many people come to Antigua to learn Spanish in extended summer courses. Because of this, we have seen more Americans and "gringos" in the past few hours than we have seen the rest of the trip combined. Our evening involved a quiet night of dinner in small groups on our own and then some quick shopping and site seeing around their city square. The night wrapped up with a debriefing of the day and team meeting before lights out and a good night's sleep to prepare for our last day in Guatemala. As always, the guys have been great with travel and quick plan adjustments that are necessary in Guatemala and have shown kindness and patience with those around and in our group. They are excited to hit the markets hard for a few hours Sat. morning and then head back to Guatemala City for our final game and a quick meet up with the girls' team before heading back early in the morning.




Adios

Day 5 - Quiche

Day 5 - Quiche

Today, was another day filled with travel and opportunities. We left the Eagles' Nest in Solola around 8:00am to travel even higher up into the mountains to the city of Quiche. Another drive filled with fun in the vans, interesting stops and breathtaking sites, resulted in us ending up at a large high school in the area and playing a short game against a few of their selected faculty members. Though they weren't able to challenge our guys for the entirety of the game, they put up a great effort and were a lot of fun to watch interact with our guys. Ryan spoke to the crowd gathered to watch us play and gave a great testimony about what God has been doing in his life. Afterwards, our guys were overrun by a throng of Guatemalan high schoolers wanting pictures and autographs.





Later that afternoon, we were invited back to the high school to watch a play being put on by professional actors for the students. Although it was in Spanish, all of the guys commented afterwards at how surprised they were at the quality of acting in such a small city in the mountains. Jaime later told us that one of the actors had been on Guatemalan TV a number of times as a professional actor. After the play, it was back to the hotel for some more rest and down time before our game at 7:30pm.
Jaime scheduled a game with a local team of select players in the large gym in town. Coach Horner decided to spice things up for this game by instituting some new roles. Ryan and Thomas were made the coaches for the game and De was given a whistle so he could assume the coveted role of referee. The game was a hard fought contest and the Preppies were able to pull out a close one to give Ryan and Thomas a career coaching win percentage of 100%. De gained a new found respect for referees and claims he "was better than any other ref that we've ever had." However, our guys had opinions of their own and De, as most officials, was given a hard time throughout. After the game, Josh was able to share his testimony with the opposing team and how God has brought him strength through times of trials.





The evening wrapped up with team time at the hotel and everyone gathering together to hear Jaime's testimony of how God changed his life and has used him continually for His kingdom for the last 30 years. Today, will is an exciting day for everyone. We are leaving Quiche in the next few minutes to head back to Lake Atitlan for some quick site seeing adventures and then off to Antigua for an afternoon of shopping and relaxation. Everyone is having a great time and the day of relaxation seems earned after all the travel, clinics and basketball but serving God has not made us weary and many of the guys wish there were more opportunities to love on the Guatemalan kids. Hopefully, we will have a strong internet connection in Antigua this evening so that I can share the pictures from today.

Adios

Day 4 - Clinics/Sites/Rest/Team Time

Day 4 - Lake Atitlan

Today, was "the best day EVER" according to the guys that lived it. We made a strategic decision to split up today into two groups. The seniors, Tim and Schutt stayed here in Solola at the Eagles' Nest to lead clinics and play some exhibition games against local kids. The juniors, Coach Horner and Moore went with Jaime up into the mountains and around the Lake to two small villages.

The seniors' day was a day filled with no travel, clinics, service and skits. They began their day at 8:30 doing PE classes and basketball clinics for the children here at Eagles' Nest that attend school here daily. They performed 3 one hour classes in the morning and from all accounts the guys and leaders had a great time getting to know the young kids and working with the teachers. At lunch they helped serve over 50 kids and afterwards performed a skit, narrated by Tim, about the story of David and Goliath and how God is bigger than your obstacles and enemies. The highlight was Gage's acting job as Goliath and the way the Jewish army (played by De, Nelson, and Thomas) were able to subdue him. The afternoon involved a solid 2 hour time of rest and relaxation followed by a series of games against local kids from the town leagues. All in all, the guys had a productive yet restful day and felt that their service was worthy of their time and energy. On a related note, the guys who came and played from the local town were some of the guys from last night's game and they all were wearing their bracelets given to them last night by our guys. So it seems that our guys have made an impact of the players of that team and they are proud to wear a bracelet representative of our guys and their message.

The Juniors' day began at 6:30am with breakfast and a 7:00am departure in the van up the mountain with Jaime at the wheel. An hour into the trip, Jaime decided to pull over and allow the guys to take some pictures of some of the common scenery.



Not a bad idea by Jaime. Our trip continued into the mountains with more scenery until we reached the small village where we were to work for the day. We visited the local church and met the pastor that we were to work with all day before heading back into town to begin our day of clinics and visiting with locals. Around 10:30, we began our clinic for about 40 kids from a neighboring school and the crowd slowly began to increase as kids from the village came with a sense of curiosity over the "gringos" in town. The clinic lasted about an hour and was very well run by our guys as they interacted with the kids very well and spent a great deal of time teaching some basics about basketball. As the clinic wrapped up, a group of kids from the school marched out with percussion instruments and began playing amazingly well considering they were ages 7-12 and in perfect unison. After the impromptu concert ended, we began our march back to the church outside of town for a meeting with the local pastor and lunch. After taking a scenic route that included a waterfall, Mayan cut-thru roads, and numerous encounters with locals, we arrived at the church to an amazing delicious home-cooked meal that consisted of fried chicken and freshly harvested vegetables. Our next destination was the village just up the mountain but we had about 2 hours to waste. Again, Jaime brainstormed an great idea of doing some more site seeing. This resulted in this:






Pretty amazing views from our guide Jaime Lopez! The rest of the afternoon was spent doing a quick clinic in the village at the top of this mountain for a small school there and hanging out with some small children. The ride home, of course, involved the same breathtaking scenery and an extended recap of the day from the perspective of the guys. All in all, I think we consumed about 3 cases of Fanta, Pepsi, and 7up throughout the day (in large glass bottles so you know they are good!) and had a great time sharing encouragement about who God is with the children of these villages.

The evening has been spent enjoying more great food from the kitchen here at Eagles' Nest and fellowshipping/sharing with each other over coffee. The guys have shown a great amount of new awareness for the blessings in their lives and an appreciation for those who have served us. More importantly, there has been a new focus on the recognition of each other as servants and friends.

Hopefully the rest of our trip can be as spirit-filled and challenging as the past 4 days. We will travel to another town tomorrow for the day and then return to Antigua for a day of shopping and relaxation on Friday. Pray for travel mercies and continued opportunities to share our faith.

Adios

Day 3 - More Basketball and Lake Atitlan

Day 3 - Guatemala City/Lake Atitlan




Greetings from the Eagles' Nest Children's Home,

Today was another full day filled with basketball and opportunities to love on children here in Guatemala and share our faith. We began our day with an early morning of basketball at a local school in Guatemala City. The guys again played a hard fought game against a local high school team and came out victorious. The court was only 48' long but a win is a win. The guys were again overwhelmed at how warmly they were received by the students at the school and how open the students were to listening to the message presented by Austin and Jaime.

After our game, we returned to our dorm in Guatemala City, grabbed our bags and headed up the mountain to Lake Atitlan. We arrived at the Eagles' Nest around mid-afternoon and immediately began playing with the kids. Our guys spent over an hour playing with the kids from the children's home and teaching them some basic basketball skills. After hanging out with the kids, we were served another great meal by the staff here at the Eagles' Nest and got to view an amazing sunset over the volcanic mountains that serve as the backdrop for the area.

After dinner, we drove back down into the local town and played a quick scrimmage type game against a local select team of high schoolers. The gym and refs were not what we have become accustom to but this is Guatemala and you must always be prepared to adjust in the face of adversity. Wirt did a fantastic job sharing an encouraging word with the opposing team afterwards and the guys presented them with the silicone bracelets and card handouts after Coach Horner made a short gospel presentation to them and a prayer of encouragement.

Again, the day was filled with memories and events. There were opportunities to love on those around us and each other by being the examples Christ calls us to be to others. We have a full day planned tomorrow and will get to play two more games and do two more clinics here at the orphanage. More pics to come and as always you can check the flickr.com page for many of the best pics from the day.

Adios

Day 2 - Campo Real, Prepa, Semi-Pro, More Rain

Day 2 from Guatemala City,

We began our day with an early morning trip to Campo Real, a local private school. Campo has hosted us several times before and we have always received a warm welcome. The guys split into groups and led about an hour long clinic for the smaller kids at the school before playing their school team in a short scrimmage game. The morning was filled with lots of excitement from the students of Campo Real and our guys got a good chance to play a game that wasn't overly competitive to start the day. Michael did fantastic sharing how a relationship with Christ has changed his life and how the kids at Campo will have many opportunities in their lives in Guatemala to influence others.

Before we left Campo, Jaime's son, Otto, met up with us and introduced us to the Christian organization on campus (not unlike our FCA). Pack shared a prayer of encouragement with them and we ate a quick meal with them as our guys were able to take time to get to know some of them. During this time, their headmaster and several faculty members approached us and expressed their appreciation for our visit and the impact that it may have on their students.

After leaving Campo, we traveled about 45 minutes across the city to Prepa, a top-private school known for their sports programs (sound familiar?). Jaime explained to me in the van that Prepa is the top-private school in all of Guatemala for basketball and many of their students are members of the Junior National Team. Their facilities were very nice and the atmosphere was quite unique. Prepa is an all boys school and about 200 of them sat and watched our game. The boys cheered very loudly for their team whenever the opportunity arose and several of our players commented afterwards that the crowd was as loud as nearly any that they play in front of back home. The crowd, however, was not as loud as they wanted to be because our guys played extremely well and led by 30+ for most of the game. We will return to Prepa on Saturday to play a series of games that will include our girls team and many of the players told our guys that they are anticipating a rematch.

The afternoon was spent celebrating our impressive victory at the newest mall in Guatemala City. The 7 story mall was unlike any shopping center we have in Mississippi (or probably the Southeast US) and the guys were able to raid the food court and hang out in an atmosphere that felt a lot closer to home than the usual lunch stop while in Guatemala. After leaving the mall, we came back to the dorms for a time of rest and relaxation before our toughest game this evening against a local semi-pro team.

Jaime picked us up and we made the trek back across Guatemala City to play a local semi-pro that was made of young men of all ages. This team will likely be the best team that we will play while in Guatemala and the competition was tough throughout. We fought back from deficits of 10-14 pts on multiple occasions and took the lead late in the 4th quarter. Our guys combined forces with some of the older "coaches" on the trip and were able to send it to overtime after making an incredible multi-possession defensive stand in the closing moments. In overtime, an all-Prep squad dominated and eventually won by 7pts after FTs by De and Ryan iced the game in the closing seconds. The crowd was very receptive after such a hard effort by our guys and Thomas and Jaime shared how Jesus can make a difference in the lives of those that pursue Him.

All in all it was a great day filled with many events and a lot of basketball. Our team went 3-0 and many of the guys are going to sleep well tonight after playing against such tough competition. More importantly, we were received warmly at every venue we visited and our guys have done a great job of sharing their faith and living it out in their interactions with the people.

Tomorrow, we will play one more game here in Guatemala City before driving to Lake Atitlan in the afternoon. While at the Lake, we will work at the orphanage and visit local schools performing mostly clinics and some exhibitions. It should be a time filled with great sites and meaningful work.

You can check our team's flickr.com site to view many of the pics that we have taken. Search under People - Jackson Prep Basketball. I will try to post some of them tomorrow evening along with a few videos.

Continue to pray for our team and Coach Horner and Tim's wives as they travel back tomorrow with Robby and Harlee Grace.

Adios

Arrival and First Night

Hola,

We arrived safely in Guatemala City yesterday afternoon around 3:00pm and began our adventures. Jaime, Coach Horner, and Co. arrived at the airport to greet us and pick us up in two large travel vans. We came straight to the Mennonite Mission, where we are staying, and unpacked our belongings and had a moment to catch our breath. Coach Horner arranged for pizza to be delivered soon after we arrived so everyone was quickly able to unpack and chow down on some pizza. Step 1 in acclimating to the new country was a success!

We were scheduled to play a game at a public court against a youth team from a local church/community but the rainy season had its own plans and our game was rained out. As is custom in Latin American culture, we adjusted and the evening went incredibly well. The church members still wanted to have us over for dinner and fellowship so we loaded up and traveled to their church to sing songs, eat dinner and visit with the people.

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The youth group has a praise band that is very good and we were able to play games and sing songs with them for about an hour before our guys took the stage. (Yes you read that right...our team took the stage to play and sing praise songs) The team did a great job as Ryan led on his guitar and the church members seemed very appreciative of the effort our guys made to lead them in worship.

After all of the singing had ended, Gage stood up and shared a brief testimony of how the Lord has shown him that He desires a relationship with you and not just that you do the right things and stay out of trouble. Tim followed up with a message from Ephesians 4 about the unity of the body of Christ and how God has created his Church to be diverse but unified in purpose.

The evening ended with a fantastic home cooked meal from the kitchen of the church. Baked Chicken, rice, beans and several desserts were prepared for us and served to us and we sat and fellowshipped with each other and the youth group.

Even though we didn't get to play any basketball today, it was a great way to start the trip by getting acclimated socially with the locals and hear others share about how a relationship with Christ has changed their life. Today, we are playing at 2 different schools this morning and later tonight we will play a semi-pro team. (We are making up for missed basketball from yesterday!)

Continue to pray that our team will be challenged to share and be bold in their faith and that the rain will hold off long enough for us to play during the day at the schools we visit.

Adios