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
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