After arriving at our host home in Guatemala City, Telma's home, last around 1130, we unpacked, ate a quick meal and headed to bed. The alarm clock set for 6:30 came too early and we all groggily made our way to a wonderful breakfast of French toast, Guatemalan coffee and fresh fruit before heading out for a busy first day. Jaime picked us up around 7:30 and we made our way to a school in Villa Nueva, a city on the western side of Guatemala City.
Around 8:30, we arrived at the elementary school to many wide-eyed children that were excited to see us and full of energy. We spent about 30 minutes just playing and getting as acquainted as possible through broken Spanish on our end and broken English on their end. One of the coaches at the school remarked afterwards that when children and sports come together, there is no language barrier. We had a great time doing simple drills and playing little games with the kids before we put on a short intrasquad exhibition for them.
After all of the basketball, Ben shared a great message about God's grace despite our sinfulness and how the Holy Spirit changes your desires as your relationship with Jesus Christ grows and matures.
Before we left Villa Nueva, we did a short video message for a local news station that came to the school to do a story on our trip and our visits to the local schools. Coach Mitchell was also able to share about our trip and the reasons why we come to places like their school for their news story.
After leaving Villa Nueva, we headed to a familiar venue, Prepa. Prepa is one of the top private schools in Guatemala City and their basketball team has won several city and national championships in the past decade. They always give us a fun and excited atmosphere to play in while being tough competitors. This year was no different. We jumped out to a large lead but saw then slowly work their way back into the game until they finally took the lead late in the 3rd. However, our guys gutted out a gritty win and overcame a sluggish offensive effort and some one-sided officiating.
After the game, Camp shared with the Prepa team and coaches about the importance of prayer as you grow in your relationship with Christ and how impactful prayer can be in your daily life. The Prepa coaches and players were very receptive to our message and appreciative that we have consistently come to play them over the past 4 years.
A late lunch of fried chicken, about an hour in traffic, and a short time for naps and relaxation and now we are off to our final game of the night. We are going about 20 minutes up the road to play a local league team that should be very good competition.
We will give a much shorter update later tonight after dinner and some team meeting time.
Adios
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