Day 10: What do you mean three games??

The longest day of our tour is drawing to a close and we can happily say that all three games today were successful and productive events for our team. Our 9.00am game was playing in La Plaza in the centre of Pandan. The team we played yesterday had improved markedly and we had a real fight on our hands with the half-time score at 52-45 in favour of Pandan. Some tough third quarter defense by Greg ‘Tower of Power’ Beacham, Joshua ‘Deacon’ Manthe and Danny ‘The Carpenter’ Cook took the game back into the Sports Ambassadors favour with the end result 77-70 included a late appearance from the heart and soul of the Spirit team, Jai Beacham. Danny Cook gave his testimony at half-time and told the crowd of how his relationship with Jesus Christ was largely developed through his struggles after leaving high-school and how he now relies on Jesus Christ to live each day. The crowd were happy to listen to a man who has thrown down some big slam dunks and has drawn the nickname of ‘The Carpenter’ because of his ability to fix anything on the court.

A quick trip back to our flashy beachfront accommodation gave us all a chance to have a quick swim between games or relax with a quiet game of run-around-the-halls-and-shoot each-other with-pellet-guns. Sickness has caught up with David Tidy who sat the day’s play out and Michael Valenti was also not feeling up to playing after the first game so our numbers were decreased for the last two games.


We were all aboard the bus by lunchtime for our second destination, the Mayor of Libertad’s office. Libertad is a medium-sized town which we have passed through a few times on our travels but we stopped to play in a caged court which quickly filled with locals and schoolchildren who had been let out of class early. The Libertad team was made up of town officials – including employees of the Mayor’s office, teachers, policeman and local celebrities. The crowd was very excited to see prominent members of their community play basketball against Australians but when it came to the crunch they really did not have the firepower to match Sam ‘The Man’ MacDonlad’s three-point barrage and Conan ‘The Truck Driver’ Prince’s strong work under the basket and the result was a little one-sided with the Spirit winning 67-51. Greg Beacham shared his testimony and their were many contact forms filled in and returned by members of the crowd.

The night game saw us travel a considerable distance to the town of Culasi, known as the ‘Basketball Mecca’ in the province of Antique, and the crowds were out in force for this big game. The large crowd was vocal from the Spirit’s arrival and only quietened for the singing of the Australian national anthem by Giles Creelman. He gave his testimony at half-time to a listening crowd who had seen their proud team humbled by Paul Beacham’s slam dunk to begin the game and Joshua Manthe’s emphatic inside moves to put the Spirit up by 20 points going into the long break.

Excellent second-half performances by Hedley ‘Babyface’ Taylor, Sam ‘The Man’ Macdonald and Danny ‘The Carpenter’ Cook put the game away for the visiting Aussies who smiled and joked with the crowd as the night went on. The excellent rapport between the Filipinos and the Australians has been of a very high standard on this trip and Pastor Gary Visitacion has found each game to be ‘easy-to-watch, entertaining, harmonising and evangelical’ as the two nations share a love for the game of basketball and the Filipinos learn more about how God has worked in other parts of the world through the Holy Spirit.

Tomorrow sees the Sports Ambassadors final game of the tour played in the food distribution site used on Sunday, the town square of Libertad. Sunday marked a big day for Libertad and the Sports Ambassadors as the money raised by churches in Perth went towards alleviating the suffering of locals in the area when the Ambassadors handed out over 600 bags of free food to residents of the area.

Pastor Gary reminded us in this morning’s devotions of the passage in 2 Timothy Chapter 4 where Paul talks about ‘fighting the good fight’ and ‘finishing the race set out before us’. It was a source of encouragement for a day which saw tired bodies cheerfully going the extra mile for the cause of Sports Ambassadors – to win souls for Christ through sports ministry.