Day 3 – A real test for us

After a 6am wakeup call and a trip across town sans breakfast, we arrived to play San Juan “Big Chill” PBA D-League team.

These were professional athletes who were about to begin their playoff series and they were ready for an 8am match in their empty stadium against us. While we matched them in the first quarter and only trailed at the half 56-46, the third quarter saw them push the lead out with some physical play and excellent outside shooting and finish the match with an 82-56 pasting. While the scoreboard was lopsided, their was a dominant performance from Fletcher Creelman in the middle and solid contributions from senior players Danny Cook and Giles Creelman, who shared his testimony with the players after the game. It was certainly a lesson in humility for our team and we were gracious in defeat.

In our bible studies we have been focusing on the concept of ‘The Audience of One’ which relates to the idea that while we may play sport in front of a crowd of people, we are ultimately playing for God’s pleasure and we need to conduct ourselves in a manner that is pleasing to God. This change of focus has allowed us to play against better teams and play to the best of our ability and leave the result of the game on the floor.

Our second game took us to the outskirts of Manila to the imposing Lyceum Forum, a large university gymnasium with an imposing crowd and a lot of noise to greet the visiting Australians. While the Filipino college students were not overly tall, they made up for this with absolute tenacity and a very physical playing style. The lead see-sawed back and forth in the first half before a 14-1 run by the Lyceum Pirates took the half-time score to 21-35. An excellent third quarter for the Sports Ambassadors, who had adjusted to the playing style, brought the lead down to 2 before five new players came out for the Pirates and ran the Aussies off the floor with their aggressive defensive techniques.

Lyceum ran out winners 76-62 and Andrew Stock gave his testimony in front of a large crowd of onlookers. Many of the players hung around after the game and chatted about where they were at in their lives, their aspirations and life in the Philippines. It was a good chance to see the style of play that the university teams of Manila have to employ to be competitive with other teams.
An early wake-up call of 3am is on the cards as we head to the friendlier Dumagete City for the start of our provincial tour of Negros Oriental with Pastor Gary Visitacion.

We appreciate your prayer and support as we journey through this province.