Bryan College Womens Basketball - Saturday
We played in a great game this morning against the National University team coached by Theresa, the legendary Dominican star. It was back and forth for the entire 40 minutes. The score was tied when they scored a bucket with 10 seconds to go in the game. We called timeout immediately and had the ball at halfcourt (like in the NBA). We drew up a play to get the ball to Katie Davis. It worked well and she had a good drive to the basket but was fouled. We had to take the ball out of bounds with 2 seconds because we were not yet in the bonus and it wasn’t a shooting foul. We got a very good look but the shot came up short at the buzzer and we lost by 2. We played well and I was proud of how the girls competed. After the game, we went to walk around and eat at a huge mall. It was essentially our first taste of familiarity since we got here. The stores were unfamiliar and in Spanish and it was very cosmopolitan and modern.
After the mall we went to an orphanage for children of prostitutes. They performed two songs for us in English. It was really touching. One of the little boys (that was in a wheelchair) had us all hold hands and he led us in prayer. He wants to grow up to be a preacher. This is a great ministry. SCORE is also in the process of developing a place for prostitutes that want to leave that lifestyle and come to the Lord.
We finished up our day by going to a sugarcane village. We pulled into this extremely run down village. As we drove the bus through the village, our SCORE missionaries called out that we would be playing games with the kids at the ball fields. It was quite a sight to see all of the little kids running after the bus. We spent an hour in the ball fields blowing bubbles, giving piggy back rides, throwing nerf footballs, playing soccer and throwing frisbees. We wrapped up the time with testimony time and the message of the Gospel.
At the end of our evening, we had group devotionals and talked alot about the greatest commandment and the second greatest commandment from Mark 12:30-31. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” We want to make sure that we are spending time with God and maintaining a healthy relationship with God, much like we’d do with a boyfriend or close relative. We also talked about trying to maintain a “mission trip mentality” when we got back to the States. It is weird that we played with kids and touch kids we probably would never have considered touching or playing with back in the States. Many of us have realized that we can show and demonstrate God’s love to people. We may be the only example of Christ that people see in their lives!!
—Jamy Bechler
