Friday, May 23

Where to begin...what an incredible day!.  We started out in Curundu, a community that has been completely transformed over the past 7 years.  When we first visited in 2007, we played with kids on a balcony outside an apartment because it was too dangerous to be out without a police escort.  Now, the school has pre-K through 3rd grade, the shanty town has been replaced by new apartments, and the streets and community are completely redone.  We joined the school for PE class and a clinic, then several players served as teacher's aides for the morning.  The response was incredible!  After the clinic we waited out a rainstorm and an amazing lightning show, waiting to find out about our afternoon clinic.  Finally the police got a bus to bus kids to another location so we could still do the clinic!  It was a small number of kids, but it was an amazing clinic where we once again got to share the gospel both as a group and individually.  Exhausted we headed back to Casa Paraiso for a quick nap and then to our next game.

We played the Jump Shoot Academy Elite team, a talented group that includes former US college players.  Looking back over the last 3 trips this was easily one of the best teams we've played.  Braden Thompson was spectacular in the first half, knocking down 3's and getting to the rim and free throw line consistently, and the Warrior squad built an eight point lead until he went down with an ankle sprain and was out for the rest of the game.  The Jump Shoot team went on a run to close the half, tying the score at 45 going into the break.

Without Braden in the second half it looked like the Warriors were going to struggle offensively, but Brandon Stacker and Brandon Givens stepped in to pick up the slack.  Trailing by 9 early in the fourth quarter, the Warriors roared back, taking a 78-76 lead with under a minute to go.  After both teams missed opportunities, the Jump Shoot team converted a 3 point play with 3 seconds to go.  After a timeout, the Warriors got a clean look at a 3, but were unable to capitalize and lost by a final score of 79-78.  It was a great basketball game, and afterwards both teams shared a few moments as Ted Dower gave a powerful testimony about what God  has done in his life in his time at Sterling College.

Tomorrow we leave bright and early for the Kuna community in Araiijan.  We'll do a clinic in the morning, then after an afternoon at Sterling alum Diego Ferro's house we'll return to do a church service in the evening with the youth band from Crossfire.  Please pray for the Holy Spirit to move powerfully in both the clinic and the service.  Also continue to pray for health.  After almost a week of clinics and games, we're starting to get a little run down...colds, aches, pain, maybe a little sunburn after today.  Sunday will be a much needed day of rest, but we have a big day tomorrow as well.  Also pray for Braden as he wrestles with being injured on a trip like this.  We'll know more tomorrow, but it certainly looks like his movement will be pretty limited for a while.

If you haven't checked out our Facebook page, you can see lots of pics there from the team.  Just  go to:  https://www.facebook.com/ScPanamatrip