The Best.

so Fridays and Saturdays are a little different here, a little unique. We take a break from classes and go do evangelism all over. this could mean a whole many different things. Barbaques on the beach...helping old ladies garden....talking with people on the street....or just connecting with people however we can. essentially building relationships. Naturally as a sporty person in a sports focused dts. i wanted to do this through sport. i signed up to go to the western suburbs which is the lowest income level area in Melbourne. a lot of the immigrants make it there, because obviously they have little money and need somewhere to go. so theres not much of a better place to have a go at Evangelism. we went with our friend Faylani who knows the area well and she brought us to the public park with basketball courts, soccerfields and tennis courts. she says this is usually where some of the African guys play ball. some of the Indians play Tennis, and just about everybody else plays soccer as she put it. i went hoping the best. but arriving in a pack of nearly 20- which could easily look overwhelming.. to find only small groups of guys already doing their own thing, i expected it to be tough to integrate ourselves into the activity. obviously as soon as i noticed a few guys playing ball. i watched from a distance. knowing that i had to play. in the few minutes i watched, i could tell, these guys were LEGIT. like not just neighborhood kids messing around. but they play for teams... but still come to the hoops to mess around. sure enough a few from our group offered to have a game. i could tell it probably wasn't the best idea when they offered them vs. us. ( they would have dominated) so i joined in and suggested mixing and splitting the teams. they were game. and thats what we did. we balled. they went tough thats for sure. they really wanted to make it clear that they play for serious. and i absolutely loved that. my team won. and my mates decided that maybe they would call it quits after one. i hoped i could have done that all day tho. so when i noticed the guys from my group leaving and there where 6 Sudanese. I figured that was my chance, and they would prefer to go back to their 3 on 3 game. But no, the one guy Kot, i played real well together with, told one of his friends to take a seat because the 'canadian' was on his team. that was rad, so we played three on three. i wish i could show you video of these guys slammin and jammin, but ill have to get that next week. so we played, intensly, games to 11, after ever game. looked at each other, than someone would say, run it again? and we would play again immediately. after about 5 games of playing full on, in the australian sun, i made the mistake of asking to hold up a sec, i need to go get my water. the one guy litterally asked "whats the water for?" when i told them i was thirsty, they actually laughed. and we just continued playing. i had to remember they were FROM AFRICA. so that was tough. but i had crazy respect for these guys. by the end of it, 2 hours straight or so, im drenched in sweat, dry throat, parched. and these guys wernt the least bit bothered. that was cool, but i think next time im going to bring water anyway. at about 5 the group was rounding up. and looking at me like were about to go. so we finished the game and had a few minutes to talk. we didnt chat much throughout, because of all the balling. so the 2 guys asked me to join their basketball team. and to come to practice thursdays. i had to tell them as much as i would love to join their all Sudanese basketball team, im hear for a different reason and live on a base a little ways away. so that would be tough. but again i was super stoked they offered.

oh then i told them it was a Christian organization i was with and i was a christian and the all immediatly felt they needed to appologize for swearing during our games. so that was funny. but i told em it was cool and nice to get to know them , and i told them that i would likely be back in the area. so i got some emails. and were in contact. i cant wait till friday, so i can run again!

the other thing that was amazing about this. is that for the past week i didnt do much in the way of sports because of my injury. but other than the fact of having no water. i kept up amazingly. also after not playing ball in a while. i was stoked to play at my potential. i feel real thankful becasue i really felt like its necessary to gain their respect first. to eventually build a relationship. so word. good work jesus. glad that day ended up being sick. it really was THE BEST.