UPDATES FROM WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MINISTRY TRIP TO CZECH REPUBLIC

The women’s basketball team completed their seventh sports ministry trip to the Czech Republic this spring. During the trip, head coach Skip Lord provided periodic updates by email and two players (Meredith Grausam and Jessie Trump) sent back journal excerpts about their experiences.

Coach Lord’s Update

Players’ Journal Excerpts

Czech Republic Update from Coach Lord

Monday, May 24

Well, we are here. It has been quite an interesting start to the week. It stormed really badly in Toronto so we had to sit there for quite a while. Our flight, which was originally scheduled for 10:15 pm, actually ended up taking off around 12:20 am. Once we got airborne, things went smoothly. The long, 4 hour, lay-over in Vienna turned out to be a blessing. Most of the people on our flight missed their connections since we were so late, but we just ended up with a shorter lay-over. We made it from Vienna to Prague, but were a little late, so the bus John had scheduled for us had to be rearranged. The team ended up on a different bus and got into Brno about 11:45 pm. By the time they got on another bus and made it to the Ministry Center it was after midnight.  That made for a really long day, so we let folks sleep in for a while this morning. We had a Team Time and orientation at 10:30, followed by lunch and the rest of the day in programming. We did playground ministry here at the Majak and finished off with music until the kids left around 9:30.  The game they had scheduled for today got cancelled so we played for fun on the Majak court against the staff and some of the kids. Although this day ended up not being as busy as was originally intended, it was probably good. With not leaving until Saturday, it was good for the team to have a day to Phase in." Tomorrow will be much busier. We have to finish breakfast, clean up and leave for a clinic at a school by 8:00. We will come back for playground ministry and then play our first game at the local sports center. 

Wednesday, May 26

Hello from the Czech Republic. We are just wrapping up another jam-packed day of ministry here in Brno. It is 11:15 pm here and we have had two non-stop days of action. As I have shared previously, this is a smaller group than normal. We have seven players, three leaders and two musicians for a total of 12 people. We have started the last two days with clinics at a local high school. These are basically PE classes where we come in and teach some BB, get the kids involved and invite them to the other activities at the Ministry Center.  Both days we have seen a significant number of new faces at the Majak because of these contacts. After lunch we do what we call playground ministry from 2-5:00 each day. This can be pretty intense with our small numbers. We have kids playing BB, sand VB and soccer, along with all kinds of inside games.  This can get quite draining when you are playing full games each night. We lost both games, but have played well in spurts. The better of the two teams was tonight and we were up one at the half, but ran out of steam in the second half. We have also enjoyed the ministry of the music team. They have led the praise and worship part of our Team Times and have been able to share each evening with the kids. We are looking forward to a full-blown presentation on Saturday night. We would appreciate your continued prayers for energy and safety, but most of all we would hope that God will provide specific opportunities to share the Gospel with the kids and to develop contacts for the missionaries to follow up on once we leave. You can also continue to pray for good weather, since so much of what we do takes place outside. It's tough to fit 50-70 kids inside when it rains and more tend to turn out when the weather cooperates. The Field Director keeps commenting on how pleased he is with the work the team is doing, especially the kids. Well, it's late and I'm a slow typer, so I'll close for now. I'll try to get another update out on Friday. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Friday, May 28

Last night we played the "A Team" of the "B Team" that had beaten us on Tuesday. They had also defeated the team that beat us on Wednesday. Believe it or not, we beat them by one point.  The women played together like a team in a way that we haven't seen in a long time. It was a real team effort. They passed the ball extremely well, had good defensive intensity and worked hard on the boards. They were excited to get a win, but even more excited to get the chance to interact briefly with the other team after the game. We then headed back to Majak Ministry Center for more playground ministry with the kids and a great time of music lead by our Music Ministry Team. They are doing a wonderful job and they add so much to what we are able to do. One exciting thing we are doing this year is having a big supper at the Ministry Center for the team, our opponents who wish to come and any of the kids from the neighborhood who are around.  The numbers have been great each night and it provides one more chance to interact with the people here and connect them to the missionaries for on-going follow-up. The other thing we did yesterday was a "Prayer Walk" around the Ministry Center grounds and the city of Brno. It was a great time of individual, small group and corporate prayer for the team and the missionaries who were with us.

Today we visited a private school in Brno where our team got to split up into small groups with the kids from an English Class. They had questions prepared for us and we spent about 50 minutes interacting with them. It was a very good cross-cultural time and one more chance to invite people to the Ministry Center. We had some time to do a little souvenir/gift shopping and went out to a restaurant before going to play our last game against the same team we had played on Tuesday.  We tried hard, but our tired legs just ran out of steam and we lost again, making our record for 5 on 5 games 1-3. The neat thing was that about 10 of the players and coaches from the team joined us for most of the evening at the MC where they got to have supper, play games, enjoy a camp fire and several heard the plan of salvation from some of our team members.

Tomorrow is a huge day and the highlight of the week. We will be up before 7:00 am preparing the facilities for the big 3 on 3 tournament. We have been inviting kids all week. It looks like the weather is going to be good and the turn out looks promising. We will play until about 4:00 and then enjoy a pig roast together. After that, our music team and another band will do "concert" type presentations. We will have someone share a testimony and we will have most of the evening following up with the folks. Please keep this important and exciting opportunity in your prayers.  We have been building toward this all week and are very excited about the numbers and the good preliminary ground work that has been laid. 

Sunday, May 30

This will be our last update from the Czech Republic for this year. We have enjoyed some great ministry opportunities and interaction since the last message. Saturday was the big "Target Event" all week. We have been working hard to get a great turn-out for the 3 on 3 tournament and surrounding activities. We had asked all of you to pray for the weather, since they were calling for rain all day. Well, God answered your prayers and it was a beautiful day. We had between 150 and 200 people depending on who you talked to. There were 16 teams and over 60 people in the BB tournament. All day long, there were kids playing VB and other games in between BB games.  After the tournament, we had two concerts. One was by our Music Ministry Team. They did a wonderful job and really honored God with their music. There is no question that the people were exposed to a quality Christian music experience and heard the Gospel clearly through their work. After that, a local "Oldies, but Goodies" band gave us all a fun time as we listened to their presentation. We wrapped up the evening by enjoying a pig roast together. All in all, it was a great day.

On Sunday we split into two groups. One group went to Prague and supported the guys who were involved in Sports Ministry with the Brno Alligators American football team. The other group stayed and helped with the Czech Worship service in the morning and the English International service in the evening. We did special music and the sermon in the morning and then we led the worship music, shared testimonies and presented another sermon in the evening. We took most of the pastoral staff out for lunch and enjoyed the chance to encourage them. We spent the evening working with the kids on the playground.

Today we are enjoying another beautiful day for ministry with the kids here at the MC. It will be hard to leave, but we are also very excited to get home and see our loved ones again. Please pray that tonight's ministry will continue to be effective and that we will have a safe, uneventful (except for ministry opportunities :) trip home.

It has been a tremendous time together and I'm sure the Kingdom will grow because of the work that has been accomplished over this trip.

From the journals of Meredith Grausam and Jessie Trump

Saturday, May 22

The weather was bad once we arrived at the Toronto Airport, so our plane ended up departing 2 hrs later than planned. Time passed quickly though. We played cards, did some brainteasers that Andy Norton brought, took some walks, read, and listened to music. We ended up leaving for Vienna around 12:30am Sunday morning.

Sunday, May 23

The flight ended up being just under eight hours. Most of us slept, watched some movies, and ate. Once we got to Vienna we had about a two hour layover, which was shorter than expected! We took off for Prague around 4:30 pm; the flight was only an hour long. Our bus to Brno left at 7:00 pm, it took about three hours, and was pretty uneventful being that we all were exhausted. After that, we got off that bus, and rode another for 15 minutes into the Majak ministry center. We arrived at the Majak Center after 12:30 am. We were so tired, so we pretty much just showered and went to bed. BUT..... the place is so nice. The food has been so good, and they treat us so well here. Those of us who saw Majak for the first time were very pleasantly surprised!

Monday, May 24

We woke up at 10, and ate breakfast. At 10:30 we had team time. It consists of singing praise and worship, sharing, talking, praying, and just taking some time out of our day to come together as a team and focus on the day ahead of us. We had some free time to explore the center, which includes paved basketball courts, soccer field, sand volleyball, a nice outdoor patio, a coffee shop, a sanctuary, and much more. Around 2:00 all the kids showed up; we spent about 3 -4 hours before dinner building relationships and playing games. It was so fun; the kids are great. At 5:00 we played a real 5v5 bball game against the Majak staff; they were pretty big fellas, but I think we kept it close! haha maybe. At 7:00 we had dinner with the kids, which was really nice to sit down with them and get a chance to talk and share. After dinner the music worship team played for a few hours, and the kids sat in the cafe and listened. The day was busy but it went really well. God provided many opportunities for us to build relationships and friendships with so many of the Czech kids and people. We really look forward as they come back tomorrow and each day to expand upon those relationships and further share Christ and God's love with them. Tomorrow is more playground ministry, our first game, and much more. Please continue praying for us and the people here. So far we really can see God's hand in everything and things are going great!

Tuesday, May 25

We got up really early and ate breakfast. Then we headed over to a local elementary school to run a clinic. It was a soccer sports school, so they were very interested to learn and hear about basketball. They seemed very enthusiastic and we really enjoyed the opportunities to work with them and teach them some of our drills. We invited them all back to the Majak Center and to come to our game later that day. It was so awesome because we did actually see some of those faces later that day at our game and then many even came back to the center to eat dinner with us, play some games, and listen to the worship group at night.

The missionaries here at Majak seemed very excited and a few of them mentioned that they were seeing a lot of new faces. That is what our big focus is here, to bring in more children for them to minister to once we leave. After the clinic we went back for team time and then ate lunch. They have been feeding us great here, the food is good and there's always a lot of it. We had playground ministry in the afternoon; we just spent more time with the kids playing games and talking. It was nice to see a lot of the same kids back that we had made friends with the day before, but there were also more new kids that we had the opportunity to meet and play with.

Around 5:30 we left for our first game at the sports hall. We played the B team. The sports hall was very nice. When we walked in there was such a pleasant surprise.... we had a crowd of about 20-30 kids and people that we met at the clinics and Majak that were there to cheer us on. Every time we had a steal or hit a shot, they were just screaming. It was such a physical game and we were a little confused here and there about the rules, but overall it went well. But it was tiring since we only have seven people and Jessie wasn’t feeling well, but we had fun. We ended up losing by about 15 or 20. We hope we can pull together a little better in our game tomorrow. After the game we went back for dinner with the kids and people here, and then we listened to the music group worship and just spent some more time with the people. It was a long day and we ended up going to bed pretty late, but it was definitely a fun and productive one.

Wednesday, May 26

Today we slept in a little; I think we ate breakfast around 8:30. Then we went back over to the same elementary school to teach a clinic with a different group of kids. It went well, and once again we brought more kids back to the center later that day. After the clinic we had team time and lunch. And then our day continued into playground ministry. We played a lot of games and basketball. Coach was out there on the courts a lot, and he must have been having a good time because the kids even got him to wear his hat backwards most of the afternoon. haha. Around 5:00 we left for our game at the sports hall; we played a much better team than yesterday. They beat the B team by about 20. We played very well the first half and led by one. We worked very well together and things seemed to be clicking very well. The second half was a little rougher with a few of us getting injured and fatigue setting in... Jessie still isn’t feeling very well, so continue keeping her in your prayers. We finished out the game strong, despite only five girls being able to play the last 10 minutes or so. We stuck together well and played hard, ended up losing by about 15-20 again, but it was a good rough game and still a lot of fun. But we're a little worn out haha.

After the game we went back for a dinner BBQ; it was raining so everyone came inside in the cafe, which provided our worship team with an awesome opportunity to play and have a large crowd of kids listening. We spent the night sharing. Today a lot of salvation bracelets were given out, hopefully seeds being planted, and we pray that they understand the significance of them and are curious to learn more about living a life with Christ as the focus. After the kids left, we spent time with the missionaries on the field here. They are such great people. They have done so much for us: translating, cooking, helping, guiding. I cant even begin to explain, these people are great; they make everything happen and are such an encouragement to us everyday. Continue to keep them and their work here in your prayers. After spending time with them, everyone hit the sack for a good night’s sleep.

Thursday, May 27

Well, we got up at 8:30 today, we ate breakfast and then we had some team time. We spent it praying mostly. It is about the middle of the trip for us, so we are just focusing on staying strong and focused on each task everyday. We went on a prayer walk with two of the missionaries; it was awesome. We went to different places in the surrounding area and prayed for the needs of the people in these places. We prayed for Majak Center, the missionaries, the children, the ministry, (sports & music), the church, the unbelievers and believers of the Czech, just so many important things that we need to continually pray for and about. After the prayer walk we came back for a big lunch. Now we are cleaning up and getting ready for the kids to come for another afternoon of playground ministry. We have another game tonight at the sports hall against the A team, hopefully it will go well and we will all stay safe and healthy. After that we have dinner and more opportunity for ministry and worship.

Friday, May 28

Today we got up early, and went to an English school. It was great we got to spend time with other kids about our age and ask each other questions and talk. They were really friendly and very interested in talking with us and learning more about us. Most of us got some opportunities to share with them, some about our salvation bracelets, and some in explaining what we are majoring in at school. It was nice that we could share in English and meet some new people. It went well and after about an hour, we took some pictures with them and headed off to downtown Brno. From there we walked around and had some free time. Most of us spent that time taking pictures and just sightseeing. Then we ate lunch together at this great restaurant, the food was really good. After lunch we had about three hours to walk around downtown; we just shopped and ate some ice cream and walked around a lot. The city was really neat, lots of shops, churches, cafes, markets and so on.

Then we headed off to our game downtown at 5. Well we were all pretty tired and worn down, but we played with a lot of heart and played a good hard game.... but we lost by quite a bit to a good team. The best part was that we did get to talk with them, and about eight of them and their coach came back with us to the Majak Center and ate dinner, played knockout, listened to music, and sat by the fire. We really enjoyed the chance to get to know them and most of them said they are planning on playing in the 3v3 tomorrow and coming to church on Sunday. It is really exciting because a lot of the kids are coming to church with us on Sunday. We had Little Caesars pizza for dinner... YUM! After dinner we just played games and listened to music. It ended up being a pretty late night, but the day and ministry seemed to go really well.

Saturday, May 29

Today we got up early and headed outside to get the courts ready for the 3v3 tourney. We moved benches, set up tables & music, swept and washed the courts, and just got everything ready for the 3v3 bball, concert, and pig roast. We took turns grabbing some quick breakfast and then before we knew it, it was 8:30 and the kids started coming to register. There was a great turnout.... overall 16 teams, men and women mixed, and various ages. But most teams were older which made for some good competition. We had three Houghton teams. One of our teams ended up being the #1 seed in their bracket (there were 4) and moved on to the final 8, but lost to the champion team (a group of 3 gigantic men, haha). Our other Houghton girls’ team ended up being drawn into our bracket and we played each other the first game. It was fun. They also did well and it looked like everyone was enjoying the competition. The third group was the Houghton guys (Andy Norton, Coach Lord, and Jeff Clark). They did very well, getting second seed in their bracket, and also playing in the final 8. Overall the tournament was really fun and competitive; all of our teams did very well.

During the tournament we had music and an announcer, which some of the girls and Mr. Clark really enjoyed doing...a little bit of being a DJ and keeping the clock. Trying to countdown from 10 in Czech and English at the same time was pretty funny to listen to. After the tourney, music was set up on the patio. IT WAS AWESOME. The worship band did a great job and there were so many people there. A lot of parents and adults came, which was neat because it was something we hadn’t seen all week.

After playing, Mr Clark even had the opportunity to share with the people a little bit about our salvation bracelets and why we chose to live our lives with Jesus Christ as the center and focus. That was just another awesome opportunity that God provided for us. We had a pig roast and most people ate that and listened to music, but after watching them carry in the pig and cook it, a few of us did stick to the rolls. Haha. After our team played, there was another group of fathers and sons and a few older fellas that played oldies, and sang (most of them in English). They were pretty good and everyone really seemed to enjoy the music.

After a capture the flag tournament, we headed in to clean up around 10 or so, and now it’s about 11:30 pm and we're showered and ready for bed. Tomorrow is church, football game in Prague, another church service at night, and some other things. Today was great, and the weather was awesome. The tourney and concerts were a success and the time we have been spending with the Czech people everyday is such a blessing.