Today we were down in the inner city of Chicago at Marshall High School practicing, enjoying a tour of the United Center, and then scrimmaging, again at Marshall High School. It was a great experience being there, and the staff and students were great and treated us with a ton of hospitality. We started out the day with practice, them took a tour of the United Center. We were able to hang out in the Bulls locker room and see the floor level of the United Center. This was pretty sweet to spend time where NBA players play and prepare for games.
We then returned back to Marshall High School to have some team time where we worked further on our testimonies, and deciding to read the book of Mark as we are touring. We will be reading one chapter of the Gospel of Mark each day.
We then scrimmaged a group of guys who used to play or still play in college, but have some connection to Marshall High School. This was a great experience for our team, and great preparation for our tour of Colombia. We started out a little slow and timid, playing a little careless. During the halftime, one of our players shared his testimony with everyone that was in the gym watching, including the players from the other team. The Holy Spirit was really working through Matt, one of our players, in that he was able to share the Gospel with everyone that was listening. I have great admiration for Matt for being bold and sharing his faith in Christ with other men that come from the same cultural backround.
We played much better in the second half, however we still lost 90-74. Their players played very well and were a great preparation for us. We thank them for coming out to play us, and hope that there was a seed for the desire of Christ in their hearts. It will be our team prayer that someone there was touched by Matt's testimony, and that they will come to have a relationship with Christ.
Tuesday we will be travelling down to Moody Bible Institute and playing a team that they have assembled. We will then take a little time to do downtown to Millenium Park in Chicago, then head to the southside to hear Will Gates speak to the team. Will Gates is a man who was the subject of a documentary called "Hoop Dreams", which chronicled his life during his high school basketball days.
Wednesday we leave for Colombia, and will spend our first week in Cartagena, Colombia, after flying into Bogota. Look for one most update tomorrow night, as we leave for Colombia on Wednesday, and I will not be able to update each day.
