Friday, June 1, 2018—Subic Bay Children’s Home, Olongapo City Police Station #4, Basketball Clinic, Family Fun Night, Annual PCC vs. Subic Bay Children’s Home Basketball Game
1Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
First up on today’s agenda was a visit to the police station—not that anyone on the team was bad (although Cortnie seems to be racking up the most “strikes” on the team), but we would have an opportunity to minister to the local police precinct and their staff. We arrived to the New Calaban Plaza which housed a covered basketball arena and at the far end the local police precinct with a couple of jail holding cells. While the team set up chairs for our morning devotional time, a couple team members headed over to the police precinct to meet the local police captain and to have a word of prayer with those that were in the jail cells. It was really touching that while we prayed for these three men that one of them began to tear up and seemed quite touched by the prayer and our love and concern for them. After giving them each a tract and shaking their hands, we headed out to the basketball court for our devotional.
Like we have done several times before, we introduced ourselves in Tagalog and sang a few specials. Sam then shared his testimony after which Josh brought a devotional out of Psalm 15 where he encouraged all those who attended (about 30) to be honest and seek integrity in their dealings with the public. The police who were in attendance along with that precinct’s Commissioner and their staff seemed thankful for our presence and concluded with a group picture.
By this time, many children had shown up and started to register for our Basketball Clinic. The kids were really excited to be there as Coach Coty ran them through some conditioning drills (thanks, Coach Goetsch!) concluding with some mini 5-on-5 games and a shooting contest for some prizes (thanks, Blue Wahoos!). Of course, the Basketball Clinic would not be complete if we had missed the opportunity to share the Gospel (thanks, Tim!) After Tim shared a basic Gospel presentation, several children trusted Christ as their Savior. It was a beautiful sight to see several groups clustered and praying together as children were accepting Christ. Overall, this was a very profitable day spiritually as it was a blessing to be a blessing and to see children trust Christ!
As you could imagine, when arriving back at the Children’s Home and getting some well-deserved showers, everyone laid low for the afternoon and just fellowshipped with the children in preparation the evening activities—the Family Fun Night and the Annual PCC vs. Subic Bay Children’s Home basketball game. The night’s festivities began with pizza for all and since it was Brennan’s birthday, we ended with birthday cake. As the guys began to warm up for their basketball game, the girls had a cupcake decorating contest. The basketball game was intense and even though the Subic Bay team was really good, the PCC team made up of Tim, Sam, Coty, Brennan, and Cave prevailed and played well together. Of course, we did have somewhat of a height advantage over them and the play of the night was, “When in doubt, give it to Coty!”
We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here at the Subic Bay Children’s Home where there is never a dull moment. They have treated us like royalty and have been beautiful examples of servants always trying to meet our needs. We are also appreciative of our chauffeurs who have driven us to all our destinations without incident. Pastor Odek has been a wonderful host to us and Russell has graciously travelled along with us driving the other vehicle. Lastly, it is good to again have Pastor JR along with us during our travels. He is the individual that has put together the incredible/professional trip videos and we’re sure that this one will be no exception. Today, bodily exercise did profit a “little,” but definitely godliness [was] profitable unto all things. Thank you for holding the ropes back on the home front!
In His Service,
Team Philippines
