A De-brief, but not Brief

 The last day with the girls' basketball team was full and fun, thus why I am writing this blog a day later. We went to church at the Casa Verde. The pastor was American, but the sermon was in Spanish. He spoke slowly enough that some of us Spanish-learners were able to keep up.

This is the entrance to Casa Verde. The church was called Mosaico.

We accidentally showed up 30 minutes early. Since Mexicans usually show up 30 minutes late to everything, we were the whole congregation for a good 45 minutes.

After church, one of the captains from the UDLAP basketball team, Mo-mo joined us for a tour of downtown Puebla. She has been faithfully attending many of our events. God is tugging at her heart. We are going to meet with her this week and go through the AIA Principles. Many of the girls down here are Catholic, so talking about God is not unusual. However, they lack the personal relationship with Jesus. Praying that this will click in Mo-mo's life as she desires to know more and meets with the AIA girls.

 The afternoon flew by with tacos, juice, churros, and market shopping.

For the basketball tour's last hurray in Mexico, we went to a unique restaurant called Pampas. They had an extensive salad bar buffet where you would fill your plate. The meat came to the table on these long skewers (shown below). There were so many choices, and you could eat until you were satisfied. The meal cost 20 America dollars here, when in America the equivalent restaurant would probably be $60!

 It was overwhelming at times having all these waiters surrounding your table with more food. We got to try salmon, turkey sausage, cow tongue, some kind of intestines, lots of chicken, and more. No one left hungry. :)

 Shelley, Mo-mo, Marnie, and Erica enjoying their meal.

They brought out a roasted pineapple covered in cinnamon for dessert. Delicioso!

Supper was followed with de-brief at John and Natalie's house. We filled out evaluations of the tour and ran through what was to be expected with the return home. 

This tour has opened up more doors at UDLAP. The coach at UDLAP posted the following message on Marnie's Facebook page:

"I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart all of the team from ATHLETES IN ACTION that came to our campus, entered my teams and my life and had an opportunity to teach all of us a thing or two about not just basketball but life.

Thank you for kicking our *** twice, but more importantly teaching my girls a few lessons off the basketball court as well.

NEXT SEASON!!!! LETS DO IT AGAIN!"

  

The coach is not a Christian. In fact, he was closed off to Christians for awhile. Now, however, he invites the AIA girls to all his practices and has a great respect for them. This tournament has only added to the credibility of Athletes in Action. 

The de-brief ended after we circled the room 9 times encouraging each girl. It was a great exercise, but it lasted until 2 am. We then returned to the dorms to pack up and leave at 5 am for the airport! Not quite a brief de-brief. :)

This next week on the Mexico-side we will be following-up with some girls who expressed interested in the AIA principles. I love how AIA only sends out short term mission projects where follow-up is possible and will take place.

Thank you for following the 2012 AIA basketball tour!