Guess Who Is Back...Back Again...

This e-mail just came in today from our youth outreach, city team leader, Dave Clark. We thought we'd share it with you....

Guys,

Yesterday was a VERY long day behind the wheel, but I made it home late evening last night. It was a great trip. The guys did extremely. We had some very interactive devotional times together and focused on the concept of faith - Hebrews 11. All the guys made it to the top of Mount Sacajawea, overcoming fears and thoughts of "this is crazy!" They had a great attitude about coming in Yellowstone and even better attitudes about doing a 6-mile hike to Fairy Falls and Victory Geyser - both very beautiful sights. One of the most stretching aspects, for some of the guys was the relational one, meeting so many new people. Justin and Jason both testified to how stretching this was, but how they really enjoyed it. All of our guys loved our host (Scot Smith - of Bridge Builders' fame), and were all sure to get his phone number and address. He was very moved by the week as well; he shared with tears in his eyes and a limp in his throat on Sunday morning. I will blog more about this trip later on and its impact on me as well.





Quick Warrior update....After we "shocked the world" with our first victory (37-35) on Tuesday, July 22nd, we entered the tournament on Saturday (July 26th) as a "dark horse favorite". In other words, nobody wanted to play the "buzzsaw", also known as the Sunshine Warriors. :-) Due to some family travel and other circumstance, we entered Saturday morning's tournament with only 6 players - 5 sophomores and 1 senior - all under 5'11". However, we overcame out limited numbers and limited size with tenacious, ball-swarming defense (oh, Dave!!!) and fast-paced, "basket-attacking" offense. We outplayed Judson Baptist the entire game. Unfortunately, though, we ended up tied at the end of regulation. In overtime, we seemed to run out of steam and Judson pulled away.

Next up...Uptown Baptist, a team we should have defeated during the regular season. I wanted this one badly, and so did the guys. We again outplayed them and outhustled them the entire games, pulling away with the 6-point victory!

Next up... South Shore United Methodist. After playing two Baptist teams earlier in the day, it was nice to go head to head with "the Methodists from South Shore". It was evident in the early minutes (this being our third game of the day) that the Warriors were running out of fumes. We admit, we played sloppily and just couldn't seem to get anything going right. We kept the game close, but they pulled away in the closing minutes. The guys felt good about their effort in the tournament...and so did their coach.

After the game we took our annual trip to Bacci's Pizza for Chicago's biggest pizza slice. We talked about competing in Breakthrough's Spring league. The Warriors will be back!

Please keep praying with me that the guys on the team, who don't know Christ, would come to know Him.

I look forward to catching up with everybody tomorrow. Right now, I'm getting caught up on some laundry, some reading, and just enjoying not being in a van.

D.C.