One week in...

The more I'm hanging around the PanAm games, the more I love it (and miss playing). These last few days we've been at the Village meeting players and coaches. Today I met a girl from the US basketball team that was involved in AIA doing a summer camp in Canada last summer. It was great meeting her because she was really excited about AIA and in God's perfect timing, we're going to the U.S. basketball game tomorrow and I'll know someone that I can cheer for.

These last couple days have been really encouraging because we've been meeting with 3 Cubans that are really excited about what God has done in their lives. One of them, a fencer at the games, has come back to the chapel for refills on DVD's that he's handing out to other athletes and telling them about Jesus. He's handed out hundreds of DVD's and talked to just as many people. The scary part is that he has a lot hidden under his bed to take back to Cuba. Or, better said, smuggle back to Cuba. Is he gets caught trying to bring them back, he could get into alot of trouble. Pray for his safety! His committee leader has told him that they know he's a Christian and if they catch him talking to other people about that, they'll send him back to Cuba before the games finish.

We took a tour of downtown Guadalajara on a double-decker tour bus. It's beautiful down there! I took a bunch of pictures that I'll try and get posted soon. We went to a ridiculously crowded market... it was one of those markets that has hundreds of stands but everyone of them sell the same trinkets. I'm not a big fan of those kind... they're pretty depressing. We were able to try the typical food of Guadalajara which is a torta ahogada. It's basically a sub with pork inside and covered in tomato sauce, onions and radishes. That's the gringo version. The Mexican version is dipped in Chili sauce so it basically burns your insides. Why anyone would actually enjoy swallowing fire is beyond me but power to them.

Last night there was a concert put on by some of the local churches that was called, "La Paz es posible" which means, "Peace is possible." It was in a plaza in front of the Basilica which is a church that was blessed or dedicated by the Pope just 3 or 4 weeks prior. There were about 2,000 people there and about 8 different Christian bands that were all really good! The Gospel was shared throughout the concert with testimonies given in between bands. It was pretty amazing. The grand finale was a rapper named Marto who had an incredible testimony about being brought from a life of drugs and violence but was saved and now spends his life ministering to others through music about how God saved him. It was legit :) At the end there were a handful of people who decided to devote their lives to Christ for the first time!!!!

I've able to go see a couple of different games since I've been here. We've seen rowing (first time I've ever been to rowing), women's soccer (Mexico vs. Chile, Brasil vs. Argentina ) and women's basketball (Canada vs. Brasil, U.S. vs. Argentina). We're going to some more women's basketball tomorrow (U.S. vs. Mexico, which will be ridiculous, and Canada vs. Jamaica). I found out the other day that there's a girl that's playing for Canada's team that played at my college while I was there!! Small world!!!

I'll do better at keeping this bad boy going (and by bad boy, naturally I mean this Blog). There's been not a whole lot of down time since we've been here. Please keep praying for all the athletes here and that we know who to talk to, and for rest for our team because we're having some long days :).... but it's totally worth it! Love you all and hope you're doing great!