Blog Post #8

Family and Friends,

Here is a picture of my friend Bobby and I, from a couple of weeks ago when we played his team...

Probably going to be a little shorter this week... was a busy, and the week went by really fast... I hope everyone is doing well.. please fell free to email me any concerns or prayer requests, it would be an honor and delight to pray for anyone... ben_beran@hotmail.com

This week we played one game on Friday night April 23 at Kalamunda Eastern Suns... I knew it was going to be a tough fight... We were on top of the league standings before the game, so that means every team is going to be gunning for us... esp this team, bc we have a lot of connections to these guys either through players or coaches...
with all that aside they had been having a tough season, but have the talent to be a good team... A couple of their players had been hurt and are now back, making them full strength... with all that said, it was a battle...
after the first quarter we were up 30-21, we came out really well got after it right away...
at half time it was 62-51... the end of the third it was 91-85... we had chances to put them away, but didn't and it would cost us in the 4th...
we ended up loosing 119-114... we struggled to stop them in the 2nd half... they have one of the best players in the league and he had 41 points...
As you can imagine I was really disappointed after the game, we had it won and just didn't finish well down the stretch... I personally made a lot of mistakes and know it's going to be a game to learn from... just had to get back to work this week and get ready for a big upcoming weekend...
I finished 34 points and 7 rebounds...

this week I really kept busy with studying and preparing for the weekend...
I took a couple tests for my classes, haven't got the results back yet but know I did well on them...
Also along with studying for the tests, I spoke on the Sunday night service and gave a sermon on the word Shalom... it was a great experience and am really thankful for the opportunity to share and preach the Gospel... I guess they put it up online, here is a link for anyone who wants to listen to it...
http://lakeside.asn.au/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=132
I was nervous at first and I know I talked really fast... I just pray that in spite of all my failures that the word of God shined through and that the message was clear to all about the Shalom we have because of what Christ has done on the Cross...

I did have a great weekend... Saturday after the Friday night game, I got up early to see the sunrise, read and have a little coffee and get ready to go out on the water with a friend from Lakeside... He owns a boat and wanted to take Luke and I out... we did a little wake boarding, which was a blast... even though I could never get up and ride... maybe next time... It was just a beautiful day tho, sunshine, calm waters, and most all great people...

Back to Sunday... After the Sunday night, I went and hung out with a couple buddies that came up to listen to me preach... these are the same brothers that I do Bible study with once a week... was really thankful to see them and hang out with those guys...

all in all it was a great week... Have a tough few weeks ahead, with double headers and a long trip out to the middle of no where for a game...

want to leave you with one thing, Colossians 1:19-20... Didn't have this in my sermon but would have fit well...
19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

So this Jesus is God, as it says in vs 19, and the fullness of God dwelt in Him... so when you read or see Jesus, that is God in the flesh... on to verse 20, so we as humans are separated by God, bc of our sin nature and that we sin by choice, are separated by God... and bc of that Christ came to reconcile us back to God... reconcile means to make things right, restore a broken relationship... so through the cross of Christ we have restored fellowship with God, by placing your hope In Jesus and giving your life to Him we have restoration... and we are accepted in His sight as sons and daughters of God...

Shalom,
Ben

Team Huddle, our new jerseys are sweet, especially compared to the lightning bolts, haha

 

Blog Post #7

Friends and Family,

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks since I have last written to you... I have had a very busy, couple of weeks... summary, 2 games, a couple basketball camps, a couple fun weekends of activites and friends to meet up with...

I have been craving biscuits and gravy for the past couple of weeks... which causes a problem when you are in Austalia, because they don't have that here... also what they call biscuits is what we call cookies... so to say do they have biscuits and gravy sounds a little odd to them... so today I decided to embark on a journey to see if they had what it took to make B&G in austraila...
First, at the store they don't have the grands biscuits in the grocery... So I had to make my own, looking up a recipe on the internet I made my own biscuits... then I was looking for sausage, they don't have pork breakfest sausage in stores here... so I had to go with the next best thing, but probably better anyway, bacon...
needless to say when it was done it was a hit from both American and Aussies alike... its only a matter of time before it comes a custom down here, haha...

The Friday after Easter we played the Perry Lakes Hawks... my good friend Bobby Kempf plays for them, but he is out right now due to some knagging knee issues... Hope he is back playing in a couple of weeks for his sake, I know it's hard to not doing anything and being in another country... for those who don't know I hurt my knee last season in Germany and was out for 6 weeks, it was a long hard six weeks, but the Lord was faithful during that time and grew closer to Him because of the hard times...
back to the game... so it wasn't much of a game, we lead 34-19 at the end of the first and just kept control of the game the rest of the time... they didn't play great but we came out with a lot of energy and got right after them from the git-go... we ended up winning 117-78... I had 27 points and 13 rebounds...

the saturday after the game, i didn't have anything going on so I went with Bobby down to Fremantle to see some sights... we went to a few of the tourist places, and since its a sea port they have a lot of things about boats there, like museums and things of that nature... but also in Freo they have a shut down prison that you can tour... so we did that... its a pretty cool tour but also really eery...
I really wanted to watch Shawshank Redemption after touring the prison... one of the best movies ever made...

on sunday, April 11 I woke up went to church and then starting in the afternoon for the next 3 days we had a basketball camp at Lakeside... they have a league here called WABL, so these kids will play in that league and I am a coach of the 14 and under boys team, it's great opportunity to be an influence on some kids and meet a bunch of new people...so kids, coaches, and supervisors brought sleeping pads, clothes and gear for 3 days of excitement... I had to stay over for 2 nights and was busy most of the day with the team and working out when I had the chance to... i wasn't really looking forward to it before it started, but as most things go, once I was there and saw how great the opportunity was to be with a bunch of kids and be around the game of ball and share life with people, basically I was humbled quickly and enjoyed the days with my team and people at the camp...

So the camp ended on tuesday at 4 then had practice at 6 that night... so i was shot at the end of that, came home went to bed and woke up on wednesday and helped out at a basketball camp that the Perth Wildcats were putting on... earned a little money for working there and that night went out to eat with Allie Fredricks and her friend Frank... I still find it crazy that I am on the other side of the world and have so many friends here and especially one that I grew up with... the saying is true, it really is a small world...

Had a game on that Friday verses the East Perth Eagles... the crazy thing about that team is that they have 3 guys that are 7 foot or taller... one guy is 7'3", I'll try and get a picture up of us, I am tiny compared to him... we had a game plan to run them and just out work them... turns out it worked right from the beginning... our team is in pretty good shape and we run well, and guys that big can't do for 12 mins a quarter let alone 48 mins a game... so jumped out to a pretty good lead 34-24 at quarter time... then at half were up 56-43 and we finished really well and won 106-84 and our starters didn't play much in the 4th... i finished with 12 points and 4 rebounds... didn't play that well, but did what the team needed me to do to win... our gaurds had a hay day, was great to see them play well...

The day after the game, I woke up early to help a group of people that were going to serve at a families home that just lost their father in December... the church was getting together to help finish some of the repairs to the home and help paint and just fix up some things around the house... was a great opportunity to see the community of beleivers at work... also that passage in James 1:27, helping widows and orphans, that's true religion, it's expressing the relationship I have with Jesus in a real way to others... I don't say any of this to boost myself... I was honored to help out a family and show the love of Jesus to people who are hurting in ways I can sympathize with...

to end the weekend, I went to church on sunday morning and then drove down to mandurah with Bobby to meet up with my AIA guys, it had been a couple of weeks since we had seen each other, so it was great to catch back up with them... we got together and talked about ball, life, studied the Bible and prayed for one another... was a great time of fellowship and was a great way to end the weekend with some brothers...

My prayer lately for myself and to people I meet with and pray with has been "open the eyes of my heart or their heart." I know the song and so do many people, just never knew where i came from or really what it meant... It comes from Ephesians 1:18 and it was penned by the Apostle Paul who was praying for the people at Ephesus and around the world...
Ephesians 1:18-"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints"
I guess what I was getting to is that my prayer is to know Jesus more everyday and that is my prayer for you... that's the gist of the song and this verse, what Paul is saying I pray you understand the hope you have because of Jesus, what He has done for you, what you have coming to you, your inheritance by being a son of God, by knowing Jesus you have that hope, we have been redeemed by Jesus, our relationship has been reconciled back to the Father by Jesus, we get heaven because of what Jesus has done, our sins are forgivin because of what Jesus did on the cross and rising again to new life for us... Open the eyes of our hearts to understand how great it is to have Jesus, we get heaven things of this world won't and don't meet up to that because it's where Jesus is... It's perfect...

Love you all, have a great week...
Ben

My address

Ben Beran
1 Dickenson Way
Booragoon, WA 6154
AUSTRALIA

Just thought I would send this out to those of you who asked for it...
God Bless
Ben

Blog post #6

Friends and family,
Hope everyone had a great Easter celebration!

Sorry I am late getting this weeks blog out.. been a crazy weekend and Monday is a public holiday in Australia so I spent some time with friends and my host family on Monday day and night...

Been a crazy past week... just gonna talk about my last game on thursday and the Easter weekend... want to put up a couple pictures but not gonna be able to bc the internet conection is slow... but will as soon as I get the chance... got some great photos from our last game, also a couple video clips, thanks to Kym Chegs, aka mama Chegs...

We had a homegame last Thursday vs Wanneroo Wolves... it was a tough game for us... I could tell from the opening tip that it was gonna be a battle the whole night... for us i think we were just a step slow and didn't take them serious enough... at the end of the first we were down 26-22... at halftime we were tied 49 all... at the end of the 3rd we were up by 2 76-74, but just couldn't put them away... i think we led by as many as 8 but they were shooting well and our defense was a step off the whole night and they stuck right with us... becasue at the end of regualtion it was tied at 98... we had the game won but didn't take care of the ball down the stretch or excute and they hit a couple big shots to send it into overtime...
in overtime we again had it won, we were up one with the ball and 8 seconds left and turned it over they made a layup and got fouled... the ball went out after the missed free throw and we called a timeout and got the ball at half but didnt get a good look loosing by one... 110-111... it was a very discouraging night, because there was a lot of things that could have been done differently to seal the win... just didn't think defense was great and rightly so bc they shot 50% on the night and 60 from the 3 point land...
I finished with a career high 47 points and 8 rebounds...

The loss on a thursday night kinda put a damper on the weekend... but got up early on friday morning because I couldn't sleep and got ready for the Good Friday service at Lakeside... I really enjoyed the service and was super excited because my host family all came with and heard the Gospel message, my friend Anthony Palmeri, who is one of the pastors at Lakeside gave the message... He talked about what really happened that Friday some 2000 years ago... and how Jesus was beaten almost to death, one lashing from death in fact... had to carry a used dirty cross covered in other filth, then at calvary hill was nailed and hung on the cross for 6-7 hrs and finally gave up His life, and assure His death they peirced Him in the side... the crazy thing is He did that for us, becoming our sin, taking away our sin, on that day... it was a very humbling morning after a night of playing ball, so wake up and see how little the night before actually meant in light of eternity and Gospel message shared that morning...

I was able to go to the beach that day and enjoy the wonderful weather and water that helped my sore body from the night before...

on saturday I kinda took it easy, since I didn't sleep much the night before I slept in, also it was cloudy and rained a bit that day so I kinda lounged all day and read and watched a little tv... that night I went out to eat at a friends house and then picked up my friend John Vaudreil, who played for Kal, one of the other teams in the league... thankful that I got to spend time with him and share about how things are going where he is in Australia...

On Sunday, we woke up early to read and pray and ate some brekky(breakfest in Aussie)... we read through the dead, burial, and resurrection story in book of Matthew, and talked thru a couple things...
Then we went and picked up a friend who plays for Geraldton, Ryan and his wife Stacy, had a great time taking them to church and spending time with them all sunday and monday showing them around Perth... also great to get to know their stories... just really thankful for the friends and families down here that are taking care of me and open their homes to us, not just me but all the american guys that are alone on holidays...

it was a great Easter weekend, really missed home and spending time with the family... Easter has a really special signifigance in my life because it brings up what Jesus did for us on that day 2000 years ago... but also during college and when I was growing up it was time for family to get together and I loved how the weather was warming up and the grass would be turning green and life was starting back up with planting and calving...

love you all, Shalom..
Ben