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