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