Athletes in Action News and Commentary

Cali, Colombia: The Piano Experience

Hola a todos!! Are you guys ready to hear the experiences we had in Cali, Colombia?! I apologize for being disconnected for quite a while, but please know that we did not forget about you. Cali is been a beautiful place full of amazing experiences. This team has faced many trials while here in Cali, Colombia. Here is what we have gone through during our trip here in Cali, Colombia.

On Thursday, our AIA group got ready to go to a nice school to give a clinic. The clinic was pretty cool because it was outside and the kids actually spoke English. It was pretty interesting. It was pretty hard to get them engaged because they did not seem to be too impressed with what we were doing. However, the power of God is much bigger than that and He made it known as some of the guys shared their testimonies.  These kids loved one of the junior group guys, Austin. I told them that Austin knew Justin Bieber and that he has also been in some High School Musical movies…as you may know these kids went crazy and showed their love maybe not for Austin but for the Justin Bieber fever…More...

Cartagena, Colombia: Little things make a big difference

Hey everyone! In this blog session I want to share our experience during our last day in Cartagena, Colombia. The day started with us waking up to another beautiful day. We all knew this day was special because it was our last day in Cartagena. As a result we were not going to let anything get in the way to ruin this day for us. In the morning, Diana, Haim, and one of her friends took us to the market to get some discounts on souvenirs. Many of us were able to get some goodies to bring home. We also had the chance to go to a Colombian version of Starbucks, known as Juan Valdez and it was quite delicious. Unfortunately, on our way back one of our players had the misfortune to lose his wallet. Although Ben M. lost his wallet, he showed us that God is greater than any material thing one has. He was obviously a little disappointed but he never complained about it. Ben actually made a really good point as he said that being here with a bunch of like minded guys is much greater than anything that could happen to him. This is the attitude this group has felt toward one another as the days have passed by.More...

Cartagena, Colombia: Heaven on Earth

Hola from Colombia. In this blog I want to share about what AIA group did on Monday. Monday was actually a holiday here in Colombia. Except when you asked the Colombians what holiday it was…they were clueless…Monday was a dream came true for this special group. The day started with us waking up to a beautiful and sunny day. Obviously, the Lord blessed us with a beautiful day for the beach. Dianna and Yira, two of the ladies from the church here at Colombia, helped us to find a ride on a boat to the islands. We were all excited to see what the Lord had to show us through nature and his creation. As we get on the boat and started to ride the boat, we started to observe different houses and places along the coast. We also noticed that the water started to turn bluer and greener. More...

Cartagena, Colombia: Victory Beyond Competition

Hi everyone, hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the blog posts so far. In this session of the blog we would like to share our walk with the Lord during the last couple of days. On Friday, team AIA went to a ‘colegio’ (what they called in here high school) for a clinic session. As we started to get some shots off, we found ourselves surrounded by a multitude of kids willing to play and have a good time with us. Each and every one of us spent time with the kids. However, it seemed that the kids created a special bound with one of our players specifically, Anthony M. As Ryat, the director of AIA here in Colombia, introduced each one of the players, the multitude of kids were patiently waiting for Anthony’s name to be mentioned. As soon as his name was mentioned, Anthony received a great round of applauses and chants that our Coach Ryan L. had started before. These same kids were also the ones who surrounded Anthony with hugs and asking him for his autograph. Believe it or not, Anthony is our Justin Bieber for these kids, especially the girls. They all love him. Nonetheless, he is great with the kids. More...

Cartagena, Colombia: It’s A Jungle Out There

Well today was a rough morning for many of the guys, including myself…Unfortunately, our friendly friend “diarrhea” visited us throughout the night and the morning. We thought we were safe eating all this Colombia delicacies would be good for our bodies; however, we soon found out it was not. Although many of us were struggling and having upset stomachs, we still got up early and had our daily team meeting. This team meeting consisted of worship songs led by one of our juniors guys Zack. We all sang Shout to the Lord. Afterwards, we went deep into our principles and discuss principle three, Holy Sweat and our fourth principle Hurting for Certain. Holy Sweat consisted of us acknowledging that just as we all follow an off-season plan to become better basketball players, we must come up with a plan to follow regarding our walk with God. On the other hand, Hurting for Certain taught us to learn to trust our Lord even in the most difficult trials. Despite our upset stomachs, this was a wonderful team meeting and we got a lot out of it. We then proceed to walk to our normal eating place “Los Frijoles.” Today, breakfast consisted of arepas with cow cheese, two slices of bread with jelly, omelet, banana, and milk. This was a very good breakfast; however, we were not able to drink the milk. James R. explained the flavor of the milk this morning as he said, “I swear to God, this thing is simply half-n-half…”

We then walked back to the coliseum and started to practice. Practice was very short since we had a game at night. We put up a lot of shots which helped us to obtain our first international W as we hit 12 shots from behind the arc. After practice, we head to lunch which consisted of another delicious Colombian meal. We had a three course meal today. Our first course was a soup that called asopao and the second courses consisted of rice, beef, and fried plantains called “tostones” By this meal, most of the guys were feeling better on their stomachs so it was fair game for us. We took over the food court as we found out that it was our server’s, Diego, birthday. We loudly sang Happy Bday to our Colombian friend and brought him a chocolate birthday cake which became our third course of the meal.

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