One last post

Well I have been home for a week and a half now, but still busy as ever (visiting old friends, preparing for my teacher's certification test, etc.) so now I am finally settling down to post my final update...

Good news is I finally got a team picture of each team in the league and the bible study group--they were my favorite pictures of the summer. Bad news is, as I was setting up for my all night event I noticed my camera was missing. Looks like someone snatched that during the work day (looks like yet again, it was an "inside job"). So I am without those pictures and I am still upset about it.

So my last week went well. The final bible study had the same 20 for the 3rd straight week, which was very encouraging. Afterwards I had one ask me to pray over him and for his family for safe travels to Puerto Rico. Pastor Wittenberg stayed late that night to share a few words and make himself available and the group heard from the fellow Christians that have been helping me about their "Next Level" ministries. Tough part is... continued ministry to these guys will be tough now that the gym is not open every night (only the league continues). Pray for new openings there. My last night with the league was depressing and a relief at the same time. It was hard knowing it was my last night with many of these guys, but still... many of those guys are very tough to deal with--I had a lot to deal with that night! So when it was all over, it was relieving. The last night of league season games was last Thursday (so I missed that and will miss the tournament)--it was nervewracking at first because 2 teams didn't show up for the first two games, but then the next 4 did... So, after a full season the record is as stands:

Dynasty 6-1
Jewtown 5-2 (forfeited last game)
Next Level 5-2
DBB 4-3
P.U.C. 3-4
Tioga Heights B 2-5
Unforgettables 1-7 (forfeited last game)
Tioga Heights A 1-7

Playoffs start this week! Oh, but one more thing about the league. I forgot to mention this story... Remember my statments about the free CDs that were made to pass out? Well before one game as I was saying we had free CDs for them, one of the guys asked if it was me rapping on the CD. I responded with, "Me? haha, nah I don't rap... I'm a white boy from KY!" And he responded with, "Well no one thought you could ball, but you can." So... that made me feel good!

And so then came Friday--my final thing. What a blessing that night was. Chuck Malloy came to the rescue again! He made a generous gift of 12 Pizzas, 6 bags of chips, and lots of soda. We were able to start off the night with a feast and a reminder of the gospel, then we started with the 3 on 3 tournament (6 teams)... after a few rounds we got started on the 3-point contest, probably the fan favorite and the most ghetto thing I've put together. WKU sent me 5 red-and-white Western Kentucky University basketballs, so those were the money balls, and then Elvin (the one who's brother was shot and killed) had his mother-in-law donate about 12 basketballs from her company (Sunoco--gas station), and then I had other basketballs to come up with a total of 25! We had 5 racks, did it just like the NBA... only the racks were a combination of wheeled carts, baby crate, etc... But they LOVED it. And Elvin brought his DJ stuff, so we blared music throughout (and Joey brought by many Christian rap CDs to use)... it was a lot of fun watching contestants dance on the floor, and dance as they shoot. Round 1 had 20, then 10, then 4, then 2... the winner was Billie, the one whom I talked to one-on-one about making a decision for Christ. Then we moved onto the dunking contest. WOW... that was a blast. I printed out a bunch of papers with #s on each so we could do it just like fans do in the NBA contest. I had 5 judges appointed... we had 7 for Round 1, 4 for Round 2... and then it didn't go any further because everyone quit after we all saw Koran's dunk. Koran is a 5'9" guy who can do a 360, through the leg dunk on 10 ft and the contest we had the goal at 9' 3"... he did one dunk and the crowd went crazy--several taped it using the phone, so watching people crowd around the phone to watch the replay 5 times over lets you know it was exciting. It is supposed to be posted on youtube sometime--when it goes up, I'll post it on here. People were so pumped about it, that they just let him do a 15 minute dunk show and didn't even bother finishing out the 3 on 3.. the prize for all of the winners was a WKU bball and a WKU shirt. Basically, the night was a great way to end it all. Guys stayed till 4 AM just chatting and hanging out and helping me clean up. They really expressed their thanks for everything and for keeping them off the streets (which makes it harder knowing I had to leave them with no open gym... at least for now). I will admit, as I locked up the gym for the last time, I teared up.

Yet still, even up to my last week, I was learning more about some horrors of this neighborhood. Jose took me to get a real "Philly cut" (hair cut) and on the way we ran into a crime scene where a murder had just taken place, and then once we get to "Bout Time Barber Shop" we learn that one of the barber's cousin was shot and killed earlier that day... that day there were 2 murders and 3 shootings just within a few miles of the church. Jose told me that from 2007 to 2008, Philadelphia had over 365 murders, more than one a day. The next day Pastor Wittenberg and his wife (Susan) took me out to lunch where I heard some more stories. Susan told me a story when a group of kids got out of school, put animal masks on, and attacked a random guy on the street--Susan had to drive up on the street blaring her horn to scatter the kids as the old man lay there brutally beaten. I had seen a couple school riots from my 2nd floor window, but I did not realize it was a very common thing... and actually, it's hearing that that encourages me even more to teach inner-city... just pray for this area, for change, for God to be glorified.

Some of you all may be wondering: Have you still kept in touch with them? Answer is: some, yes... some, no. Remember, K&A is one of the most poverty stricken neighborhoods... many of these guys run out of minutes on their phone fast. So I can call some and can't get through--it's because they have no minutes--so then I have to wait a couple weeks. But I have been able to talk to some since I've been home. A group of them even plan on coming here to visit and attend my wedding. Pray that works out!

If you have any questions, just ask! (859) 539-7838 or jeffrey.bracken@wku.edu

I will post a few more pictures later tonight (pictures from the Six Flags trip and others).