Rio 2015

Games and Gardens

Our team was able to sleep in a little later today! Breakfast was at 7 am and we departed at 8. We arrived at a special prayer garden around 8:30 am. Sharon lived in Brazil for 20-plus years in this area and invited us into CIEM- a training school for missionaries and religious education for women. She had a prayer garden constructed for people to enter into and have a quiet place to experience the Lord’s presence. Betty gave a devotional and the team sat in reverence as she spoke. We saw small monkeys in the tree canopy above, cacao trees and a red Pau Brasil tree – an endangered tree that takes a long time to grow.After spending some quiet time in the garden, we headed for the gym to play our second game of the Rio journey.
Our opponent, Manguiera, is one of the top teams in Brazil with several players having national team experience. It was another tough physical battle on the court and great competition. A Belmont second half run with excellent execution and post play gave the Bruins a comfortable 15 point lead to finish out the game and win, 73-59. After the game, players from each team exchanged apparel to commemorate a great day of basketball and friendship.
We then departed for an hour and a half bus ride through beautiful mountains and finally arrived at our destination = dinner! A delicious buffet and endless platters of fish, lasagna, chicken lasagna, steak, pasta, rice, sushi. The team was in heaven! The grand finale was the banana and chocolate pizza. Sounds different but it was worth the wait! We ended the day with some beach time for the team. The water was cold and the waves were strong- but we all had a great time!
We were able to sit with Sharon Fairchild for a moment and get some of her thoughts from the past few days:
“My expectations were two-pronged; we see this with teams that come down. The team thinks they will be doing something entirely different than they are doing and what happens is it changes them and it changes the people that they come into contact with. So the mission journey’s effect them as deeply as it does the people they are ministering to. But I think the thing I hoped for the most is that the girls would be able to give a little bit of hope and expectation to the children. A couple of the schools said for the first time they had an experience and hope that they could do something more than what they’ve been doing. That’s what it’s all about. Giving people hope that there is something better. That there is something more.”
Natalie Cohlmeyer- “I think today’s game went really well. We got off to a slow start but after we got comfortable we played really well and played together as a team. The other team was really physical but it was good for us because it made us stronger. It will help us later on in the season.”
Kia Perry – “Today, we went to the CIEM prayer garden and I really liked it. It was very peaceful and I was able to relax. You’re able to concentrate on God and what we were doing so it was a very fun experience minus the bugs that were crawling in my boot (due to my torn Achilles). We went to this nice restaurant that kept bringing food so I didn’t know when to stop eating! My favorite item was the banana pizza with ice cream.”
Lauren Thompson – “The prayer garden this morning was very beautiful and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was very peaceful being able to pray before our game. It was nice to hear Betty’s message before the game and have some down time as well. The game was a little more aggressive but everyone was so nice afterwards. We were able to get to know some of the players after the game and one of them, Isabella, played in the US at a Division 2 university and was able to help translate for us.”
Coach Cameron Newbauer – “We had a very competitive, physcial game with Mangueira today.  The first half we really struggled with their physicality and turned the ball over too many times, which lead to us being down at the half. We were proud of how our ladies responded in the second half by playing stronger, tougher and being more physical especially on the offensive end. Today’s opportunity helped us grow in a number of areas and overcome adversity as a team.  Offensively, we shared the ball really well and had balanced scoring attack.
“This experience has been very beneficial for us in so many ways and especially on the court. It has provided an opportunity for us to play under our new game (rules) structure and adapt accordingly.  We have a number of young players and this has helped them begin to understand the level of intensity and effort that is required in order to be competitive.
“We have really been impressed with our upperclassmen and how they have been tutoring/coaching their new teammates and helping them learn.  I have seen a lot of growth in individual players as well as our collective group and cannot wait for our next day here!”