April 17th

I've got a couple days to catch you all up on - I have been trying to reply to people's emails and facebook messages the last couple nights (if I haven't gotten back with you, sorry, I will as soon as I can). And thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments on this blog...even though I don't respond I do read those and am encouraged!
This past Sunday we attended church at the place we are working on rebuilding. They had service under the shelter we built for our breaks while working. Once again I didn't understand the message, but the pastor (in english) did say how appreciative he and the congregation are for the work we are doing. Apparently they have been praying for their building, particularly the roof, to be repaired or replaced for the last 7-8 years! That's a long time to be praying for something, but despite that duration, their prayers were answered thanks to the generosity of this team from Australia. God uses Godly and obedient people to answer prayers!
Sunday night was our first basketball game in the league that I am playing with the kids. We played the defending champions (who are all university players at local colleges). We hung with them but lost by 7. The crowd was ridiculous! It was probably the most exciting atmosphere I have ever played in! We played on an outside court, and there were probably 200-300 people crowded around watching - mostly cheering for us, which was cool. They would scream whenever anything happened, be it a basket or a block, or even just a lose ball. It was a lot of fun even though we lost.
The last couple of nights I have been trying to help one of the girls at Sankey with some of her spanish homework for a college class. Trying to recall Spanish and learn Tagalog, not easy. She is going to school for elementary education, and here they strongly encourage teachers to be ale to speak Tagalog, English, and Spanish! To all you teachers, how would you like that to be a requirement for a job?
Still working on the church. The trusses and half the roof are up now. The stage was poured today, and we only have a few more truckloads to get the rest of the floor inside to the correct height.
I had pizza today!! And it was pizza hut, and it was ham and pineapple (both my favorite)! The Australian team went to visit a church they helped build a few trips ago, and I went with them, and when we got there the pastor had bought pizza, so that was a nice surprise.
I am learning all sorts of Australian phrases. For example - one of the guys had me look something up on the Internet and I went to him this morning and said "I found an answer, " he replied, "how'd you get on?" I said, "oh they have wireless Internet over there and I just used my computer." he laughed because apparently the phrase "how'd you get on" in Australia is just like asking what did you find out. Haha..I thought that was kind of funny.