I recommend you read part 1 of The Warrior vs. the Explorer
It's taken me nearly 14 years to get back to the Philippines. And if its a bookend this time around., it's a fitting one as I'm here, with intention to use basketball. In that, it is just like the first time. In '99, the goal was to get on with a team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). So I came over having sent my footage ahead. I remember getting here and thinking, "I don't. Even know where to begin." Cell phones weren't a part of my regular rotation yet. But I eventually worked out for this one team and a week or two later was on my way back stateside. Thought I'd be back the very next year but by Janury of 2000 I was in seminary gettin" drowned in heady speak about the Yahwist and Elohist blah blah blah.
All these years later there's still Jolibee everywhere, basketball craze and traffic. But I'm here in a position to learn oh and my wife came too. She wasn't here in '99. Not sure she would have been down with who I was then anyway Lol. But this time I have a team with me of phenomenal people ready to serve and receive. This time basketball has a utility that can't be stifled. And yet the first trip is inextricably connected to the second because 6ixth Man was birthed from the first trip. SUBMISSION TO TRUTH may have been solidified during the uncertainty of whether I would ever play professionally. It was in the Philippines and on the plane home that I had to admit I wasn't able to control destiny the way I'd anticipated up to that point in my life. Tenacity is one thing but nothing could dispute that the PBA was out of reach and quite frankly it was a motive purifier. It's quite possible that last 14 years have been my condensed wandering in the wilderness. Being back here could be a passage through to promised land of contentment in simply "going hard" to share both the authenticity of Jesus Christ's ethos and have closure. There's a big picture and maybe now I'll ne able to see it in serving kids who have far less than I did. Good to be back in the land of Lumpia and Adobo Chicken. #longroad #2wisdom