Day 10

Howzitgoin ;)

Peter and Connor here with your latest update from the very cloudy city of Manila. Yes today we experienced our first taste of rain in this tropical climate. It was very much needed after the long hot days we have been experiencing, anyways what did we do today?

This morning we were inescapably woken up at 5.30am for an early breakfast to be up at Faith Academy by 6am, but it being Manila we didn't get there until 7am ;) so we wolfed down brekky and got up to the oval to set up for the second annual Southern Hills Invitational Soccer Tournament. This tournament is designed for the homeless children in and around Manila to be able to play in a competition and show their skills in a fun and safe environment. It was inaugurated by Southern Hills last year and the competition got much bigger this year. With 16 teams this year the location was moved to the fields at Faith Academy.

Our role on the day was to help set up and run the event. We were linesman, referees, ball catchers, drink runners, food servers and general helpers in our effort to try and help the day run smoothly. It was a very successful day with many teams competing and the level of skill for such young kids in both the under 12's and under 16's was very high. It was such a joy to see the smile on the children's faces as they were having fun playing soccer (on grass!).

During the lunch break there was an exhibition match between our Australian contingent and a highly skilled team of amazing Philippine players was held. (most of them played in the homeless world cup campaign) The previous year the Southern Hills team won the match last year, but sadly this year we were defeated 5-4, though with some very impressive efforts by Kurt, Pastor Pete, Kieran and Nic Dawson who scored in the match. During the game the heavens opened slightly and we were lightly rained on, which was so refreshing for the team, but made the pitch so slippery.
The second highlight of the day for our Australian teams were the 10 second pulled together Under 16 girls team (who were closeish to being 16!) who managed with a huge effort to win the championship game and took it all the way to a penalty shootout. They were nil all at half and full time, they played another five minutes to no avail and then they had three shots each to win the game. Everyones hearts were in their mouths as we waited, the first two goals on each side slotted. The next two the same, then it was the Filipinos turn and the shot narrowly missed hitting the cross bar and bouncing out, then it was up to our girls to take the next shot and win. As we all held our breath time slowed down and we watched the ball sail into the top left hand corner and we had won the game! It was an awesome effort by all the girls on the team who worked so hard to achieve this result and a special mention to the amazing coaching staff of the team, the fantastic coach Peter Janissen and the brains of the operation assistant coach Connor Ferguson. Without their undying will to help urge the girls to victory we might've had the cup slip through our fingers, but we held strong.

Once the competition had been all well and done, we packed up and headed home. We all had a quick dinner and got changed to go out to night church. We drove into the city and went to CCF and huge church in the middle of a shopping centre. It was an awesome service with pumping praise and worship and a very challenging sermon about conviction vs convenience. After we had left the amazingly air-conditioned auditorium we went to a local fine dining experience, Jollibee... It is a mix between Hungry Jacks, KFC and a weird Asian-Italian combination. We all tried a few different things, hash brown burgers, interesting floats and some rice dishes. After our culinary delights we hopped back on the vehicles and went back to the YMC for debrief.

We are now off to bed getting excited and pumped for our tour of Corregidor Island tomorrow...

Goodnight :)

Peter- Hi everyone still missing you guys and cant wait to be home, see you all friday morning hopefully :) love you all xx ps. Hi Brijee hope your feeling much better now and that your back at work now i am missing you and i cnat wait to see you friday i love you heaps xxxx

Connor- Hello Everyone having a good time again off to a island tomorrow to see some cool stuff going to be lot's of fun. Hello mum I hope everything is god at home and Cameron has been doing his jobs. Thats all for now until next time.