The Massengales: USA or bust!!

Alright, I am going to try and summarize all this as briefly as I can...I mean, how do you summarize two long weeks in the U.S.???

Shortly after getting back from the Finals, we had about a week to prepare for our trip to the States....well, Rachel had been preparing and packing for weeks!!

For those of you that don't know, we brought the girls basketball team to the U.S. for two different basketball camps. We arrived in Chattanooga where we had scheduled about 4 days of sightseeing and exposure to American culture (Southern-style)! White Oak Baptist blessed us by providing us with two vans and drivers getting us to and from our out of town destinations. Our home church, Hixson First Baptist Church, hosted the team while we were in the Chattanooga area. This was really a great experience as the girls were calling their host "their American mommy's and daddy's" by the second day!! Our church family was very gracious in providing meals, housing, transportation, snacks, tickets to different sightseeing venues, and financial support for one of the basketball camps! The team was able to see Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Tennessee Aquarium, and ride the Riverboat! They were able to spend some time at one of our host families pool, ride wave-runners and boats at the lake, do some shopping, go bowling, do some more shopping, and also do some more shopping...I never will forget one of our girls yelling to me as I was standing at the front of Wal-Mart and she was still in line, "Shea, this place is great, we have to come back here"!! Of course the looks that I received after she said this were quite hilarious!! It seemed like every town we went to they all wanted to know if there was a Wal-Mart there!!

After being in Chattanooga, I then traveled with the team to Cookeville for the Tennessee Tech camp while Rachel and the kids stayed with family! We stayed on the campus for the first three nights and then with host families from Stevens Street Baptist Church on the last night! Our friends there were also very gracious to us...our first day there I found out that we did not have any linens for our rooms on so many church members scrambled around and brought us two car loads of pillows, blankets, and sheets! They also provided a huge meal for us that Sunday and one of the S.S. classes gave us all little goody bags!!

The girls loved the camp as they became the local celebrities...they actually had girls asking for their autographs! They played well, going 8-3 against the highest level of competition...two of our losses were close games against State Champions from last year!

After leaving Cookeville, we traveled to Rome, Ga for the FCA camp at Berry College! The girls all agreed that this was the best camp of the two! I was so impressed with the staff and the leadership of this camp...and of course, the best for me was seeing the how the girls responded to the spiritual emphasis each and every day! When they weren't playing games, they were being exposed to Truth in different types of breakout sessions...each evening we had a worship service and it was a real treat to get to see the girls singing and doing the hand motions to the songs! The first evening, one of our girls actually got the "bumblebee award" (out of 500 girls)...this is awarded to an outstanding player for each day...it was alot of fun to see this and even more fun talk with her later about this award...she had no clue what it was for!! Once again, the girls were treated like celebrities at this camp too!! They also played very good at this camp, going 10-3!! After FCA camp we headed back to Chattanooga for a night and then to Chicago where we would spend a couple of days before heading back to Krakow!

God was able to work through His people again as we were hosted by Wheaton Evangelical Free Church in Chicago. We had no travel worries because of the usage of their vans and we were able to stay at the church! We also had a Polish friend living in Florida drive all the way up to Chicago to help us get around...he had lived there for many years!!

While in Chicago we were able to attend the Chicago Sky WNBA game one evening. We had received free tickets from one of the players on the Sky (she plays for our professional team here in Krakow)!

All in all, this was the trip of a liftetime for many of these girls! It is something they will never forget!!... and best of all, it really opened up some spiritual doors with these girls!! Not just little "doggie doors", but like (ok, here is an analogy for all "Dukes of Hazzard" fans) "Daisy Duke, bustin out of the barn, in her white jeep, doors"!! (at least my sister will appreciate that analogy).

Ok, that is as brief as I can get...if you want more details, you can email me your questions!!

One other blessing, from a personal standpoint, we did get to spend some time with our families while in Chattanooga! WOW, what can I say??? It had been over two years since we had seen most of our family and how GREAT it was!!

Below are some pics from the entire trip!! (there are so many to choose from)