Ben Norcia’s Blog (Chronicles of Norcia) Ch 2 ep 6: Life Abundantly pt. 1: Mi Hermano en Christo

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” ‭‭‭Psalm‬ ‭115‬‬:‭1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The last week and a half has been crazy. Loco to the max. So much has happened and there have been so many stories worth telling that I want to include, but don’t want to take too long on. To manage this, I will be writing this episode into two parts:

Life Abundantly pt 1: A powerful testimony of God moving from the lake last weekend, a look into how my team is doing, some details on how ministry is going, and an update of the fan favorite Santa Marta Basketball Project.

Life Abundantly pt 2: An overview of and some fun stories from the lake weekend, a sports section covering last week’s 3v3 tournament, the tale of the fun day off I had this Sunday with some friends, and a sneak peek into the ministry I will be doing in Vietnam one month from now.

So the breakup of the two parts is somewhat self explanatory as part 1 will be about more serious, powerful things going on in my life right now and part 2 will have more fun stories and light reading. Read however much of each you’d like, but I think they’re both bangers.

Mi Hermano en Christo

Because my team had a 3 day weekend last week we chose to each chip in out of pocket to stay the weekend at an airbnb at the lake town called Panajachel.

This lake is surreal.

It is a freshwater lake surrounded by volcanoes and mountains. The green mountains on all sides are so vibrant that the area itself just seems alive.

On Monday, our last day, I set out for a coffee shop in the morning with 5 other squad mates. During our wandering in search of the unfindable coffee shop, we encountered a clearly unwell man stumbling around the road. One of the people I was with had a heart for the man and suggested we help him, and another racer went to initiate a conversation with the man. The man, Alex, was seriously unwell, and he was having trouble forming sentences. He later admitted to being both drunk and on drugs. He was crying and laying in the road asking for his life to be ended. It was heartbreaking to watch and after talking to the man for a while and praying over him, the company was forced to move on.

About two hours later and two miles away at the edge of the lake, the man appeared again. I can’t imagine him running into us again, hours and miles away from our original encounter, could ever have been a coincidence. Two world-racers were with him trying to make conversation, and then it started to pick up when the racer he had responded well to earlier came and continued the conversation. His eyes were still bloodshot and his words still slightly slurred, but he was much more responsive now than earlier. The Holy Spirit began working through the three evangelists, and the man started opening up more and more. He shared his story about how he had lost his wife, son, two houses, job, and life, leaving him to a life of homelessness and drinking. After one racer compared his story of loss to the Bible’s book of Job, real advancements started being made in the conversation.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Lord touched his heart through the racers, and, at the edge of the picturesque volcanic lake, he wanted to be baptized anew. God, through two of the racers, then baptized the man in the water. As he was pulled up, he yelled out: “Santo de Dios, Santo de Dios, LIFE ANEW!!” After regrouping back on the shore, Alex’s eyes were now clear white, his words spoken audibly, and his thoughts formed soberly.

God did things in him I will never understand that day. The man I saw crying and begging for the end of his life that morning, was consciously praising the Lord and declaring life anew that afternoon. I’m truly honored to bear witness to the conversion God brought about in this man’s heart over the course of a few hours. The Living God is active and it’s more beautiful to witness than any lake or volcanic sunset.

After having lunch with him, one of the racers booked him a few nights at a hotel so that he had somewhere to stay as he gets back on his feet. He cried one last time, but now in gratitude, rather than sorrow. The Shepherd rejoiced in Heaven that night, as another wandering sheep had rejoined His flock.

A Team Update

Unfortunately for the larger percentage of Team DOGs, street evangelizing was not an option on Monday, as the lake burger had gotten the better of a few gringo stomachs. Food poisoning dominated the squad, and 5/8 teammates did their fair share of throwing up the last week. The chicken sandwich was much kinder to me, as I was luckily one of the healthy three. By this point, a week later, we are all healthy and everyone has recovered (praise God!) but it was looking pretty dire for a while there.

By the end of the week we were all overcoming illnesses and we had full attendance in time for Saturday’s ministry. This weekend has had fantastic timing, and we are all now well rested and recharged for the next week of ministry.

DOG-style Ministry

By this point in the month, it has become fairly evident that we are now REINDOM’s favorite team they’ve ever hosted. Ministry is going so well in so many ways, and each of the boys’ giftings have been on full display.

Banks: Our fearless leader. I could not respect this man only five years older than me more. In every way, he leads by example, and lives out everything he emphasizes. His love for Christ is evident in all he does, and it has a way of rubbing off on all of us. Banks is passionate about just telling people the Good News, and man is he good at it. I was lucky enough to spend much of Saturday and Sunday evangelizing with him, and I learned so much of how he does it. His true care for the people he speaks to is evident as he tries to help them.

Dom: our resident translator. Dom is a fluent Spanish speaker as he lived a good portion of his early life in Mexico before moving to California. His fluency has been a tremendous asset to the team in communicating with the community around us. Our hosts trust him a lot and each time more is asked of him, he steps up to the occasion. His energy for ministry is always there, and nobody steps up in skits for the kids quite like Dom.

Douglas: the Amish boy. Doug is from Lancaster and his humility is evident in all he does. As one of the more gifted people I know in many areas, Doug has never displayed pride despite plenty of occasions where no one would blame him for it. Having worked with the Amish for years, his work ethic is relentless and his knowledge of building things has been an unexpected tool. He and Dom currently have two projects at the Santa Marta building: fixing pipes that are always broken and building a railing for the open roof that is a hangout spot for volunteers and local children alike.

John Teter: love this dude. John is my bunkmate at the AIM base and we have some great late night conversations in the room. John does not hold back despite how uncomfortable the situation may be. He is great with kids and they love playing with his long blond curls (which he lets them do despite how much he dislikes it). He has been an irreplaceable partner in the Basketball project, and I am super thankful for him.

Luke: just a genuinely good person. Not in like a “he’s a good dude” type of way, Luke is just a good man all the way through. He leads the team in vulnerability which is huge because sometimes in uncomfortable topics that no one wants to get into, he’s confident enough to speak. He’s so well behaved and always good to have around because he can be a great example for when I start acting up. He’s also secretly hilarious, as he doesn’t make jokes so often but when he does they always get the whole team laughing.

Malachi: being from Kansas will never not be funny to me. Malachi was one of the guys on the cheerleading teams in high school, and his strength is evident now that the Santa Marta kids have decided he is a living jungle gym. There are literally kids dangling off of him nonstop and it is insane to watch because the dude does not get tired. He is also one of the most even tempered people I’ve ever met, and I can always count on Malachi for bringing good vibes.

McNick: sometimes I forget his birth name is actually Nick. Extremely mature guy. McNick is also one of the funniest people on the squad and he makes me laugh every day. He is an amazing asset to the team in many ways, two of them being his Spanish and maturity. McNick only took Spanish in high school but he actually can speak and understand a good deal, and it’s extremely helpful having a second partial-speaker on the team. Being a pastor’s kid, McNick is also more experienced in his faith than a few of us. When he’s not laying face first in a beanbag chair, he can always be relied on to make some of the best contributions in team meetings. He’s also my financial partner in our PB&J enterprise, and I would trust him with every dollar I possess.

The Santa Marta Basketball Project

Yeah I know a lot of you are here for this. The SMBP got real this week. Two hoops were shipped to the REINDOM house over the weekend, and on Tuesday we set them up. On Tuesday afternoon, basketball began.

Hearing the words: “baloncesto es mi clase favorita” has made all the struggle of finding hoops worth it a thousand times over. The kids are starting to really love basketball, and it is the most heart warming thing ever.

Some fun learning points:

It was amusing watching them play full court the first day, because each team leaves players back on defense like goalies, and when the ball is in the air they try to hit it in the right direction because the only sport they’ve played before is soccer. Seeing them try to play basketball the same way they do footy gave me a little panic before I realized they have who the limited English speakers like to call “best coach Ben” (shoutout Lloyda and Ivan). The most shocking teaching moment I’ve shared so far was that you can play a game on only one court. Playing half court has been a tremendous success in teaching one group of kids something at a time, rather than stopping everyone every other minute. Teaching them that everyone can come down on offense and then also back on defense has been difficult due to the language barrier and foreign nature of the sport, but the teams who started to understand on Friday afternoon dominated the runs.

On Friday afternoon, we had about 3 hours for basketball with one group of about fifteen middle school aged boys. Because we were having so much fun, their afternoon class was canceled in order to let the games continue! The last hour or so saw four teams of 4 playing games to 3 rotating in and out with the winning team staying in. Running full court with these kids is so much fun, as one thing that translates well from soccer is the absolute confidence to pickup full court on every play. We won’t always let that happen as some teams struggled to set up an offense, but when equipo amarillo (the yellow team) was in, I let it slide against me.

Equipo Amarillo should never have been allowed to play together, as four of the best 5 or 6 kids were on the same team. Led by my star pupil, Luis, they had a couple dominating wins. Seeing that it was totally unfair and they needed humbling, I laced up. These guys aren’t that much younger than me and they’re strong kids, but their full court double team was completely helpless in the face of “Proffer Ben”, who promptly knocked them off the court. I share this in complete honesty, they actually are really impressive for having played on a real net twice. Some of the drills we ran through before translate well, and this team really impressed me in the way they defended and worked the ball inside. I’m so proud right now. My little Gaute-ballers.

Into pt. 2…

So that’s part 1! I’ve seen God move in some incredible ways lately, I’ve seen my teammates thriving in ministry, and I’ve seen some young hoopers start to fall in love with the world’s greatest game. Make sure to check out pt 2 which should be up right after and will include some fun stories from life as of late.