Ben's team wins basketball championship!

Ben launching against cross town rival American Intl School of Budapest on the opening night of the tournament.

This past Saturday was one of the funnest days of my life! Ben’s basketball team, the Intl Christian School of Budapest (ICSB) high school varsity team, won their tournament championship for the first time in 10 years!

Even though I have just finished the most intensive support raising effort for our European staff in almost 2 years, the last few days my mind has been in a completely different place. This past weekend was our kids’ school’s big invitational basketball tournament. For 2 ½ days it was wall-to-wall basketball. In fact, my plane from Atlanta landed in Budapest at 3:30pm on Thursday, the first tip off was 4:30pm Thursday. Jetlag was not an option as game after game was played involving teams from as far away as St. Petersburg Russia.



Ben’s team, the varsity boys, lost in the seeding round of the tournament to a school very much like their own, Kiev Christian Academy. After the loss, Ben’s team rallied in the rest of their games and the same two teams faced each other again in the championship game. Our ICSB boys, up against a Kiev team of 4 seniors who had beaten them badly just the day before, were a clear underdog going into the game for the tournament champion. Yet what happened was truly phenomenal! Please watch the video highlights…



There is a great moment in this video at the 2:35 mark where EB hugs Ben and then recoils because she got his sweat all over her. Watch this celebration video and tell me if you think that moving to the mission field produces out-of-touch, bland kids!



ICSB’s girls team, which Savannah is on and I help coach, did not have a good tournament. We lost two starters to season-ending injuries on the first day of the tournament; our team was held together with duct tape and bailing wire and still we played our hearts out.

It was hard to not have Liz at this tournament since this is a place where she saw so much basketball success. Also, we have a deep love for Kiev Christian Academy, a school very much like our own. Even though the rivalry is intense, there are many shared friendships between the schools.

WARNING: BRAGGING PARAGRAPH! I think there is a good reason why our “little religious school” can field basketball teams that consistently beat teams from schools 10x their enrollment size. (Ask me and I will tell you my opinion). If you draw a line from Salzburg, Austria thru Vienna, Budapest, Kiev and on up to St. Petersburg, Russia, there is not another team from any independent school that can beat our boys this year! There are probably not too many public schools across Central and Eastern Europe that can beat these guys either. So cool!

The International Christian School of Budapest NEEDS TEACHERS! Being a missionary teacher will never be as fun as it is at our school! Please help us get connected with teachers that would like to teach at a school that serves the needs of missionary parents and will have a teacher’s impact on kids from across the globe. Please pass on the school’s website: www.icsbudapest.org Pass on the videos above also!



School spirit even hit EB's kitchen! In a game day "victory" brunch EB prepared, the menu had names such as "shoot em up vanilla sauce" and "victory apple crisp."



EB's mom Charlotte Biays, was able to visit us while the tournament was being played. She saw every second of play!



The starting five for the 2010 boys varsity basketball team at the Intl Christian School of Budapest: (from left) Jake Sanders, Ben Jackson, Andrew Neel, Jacob Mullet and Ming Huang.