Can you spot me in the picture? Look REALLY hard, can you see me??? We played really well last Wednesday with our new uniforms and all. It was great to finally look like a team. The score was 2-1 against the hawkers. After the game we needed to have a team meeting to discuss some pertinent issues i.e. getting cleats, team unity, building one another up, field clean-up days, and we closed with some prayer. I am seeing some good changes in the boys as a result of me being here and I can only praise God for those changes. God is at work!!! Isaac told me the other day that he has stopped sniffing glue because of my advise and he said he can tell that his body is now more healthy and stronger. I can even see his soccer skills are really improving. His brother Isaya has not been coming to practice but is doing a lot of work at his new job. I am really proud of him and I make sure to tell him so. He has no parents to tell him that they are proud of him and I feel that it helps if I do.Thurs and Friday
We had two days to clean up Bamako field where we play our tournament games. This consisted of removing literally thousands of rocks. We had to disperse the rocks far away from the field to prevent drunken spectators from hurling them during games. I asked why the boys were moving them so far away and they said because these are African bullets. I didn't question them. I told the boys that if they came both days then I would buy them cleats. I spent four hours on Friday shopping with the footballers trying to find the best deal for cleats. A white man bargaining with Africans is the worst. I hate it so much. After negotiating for hours with some shop owners this one guy gave us a pretty good deal and we left with nine pairs of boots. The boys played with their boots today and it felt to me like Christmas morning and I got to be Santa.
Saturday and Sunday
I had a very busy weekend. We helped with CHE (Community Health Evangelism) in Luanda for a big event. I was the only white person out of the four hundred people that attended. By the end of the first day I was the only red person there out of the four hundred. We were only expecting four soccer teams to be there, but eight teams came and so we played soccer all day in a tournament. I reffed four games and played in one on Saturday. Sunday was for the closing ceremony and the championship game. We barely made it out of the village on Saturday due to a ten minute monsoon that came as we prepared to leave. The rain soon stopped and it took half the village to push our little van through the slippery red mud. We all got home wet and covered in mud, but I personally had a lot of fun. On Sunday, after the most tense soccer game I have witnesses in a long time I was able to crown the fourteen winners with medals and preach to them a bit with a translator. I stressed that Christ is coming soon and we should be ready for His return because He is coming to judge the world. You could hear a pin drop, but I don't know if that was good or bad. I came back exhausted, but I had a great time.
Glue update
I have been talking and praying with the people that sell glue. There are two places that I have been going to and I am beginning to understand these people's predicament. They are very poor and in a way they are trapped into this business. They own shoe shops where glue is readily available and selling glue to little boys is a huge temptation. They know it is bad. They know it is illegal, but feeding their children becomes the priority over doing the right thing. The ones I am talking to don't want to sell glue anymore are are looking/praying for a way out. Although there is no excuse for this sin, I can sympathize with the one's I have been talking to. I prayed with Dorine today and told her not to sell to children for one day and I would pray for her and come back tomorrow. I told Caleb that I would talk to the older boys who beat him when he is walking home. They beat him if he refuses to sell them glue. Some of the small boys are afraid of me because I am constantly teaching them about the effects of glue and asking them to leave it. They are so enslaved by it. I hate it so much.
Life is so different here in Kenya, but I am loving it for the most part. I am excited to finish strong here and go into the next season of my life back in SLO. I miss my church family, family, friends, and I also miss pizza. I am going to eat a big fat one when I get back. Be blessed today my friends.
-Steve
