Soccer Camp Conclusion and Easter Weekend

April 9, 2009
Well, by the second day of camp, word got around the area that we were there and we had a few people (kids and young adults) trying to jump the fence and steal our equipment. We lost may be 5 or 6 soccer balls the second day. And when we sent people away who didn’t belong, they threw rocks over the fence or stood along the outside and swore at kids. (I felt terrible when a little boy about 6 years old came to me and told me there was a man standing at the fence swearing, no one should have to be exposed to that at that age). Everything else with the kids seemed to have gone well, the drills and Bible studies that is.
The third day, we were told that kids had stolen balls in their backpacks the day before and caught 3 kids with balls in their bags that day. We also caught kids hiding balls in a bush to come back and take later. I’m not sure if they got any, I tried to search the bush, but it was too dirty and smelly to get close. We also had to break up a few fights; it seems that a lot of the kids take to violence as their first solution to a problem, a cycle which I pray can be broken. We had to have people constantly watching the fence to keep people from jumping in and still had people get over. The gospel was still presented and kids were still influenced, regardless of what a few kids and locals did, the gospel went out.
Today, we had intended to allow locals to come participate in competitions and a tournament, but we had to be careful about who we let in. We did end up running a tournament for 15 teams and the day was successful. Again, there were a couple of fights, but mostly among the younger teenagers, and the older teenagers were pretty well under control, which was an answer to prayer. I was really disturbed though by 3 kids who were beating up on a much smaller boy, because they were angry about the result of a game, which he had nothing to do with. Two of them were holding him up in the air by his hands and feet while the third boy drop kicked him in the back. When I confronted them, they felt justified and really didn’t seem to care.
We presented soccer balls to the two winning teams in two age groups and it was amazing how many others came begging for balls for themselves, kids and adults giving any reason to get a ball. Unfortunately, some of the younger kids who had won soccer balls had them stolen from them before they even made it out of the school gate. I really can’t understand how someone can be so greedy or desperate and so conditioned to stealing that they think it’s okay to steal from a kid half their size. We did replace the stolen balls, but I would imagine that they were soon stolen as well.
I’m still amazed (appalled) at the state of a community that is so conditioned to fighting, stealing, and disrespect that it could be so evident in a kids’ soccer camp. It really showed the despondent situation the community is in. God is needed so desperately there. There were some good conversations in the oldest group of teenagers, between some offended Rastafarians and our staff. They were offended at nothing more than the bold presentation of the gospel, so hopefully God will continue to make them think and question and turn to Him. I am confident that a seed was planted in others as well and I pray that God will continue to water and nourish that seed until its fruition. We had a local church involved each day and encouraged all the kids to get plugged in there. Ambassadors was only there for a week, so I pray for the church to continue to make a long term impact.

April 14, 2009
Saturday, I played in probably the most boring game of my life. First of all, I was asked to play goal keeper, which I have never played before and most people will laugh when they read this. Our starting keeper wasn’t around, and the two back ups were both injured. So, since I’ve coached keepers before, I was the next option. The team was new to the league, so we didn’t know what they would be like, but it turns out anyone could have stood in the goal (and I mean anyone, like a 5 year old would have been fine). We won the game 9-0, I touched the ball twice, plus a few times that my team kicked the ball back to me from about 30 yards out, I think because they felt bad for me. I basically watched for 90 minutes.
Sunday didn’t feel much like Easter except the church service (actually I went to good services both on Good Friday and Sunday). I was a little sad after church, because at that point I had no plans for the day and thought I would end up doing nothing all day. But then one of the other interns called and a few of us went to the Waterfront, where we knew all of the tourist restaurants would be open and ate an overpriced lunch and then walked around for a while.
I would ask for prayer for church. I enjoy the sermons and I am comfortable with the worship and the doctrine. However, it is a fairly large church, so a meet someone new each week, but then never see them again, so I’ve found it hard to get to know people. There have been 3 social events since I’ve been there, but I haven’t been able to go to any of them because of commitments with Ambassadors. I haven’t seen any of my small group in church yet, so I haven’t really built relationships there either. I have friends from Ambassadors to hang out with on evenings and weekends, but it would just be nice to have friendly faces to connect with on Sunday mornings at church.
We completed the training portion of our internship on Thursday, so we were given a couple of days off this week and don’t have to be back in the office until Thursday. I still have practice and games, so it hasn’t been completely responsibility free, but a nice change of pace anyway. Yesterday we went to an amusement park that said it was Africa’s largest amusement park. I’m not sure I believe that claim. It would have trouble competing with Kennywood and Cedar Point makes it look more like the Big Butler Fair. It was fun, the lines were fairly short, but so were the rides. We rode everything we wanted to in about 3 hours, watched a poor dance show (not my choice), and then went home. It was a good day trip, but it made me yearn for an end of the summer trip to Cedar Point when I return.