Romania, I quickly learned that the boys and men here play almost every day.
At the beginning of this month I was still coming off of my parasitic sickness and was wondering if I would even be able to play. I had lost a lot of weight, including a lot of muscle, and my stomach would cramp miserably whenever I ate, but I also had been praying so hard that God would let me play soccer. I have missed it so much. So, hesitantly I decided to try the first day and walked to the field with a couple other racers and the Gypsy soccer players.
Well, my sickness had definitely taken it’s toll on my speed, ball control, and endurance, 
but it nonetheless felt great. This would be a good way to get back to health this month, and playing with the Gypsies was a lot of fun.
So I went again the next night. After we started playing more people started showing up, enough so that we could play king of the court (Play a game to 2, and the winner stays on the field and the losers are replaced by another team). All was going well for a while, until egos and pride started mixing and butting heads. By this time my stomach wasn’t doing well and with tempers flying, this is not the way that I like to play soccer. So I headed home.
At home I talked to John about how angry everyone was getting and he told me it was pretty common for them to start bickering and blaming each other. The guys also played in a league here, and he told me they can do really well, but if they get scored on, they start blaming each other and stop playing as a team. He had a cool vision of creating a Christian team and bring in some Christian coaching, in hopes of bringing some love to the game.
As my sickness subsided, I was able to play more and more. The tempers only kept flying, and every 
game turned into 20% playing, and 80% arguing. I watch on of their league games and it was obvious that John was right, the players on the team were quite selfish.
The day following their league game, Tony, one of the players told me they were leaving the team they were on and starting a new one. Apparently there was political stuff going on that people didn’t agree with. John, seeing an opportunity, suggested the Christian team to Tony. God has really been working in Tony. He says he believes in Jesus now, and wants to be baptized. Tony embraced the idea of a Christian team and gathered the guys to tell them they were now a Christian team. That meant they were going to start playing like a team, practicing, and passing and if they wanted to play in the game that week, they had to attend church.
Sunday, as we sat in church, I looked up and saw a group of men walking down the road together. It was all the men on the soccer team. They had a game later that day which we prayed for and told them it was only with God any of this can be possible.
As I watched them play that afternoon, the way they played was different. They emphasized passing to each other and they began to score many more goals. It has been so cool to watch this team be created and morph into a team for God. They are learning what it means to give the glory to God, and to depend on him, even during soccer. I can say I have never been prouder of a group of people stepping up and following God’s heart.
