I found love sitting in my lap today.
This morning we woke up early to help with a soccer program for children that live in the slums and on the streets. We walked up the stairs onto the dirt path alleyway from our contacts house carrying goal posts on our shoulders, not really knowing what the day would look like. After a fifteen-minute or so walk, weaving through back alleys, we entered our soccer arena for the day. This was more of an open field area with patches of grown up grass, not a real soccer field by any means.
And then we waited for the kids to show up.
Soon enough there they were one by one coming, turning into a group of 30-40 rambunctious boys who had checked out of their lives as beggars and society’s “less than” and were ready to play out their wildest dreams of being a futbol star.
We divided everyone up into three teams and started our knock out game set up. My team happened to be “Team 3” that would play the winner of the first game so for fifteen minutes my life looked like two sweet little boys sitting in my lap. They were brothers, ages 11 and 9, and they stole me away. As they sat in my lap I began to scratch the older brothers back and I broke down.
He deserves back scratches and tickles and laughs everyday.
His life shouldn’t be hard right now.
He shouldn’t feel the pressure of supporting his family already.
He should believe in his dreams.
He should feel loved.
He should feel like an eleven year old boy, free to run and laugh and live wildly.
I couldn’t bear the thought of him going home and being unnoticed. He deserves to be noticed by those around him as more than a mouth to feed or hands to make money. I found myself looking at my teammate next to me in tears and even now my heart breaks.
I was brought out of that moment quickly when we were told it was our teams turn to play but even throughout the game I found myself looking for my boys and cheering them on as we ran back and forth through dirt and tall grass. (You should know that these kids may look small but don’t discredit them, they can play some serious futbol.) After playing for a while we had a short but fun lesson for the kids and then fed them a Nepali lunch. I was so encouraged to see every one of their needs met; they got to play and run around, laugh and feel loved, interact with others, and be fed physically and spiritually.
Then came the dreadful part, the part with sadness and tears… saying goodbye. As I stood there standing, waving with a huge grin and fighting back tears at the same time, we began to part ways. I could hear our contact saying over and over again, “we need to be leaving everyone!” but I couldn’t stop looking at them, even if they were a grass field away now, it was like the moment could stand still in time forever if I didn’t look away. Soon enough though they disappeared and I turned away to begin the walk home with a full but aching heart.
That morning I liked Nepal, it was a great place full of beautiful people, but after one morning with those boys I loved Nepal. It was by far my most memorable day since being here and for the simplest of reasons.
Maybe you are at a place in life that you keep looking at another time in your life that you loved more than the current moment. If you are, I challenge you to open up to finding love today right where you are. If a grassy field, a soccer ball, and two sweet little boys unlocked my heart, who knows what may unlock yours today.
Open up and look for love today because today I found it sitting in my lap.
