Heyy everyone I hope y’all have been staying warm….LOL
Alrightyyy I’ve been meaning to write a blog about ALL of the awesome ministry opportunities we’ve had because WOW it’s been so GOOD. And I know that’s what y’all wanna hear, and I will write about that sometime.(probably debrief) I just have to tell my East Texas people the literal funniest thing that’s ever happened to me.
So picture this. Rasta(our host) tells us that he’s organized a fútbol game for us. We’re like okay cool, picturing the kids we play with every week (which even they are SO good.) Spoiler alert: they were not children. Anyways Rasta tells us the game plan and the starting 11. Did y’all know soccer had 22 players on the field all at once? Because I, in fact, did not.
He tells us he has jerseys for us. Jerseys. At this point we’re like okay.. what is this. The game starts at 5pm but we come home from ministry at 3ish to literally stacks of jerseys, shorts, and socks. All VERY official. And you’ll never guess what the jerseys say across the front.
ETBU!
Yes. East Texas Baptist University. East Texas.
I’m in the middle of the Costa Rican jungle and am representing ETBU.
Literally not kidding though. I don’t know when but apparently ETBU’s women’s soccer team came to Rasta?? He says he knows them. I believe him. But they left all their gear. Like actual gear.
Long story short, the girls we played against were a local Costa Rican team. They were all about 20-27. There was a ref (he spoke no English so that caused some confusion), a crowd, and the lights came on once the sun set.
We’re a group of 18/19 year old girls fresh out of high school. Only a few of us experienced in soccer outside of Latin America. So… you can guess how it ended. I WILL SAY that we did COMPETE!!
Rasta also didn’t tell them we weren’t an actual team. They just had to find out(very quickly).
It was actually one of the sweetest times ever all jokes aside. Well maybe not ‘sweet’- they did not play soft! The game was in a community called Margarita which is where we’ve had a couple soccer camps (soccer camps are so fruitful and my favorite ministry- we play with the kids of the community(all ages) and always share testimonies and sometimes skits.)
Most of the girls we played against were single moms to the kids that LOVE us. It was really cool to be examples of Jesus and lights to them as well. AND they want to organize another game before we leave! Yay for building relationships and loving like Jesus would!!
