Going into month 2 was difficult. After our debrief I felt completely empty, while the past month I felt on fire. I couldn’t explain what happened and I continued to try to feel the spirit of God, although I couldn’t. The morning before my mentor left I had a talk with him about it and he gave me some great insight. My biggest takeaway was that we may not be able to feel God but that doesn’t mean he isn’t there, and we have to find new ways to be with God.
Last month being with God was going out on Outreach building relationships with people and finding God in people. This month is different, we have outreach on Monday mornings but that does not give us full availability to build good relationships. Then Tuesday through Friday we are at a care point helping out with the kindergarten in the morning and hanging out with kids/teens in the afternoon. Us guys are encouraged to hang more around the teens since some of them never experience a healthy male role model and they are the ones who know the best english. Although they don’t show up to the care point till 2 ish and we leave at 4 so its not a ton of time.
Before actually doing a day of care point ministry I was not looking forward to it. It sounded like it was going to be weird and awkward. But it has actually been great!
Monday I dug out a soccer ball to pass around with some of the younger kids and they had a goal, made out of 3 long pieces of tree. It was a lot of fun and as more of the teens showed up more started to join. Eventually I asked one of the older boys if we could start a game. He split up everyone and an actual game was started. A guy on my team was one goalie and I was the other, since neither of us are super good at soccer.
WOW! These guys are super good at soccer. Most of them wearing school shoes and the others running around barefoot. And it is not a field with green grass, it is a mix of tall dry grass, rocks, and dirt. For the next 3 days we would play full soccer games.
At one point I was wearing my Jesus sandals play goalie for the young kids and it slowly turned into a full game. Playing goalie with sandals was no problem until one of the guys wanted to play goalie so I was now playing defense with sandals! Not the easiest thing to do. After some very passive playing, since I was in sandals, I ran out of my shoes chasing the ball to make sure they didn’t advance on our goal. Eventually I ran inside and put on my shoes.
After 4 days of soccer games I realized that is my ministry this month, to play soccer. But it’s so much more than that. It’s getting involved with the kids/teens here on their level. Not by preaching them the gospel or trying to get them to commit their lives to Jesus, it’s just connecting with them through their passions. They already know who God is as well as Jesus but have they been shown the love that Jesus showed us. Because trust me soccer is fun but in the African heat it is not ideal. I have a friend named Banele (Buh-Nay-Lay) and he is always asking me if I am good, and the answer is always yes. Even though I am hot, sweaty, exhausted, and probably burned it’s not about me.
I am still feeling like God is not there but I KNOW He is next to me, whether I can feel Him or not. It is a test of obedience, whether I will continue to run after God even though I can’t feel him.
I love you all!
