Play For Hope

Here's a brief video with many more to come.

Kwizera, the young boys coach from Busanza speaks on how he feels like football has influenced his life.

Check out Exodus 4:2-4 in the Bible about God and Moses.  God often works his power through ordinary people.   He even takes joy in using ordinary things for extroardinary purposes.  In Rwanda our team realized how amazing it was that God had taken seven very different yet fairly ordinary people and put us all together in a city to work together in order to do something extraordinary.  This summer I would guess God sat back for a second to watch His work being done and thought, "Cool!" 

Random side note about how God is not a boring God...  After a possible siting of the lockness (sp?) monster was posted all over the internet, John Mark Comer, in the middle of a sermon, alluded to the recent news.  He said, "Do I believe in the lockness monster and other mysterious creatures? Of course I do!  I think God put them there because he thinks they're cool."  I just thought that was funny. I know God is the creator, but I guess I never thought of him creating interesting/mysterious creatures just to give us joy, to keep things interesteing, maybe to mix it up a little bit, haha.

I prayed that God would reveal His will for me through the desires of my heart.  I love Africa, I love sports, I love helping people and I love kids.  It was not difficult for me to obey the Lord when this opportunity presented itself.  To me it was obvious what needed to be done and I was excited.  During the preparations I was completely at peace about the decision to travel with Olivia to Rwanda for 7 weeks to help develop a sports ministry program throughout Kigali.  Many thought I was taking a big risk, even putting my daughter in danger.  There are thousands of kids living in Rwanda, does that mean they are all in danger too?

Anyways, the long travels to get there were a bit lonely but we were so happy to finally arrive.  Rwanda is a beautiful country.  The city seems a little polluted but the country side boasts incredibly green terraced hillsides and enormous volcanoes toward the DRC (Congo).   The neat shape of banana plants are scattered everywhere.

Olivia and I jumped in to help with a soccer clinic the afternoon we arrived.  We learned the sites we would be hiking to for the next 6 weeks and we met the kids, many of whom would soon become our friends.  We adjusted quickly to being out all day in the African sun and the red dust.  Olivia learned how the other kids avoided becoming walking balls of dust by the end of the day.  The most difficult part was fitting in naps, but we managed in the car or during short lunch breaks.  We needed to be able to keep up with the 5 other young, recently graduated college students on our team.  We were in good shape going in to this, but I think most of us learned how much our bodies and minds could really handle.  Every time we thought we were exhausted, God gave us more strength.  If we reached a hill we thought we could not climb, the Lord helped us run up it.  Now I know that if there is something I think I can’t do, I’m not trusting in my God.   Myself, I can’t do much, but through me He has done so much.  (And in this case, it feels so good to be used.)

Yesterday (back in Oregon) I went for a run with Olivia in the jogging stroller despite the recent heat wave here.  Along the way we came upon a walker.  She was a little over weight and she carried a little cup (of coffee or water?).  I gave her the thumbs up to encourage her as we passed each other.  She stared hard at me and said, “I don’t know how you do that!”  I thought, really? I bet that lady could jog with a jogging stroller if she just believed that she could.  I have thought about this concept over and over, and finally I am writing about it…I wish I could write it how I was thinking it when I was running yesterday.  But the point is I don’t think people realize their potential and it makes me sad and a little disappointed.  I encourage everyone to do something that seems challenging…you will learn so much, about yourself and about faith.  God doesn’t ask his disciples to sit back and sip lattes in front of the tv and think about how they can’t run more than 10 steps.  He tells Peter to walk on water (Matt 14:29), what is He asking of you?  What ever it is, He will give you the strength and wisdom to do it.  Even when Peter’s faith wavered and he began to sink, Jesus immediately stretched out his hand to help him…he won’t let you drown either.  In Nike’s words, “Just Do It!” 

We had an unbelievable time working with Andrew Palau and Hope Rwanda in serving the city of Kigali.  We were part of a two day festival at the national stadium that was a culmination of over 350 churches serving their city for 100 days (overlapping the 100 days of genocide morning).  Each day of the festival we put on sports games and clinics for approximately 3,000 children inside the national stadium.

The kids favorite game was taking turns shooting on the goal in the national stadium just like Drogba did a month before.

A lot of people watched our clinic.

At the same time there was a skate and bmx demo that the crowd was stoked on.

I had the awesome chance to announce our tournament winners to 20,000 new friends.

At night there were musical performances that the crowd danced and sang with.

Both nights finalized in Andrew Palau preaching about the love of Jesus Christ.  Many people for the first time in their lives experienced such love.  It is estimated that over two days 75,000 people came.  This does not include the many, many people touched by water projects, road projects, housing projects for widows of the genocide, projects for HIV+ children, medical clinics that were given to the poorest of the poor in Kigali, and many other projects.   It was an incredible event to be a part of.