Soccer Festival

Crossing the street from the community hall into the field. Mixed groups of eight players with two coaches

Coach Mendez explaining a drill

This boy was able to participate at every point with the help of his patient coach

This is Yirardi, looking healthy and enjoying the afternoon

Coach Mendez and the two professional players who came with him. They enjoyed the afternoon as much as the kids

About to score a goooooal!

High five from John

All of the kids and their coaches at the end of the day

Coach Mendez sharing 

We had a great time at the soccer festival on Saturday afternoon. Coach Mendez came all the way from near the Panama border with two of his players, one from Uruguay and one from Argentina. The national teams are allowed three foreign players. The reason we had the event this weekend was because they were holding presidential elections on Sunday, and there were no soccer games. Coach Mendez, who is from Uruguay, and his two players did not have to vote, so they got a free weekend. They actually came Friday night after a 10 hour drive, mostly in traffic. I had dinner waiting for them (Cuban lasagna). We ate right away to go to Luis Carlos' house for a meeting with all the helpers. That's where Coach Mendez explained how the afternoon was going to be organized.  I am so impressed with him. He is really a coach and he knows how to lead and organize, but he is a very humble and unassuming man.

The kids assembled in the community hall. We lined them up by age, boys and girls together, then we made teams of eight, getting two eight and under, and then one of each of the other ages. It worked beautifully. Each team got shirts of the same color. Each volunteer, he called them "guides," got one team each and walked them across the street to the field. The field was divided for four drills and two scrimmages, all going on at the same time. The guides stayed with the same group the whole time. There were other helpers just getting the balls that got away from the kids. Each team had two balls so that they never stopped playing to retrieve balls. There were scheduled water breaks. We had women at the two sides of the field with water. We also had a nurse. Everybody had such a great time. At the end, Coach Mendez asked the parents to go to the field and congratulate their children and then walk across the street to the community hall for refreshments, to see the pictures that I had been taking, and to hear a short talk by him. The women in town made sandwiches for everybody. We exchanged the different color shirts for the ones we brought from home for them to keep. All together, we had about 35 people from the town involved in the event as volunteers, and about 68 children. Everything went well because they all knew what to do and worked together. It is the first time that I have seen such wide support from the town. Luis Carlos and Irene worked very hard to organize everything. Randall, Yirardi's father and his wife also led the organization of the event. We finished at about 7:30 pm. We have kept all the equipment, including soccer balls and different color jerseys with the hope of repeating this event next year.

We took Coach Mendez and the players to the restaurant here in the hacienda. They had had sandwiches, but that did not stop them from having a full meal with dessert. They were delighted with the experience. I failed to mention that the two young men are not Christians. Coach Mendez is like a father to these young men away from home, and he lets the Lord use him to bring Christ into their lives. They left Sunday after a late breakfast, and got home safely that evening (they texted us when they arrived). Pray for Coach Mendez. I am praying that his team will have a good year, and that the Lord will continue to use him in all of these young men's lives to bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ.

My foot was much better by Saturday. Thank you for your prayers. Today I feel 90% healed. Yesterday morning I walked a mile, but today I was able to walk 4.5 miles, and I feel fine, PTL!

Pastor Alejandro here is putting a short-term mission team together to go to Nicaragua in July. He wants the church to start a tradition of missions. The best way to do this is to provide a mission experience for them. They have to raise their own funds and get passports, since nobody has ever traveled outside the country. I will teach this Thursday again, but John does not have to preach on Sunday because they have a guest speaker. This is an evangelist who was here before. Maybe you remember a blog about a little man from the Dominican Republic who came about two years ago. They are having a campaign at the big church in the other town on Saturday night and Sunday morning. We are just going Sunday morning because we don´t like to drive into the river at night.

Our couples' Bible study has been moved to Sunday evenings. Luis Carlos, in whose house we have the meetings, got accepted, at the University about 45 minutes from here, for a program to get his accounting degree. This is a program for people who work during the week, so it is on Saturdays. He takes three classes from 8 to 6, then he has to get home. This Sunday's meeting is not going to be at his house, but at another couple's house who moved to a town near by and built a house. This couple is not married and haven't made a decision for the Lord yet, but they are a lot more open now. John is preparing a Bible study on what makes a home. Pray for him. This brings me to the prayer requests:

• continue to pray for Yirardi's health. They haven't detected cancer so far.
• pray for our teaching, that the Holy Spirit will work in hearts and minds
• pray for Coach Mendez, his team, and his family, since he is away from them a lot.
• pray that his testimony will have an impact on somebody's life here in town
• pray for this evangelist coming this weekend
• pray for the couples' Bible study this Sunday at Fabian and Alejandra's house
• continue to pray for our family back home

Until next time... from the beach...