Soccer Competition

Recently we had the opportunity to help put on a soccer tournament for orphanages in the Odessa area. Eight orphanages participated (some travelling as far as 3 hours), and the winner now gets to travel to Kyiv to represent our region in a national competition. It was thrilling to see so many people work together to give these young boys a chance to play organized sports. I enjoyed being on a team that visited 4 of these orphanages in preparation for this event. It was very interesting to mingle with the kids in their own setting & get a glimpse of what life is like for them. Sometimes on these excursions, after we got off the main highway the only traffic we saw was a lone bicycle or horse & wagon. But these kids proved you don’t have to live in the big city to play soccer well… on one occasion they used the muddy conditions of their “home field” advantage to great effect as they thrashed us adults!

For the actual tournament I was assigned to one of the teams to assist them with any questions they had. I was nervous with my language and copied down any soccer terms I could think of to carry in my pocket. When this team realized I was their coordinator, their expression seemed to convey that they were getting a raw deal. For the first half of the day they said very little to me, but by the end of the day they were asking me every question they could think of, from why an American would come to Ukraine when half of Ukraine is trying to get to America, to how many movie stars I’ve met (since Quincy is a popular retreat destination for Hollywood). When one of the boys found out we want to work in orphanages, he got very excited and asked which orphanages. I replied that we’ll go anywhere where the doors are open. His eyes got very big & and said the doors to his orphanage are always open! Now if we can just get the orphanage director to feel the same way….

Success or Surrender

Living in America often gave us the illusion that we controlled more of our life than we really did. That illusion is shattered here, however. In 2 Corinthians 2:1-5, Paul writes about a philosophy of missions and ministry that runs counter to our natural desires… “When I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

         This is not a way of life that I naturally embrace. I want to come to the people here with excellence of speech and wisdom. I do not want to be here in weakness, fear, or trembling. I want to impress others with persuasive words of human wisdom, and my default mode is to place faith in my own abilities instead of in the power of God. However, I am gradually (and sometimes painfully) realizing that success here will depend far more on faithful and humble dependence than on any talent or ability I may think I have. When our limitations seem overpowering, and our presence here so insignificant, God is at work shifting the center of our confidence from what we think we can control to Him.