Soccer, soccer, basketball, and some more soccer :)

It has been an absolutely crazy and fun week!! I don't know that I've ever played more soccer in my life - but I'm loving it! Eric, Elem and I picked up the Push The Rock team from Livingstone on Sunday – a group of 7 – and they are all the best! It has been awesome getting to know them this week and spend so much time with them!

We started out on Monday with “orientation” and a walk out to MICS, where we ran a clinic this week. We spent Monday afternoon at PTRZ with the local boys – running soccer stations and playing 5v5 games till dark! We finished the day with a time of devotions – singing, saying our verses we memorized, our Bible study time (what we call Team Time) and Eric shared his testimony.

Tuesday started our soccer clinic out at MICS – after an early breakfast we walked out to MICS and the PTR team was welcomed in chapel. For the clinics, we split the school up into three groups: Baby, Reception, and Grade 1; Grades 2-3; and Grades 4-7. With the first group, or the babies as we call them, we usually take them on a fun run and take them through some fun, or intense (Elem), stretches. After warm-ups we have them rotate through 3 different stations of games – some soccer related and some not. For the second two groups, we do a similar warm-up and then they split up into their teams to go through 4 different stations of passing, dribbling, fun games, and shooting. I am “coaching” with Brent, one of the guys from the group, this week at the passing station… and both of our teams, in both groups, decided on the name Germany for our team – they must have just won the World Cup or something…  Anyway, after the stations, the teams play small-sided games against one another! I’m thankful that Brent is a coach back in the States, so I just hop in the drills during stations and am the encourager during games – because I am definitely not a soccer coach.

After a quieter afternoon, we headed out on the 45-minute walk to our friendly match against the Macha Bulls. Our team was joined by Elem, Dean (a dorm parent out at MICS), a few of the guys that work on the rec center, as well as a few more of Eric’s friends/teammates. And yes, I played my first competitive soccer game in over 6 years. We ended up playing a normal 45-minute first half, but then had an extended (65 minute) second half – but either way, we ended up winning the game 4-3!

team huddle before the game at Macha Bulls

I woke up Wednesday the most sore I have been in a long time. Basketball and soccer must use completely different muscles. I’m still sore as I’m writing this a few days later… But anyway, Wednesday and Thursday mornings looked really similar to Tuesday out at MICS with the kids! They seem to be having a blast with the soccer and with the visitors from the States. Wednesday afternoon I went to visit with Vera, the sweetest lady in the world. She is making me a pair of trousers from a chitenge, so I took her the fabric and visited with her for a while! Her husband, Abraham, went to Messiah and she actually lived in Millersburg (really close to Duncannon) for a long time. Such a small world!

Wednesday night was one of my absolute favorite parts of the week. I took the PTR team, as well as Eric and Corie, up to the Macha Girls Secondary School to play some basketball and hang out with the girls. Corie and 4 of the girls on the PTR team played a game against the girls I have coached for the past couple months. I shared a little about how God has used basketball in my life – and then we ended our time with the girls by dancing and singing – typical. :) But it was really fun to take the team there to meet the girls I have been spending a lot of time with this summer. It really brought me a lot of joy to watch the girls play, see them interact, and hear them tell me how much fun they were having. I think I realized last night that taking ownership of something, investing in something, can really bring you a lot of joy when you see some of the fruits of it. It really made my heart smile to be out there with my girls that night. I also figured out that one of my girls – Cleopatra – has the same birthday as me :)

the start of the game

Cleo and I - birthday buddies :)

Thursday afternoon we trained with the boys at PTRZ again before going out to MICS for dinner and devos with the boarding kids. We ate an nshima meal – the team’s first taste of the staple food of Zambia – with cake as dessert (thank you Corie!). We got to sing with the kids, hear introductions of all of their names and favorite foods and games, and listen to one of the PTR team members share her testimony. It was a really fun opportunity to spend some more time with the kids – especially as I realized that today would be the last day I would see most of these kids as it is their last day of school. I’m going to miss them so much.

Today we spent our last morning out at MICS playing games with the younger kids and then playing a full field game against the oldest group, with the whole school watching! It was really fun time with the kids before having to say good-bye to them. It has been such a blessing to work with the kids throughout my time here in Macha – and having the PTR team here to do a soccer clinic each morning was a perfect way to end my time with the MICS students. Tonight we will play another friendly game against the Macha Sparrows… stay tuned for the results!!

Muleya, Mutinta and Naomi - 3 of my favorites from MICS

the twinnies :)

One of my favorite parts of the week has been Team Time each day – We are going through Philippians, looking at what Paul was writing to the church of Philippi from prison. We have talked a lot about having a single mind – how Paul saw his circumstances through Jesus instead of viewing Jesus through his circumstances. He longed for people to know Christ – and we were challenged to think about our own lives and our motivations for sharing. We also hear a testimony from a team member each night at team time. It has been awesome to get to know the group on a deeper level and have conversation with them through that. On Thursday night we ended our Team Time by going outside for some prayer time under the stars. It was absolutely incredible. You can see so many stars here because there isn’t all the electricity and lighting like we have in the U.S. We saw about 4 shooting stars – what an incredible end to a night!

This week has flown by and before I know it we will be taking the team back to Livingstone on Thursday and coming back to Macha on Sunday. That will mark one week of time left for me in Zambia, but only 4 more days in Macha. It is crazy to me that I will be flying out in 16 days. So bittersweet.