The Beautiful Game

So Steve and the gang had a great time footballing in the US.

 

Not only did they run the soccer camp as planned but they also befriended a group of Hispanic guys. It is amazing to me; as someone who doesn’t really… well… actually… at all… appreciate ‘the beautiful’ game how a round ball of leather can bring people together. It was through a common love of finding a fenced concrete square each evening, that led these 2 groups of people to form a relationship. That part of football I do like.

 

Here are the words of Steve on his thoughts on what went on out there in Texas…

 

‘Like many American cities, McKinney is divided geographically and socially by train tracks. On one side people live in wealth and comfort, on the other people live in relative poverty. Our mornings were spent running a soccer camp on the affluent side of town. Our plan for the evenings was to head over to a park on the other side of the train tracks where we hoped to find some young people who could not afford to attend the soccer camp and do some detached soccer coaching with them. God’s plan was different. On our first night at Old Settlers Park, we met a group of Hispanic men who met every evening to play soccer.

 

The pitch was a concrete square. A tall fence caged the arena, fence poles were painted to mark out goals, and no keepers were allowed. Street soccer was alive! Each night we played, we talked and we shared who we were and what we were about. We asked if we could pray with them all at the end of our first evening with them, but they said no. By the end of the week, after our last match, the group of Hispanic guys gathered round us and we prayed for them. Soccer had broken down the barrier of language, culture and religion. A new ministry has begun for a church in McKinney. God is at work.’

 

Relationship is what our work is all about as youth workers and as Christians; relationship with God and with each other. Relationship is at the heart of God, who He is and what He is about. And that has got to be something we all need…