Day 137 – Community Soccer League

Church this morning was amazing!  One of the guys on the team (Jason) gave his testimony to the whole congregation:  Long story short – Grew up in a good home, got hooked on crack, went to prison, got out prison, cleaned up his act, started smoking crack again, went back to prison, gave his life to Christ, got out of prison, married his high school sweetheart, started his own construction company, now is a very successful builder in Jacksonville, has a wonderful family (4 kids) and is a leader in the church.

As many of the people in the church are currently struggling with the same addictions that Jason went through, the testimony was both relevant and powerful!!!  Immediately after the message ended, Jorge asked if anyone wanted to surrender their life to Christ and three men jumped up and went to the front!  No hesitation at all!  One of the guys had been coming to church for a couple of weeks and was a recovering drug addict.  Another of the guys was simply walking past the church in the morning and one of the members invited him to join us for service…  And he came!  So powerful.

After service, we had a hot dog BBQ for the whole church!  Then, we took everyone over to the new indoor soccer field that is just a block away and we let all the kids play soccer for the rest of the afternoon.  This was really special because these kids never get to play on a field this nice…  What was even better was that we got everyone involved:  We had a boys game, a girls game (Mom’s joined in), a toddlers game, and we finished with a men’s game!  Everyone had a blast.

This evening, I had the privilege of giving the message about “Living for God at home, not just in Costa Rica” during our chapel time.  Though I’ve given this message a couple of times before, it hit very close to home as Bonnie and I are heading back to Florida in two days and we aren’t immune to the distractions of the world.  Thus, there was a lot of conviction amongst us all and a lot of watery eyes.  :)  So far, I have setup to volunteer in my friend’s 2nd Grade Class (in the ghetto of St. Pete) at least once a week and Bonnie and I have some ideas about talking food to the homeless folks who live under the bridge while we’re in Florida.