Porvoo, Finland. This lovely little town just southeast of Helsinki is where I have landed to coach American football and continue to develop the ministry of A Champion's Heart. Thanks to all of you who have supported me in prayer and financially, your continuous prayers are welcome. The team I am coaching is called the Porvoo Butchers and are the five time defending Maple league Champions (the highest level of football in Finland). The team is composed of a great group of guys who are committed to making themselves better and also to competing at the highest levels. This season we are currently ranked number 4 in Europe and have a quarterfinal game coming up on May 15 in the the European Football League for the Eurobowl Championships. GFor those of you who are soccer fans think of the Champion's cup and this is the equivalent in American football. We will be playing either Berlin or Stockholm as due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland the game between Prague and Stockholm had to be canceled and with the tie and a loss to Berlin, Prague was effectively eliminated. We have been practicing every day and twice a day on weekends so it has been busy in the build up to our first game. We will be having a family time instead of Practice this Wednesday to give everyone a day off and to celebrate the families of our players who give up time so these guys can play this crazy game.
We also want to develop a real sense of family within the team and the organization so this hopefully will be the start of that.
It has been a difficult time for me being away from my family but skype has helped ease the burden a bit. It is also hard to be in a situation where I am unable to communicate clearly all the time. Many people speak English quite well so that helps but I am unable to join in on converstaions and it is a frustration that I am trying to rectify by learning some Finnish but this is a tough language-WOW! I know a few words now and have a couple of guys on the team who introduce a new word to me every day, yes they are good words! I think? HMMM?!
With the inability to communicate clearly I am reminded of the words of St. Francis of Assisi who said "Preach the gospel constantly and when necessary use words." I find myself in a situation where my actions are my words when language fails me. So I have determined to do little things out of kindness to help out in this community. Today I was on a run and went by a high school where kids were playing catch with an American Football of all things. It was not a pretty site and as I was running I felt God telling me to go and help them. So I went up and asked the teacher of the class if I could help show
them how to throw the ball. I don't know how much she understood but I demonstrated how to throw the ball and helped out as they tried it out. I was only there for a few minutes but in that time an exercise in futility that was showing signs of frustration for the students turned into a time of success in a new activity and smiles from the students as they were able to throw the ball to one another. I left feeling like I had done a small thing using a gift God had given me to lighten some kids moods for the day. They are probably wondering who the crazy American is who interrupted their PE class but oh well.Yesterday as I was sitting by the river having a quiet time a young girl came over and asked me if I knew anything about engines. I laughed as I am the most inept mechanical human ever created but I said I could try. Her moped was not working well and would not run. Amazingly a miracle occurred and as I looked at it, i realized that it was something I could fix!! The distributor cap was off and so I was able to fix the moped so she could ride off with her friend. again God just placed me in a place to be able to help someone and I could actually do it!
The day before I picked up litter on a run that I was on just to be able to serve the community. No one will probably ever notice but that is not the point. I want to serve people here, the team through coaching them and helping them develop skills and abilities and my community of Porvoo through acts of kindness and love. In these ways I can preach the love of Christ and demonstrate the heart of a servant. Thanks for your prayers again I hope that God will continue to open doors verbally and non-verbally for me to serve.
