Bare Feet and a Soccer Ball

It was Saturday and I was praising God for a beautiful day while wondering how the day would go. Ruth was committed to her tireless work of formatting the Lower Primary Honesty Lessons and holding the fort. We always look for ways to encourage Ugandans who are working with children and Ruth Beth, the Children’s Coordinator for our church, KBC, is one who is pouring her heart into seeing children reached with God’s love and His truth. She had planned a Children’s Event and I volunteered to join and help. She had given me permission to bring two children in our circle—our helper’s son and our Administrative Assistant’s cousin. Soon the two arrived, raring to go…attending such an event is a rare treat for both of them. Just before leaving, I spied our fairly new bright orange soccer ball and decided to bring it along with us.

The orange soccer ball providing great fun!

Even some of the leaders got into a competition

Dresses? No problem!

We motored the 30 minute drive to the Church, praying that God would grant us a rain-free day despite fairly frequent rains these days, and joined the registration lines and visited with children and their leaders, including an inspiring young man, Tony, who uses soccer in his ministry. Eventually some 200 children and their leaders were transported to a nearby home that has a huge lawn and soon the soccer ball was entrusted to Tony who provided fun for dozens of children, many of them bare footed. The girls surprised me – soccer can be played even in a skirt. God also answered prayer and the weather was beautiful with a bit of cloud cover. There were relay races, balloons, a Bible Quiz, and small groups for sharing the Gospel—a few groups used the CrossTalk tracts.

Finally (I wondered how the children could survive without food for so long) around 2 PM, the food arrived and was served--the meal of rice, beef (mostly bones) and cabbage the climax of the day. It was obvious that our orange soccer ball would be more widely used for God’s kingdom in Tony’s possession and so it now belongs to him. Who knows what God will do with these precious children who for a few hours got to run on green grass (as opposed to their tiny cramped homes) and be loved by a team of church volunteers.