Today was our last day of Peewee Football Day Camps. I've never really been a fan of wearing football jerseys, or any jersey, that was not my own. It's starting to grow on me. My church back home in San Diego has/had a flag football team. We're really a bunch old dudes who think they're in high school shape... But hey it's fun. Anyways... I sported my church jersey during peewee football this week :) That and wearing a sweatshirt underneath my jersey makes my muscles look bigger than they really are.
0 Comments
The Stupid Box Beth and I are getting ready to leave Croatia and go to the States. We should be home stateside for at least a year. Therefore we are beginning to pack up for the move. We have some good friends that have a place we can store stuff while we're gone, so Beth got a jump-start yesterday on packing while I was gone at football day camp. We went to Bauhaus not too long ago. (european style home depot) While there, we bought a bunch of small and medium size boxes... now we are regretting it. The boxes don't fold like normal boxes. Find out the real story on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151314822097187.1073741826.510782186& Day camp kids ready for the snap One of the cool things that I get to do here in Croatia is teach fun sports such as football and wakeboarding. After 3 years of practice, I've figured out a decent system of teaching football to kids that is both fun and educational. There are a lot of rules that we have to learn, which makes football boring. However, without rules, football is simply running around with an egg-shaped ball while clobbering whoever you want. That could get boring, especially if you have no clue which direction you're supposed to run, and excitement turns into utter confusion. Many times, the kids I work with know very little about football other than you get to hit people with your body, and you run around with said egg-shaped ball. Today, we started a day camp for kids, connected with a short faith based teaching program. Our kids today already had a bit of experience, so we advanced further than for a typical first day. Interceptions are usually a fun experience to watch. (the coaches referee game time). The play begins normally. QB calls, "Hut" the center snaps the ball, the defense attacks, QB drops back, unloads the ball, the defender is in good position, catch said egg-shaped ball, and... everyone stops. The wrong guy caught the ball and no one knows what to do. I love watching it take place. The referees immediately yell, "Run, Run, Run!" You can physically see the gears turning in their heads when all of a sudden, everyone gets it. The ball carrier bolts in whichever direction he's facing, the former offense swarms said ball carrier asap, and organized chaos continues. Fun times! Getting the football lines ready at camp Currently i am at the camp facility we are connected with here in Croatia. The camp is located in a village called Severin na Kupi. Severin is the village, and "Kupa" means "river" in Croatian, so the village is "on the River". The camp here has seen many years of ministry after it was acquired by DPB (the croatian initials for Scripture Union) Right now is the training weekend for volunteers who will donate their time and vacations during the summer to make a difference in the lives of Croatian and international youth. I won't be able to make it this summer as I head home with my wife to the states on May 16th. (at least that is the current plan) However, my mission and DPB are very much connected here in Croatia, and I heard there would be some good bible teaching from the book of Ephesians, so I accepted the invitation to come and join the group. The biggest take away from our bible time this morning: God is so full of love, that before he made creation, he and Jesus laid out the plan to redeem mankind from sin. How incredible! I'm not really much of a techy guy. Not really into facebook or other social media, so trying out this blog is a bit of a stretch. However, my wife loves social media and enjoys posting quotes between the two of us. Here's a couple of our greatest moments:
March 19 While watching Lost, season 5: Justin: Every time Ben gets hit... Me: ...an angel gets its wings? Jan. 26 While watching Les Mis: Me: which one is Russell Crowe? J: him (pointing to Javert) Me: what's the other guy's name? J: Wolverine This one's more of a conversation: Jan. 19 Current debate in our house since I'm reading through the LOTR again: J: why do you take it so personally when I say Legolas is a fairy? Me: because he's not a fairy. He's an elf, and he's cool. J: but he runs around writing poetry and singing and playing on a harp. Me: he doesn't play a harp, and only the greatest people can write poetry and remember the poetry of old. You haven't even read the books. J: I'm still saying he's a fairy. Me: he's an elf and a warrior. Are the dwarves fairies because they know poetry? J: the dwarves are just goofy. Everybody knows that. Me: *facepalm Today I preached at my church. Talked about how God set up a system of laws, so people could have a chance to fix the sin issues in theirs lives, the only problem is it never really solved the problem. But God had a bigger plan in mind, and that was the gift of life through His Son Jesus when he died on the cross for us. The reason we have Easter, which is comming up.
After church, I went to football practice, and we had a decent install of our defense (I'm playing corner with the Zagreb Thunder, which makes good practice for Team USA.) Then a 2 man film crew came to film a commercial with a few guys from the team...a 5 minute water break turned into a 1 I basically spent my warm time clearing the snow off of a 1/3 of my little practice field. It took about 45 minutes of running the shovel back and forth. The neighbors are pretty cool though, they either watch a little in confusion as to what I am training for, ignore me, or stand at the fence and watch for a couple minutes. As I ran my 2 miles this morning (in the snow... it came back) I thought about a verse that has been on my mind: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who... (Heb 12:1-2) In the christian life, Jesus is our goal. In my football training, Munich is the goal. What happens in Munich? A chance to win a spot at playing a position for the United States of America. What happens in Jesus? He has created and perfects my/our faith. For every step, every sprint, every lunge I do by myself, my mind is set on April 27th, Team USA vs Munich Cowboys. But in life, my mind is not set on Jesus in everything I do. Something that must change... Easter is just around the corner. It's a pretty big day for Jesus followers. It is the day all of our sin, our life-junk, was taken care of once and for all. Which means we, as broken people, can be forgiven for all of our faults. This Sunday I get to preach at our church here in Zagreb on a Easter theme. So I decided to talk about priests, and what role they've played in God's process of redeeming people to himself. It's pretty fascinating when you think of it. In the olden days (like thousands of years ago) priests often performed the duties that normal people, like me, were not allowed to do, because we hadn't been purified, but priests were purified. The holier the place or sacrifice, the more "credentials" a priest would need in order to not be smitten for being where he shouldn't have been, such as a really holy place. But it all changed, and through Jesus, we can all come directly to God. Pretty crazy stuff. In addition to that, we humans have added some commercialization to the day, so we also gets loads of chocolate and protein from fancy colored eggs. Every year growing up, we would have an Easter egg hunt in our half-dehydrated southern California lawn. Do you have any easter traditions? I used to compete in olympic weightlifting years ago when I was in high school. It was a lot of fun. (Especially since I was pretty good. Qualified for nationals 3 times, but never had the money to make the trip, except for my senior year. My youth pastor drove myself 3 teammates, 2 coaches and my dad in our youth group van from San Diego county toward Savannah, GA. unfortunately we did not make it as mr Armando in Tuscon could not get an ac-pump fixed in 8 hours. Don't worry Armando, I forgive you. Plus you taught me a valuable lesson: rare can be just that... Rare. So take advantage of them) Anyways... Coach Rod frequently talked about "active" rest days. Our bodies need a break from training to recuperate. However, that doesn't mean sit on a coach or lay in bed all day long. Move around, play basketball, walk, whatever (I added walk and whatever.) Take a break, but do something to keep your body moving, it will recuperate more efficiently that way. If the weather clears up, I will be golfing with my neighbor today. (He is a semi-pro and I haven't played for five years, so I'm looking forward to improving my game more than beating him.) I'm curious to hear what kind of active rest day activities you do or would be inclined to do. Shoot me a response in the comment box if you've got some time. |
AuthorI love God and people. And hope that my life will help others find a love for God as well. Archives
April 2020
Categories |