Snapshot of Ethiopia

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to share a little excerpt from one of my most memorable experiences during my time working at the Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The following story describes a soccer tournament that we put on for the elementary-aged children one Saturday morning. To me, this story encapsulates the heart and inspiration behind Sports That Serve. It was experiences like this that taught me how the Lord can use something as small as a one day soccer tournament to express His love to children in need.

"When I walked in the doors….there was this vibe of excitement running through the whole place. ..come 9 o’clock when it was time for the first game between the two first grade classes, the stands were filled with kids, cheering on their classmates. Some of the workers even brought out the 1 and 2 year old babies and sat them down on the rows to cheer. Unbelievable. The next four hours was like a tornado. 8 teams, 6 games, 200 1st – 4th grade kids, 5 volunteers. But God made it work. We found a system and it ran so well. We barely have enough jerseys for four teams of 20, so while two teams were playing, two more were getting dressed on the sidelines for the next game. 4 of the 8 games went to shootouts. It was hilarious b/c most of the time during the week the kids score 4 or 6 goals a game, but today everybody (even the girls that never play) was so excited that they ended up being straight defensive battles. I mean they were into it. The shoot outs were awesome. At the end of regulation, each team chose 5 of their best players to shoot. Everyone else crowded around both sides, essentially making a tunnel between the shooter and the goalie…we had to keep pushing kids back they were so excited to see. It was priceless to see half the kids who were shooters make the cross motion across their chests before shooting. One kid was so focused on scoring that one of his teammates took his hand and did the motion for him as he just stared straight ahead, his eyes locked in on the goal.

The last championship game was between one of my best younger classes and one of my worst older classes attitude wise….so lets just say I was a little biased as the referee. I mean it was just one questionable call….it could have gone either way…I just made sure it went to the underdogs…..and I may have extended the game twice its normal length until they could tie the game at 2 all. So the last championship game came down to a shoot out too. This was story book stuff. By this time the attention spans of the little kids watching the tournament had been pushed to the max, so we had little 4 year olds running around all over the field. After 4 rounds of shooters, the score was 3-2 in favor of the younger underdogs with the good attitudes, and it came down to my boy Chalacho shooting for the underdog team (pronounced just like it sounds). If he makes it, the good guys win. If he misses, the other team has a chance to tie, and potentially send it to another shoot out. The whole crowd held their breathe as he kicked it, and when it went into the net, the team erupted. I had the trophy in my hands for about 2 seconds until it was lost in a sea of shouting kids, all wanting to hold it. I even got water poured on me in the celebration, which made me feel like a real life coach.

All in all it was an unbelievable day. So much good came from such a simple sport. "

-Rob