I wanted to just type out a page from my journal about the sports camp from last week and post some pictures (I will post more pictures later):
"Today was the final day of camp in Torre Pellice [which is about 10 minutes from Bobbio Pellice where I'm staying.] It's sad to think I probably will never see the vast majority of any of those kids ever again. I'm not sure what all is going on with me but I feel both joyful and sad and just and sad and just feel like crying. I'm glad i'll get to see Sam and Luca again and their little sister Julia is the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. I love those kids so much. It's crazy to think that in just a couple of days I could love someone so much. How much more does my Father love me!? Watching the kids sing the praise and worship songs with the Georgia team was absolutely beautiful and so incredibly amazing. I'm just praying and believing for the salvation of those children and their parents. Apparantly some of the parents were crying while watching their kids sing and perform...just a testiment to God and His ability to work on their hearts. I can't help but think of the movie, Field of Dreams, and the line that says, 'if you build it, they will come.' Operation Mobilization (OM) is building and the kids are coming. If we could just pour out ourselves in the various athletic areas, coupled with some teachign and worship, in addition to modeling to the kids how to be good sports and nice to one another, God will change their hearts. Those kids would have to be different leaving Saturday than they came in on Monday. God just asks us if we're willing to pour out so He can use it for His glory. God was so glorified in all that was done this week and it is my prayer that the progress keeps coming and more and more lives get changed. I believe that God was pleased. Today I remembered to pray for God to be pleased and for me to be able to sense and experience His pleasure. I also prayed that He would help me not to get too competitive, but to just have so much fun. I had fun and I'm so glad I was able to have the little ones in my group because they were so distracted that competition wasn't even an issue and I ended up running around after them all day. But to have them sit in my lap and hold my hand and smile at me made it all worth it. Just to be able to love on them makes me so joyful. I really just want to be able to play again and coach kids and spend time in a different culture. I believe I was born to do what I'm doing right now." The camp was an awesome opportunity to play all different sports with the kids, share our testimonies at break time, and another team of people came in to do music, arts and crafts with them while teaching Bible stories. It rained for a few of the days so we had about 45-60 kids crammed into a very small gym, but it was absolutely amazing and we learned to be flexible and to just go with the flow. We do this little dance with the kids to get them warmed up which is absolutely hilarious and they love it. I have learned some Italian since I've been here so I was able to converse with the kids a little bit. It is fun to speak their language with them and to just spend time with them and play soccer with them. Some of them have so much potential to play so we got to just encourage them to play and not quit their teams because they didn't like their coaches. It's so awesome just to see the different dynamics here with the kids and their siblings. I wish we loved our siblings as much as family is valued here...truly amazing that young kids actually understand what sharing is and putting others first. It was so ministering to all of us. We went to church last Sunday at a Brethern church in Torre. It was really neat because it was in Italian and English. I loved that we could sing in both languages and hear the message translated from English to Italian. The service was so relaxed and I just loved the simplicity of it. I got a little choked up when the guy came around to collect the offering and I put some change in the bag and his face lit up with gratefulness and surprise. It is so amazing to see the hearts of the people here and how much they love the Lord so purely. Sitting there I just felt tso comfortable and at peace and I just loved it. My friend Brian got to give a recap on the camp from the week and it was so amazing and touching. I just wanted to share his story with you all because I believe it sums up the camp so perfectly:
"What I saw: My name is Brian Mathay and I have the incredible opportunity to talk to you today, to get to represent perhaps the most amazing team of people I have had the opportunity to be a part of. As much as I would love to talk about them today, I have been given the purpose to talk about this last week of camp. So what I saw this week. The camp was incredible. With a total language barrier, I saw connections made between the kids and the coaches. Legitimate relationships were created when words were not available. From this camp, there is one thing I am sure of now. Love is not words. Love is an action. It is an action to love as Jesus loves; to give all we are to those around us, in total humility and in every way filled with the purpose of building God’s kingdom. And when we do that, amazing things happen around us, like the amazing things that happened at camp. This week, I saw joy. I saw kids become so happy that they lost their problems and worries and they became caught up in the incredible spirit of the camp. In this Joy from the Lord, I saw kids shouting and proclaiming the name of Jesus. I saw courage come out in a young boy that volunteered to pray for the entire camp. I saw compassion in the heart of this team focused on loving kids, on showing Christ with everything in them, focused on giving their bodies and spirits to kids with absolute humility. In this humble sacrifice I saw my teammates grow in amazing ways, right along with the kids. I also saw humility in the campers, when kids gave up their own needs, mostly food, to share with those around them for no other reason than to be kind. This week I saw miracles. I saw rainy days, when all was thought to be lost, that turned into the most incredible ministry opportunities. I saw God’s plans overtake our own, and I saw how truly good it was. I saw love, it was in the way that a brother treated a younger sister, as he regarded her needs as more important than his. A 14 year old boy understood loving someone else as himself. I saw passion. I saw God given passion in the heart of children expressed through sports. I saw eyes light up when a goal was scored, a ball was hit, or a basket sunk. I saw their passion turned into dreams. I saw kids get to dream that maybe, just maybe, they could for a day be exactly what they wanted to be. I saw a girl, who on any other week would be looked over, become the focal point of the entire staff. I saw the teachings of Jesus on the kingdom of heaven become very real. Jesus says that in the kingdom, the last shall be first, the lowest will be the exalted the most. A girl at the camp was mentally handicapped, and she received constant love and attention the whole week. Normally she was last and merely and afterthought, but she was, at least for a week, first and the apple of everyone’s eye. This does not happen in the world. The only place this type of experience is possible is in the kingdom of God. In Matthew 19:14 Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to children, such as these. So I know that heaven is a place where dreams come true. In heaven the name of Jesus is exalted, proclaimed. In heaven there is courage, humility and uninhibited love. In heaven there is joy and compassion, and the last are always first. With that in mind, I guess I saw a glimpse of heaven this past week."
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