Arrival to Belize
I arrived at San Pedro on Saturday afternoon to an awesome (and very tired) Welcome SportServants Gang. The SS team used the weekend to recuperate from a very tiring week of clinics with the coaches and kids. After spending one day at a couple of clinics, I can easily see why the team needed a couple of days of rest and siesta's!!
To many of you I noted before I left for Belize that I was not spiritually-prepared for what I was stepping into, and I requested that you pray for me in that specific regard. After many months of excitement and anticipation, the trip came, and I realized that I had not spent the proper time in prayer and meditation for this project. After I spent one day in San Pedro, I realized that My Father knew that I needed a couple of days like this before stepping onto that soccer field with His Kids.
I wanted a book to read for the week, and Friday night (very late with packing), I could not locate the book that i wanted to bring down here. So after a few minutes of searching I came across an older book by Chuck Swindoll Simple Faith (an oldie-but-goody). I "settled" on this one figuring that "Oh well, I guess it will be a decent read", and "I might just try and finish a book for once". Man, it is amazing how He works His plan into our "settling" for something. This was the book that I needed to get me spiritually-prepared for the trip to Belize. The book focuses on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (His first big preaching moment......the one that could "make or break" His ministry) in Matthew 5-7. In His sermon, He lays out our walk of following Him. He explains what it will be like for those who choose to follow Him, and He lays out basic principles of daily living - and SO against the world's perception of "success" today. But the items that really stuck out to me were two basic principles - the Beattitudes and "salt and light". After spending 7 weeks with my One Goal flag football team going over how THEY needed to understand what Jesus meant with his principles of living like Him, I now had the opportunity to live them amongst coaches and children I had never met. I was so pumped about His Timing of this lesson to me. Then the next thing that hit me was the discussion on "salt and light". Christ did not say to go out and shine my light and make the world shine around you. But He desires us to live humbly (poor in spirit), seeking His righteousness and to let Him flow through us by living out our daily life - with Him shining the way for us and allowing them to taste of His love for them.
The kids that I will come across this week are going to be very "people-intelligent". They will know what each coach is like, even a new one that comes in for the last week of camps. I need to understand that every action, word and thought is going to be seen by these kids. What thoughts do I want to leave behind when I come home - ones of selfishness where MY light shines or that one of a humble servant where I succumb to the light that He shines around me? That is the true light that others are drawn towards.
I leave that as a primary goal for this week. No other human expectations that I have set before my trip matter before that.
BTW - I actually finished the book today - 250 pages!!! That is a feat in and of itself!!! :)
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