Easter Weekend

This Easter break is the first Easter in five years where I wasn't in South Carolina visiting the Nickell's and yes it was different, but so good. I was out in Naivasha, which is right down the rode from RVA, and this place has become my place of escape from Nairobi. This was my third time out there since being here and the animals, landscape, and just everything about that place continue to amaze me!

This go around I stayed at a friend's house which was absolutely fantastic. Not just because we saved a ton of money by not camping, but because of the community where they lived. The highlight of my week was playing with the kids who lived next to my friend and getting to play football with them. The first day that I was there, I was talking to my mom on the phone and while I was talking to her, about eight kids starting gathering around me and just laughing at me. After I got off the phone with mom I taught them how to play hot hands and they loved that game. It was something that we ended up playing together all weekend. They later found out that I was a footballer and the next day they had made a ball out of plastic bags and some foam. The last day that I was there, they had found scotch tape to wrap the entire ball in and make it more durable. One of the kids who I got to know, but was very moody and would either wave continuously at me or cry when I would try to give her a high five or hold her was Michelle Obama. No joke, and all the parents and kids told me that she was his cousin, which everyone in Kenya wishes they were.

On Saturday, my New Zealand friend Jennie and Kenyan friend Jackie and I went to Hell's Gate, which is like a minature Safari place. We ended up renting bikes and since I'm a guy, I never considered getting a map or asking for directions. Instead I just kind of followed the nature what I saw from the beginning. So we ended up following the hardest trail in the park, which even the park rangers were impressed that we went on. But on this trail, I felt like a kid again. I was on my bike, content as all get out, and there all around me was God's creation. From monstrous cliffs, to freakin Zebras, Baboons, Warthogs, and much more! Oh it was so much fun to shout to Jennie and say, "Hey Jennie! There's more Zebras up ahead!" Seriously, where else could I say such a thing?

Those are just a few of the stores. Met several new peeps from Canada, Australia, more Kiwis, and had a ton of fun. I will never forget this trip nor the memories. Oh and for Easter, Jennie and I went down to the lake and had our own Easter service. We read the resurrection story, had a time of thanksgiving, confession, and then had communion. The idea was to have Coke and bread, but sadly we forgot the Coke, so we had Dasani water instead.

Well, now it's back to work and ministry. So glad the two are never separate and coincide with each other. This week I will be re-structuring the Petra Boys program, as well as put the structures in place to add another youth team into the system. This is my dream job and I am so blessed and excited to be in the place, right now! Love you all!

"The Group of Death"

Like I said in my previous post, the Nairobi City Stars U19 team is playing in a Kenyan Premier League Tournament that has a lot of hype and opportunities for potential scouting and recruitment. Today was the first day and our ESPN equivalent, SuperSport, is following the tournament pretty heavily and will probably televise a few games.

Our team is in what is known as the "group of death" in the World Cup. It's called that because for four teams that are favored to do will in the tournament get the unlucky draw to play each other when on paper, they should only see each other in the semi finals or finals, but such is the sport. So today, we played one of the favored teams to win the tournament who also happen to be the oldest team, Tusker FC. They are the oldest team because Tusker is a beer company and they have a policy that the club can't sign any player under 18. The tournament actually had to change the age limit because it was originally a U18 tournament, but Tusker wouldn't have been able to field a team, so they changed it just for them.

So they were the favored and guess what! We won! It was so awesome! The fans were actually yelling "Shitani Ashinwe" which translates into something like "defeat the devil." So after we won, there were like 40 fans that came onto the pitch and were hugging the team and us coaches. There were a lot of Premier League officials at the game and afterwards they couldn't stop talking to the technical bench. They kept telling us how we are the City's team and that there are more boys like the ones we have that we can recruit and develop.

Seeing their excitement and just being so proud of how they played was such a high. Well that's what has been happening today. We have one more game in the group stage because one team dropped out, so if we win on Wednesday then we move onto the quarters.

Please be praying for me this week because after tomorrow night I will be staying with the team at their camp. I have some meetings tomorrow that I need to take care of and then after that I can spend all week and hopefully next week with them. This is an amazing opportunity to disciple, encourage, and begin to mentor some of these boys. So be praying that I can be bold, ask hard questions, and be able to connect with these boys. That connecting part has been so hard these last three months and I really pray that this will be a great way for us to connect. Anyways, love you all and appreciate those of you who keep up with me and want to hear about my life. Cheers.

Football, Faith, Future

Football, Faith, Future is the slogan for Hope Academy, the academy that I am working on structuring here in Kenya. Like I said in my last post, I needed that vacation time to rest, process, and think about everything that I had learned, seen, and observed the last three months. Actually today is my three month anniversary of being in Kenya as well as my 11 month anniversary with Olivia Leigh Perry! Crazy how the two coincide together.

So this weekend has been spent writing what the organization was, where we are now, and where we want to be in the future. Apart from all of this writing, I had the opportunity to be the head coach for Petra Boys for the second time and we won our first game! I made a lot more subs that I did the first game, but I actually felt like I was able to "get into the game" and figure out what was lacking and make the needed adjustments, and it worked! HA! On top of that, NCS played their sixth match and we're also looking for their first win of the season. They were playing Gor Mahia, which has the largest following out of all the team's and played infront of 13,000 plus fans. I had already counted it as a loss for us, but what do you know! We surprised everyone in the league and had the biggest upset of the season thus far. Some of their fans actually told our fans that they thought the reason that they had yet to beat us in 3 years is because they use witch craft before the games. Interesting they came up with that.

This week the KPL is having their first ever U-19 tournament. It's structured just like the World Cup. It's a two week tournament where housing, food, and transportation are provided. This week I'll be staying at my apartment, but I might stay next week if we get out of the group stages. This morning, we had a ceremony where the officials drew the teams for the brackets and luckily we were drawn for the group known as the "group of death." It'll definitely be a hard week for us, but a sweet one.

Well please keep me in your prayers this week as I coach, mentor and spend a lot of time with these young boys. Baraka and until next time, badi!

The Aberdair's!

Well this past week has been a little crazy, which is why I didn't have time to send any updates or status's on what I was up too. We are going through this huge re-structuring process at NCS and it has just been time consuming. Apart from my coaching responsibilities I know have to lead several projects that won't be easy. And on top of that, NCS is still looking for their first win of the season. We are at the bottom of the table and have only one point to show for in five games. Not good.

Apart from that, work gave me a three day vacation and I was able to go camping with the Entwistle's. It was so good to see that family and on top of that go to the places that Ben had talked so much about. Dr. Entwistle, Michael, Seth, and Seth's friend Stephen went and it was just good guy time. Girls will never be able to understand guys attraction to the wilderness, water, and just being a guy in the middle of nowhere.

I hear the weather has been crazy back in the states for some areas. I know Bluefield got a nice sunny day and then snow the next. Here, it's either very hot or rainy and a little chilly. The one thing that the Aberdaire's did remind me of is that I don't want to end up in a city for very long. My place is the mountains, fresh air, and solitude. Not the busy, chaotic, millions of people place.

You can check out my pictures from the Aberdaire's on my facebook and you can even check out my monthly newsletter at http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8163881bfc2dcf5a62bc0a614&id=bac1fbb35e
Hope you have a great day! Cheers.