Most mornings in Mexico we visited drug
and alcohol rehab centers. In the afternoons we
visited parks.
You couldn't do it in America, but in
Mexico we went around to announce a soccer
tournament, and each
evening a crowd turned up.
We went to several different fields of
grass, concrete, and dust, sometimes chalking lines
for boundaries
and sometimes dragging a stick.
While the men headed up the soccer
games, the ladies played with the children and shared
Bible stories.
We drew on their faces, turned cartwheels, played hillbilly golf, and
washers.
Several of the women, me included, were much impressed and
moved by the great need that
the children showed for love and
affection. They flocked to us and hung on us, sometimes
hanging on
to our t-shirts as we walked. Wherever we went, they came like
magnets.
Even
though we couldn't communicate very well, we had fun.
Several of the women shared Bible
stories with the kids and I
(Ellie) gave my testimony to a group of wide-eyed children. If I can
give some personal details, I had a captive audience as they heard
how I had been rebellious to
my parents and hateful toward God. But
now they could obvious see that I am happy because I
have given up
sin, and I gave the gospel as clearly as I could. I also noticed
while I talked
through the translator that a man was standing nearby
and listening carefully. May God bless
him!
During one soccer tournament a group of
young men were dancing to the Virgin Mary. It
was heartbreaking to
see. Not only is it hard to see worship to a false god when our God
is so
worthy of all the praise, but I saw young men who depended on
this dancing for their salvation.
They were very coordinated and
disciplined. They danced hard and intensely. And they danced
for
quite some time.
Interestingly enough, we visited a
rehab center later that week where they danced before
The Lord. They
played music and jumped and clapped for joy. Immediately I compared
it to the
dancing in the park. In the park they had each moved in
time, the steps perfectly memorized,
but at this rehab center the
dancing was more spontaneous than anything. And what stood out
to me
most was the joy of the men at the rehab center. Tremendous joy and
thanksgiving, not
working to get God's favor, but rejoicing to have
it. And most importantly, this dancing was in
honor of the One True
God.
I know we don't dance as a regular part
of our worship service in America -- but maybe we
should!
Back to the soccer games, at each
soccer tournament the men took time to gather the
young men around
and challenge them with the gospel. There was no strategy to make an
emotional experience. There was no aim to record great numbers. It
was the straightforward
simple gospel, and then we challenged the
men to commit their lives to Christ.
The last soccer tournament we held,
Wednesday night, the bleachers were filled with
young men spoking
pot. No attempt to hide it, no nervousness or shyness, just out there
in the
open together. During the break, Russ humbly and seriously
addressed them about it, and
though some were high and laughing,
others listened seriously. Please pray for those young
men, that
these words will have a lasting impression on them.
At the
tournaments we gave out tracks and booklets and Bibles, and the
children eagerly
received them and promised to read them.
So for all of the soccer players,
spectators, children, parents, and teeter-totter partners,
please
pray for their salvation. Pray that God may change the hearts of the
people to Him and
that the work that we have done will not be in
vain. Please pray that the words we have said will
not fade into the
darkness but be a light to destroy it.
Ellie
All photos taken by Billy and Sarah Jackson
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