Not many people who have known me over the past ten years may know this, but among the many loves in my life, I have a deep love of the game of soccer. Truth be told, as a short guy whose only physical strength was the ability to run fast and play aggressively, soccer was an obvious sport for me to get engaged in. Not to mention, it was a sport my dad loved to play. (ok…there wasn’t a sport my dad didn’t love, but that’s another story.)
So, this year I have been able to dive back into a sport I loved and grew up playing by assisting in coaching a couple of teams this summer with a good friend of mine who has a HUGE resume of coaching competitive soccer. I helped with coaching a Maple Grove park and rec team as well as assisting as much as I could with a MapleBrook Soccer team. I learned so much this summer about the coaching side of soccer and I am really excited about a new opportunity to coach Armstrong High School’s freshman girls soccer.
In more ways than one, this is really meaningful to me.
First off, it’s going to be great to be back in the neighborhood I started my “real-world-life” in. When I graduated from college, Robbinsdale was the first place I called “home”.
Second, I am loving the opportunity to serve in the community in this way. Even though it isn’t Maple Grove, Robbinsdale is literally like the next city over – and there’s something about getting involved in the community that excites me! Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE and am so grateful for the call of God on my life to minister in a local expression of God’s Church in Maple Grove.
But being involved in a world that is different from the one that I usually live in – a world where I wake up to a Christian home, leave to go to work with Christian co-workers, primarily have lunch and meetings with other followers of Christ, and then go home to my Christian wife to get ready for our Christian baby-sitter to watch our kids while we go to our Christian Bible study with Christian friends – the public school environment reminds me of why I got involved in ministry.
I love the opportunity to be a follower of Christ who sees that his greatest calling in not to be removed from the world, but to live in the world. To tangibly be a light. To not forget to do the work of an evangelist even though I am called to the work of ministry.
I am so grateful for this opportunity – and it kinda reminds me of my days in student ministry, which is another reason I am really excited.
So stay close and hopefully, you’ll enjoy bearing the journey with me. Tryouts start August 15th, so look for blog updates and keep me in your prayers =)
Cool!
I'm definitely excited =)