Sharing Jesus Birthday

While I was in Kenya on Christmas Day, the newest addition to the Peterson family was coming into the world in San Diego. Kylie Noelani Peterson was born to my brother Sam and his wife Sally at 11:35 am on Christmas Morning. She was 7 pounds exactly and 18 1/2 inches long. I can't wait to see her!

Christmas in Kenya

After a busy December working with returning secondary students and our football club, it was time to get away and celebrate Christmas. Originally I was planning on spending a few days on Zanzibar Island out in the Indian Ocean with some friends. Unfortunately, those plans fell through and I was not able to go. At the last minute I started checking on-line for some flights home because I thought it was worth a shot in the dark to see if I can spend Christmas with family, especially since my sister-in-law was due to have their 2nd child. I was amazed to find a roundtrip ticket home for $700 and I started making my plans. I was so excited until I went to the final booking and realized that the taxes brought the ticket to over $1400. Oops. That was a little too much to spend for only 5 or 6 days at home. So I had to settle for going to Nairobi and spending Christmas with some friends there.

It turned out a little more difficult than I planned. I was riding on public transportation. Only ten minutes outside of Kisumu the police pulled the van over and said they didn't think the inspection sticker was real. So now it is the 23rd of December and I was joining thousands of other people in Ahero Police Station waiting around for an inspector to come and inspect our vehicle to make sure it is safe. It wouldn't be so bad if they consistently enforced these rules throughout the year, but they never do. They just pick out a day every now and then and decide to crackdown. Christmas doesn't seem like the best time of year to do that, but maybe my perspective is a little different. It was an enjoyable three and a half hours of doing nothing, but eventually the inspector came and told us what we already knew (that our vehicle was fine). What made it worse was that it delayed my arrival into Nairobi which then coincided with rush hour in addition to a storm that knocked trees into the middle of the road! Ugh!! Eventually I arrived at my friends around 9:00 pm (I had left Kisumu at 7:00 am).

It was a good Christmas. Vance and Kathy Ficek live in Karen on a compound with their daughter Tera and her husband Tom. They have separate houses in the same compound. Kathy is the principal at West Nairobi School while Tom and Tera also teach there. They welcomed me into their family and we enjoyed the holidays together. We had a lot of time to rest, relax, read, talk, eat, etc. My Christmas gifts were all food. Things like Pasta and Sauce, M & M's, Twizzlers, Instant Mashed Potatoes, etc. Not just food, but American food and easy to cook. Perfect. Couldn't have been a better gift for me since I am still learning to cook without having a fridge to store leftovers.

We enjoyed the time together. It was nice to be around an American family for Christmas and to have a little time away from Mbita.

Boys Growing Up

While the girls were competing in Kisii, the Suba Laker Boys were nearer to home participating in a junior tournament. They swept through their preliminary matches on Rusinga Island and I made it back in time to see them play in the semifinals and finals. They played good football, playing the ball on the ground and making good passes back and forth to get into scoring position. I was also impressed with their discipline when the referee was being unfair and when the other team was getting rough. They scored an easy 2-0 win in the semifinals and dominated the finals, though the 1-0 score doesn't necessarily paint an accurate picture. It was encouraging for them. The Rusinga Island fans weren't happy that we were taking the trophy away from the island and back to Mbita, but they had kind words to say about how our boys played and their character. They even asked me to share a word with all the teams and all the fans during the trophy presentation so I took the chance to talk about the way to eternal life through Jesus. It was dark by the time the boys accepted the trophy and walked it across the courseway back home to Mbita.

This December was the first time our CGA boys competed in football tournaments as a group. The holiday months (April, August, December) are difficult for teenagers in this area with many temptations that can derail their life. For orphan boys it is even more challenging. Once these boys reach puberty, their mothers or guardians have a tough time controlling them and the boys end up doing whatever they want; and that is not usually good for them. Several of them have realized this and took steps to making wiser decisions. It has been fun this December to see them involved with the remedial teaching at CGA and the football training and tournaments. Some of them have even volunteered to work at CGA when they have free time.

They had come to me and asked if they could form a team and have taken most of the work and responsibility themselves. When I asked them what name they wanted, they responded they wanted to be the Suba Lakers Boys, just like the girls. So when the girls win, they can also be a part of it.

It has made a dramatic change in several of their lives to stay busy with positive activities and to hold each other accountable this holiday. I know it will pay dividends in their academic performance next year and in their futures. They have showed good responsibility and have been very grateful for the opportunities they have received. (They are pretty good players too!)

Trophies on Earth and Trophies in Heaven

The weekend before Christmas we took our top girl footballers to Kisii to participate in a nationwide tournament. After the weak competition in Sindo earlier this month, we needed to face some better girls teams, but we got more than we bargained for. We looked great in some games and pathetic in others. I am still trying to find the reason behind our inconsistent play. Maybe we had too much to eat for breakfast, or they were intimidated because we talked highly of the other teams, or they were afraid after one of their teammates got injured and after an opponent broke her ankle, or maybe they were just ready for Christmas. Nonetheless we took third place with a convincing 5-0 win. The girls are always happy when we can bring a trophy home from a tournament, but I expect a little more. With the ending of one year and the beginning of another, it gives us a good opportunity to reflect on successes and failures and see what needs adjusting. Our club officials will take time to do that after the 1st of the year as we look ahead to what God is doing through our Suba Lakers Football Club.

The highlight of the weekend for me was an impromptu sharing of the Gospel on Sunday morning before our matches. One of the female teachers was leading us in a Sunday service when she put me on the spot. The Holy Spirit worked through me and I shared with the girls why God needed to send his only son to save us from our sins. I emphasized God's love for each of us and how nothing can separate us from His love. Several of our players were moved by the message and responded positively. That moment helped me to bring things back in perspective. I would accept poor play on the field every day as long as each of our girls would respond to the call of God on their life and surrender to Him!

A Week of Football

The Suba Lakers Football Club took three teams to Sindo this week to participate in a local tournament. They took a secondary school ladies team, a primary school ladies team, and a secondary school boys team for the first time.

The boys were all secondary students that are associated with Christ's Gift Academy. We felt like it was a good opportunity to keep them busy during the holidays and make productive use of their time. There are many talented boys that graduated from CGA so it was easy to put together a competitive team. Their team was captained by Festus Ochieng and Denis Omondi. They trained for a week before the tournament, but started slowly with a 3-0 loss to previous champions Olando. The next day they came back strong holding Roo to a 0-0 draw but were unable to advance to the knockout stages. It was a good beginning and hopefully it will continue to strengthen over time.

The girls trained for a couple of days before the Sindo Tournament. The talented secondary girls were shocked when their primary school counterparts blasted them 4-0 in a scrimmage. Our young girls have really improved as individual players and have bonded as a team throughout the monthly trainings this year. As we had predicted, there wasn't much competition from other local ladies teams. Both teams breezed through the competition without a loss, routing most of their opponents. The tournament organizers allowed us to face a junior boys team in the final. So we combined our two teams to face the boys. These boys weren't "juniors" though. They were big and fast, probably the same age as most of our girls, or older. The stadium was filled to capacity and the fans had never seen a match pitting girls against boys in football. Very quickly the spectators jumped on our bandwagon, amazed to see the girls take the ball from the boys and dribble around them. The girls fought hard throughout the first half which remained scoreless. In the opening minutes of the 2nd half Pauline Aoko controlled a cross and fired a hot shot that bounced off the goal post and Caren Akeyo missed the rebound shot. The crowd was shocked that the girls almost moved ahead of the boys. In the end, strength and speed won out as the boys scored two 2nd half goals. But it was a great exhibition and opened the eyes of many people around the area as to how strong girls can play football. It was also a good test for our girls to increase their strength, speed and toughness.

So our two teams received prizes as the champions and runners-up. It was a good week, but challenging. Driving back and forth to Sindo for five days with 30-40 players, taking care of their lunches and other needs. We would meet at CGA early each morning to distribute uniforms and talk with the players, then we would arrive back after dark each night and try to get all the players to their homes where they were staying. But it was good preparation.

The girls will be returning this week on Thursday for two days of training and then we leave on Saturday for a strong 2-day tournament in Kisii against some higher level ladies competition before taking a break for the holiday season.

Christmas Celebration

The CGA family celebrated Christmas today. After closing the school year last week, all of the students returned for the morning's festivities. The secondary school students that had returned from their various schools led the program. They enjoyed a nice breakfast before assembling in the big hall. They started with some singing and then a skit about the real meaning of Christmas. Several students read from the Bible about the birth of Christ and why God sent him to Earth. A few of the students shared some encouragement with the others. Before they left, each student was blessed with a shoebox full of toys, candy and other gifts that were sent by Samaritan's Purse.

It was a good occasion that helped them to understand the reason we celebrate Christmas. The ultimate gift was God sending his own son to die for our sins so that we may have eternal life.