LACES soccer and kickball growing in Liberia

Well great things are happening on this side of the world.

First of all we had visitors!!
Vernon Croft, head women’s soccer coach for Indiana State, came to visit us for a very action packed five days. We held 2 coaching clinics within that time, both for the LACES coaches and also as a community outreach we offered this coaching clinic to other individuals living in the Matadi community. For everyone involved that week I believe it was a great success. Coaches from the community repeatedly thanked us for the opportunity to come and learn, and the LACES coaches learned valuable lessons on how to bring fun into their practices while teaching skill. I don’t think I have ever seen my coaches laugh so hard, and learn so much at the same time. I think one of the greatest messages that Vernon taught that week was how a coach can have so many different roles in a child’s life; they can be like a father, mother, friend, mentor, and teacher. He spent time talking about how it is a privilege to be a coach and have the opportunity to be apart of child’s life in such a special way.

Our second visitor was Sarah Grile, a childhood friend of mine from Muncie, she came with the agenda to document what LACES is doing here in Liberia. So in months to come we will be sharing with all of you through video and photography about the lives of the people in the LACES program. Sarah spent her days truly reaching into the lives of the Liberian people, and individuals shared stories with her some harsh realities about what it was like growing up in war. While the LACES program aim is to reach the children, through Sarah’s visit I was able to learn how much our coaches lives are truly being impacted as well. One of our coaches shared with me a few days after Sarah left…”that before LACES came into the community he would just spend his days wondering around the community trying to find something to do, and since last October he finds that his days are filled with more purpose and now when he walks through the community he looks for his children (those on his team) to spend time with them.”

Our final update….
LACES is partnering with Christian Revival Fellowship a local Liberian organization that focuses on planting churches in rural Liberia. Christian Revival Fellowship has asked LACES to bring our ministry to the small village of Konia about six hours outside of Monrovia. As of the first week in April we will begin the early stages of implementing this program. I spent last weekend visiting Konia and speaking with representatives from the community and apparently the girls in the community want to form kickball teams instead of soccer teams. So I figure let’s go for it, the only problem is now I have to get my hands on an official rule book for Kickball. Is there one??? The last time I played kickball I think was at recess in 5th grade, and I can’t remember the rules. So of course I asked the brilliant question of what kind of ball they use…and they looked at me like I just asked the most ridiculous question ever and responded by saying a soccer ball. So the good news is it looks like we already have some of the necessary equipment.