Erin

Erin is a soccer town. Every night all they fields are full of colour running up and down the fields. I love going to the fields at night, seeing the campers enjoy the game of soccer, and cheering them on. It is crazy how much of an impact we – as coaches – can be just by showing up and cheering them on. The kids just light up and get so excited that we are watching them play. Not even kidding, we have seen campers totally step up their game, and run everywhere and score a couple of goals within minutes of cheering them on. I believe that is one of the biggest promoters of camp: we are willing to hang out, cheer on, and have fun with their kids even after camp hours.

When I think of Erin Village, a couple things come to mind; one of them being Carla. Carla is the camp co-ordinator for the camp. She is amazing. Love her. When I met her last year, one of the first things she said was, “you are my children, and I want to get to know you.” She really took us in and we became her “older” children. This year Carla really encouraged me in my role as head coach. Some of the struggles I was going through she went through last year when she first became camp co-ordinator. We talked a lot throughout the week. One of the things I will always remember was on Friday afternoon, during world cup. We were watching the teams and talking about the weeks to come, struggles that may arise and the team. Carla prayed for me and the team right there. It felt amazing and for the first time in three weeks, my nervousness for the summer settled down.

Coaches Corner. God worked through Coaches Corner so much this week. During the week, I didn’t really notice just how much God used us during this time. Halfway through the week, Carla came up and told us that Matthew and Daniel said that Coaches Corner was making sense. They liked how each day built on each other. They were actually learning something new. This year, the theme was The Amazing Journey.

Monday is “You are Amazing” and I talk about how I felt like I always had to prove myself to my friends and how I tried to change myself so that I was good enough to be their friend. But that God doesn’t look at our outward appearance, but what is on the inside. God loves us just the way we are because that’s the way He created us to be – and because of that we are amazing.

Tuesday is “The Great Obstacle.” Reuben shared his testimony about his aunt and how he was mad at God when she died. But through the help of his friends, Reuben was able to see how selfish he was being because now his aunt was able to laugh, dance, and talk in heaven.

Wednesday is “The Amazing Solution.” Sonya talks about her relationship with her father and how it isn’t always the greatest, but how she also has a heavenly Father who adopts us as His.

On Thursday, Nate talked about the “Amazing Growth” he has had throughout his life. He shares when he first accepted Christ when he was 5, about his parents’ divorce, and getting baptized earlier in the year. No matter what he was going through, God was always with him, helping Nate grow closer to Him. As Nate was going through his testimony, I was watching two brothers, whose parents were going through a divorce. The younger brother couldn’t believe how much he had in common with Nate. The look of disbelief was written all over his face, and having comfort that he was not the first person to deal with this.

Friday was when we pulled everything together and talked about the “Amazing Journey.” This is when we go through the story of the Bible – how God created everything, and how He made it perfect, but that we sinned, and were no longer perfect. God sent His one and only son, Jesus, to take on all our sins for us, so that God will see us as perfect. Then we invite those who want to accept Jesus into their hearts to do so. We split into small groups. That week, there were 22 kids who accepted Jesus. Sally, who has been at camp for a number of years, accepted Jesus last year at camp, and she told her story, and encouraged everyone in that group to continue to live for Him.

I week after camp was over I received this email about one of our campers – Ailish:

One night during soccer camp week, Jacqueline was tucking Ailish in bed and she asked her (as she does many nights) “Ailish, who loves you more, Mommy or Daddy?” without ANY hesitation, Ailish responds “Jesus does!” Jacqueline was astounded because, Ailish didn’t hesitate, didn’t blink, and was very happy.

Neat eh? This was Ailish and Evan’s first time at soccer camp and I believe that they do not go to church.