Red Kicking Dragons

Soccer Nights. Check!

Soccer Nights is a one-week free soccer camp that the Vineyard Church started 5 years ago to serve the community. Now it is in 5 locations and they have 2 camps in Cambridge serving a total of 1000 kids across Boston. So cool.

After the downpour on Day 2 we had a full rainbow. Thanks God. 

Since I know you have to be flexible when volunteering I played it cool when I found out that instead of Assistant Coaching on the Orange Division of 10-12 year olds as originally assigned, I was switched to a coach in the Red Division - the first graders. And I was ask to teach curriculum all week. Bonus new thing. Hmmm... I have never taught plus little kids seem less relatable therefore scarier than bigger kids.

The Red Division had 4 teams. Soccer Nights is about trying your hardest, not winning but...my team, the Red Kicking Dragons, did win our Division Championship! They cared for about 2 minutes doing fake fainting on the field and starfish jumps for joy. Then all they wanted was ice cream. Love those kids.

Teaching curriculum made me get creative and more thoughtful about being a part of the week. It was only 15 minutes of teaching and group time and the topics were simple: Names, Homes, Trust, Encouragement and Goals. It ended up being really fun and I used some of the techniques I've picked up from my teacher friends over the years ("If you can hear me touch your nose" sort of stuff) which was a huge help.

In the spirit of the Olympics, throughout the week the coaches gave out gold medals to the kids who were trying their hardest and working well together like using the names of their teammates and being respectful. On night 4 when we talked about encouragement we taught them to high five to encourage each other when someone did something well and then let THEM give out gold medals to their teammates.

When one little girl on my team volunteered to be the goalie, another little boy said "I'm giving you a gold medal for being the goalie!" She returned with "I'm giving you a gold medal for giving me a gold medal!" and then all the kids on my team started giving each other gold medals. Way to go team!

This is me and Martin. He made me a heart shaped card on the last night. Heart strings were pulled. He would put water on his hair to make a wet mohawk before our scrimmage each night which made him double adorable.

I'm going to keep an eye out (in a non-creepy way) for the kids from Soccer Nights that live in my neighborhood. A lot of the kids are from single mother homes or refugee/immigrant families. Hopefully I'll run into some of the kids, get to know their moms and build community in my 'hood.

What I learned from my week at Soccer Nights:

Even big kids have to learn to be friends. It was harder to meet and befriend the other coaches than I expected. I had to be really intentional about saying hi and being careful not to be that weird new girl because everyone mostly knew each other. I'm committing right now to going to Soccer Nights volunteer get togethers to make friends with people from other churches. Community is awesome, but still work.

Little kids want to make you happy. The first graders were the best. While sometimes they have a hard time paying attention, it is really no different than talking to a group of adults who are all distracted by their smart phones. I am happy to say, first graders are now my friends and I fear them no more.

The real way to turn the other cheek. During training one girl was teasing me ever so slightly during role playing drills. She gave me roles like "crush on the coach" which I took as "you are a flirt because you wore yellow jeans to a soccer training." The other role she bestowed was "brown-noser" which I translated as "you are too eager to volunteer and get attention." In my defense, I was super excited to volunteer. I was going out after training, therefore the yellow jeans, Ok!?

This all made me a little nervous for Soccer Nights and to see her again. Should I tell her she maybe shouldn't pick on the new people? Should I just avoid her and blow it off? Is she a mean girl? Did SHE really have a crush on the coach? For the 3 days between training and the start of Soccer Nights these thoughts would occasionally creep into my mind.

I had butterflies in my stomach walking to Soccer Nights the first night. Then God taught me to turn the other cheek. She was my division leader. Yay. I decided that turning the other cheek meant more than letting someone hit you in both eyes. It was about letting things go and not taking yourself too seriously.

When I walked up to her to tell her I was switched to her division and would be her curriculum teacher, she said "Hey, Crush-On-The-Coach!" and I just said "Hey girl!"and then we became friends.  Ahhh. The things that get in our heads are so funny. She is not a mean girl. Is a really sweet girl in fact.

Dear mind, 
Stop messing with me and making me take up valuable time and energy to worry about things that aren't real or important. 
Love, 
Self

Go Red Kicking Dragons!
t

I Never

As my small group can attest, many of the thoughts I share begin with, "So I was listening to WGBH and ..." fill in the blank. Today is no different. Diane Ream's show this morning was on violence against women spurred from the 22-year-old woman shot in the back before an audience of men in Afghanistan last week. As most things are in our day, it was recorded with a camera phone which is why this particular incident (female executions are not uncommon around the world, especially in the Middle East) is getting a lot of attention. 

While Diane's guests talked about violence ending when women are empowered economically and otherwise and how ideas about masculinity need to be transformed to honor women, it made me so eager to do something. There are a lot of things to care about in the world, but this is the issue that lights a flame in me. I wish every woman could have a part of my freedom, respect and honor. 

I've never been raped.

I've never been illiterate.

I've never had to quit school because my education wasn't valued.

I've never been married as a child bride.

I've never been forced into an arranged marriage with my rapist.

I've never been forced into an arranged marriage at all for that matter.

I recently met a Middle Eastern girl who immigrated to the US with her family. She was not able to enroll in school like her younger sister, she must have just missed the cut off at 18-years-old. Her parents arranged for her to marry someone of the same nationality living in another part of the US and now she must go 1700 miles away from her family to be with her husband. Her English is sub-par and she is moving to the south. That is on a "new" on a scale I will never get close to. 

It's been fun to do all these new things (today I pickled), but this season of my life is about a transition to helping others have a new experience of value, respect, dignity, empowerment. That is the new thing I am most excited about right now. So while all these new things are great, the new thing I want most is to be a tool that helps set the captives free.

I started The Divine Hours today. It was only a partial fail. I started strong at 7am, but the hours are 4 services of prayer throughout the day. I only got to the first one. Oops. There is always tomorrow. If you have never heard of The Divine Hours (like me until a month ago) here is a brief introduction:

“Asking me why I keep the offices is like asking me why I go to church. One, granted, is a place of bricks and mortar, but the other is a chapel of the heart, as powerful a place, albeit one of the spirit. The Offices open to me four times a day and call me to remember who owns time and why it is, as a part of creation. All that means really is that four times a day the watchmaker and I have conversation about the clock and my place as a nano-second in it. All The Divine Hours does is fill the ancient and fixed order of that conversation with the vocabulary and rhythms that are natively and unpretentiously ours as 21st Century Christians. There is nothing new here except a newness of accessibility and a new ease of glory in the doing of it."
― Phyills Tickle

{ Spicy Pickled Carrots }

5 pounds of full-sized carrots, peeled and cut

4 jalapenos peppers, with seeds, halved lengthwise down the middle

14 whole cloves

2-1/3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

7 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed slightly

5 cups distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)

2 cups apple cider vinegar

1-2/3 cups granulated sugar

5 Tbsp. pickling salt

Directions are here and they are really long, so I'll just tell you what privileges I took with the recipe and let you click the link if you are so inclined. I actually followed the recipe for the most part. I did add fresh red onions cut into long slabs. I think that the Boston Food Swappers will appreciate that. I also minced the garlic instead of crushing just because I didn't read very closely. So I hope that minced doesn't turn out so garlicky that I ruin relationships. I actually have a tiny little date after the Boston Food Swap (not a blind one, so keep thinking about that!) so maybe I should pass on my own creation. 

The last office of the day is set before sleeping, so with that I will retire for the evening and practice the last divine hour.

Here's to a new ease of glory for us all,

t