Sunburn in October

Yes my arms are completely red and sore to touch. So some one try to tell me there in nos such thing as Global warming!!!.

The Point of this blog is not my sunburn but rather what is was doing when I got it. Our Youth Worker and Outreach minister have been playing football in at the local park around every other Saturday since the beginning of September. Last year I played as well. But over the summer I had rotator cuff on my right shoulder. And this football is rough. We play in the Stapleton right outside the Stapleton houses, which were made famous by the Woo Tang Clan.

Football in the park is NOT a Salvation Army activity. I haven’t researched it but I am sure the kind of football that is played would be frowned on by just about every insurance company. Some guys from the neighborhood that come are known drug dealers and others are teenagers who come to our teen drop in center. We even have a couple of high school football stars who would get in huge trouble with their coach if he found out they were risking injury by playing ‘street’ Football.

Anyway Chris (youth guy) and Josh (Outreach Guy) live in Stapleton for missional reasons. And I try to spend as much time as I can. And we all love football. So for us this is simply a chance for us to be salt and light and an area that really needs some. I convinced my wife I was ready to play again (no small task) she made me get permission from my doctor (no small task) but by Saturday I was on the field putting the smackdown on some local teens and young adults.

I am extremely conscience of the fact that in this setting I am the visitor in their world and we play hard and try to model Christ. While I was playing and learning just how out of shape I am. I was infused with a fresh excitement about the work that we are doing in Stapleton As the game went on and some of the players began to make excuses and the language became ‘rougher’, many of those young people who we have been working with, some who are now professing Christians, stood out and acted different I was proud not just because of the things the didn’t do but because of the attitude they were playing with.