Moving on, not too terribly much is new since the last journal really. One thing on the horizon that I am enjoying is the remaking of the Saturday Morning Sports program. We will still be having it, but it is going to be changing it's face a little I think. There is a guy named George, a Rwandan from my Church, who has been helping me a bit with this program. He shared with me a couple weeks ago that He has his passion and dream to take these kids and turn them into an actual football (soccer) team. George just recently came back into being around at the Church because for aobut a year up to last October George had been taking DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM (Youth with a mission) here in Rwanda. For those of you who don't remember, I mentioned a while ago that this program that was originally focussed on just kids has kind of changed to include mostly teenage guys rather than kids. It's fine for me, because that generally means the level of football is pretty good and so then pretty fun. But I really enjoy the idea of making this into an actual football team, and with it being mostly older guys, it makes it actually pretty possible that we might be able to do that.
George and I met last week to discuss some of these things, and then last Saturday we discussed our meeting and our thoughts with the guys. I think this Saturday, starting at like 7:30am, we're going to have a tryout day and basically form the team. So we'll see how that goes. I am enjoying the Lord's timing on this as well, because of course as I only have about two months and 10 days left or so, I really need to start getting ready to hand this program over to someone else. I think George would be perfect, and so for now, He is the coach, and I am assistant coach. So far right now it is just called CLA FC (Christian Life Assembly Football Club). We like acronyms here by the way. They're super. The plan is we will have an actual team name chosen by our fully selected team next Saturday. If we have as many guys playing last Saturday, about 43, then we should have a good group of guys to choose from. So keep that whole process in your prayers. I am kind of excited about it and I think it is going to go well. Of course it will be a team ministry fully focussed and based on the idea of teaching and evangelizing in the name of Christ. That is George's heart, as well as my own. So I think this will empower the ministry if anything. All the guys on the team though will most certainly be basically really poor kids from the neighborhood, so things like football kleets, uniforms, shin pads, etc. will be nearly impossible for most of them to afford. It will be a huge challenge for them to one day get to the point of being an actual team fully equipped and ready to play other teams, but the God I serve is an awesome and all-powerful God of blessing, and it is not beyond His ability to provide whatever is needed I know.
The other day I was talking to my friend Christine, and we were discussing her troubles keeping a pattern of reading the Bible, which is so important to be doing. Christine if you're reading this, hope your not annoyed at me for mentioning that. It's a pretty common problem so I figured it would be alright. Anyways, I was thinking to myself and thought of this Bible reading schedule that I have which is so incredibly helpful. I started using it in October sometime, and I have kept steady on it reading everyday ever since. I have missed the random day now and then, but I always catch up. I mentioned this to Christine, and she was saying that while she might not be able to stick to the schedule, the option to have the daily bible reading sent to her e-mail was a better option for her. I was thinking that this resource might be helpful to a few people reading this, and so that then I would offer it just in case someone reading might be interested. There is a year long Bible reading plan that helps you to finish the whole Bible in a year. It's only about 15 minutes average a day, which isn't bad. This morning reading the Psalms, it only took like 10, if that. There is a different section of the Bible you read every day to keep it interesting, for example, history, prophecy, psalms, gospels, etc. Then of course if that won't work for you, there is also a service that can send you the daily Bible reading to your e-mail.
But I wanted to mention this because I know how incredibly difficult keeping regular on reading your Bible is, but it is so incredibly important. One of the biggest problems with the Church is that most of the people in the Church don't even know the very Bible that they claim to believe in. How can you believe in the Word of God if you don't even know what most of it says? If you don't know the Word, which is referred to by Paul as the spiritual sword, it is like being in a war against the enemy and not having a weapon. What good would you be able to do then? It's exactly the same in life, if you are a Christian and not equipped with the full Word of God, then you have no means to attack and defend against the enemy, besides prayer I guess. Prayer is awesome, and God can do a lot through that, but you need to be equipped and prepared. You need to have God's Word in you. Not knowing it is one of the main things that many Muslims criticize Christians for. Granted the Koran is much shorter and written by one man, aiding in many of them having it memorized, but that is just an excuse. We have got to know God's Word. Read the Psalms and David talking about God's Word. He is often talking about loving God's Word and how he studies it day and night. We need to have the same attitude. It is the book of love and the book of life, and both flow from it constantly; God speaks to us through it, and He causes us to grow and mature in our faith when we read it. If you truly love God, how could you not be desperate for as much of that as possible? If your best friend wrote you a letter, granted a long letter, and it was sitting there on your desk in it's envelope, would you just leave it there and never read it? Of course not! You'd tear it open and read it like nothing better than this has ever been written, eating up every word. That is the way we are with letters from friends, and God calls us to love Him more than anyone, friends, family even our own lives. So how much more should we love His letter to us, His Word?
Alright, that is enough preaching for now, I think you get my point. I hope you're all keeping steady in the Word, and if not, make use of the resources I mentioned. Oh yeah, an address: www.Bible-Reading.com. And click on Bible Reading for all this stuff. That is all for now. I'll probably send off another newsletter next time something happens. It won't be long I'm sure. Keep me in your prayers. I am keep you all in mine. Thank you so much for reading, and for all your support in every way. God bless, and bye for now
