Day 3!

The girls continue in their tournament.  The girls are still in group play, but are going into the quarter finals tomorrow.  They have really enjoyed training sessions that Tammy has put on.  We practice basic skills such as dribbling and passing, which these girls have not had the opportunity to learn.  Many of the teams have one ball, so the girls cannot practice their foot skills on their own.  Sometimes they make the balls out of tree bark.  They are overjoyed to have this opportunity to learn and have improved with only a few practice sessions!

 Matt being tender.

 We had the pleasure of meeting these three wonderful people. Their mother was a widow that TCON provided for but passed away when these three kids were little. Her last wish to Dave was to take care of her children and they have been able to provided for all their needs. They all have good faith and see how God has blessed them in many ways. But they still face many adversities living in Uganda.

Cora and Dani had the chance to be referees for two of the girls' games. The male referees stayed beside them during both games because they did not trust their judgement, because they are girls. In this culture, women are seen as worthless, so it was surprising to the men that girls knew so much about the game.  

Later at night, we broke off into six different discipleship groups lead by Cora, Dani, Chelsea, Carrie, Tammy and Beatrice (Dave's Ugandan minister).  They were able to get the girls to open up and talk about their lives and struggles.  Each group came away with incredible stories that are difficult for Americans to even fathom, but through it all, many of the girls are able to see God's provision and love for them.   The theme over the past few days has been the love of God.  Our desire is to show them this love and the worth that they have in Jesus, because they were bought with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ.

Many girls asked about what America is like and they are surprised when we tell them that we have struggles, too.  They think that America is perfect and everyone is rich.  They all want to come to the USA.  We clarified many of the myths that they believe about America, including that we have chips in us so that we can keep track of each other.