Ken Edwards, Senior Pastor

We are currently in the high school boys’ soccer season and our son Aren plays on the Mt. Juliet High team. It can get pretty exciting, even for a guy who is still trying to understand the “off-side rule.” Now people everywhere seem to understand the language of soccer. In Swaziland last summer I watched children in the school yard of our Volunteer in Mission sight quickly create a makeshift soccer game using a milk carton instead of a ball. In South Africa we saw the new stadiums in Cape Town and Johannesburg that were being built for the 2010 World Cup games. Soccer is universal.

On March 27, a group of six Belmont University seniors organized a soccer clinic for the children of the Golden Triangle Fellowship—children from mostly refugee families from Burma, Thailand, and Laos. The children were wide-eyed as we approached the soccer field that morning. The seniors had enlisted the talented help of the University soccer team members, and they provided food and snacks for the children. The Donelson-Hermitage YMCA donated new soccer jerseys for the children to wear and keep as a memento of the day. Heather Harriss, Lanecia Rouse and I were thrilled to see the children enjoying the wide open space to run and play and celebrate life. They are new to so many things in our culture, but soccer is the same in every language.

I write this Reflections article out of appreciation for these six young men and women from Belmont University, for their organizational skills, their wisdom and insight, and their compassionate hearts that paved the way for this beautiful day of recreation. I am grateful for Vicki Bob from the Golden Triangle community and for her help in getting parental permission slips signed. I’m not sure we could have done this without her. And I’m thankful for the beautiful children of the Golden Triangle Fellowship who continue to delight us all.