Love without words

This month I got to visit India! I had been most excited to see India over every other country. I had heard stories of this place of how hard and loud and dirty it was but I finally got to see it for myself. The answer was yes to most of those things especially loud, I’m not sure if I’ve been to a country louder than India. Anyways my team and I were in the city of Kolkata. This place has a population of around 25 million people. It’s probably the size of Los Angeles. It’s crowded like most places in India but right outside my hostel was a big open field. It had some grass and lots of trash but the locals would go there to hang out. Some would play cricket other’s played soccer and some would just sit in the grass and enjoy the time. This is where I met Rounak a 10 year old boy who was basically a soccer pro. Him and his friends invited us to play one day and we continued to meet them and play almost everyday. The kids didn’t speak much English and we couldn’t speak any Bengali. But I’ve learned that in sports language isn’t really needed. When we played soccer I would spend most of the time messing around laughing at everything and encouraging these young soccer stars. Day after day I would go play with them, they didn’t ever remember my name and I couldn’t remember or pronounce there’s, instead we just called each other brother. That’s all I did with these kids, I would play soccer with them, laugh and encourage them and really just love them like Jesus loves. My last day with the boys I told them I wouldn’t be coming tomorrow and that I had to leave the city and travel to my next country. Some understood and said there goodbyes but two of them were not happy about it. They would keep asking me “brother will you come back and play with us?” Man it was hard to tell them “no I probably won’t be coming back.” I gave them a big hug and after like two seconds we all began to cry. It blew my mind that we could have this bond of friendship and brotherhood only through playing a little soccer. I asked them if I could pray with them and without any hesitation they said yes. We prayed and cried some more then I reminded them that they are so loved by Jesus and He can give them so much more than I could. We hugged and cried one last time and they walked off with there mom who came to pick them up. I went back to my hostel thanking God for those little guys. After 10 minutes of being back Rounak shows up and hands me a card. He had made it as soon as he got home and ran over to deliver it.

 

 

I learned that without words God can touch the hearts of anyone. All we did was play soccer maybe one hour a day, a few times a week and that was more than enough for God. Wherever God takes me I know that simply through His love people’s hearts will be reached, and they will know that they are loved.