Soccer Kicks

Ask and you will receive,
And your joy will be complete.
John 16:24b

I forgot to mention when I wrote about Eli being athletic in January that he loves to play soccer. He played for the school team in Chiang Mai and was a member of the soccer club there. Here in Markham, he joined the recreation league and just recently, was invited to join the Unionville-Milliken Soccer Club (UMSC), a more competitive league. He was the only one invited in his recreation league team. He also had to try out for the club team at least two times. When he made it and was chosen, he was obviously ecstatic and beyond himself. We’re due to leave for Thailand early in the summer so he’ll miss at least two months of the tournament but he wanted to join anyway. That he be in a more competitive league was what he really wanted. He wants to hone and improve his skills and knows that playing competitively and with players better than him is the way to go about it. In the end, instead of leaving in early July, Eng reconsidered and agreed to leave at the end of the month so Eli can keep playing on the team. The last hurdle to overcome was paying for the club fee to join UMSC and it wasn’t cheap.

Eli is the first kneeling player on the left. This is a picture with his recreational team called "Mr. Sub".

Eli didn’t have all the money and neither did we. Even if we did have all the money, we would only have helped and not pay for the whole amount. We wanted Eli to invest in himself and use some of his money (which he had). Eventually, we helped by Eng asking his 3 friends if they would be interested in sponsoring Eli. I gave Eli email addresses of some friends and my siblings and he wrote and explained his predicament, asking for help. He was hoping that if each individual he wrote to gave $20-25 each, he’ll reach the amount he needed.

The evening he sent out the email about paying the club fee, Eli and I prayed and asked the Lord to provide. No more than half an hour later, Eli came back literally jumping up and down because he had two responses totaling $400. The next day, more responses were received and they all exceeded the measly amounts he had thought people would give. One respondent asked who to write the cheque to for the FULL AMOUNT. In less than 24 hours from the time the email was sent, exceedingly and abundantly, Eli received email messages with amounts totaling just less than three times what he needed. He now needs wisdom to know who to receive from.

Needless to say, Eli couldn’t be happier about the way the Lord came through for him. I can’t say that today his joy is complete but he’s definitely grateful and well aware that if he asks, he’ll receive. Thank you, Papa God. We praise you.