Discipleship

In October 2007 a group of 16 children and 9 Fundacion Totai
workers travelled to Santa Cruz as part of a trip to reward the
under 11 football team for their commitment and performances
in training and championship matches.

In 2006 the same team had won the under 10 championship
title, losing only 1 match on their way to the title. Up to the date
of the journey, the team had been unbeaten for over 18 months.

But it wasn't just to do with their match performances. Regular
attendance at the training sessions has been a virtue of the
children for the past 4 years. The large majority of the children
in this group have been coming along to Fundacion Totai
football programme since 2004.

THE JOURNEY

The journey left the Trinidad bus station at 9pm on the Friday
night for what would be a 10 hour trip to Santa Cruz de la
Sierra.

It was a big occasion for most of the children who had never
travelled to Santa Cruz before and /or been away from the
families in this way.

Thankfully for the adults accompanying them, most were fast
asleep by 11pm making for a peaceful journey.

ACTIVITIES IN SANTA CRUZ

Saturday

Accommodation was at a sports centre who very kindly
allowed us to use the facilities during the weekend at a very
low cost.

Saturday morning included a trip to the Santa Cruz zoo.
Although the boys enjoyed looking at the animals, most of the
time was actually spent on the trampolines and slides in the
zoo's park.

It was the afternoon that the boys were most waiting for - the
chance to play renowned football school "Tahuichi".

The match was held at Tahuichi's very impressive training
complex.

In an exciting match played in a friendly manner and with both
teams well matched, the final whistle sounded with a 3-0 win to
Totai.

Saturday evening was a trip into town to watch a children's
film at the cinema and fried chicken for dinner.

Sunday

After a sound nights' sleep with everyone exhausted from the
busy day before, it was off to play another match with Tahuichi
after breakfast.

However, things did not go to plan after Tahuichi failed to turn
up (because they were frightened, according to the boys!). Not
to be outdone, the boys organised a match among themselves
before heading off for lunch.

The afternoon was set aside for Kenny to share with the boys
the gospel message through a simple talk and hand out
Bibles. All the children who attend the sports activities
regularly receive Bible teaching but trips such as these
provide great opportunities to speak to them in more depth.

It was very encouraging to hear them answer questions and to
see that they have a good knowledge of the gospel message.
We can only pray that they will respond to this and turn to
Christ.

For the rest of the afternoon we all headed the main plaza
(town square - photo below) and then to a large community
park where the boys again used up the last of their energy
before the return journey to Trinidad that evening and back in
time for school on Monday morning.

We give God thanks for this wonderful trip which we hope to
repeat again some time in the future.