First Aid

Boa tarde!


      When teaching or coaching any sport, the worst thing that you can have happen is seeing someone under your tutelage injured. I have been injured many times from torn labrums to split lips and black eyes. I have also accidentally injured training partners. These are difficult to deal with, but when a kid is hurt in your class, a tournament, or worst of all in the street, it is almost unbearable. It is hard not to somehow feel responsable whether it is your fault or not.

      Last week, the kids in my BJJ class were working on rolling armbars from the back. They were all working hard and performing the technique well. However, they got loud, and a girl working with her younger brother balled up crying. He could not here her saying tap. For whatever reason he could not feel her tapping either. Her whole arm was swollen, and I spent the next two hours waiting for her mom to come take her. I thought it was going to be the first time I had a kid sent to the hospital. She couldn't move her arm or her hand. It hurt to keep ice on it. I thought is was broken for sure.

      Her mom came for her, and she decided to take her home and see if it would improve by morning. The next day they went to the doctor, and it was thankfully just a sprain. She was back in class two days later, albeit just to watch for the sake of precaution. It was a huge relief to find that it wasn't too serious. In the end we have to understand the risks of combat sports.

      Even harder though are the risks of working in violence-prone urban poverty. Here I have seen a young man walk into class with a stab wound in the thigh in both Managua and East St. Louis. I have seen my most promising and talented kid kicked out of his house and sleeping in the Street night to night. The last time I ever saw him, he was consumed by drug addiction and covered with scars like ladders running up his arms and legs. He was thirteen when all of this happened. I have had to carry an 11-year-old's casket. I have had a good friend jailed and tortured by an oppressive government after a peaceful protest. He now lives in another country where has to sleep on the floor. I here news of kids I used to know who have been shot to death. I even saw a young man who had been held down by gang rivals to a gang he had left while they cut a chunk out of his calf muscle with a knife. The wound seemed to stare right back at me with the swollen, pink, rotting flesh surrounding the infected hole, like a gaping pupil that had witnessed an ugliness nastier tan its own appearance.

       These images wound your soul. This job is overwhelming at times. For the most part it is joy and triumph. The failures can really cut you though. But if you don't take it on, who will? Is it certain that someone else will take your place in their lives? No. God puts us in people's lives for a reason. In Him there is hope, and with Him we can do the impossible.

       The director at the community center here once said that the most tenacious seed of all is the Kingdom of God seed. You might never see its fruit, but then again its not for your glory. He will keep cultivating the seeds we plant. We just need to have faith. We need to keep sharing His love. These things I see are the results of wounds that go back for generations. Yet God's love brings healing to the most profound brokenness.

       While these heavy memories began to weigh me down one day this last week, I walked into the center. I thought about giving up. God reminded me of why I needed to keep going. I saw the hardest kid I have ever had to deal with. He is a Young man now. He is stuck in drugs. He is jobless, and he has not kept up with school. He tells me about his buddies who are getting shot. But he is alive, and I still get to speak to him. He keeps coming back after the years, and I have an opportunity to bring first aid to his soul through the Gospel. It is the hardest path to travel sometimes, but no other race is worth running.

Modimo au gaugele.

Unafraid

I will not be burned though I walk through the fire,
And I will not be consumed by my selfish desire.
I refuse to lose sight of my awaiting prize
Or my passion's plight blazing in my eyes
God's love's illumintaion scintilating
Deep from the corners most obscure
And my faith's foundation integrated
Into a once dark heart being made pure.

Many are trapped by pasts and circumstance,
But fate doesn't operate just by bad chance.
There is a choice, and we can change the plans.
To the mortician with my ambition!
I want submission to the commission
To bring the Kingdom to fruition.
My volition is to live this petition;
To speak this message to all the lands,
Guided by the Creator's gentle hands.
The Son of God removes the sin of man.

Gomper Stompin'

Bonjour tout le monde!


        It is a foggy Tuesday in the fabled "City of Champions". I drive past that welcoming billboard on 9th St. everyday as I come into work. It reminds me of Jackie Joyner Kersie, the Olympic gold medalist, who came out of East St. Louis. It reminds me of the kids I have seen win championships in the past. It reminds me also of the East St. Louis high school football team that missed the state play offs because of the strike and of athletes who might have picked up scholarships as scouts watched them in their games, perhaps missing out on their shot at success. Most of all, it reminds me of the importance of what is found in this community.

      Within the rubble-filled streets covered in broken booze bottles and massive pot holes(one of which nearly devoured a truck of mine a few years back) crossing through the Samuel Gompers projects there are a lot of people who reflect these images. Here one will see some abandoned homes overgrown by plants across from the public school.  Right next to our community center is an apartment complex that burned down a few years ago. Inside of the habitable spaces broken families are also easy to find. Abuse cases, poverty, drug use, and a general lack of hope run rampant. However, champions don't stay down. I see in many of these kids and their parents a will that won't break. I see God move in them daily. This is the City of Champions.

      My kids are getting ready for their first tournament this Saturday. They have trained hard. They have technique, endurance, strength, and mentality. More imprtantly, they have good character. I know that they will represent their fellow students, their families, and their community with honor. The days get fewer as they make their final preparations for the first of several competitions. It will be a big day indeed, regardless of the outcome.

     I run laps around the community frequently and, I keep seeing this hope in its residents. I am getting ready for a fight of my own, and it reminds of how in competing I am my students' champion. When I fight, I represent them. I represent the Gompers. In my last fight I carried a Nicaraguan flag to the cage because that was the community I represented. I still do. It is pressure, but I must represent them all well. This does not mean always winning the fight, but rather it means showing the outstanding character I see in them.

     It is said that as believers we are ambassadors of Christ to this world. Therefore it is of the utmost imporatance that people see Jesus in our thoughts, words, and actions. An ambassador tries to show the best of their country so that others will see the greatness of their homeland. This is the cause I want these kids to champion most of all. Their competition is awesome, but it is only part of their story. It only impacts parts of their lives. Our walks with Christ are all-encompassing. They involve every aspect of who we are, and it is important for us to understand that whatever we do, we represent Him before others. We are fighting, but we can show kindness, patience, humility, joy, gentleness, self-control, and above all love in any struggle against any circumstances.

     I am reminded of this everytime I step out into the Gompers. God is present even in the midst of the worst looking places. Just yesterday I had a young girl who came tome saying that she almost got kicked out of school on the first day back after the strike. She said her friend got jumped by some other kids. She wanted so badly to get involved. She then said that she realized that if she fought, she wouldn't be allowed back into martial arts class, so she stayed out of it. The other kids were kicked out of school. We must be present in the same way as God wherever we are. We need to be salt and light and keep our eyes peeled for the glimmers that poke through the darkness. You never know who is watching for that light to get out of their tunnels or what they will do once they get to the other side. God bless the City of Champions!

Gott segne dich!