Steve and Jo's Adventures: Floorball Finals

Steve was in Poltava the weekend of April 21st for the finals of one of their floorball leagues so I got him to dictate to me his experience so you can get his first hand view of the weekend:

I had a great weekend in Poltava! I was apprehensive heading there because of the travel, difficult teams we would face and unknown bed that I would be sleeping in but the weekend turned out to be really amazing. We traveled there on a bus with another floorball team who we are friends with. They are the the number one team in Ukraine and get to represent Ukraine in international tournaments so it's cool that we get to be around these guys. I stayed in a hostel with one other guy from the team and it was a really nice, clean and comfortable place. There I met many people who spoke English and with each one of them I was able to have really awesome conversations about Jesus and Christianity. Instantly I knew I was there for something more than floorball.

Our first game was Saturday morning and being that we finished first place in the eastern division we got to play second place from the western division. The hype was that the western teams were much stronger than the east and that we were going to be crushed but we came out, played hard and beat them 13-7.

It was during this game that I had a really awesome experience with Jesus. The week prior I had been in Dnipro in a floorball tournament and really lost my cool. As Lemony Snickets would say: "I had a series of unfortunate events." I was really upset there with a lot of things and had a hard time calming down and afterwards I felt ashamed that a missionary could be so upset among the people he is trying to work with. But this time in Poltava it was different. I asked for prayer from many people. I had one of my young guys pray for me before the game, we prayed as a team and I had another young guy who wasn't playing praying for me throughout the entire game. It was an incredible experience! The calm, the joy and the relief was just all so powerful. God was so clearly answering our prayers. Funnily enough, I played the entire first half missing every opportunity I had to score goals but I remained calm and joyful. It was in the second half that I was able to score a few and we got the victory.

It's after moments like these that we have great testimonies about what God can do in our lives and it's also after moments like these that we often think "oh great, now it's all under control!" Sunday was our next game and we were playing the first place team from the western division and I heard God reminding me: don't think it's all under control yet! So I decided that I needed to take the same approach as the day before - people praying for me before and during the game and I was very focused on asking God for help. We lost that game very badly but at every moment I was able to remain calm and joyful, even after getting elbowed in the head. How those short Ukrainian guys managed to elbow me in the head, who knows! But it happened and it was okay. In the end, I scored a couple goals and was given our team's MVP but I was just so thrilled that God so clearly answered our prayers. We went to the change room and although defeated we were happy to be where we were. Others saw how God answered our prayers and we were able to smile and take selfies with our second place medals.

I had many good conversations that weekend and God was at the center of them all. He is a Redeemer. It is in our weakness that He is strong. Thank you Jesus!