Day 10...Our Last Push

Day 10 marked the last of our outreach event and for me it couldn't came any sooner. We started the day with a huge American breakfast made by a French woman and April, one of our host while in Erdenet. As soon as the last pancake was down we were off to the stadium to do a youth clinic. Unlike the other, these kids really had an idea of how to play the game. Really great skill and we could tell they had had proper coaching. With over 60 years of Sports Outreach experience the leadership pulled off another great event despite our fatigue. Just as the last kid was off the field, the last of our feet were in busses for an hour journey out to a river. A few days earlier 3 of the guys decided to take a plug and wash away their past and be born into a new life. We were excited to help them make that happen in the middle of nowhere Mongolia! We spent about an hour there in love and then we had to scoot back for one last event...a training session for the team we had played the day before. I had other plans though. About 7 years ago I had befriend Jonathan in Eugene Oregon. He had left for Mongolia at the same time Staci and I were in the Philippines. We had watched his life grow via newsletter but our friendship remained unique and deep. It just happens that as I write this I am in the same town he has spent the last 5 years. I had to find him and encourage him over dinner. Jonathan picked me up and after a quick tour of the city we headed out to his new home. OH MY GOSH! Unbelievable! He had adopted 200 acres of endangered forest and the government allowed him to build on it as long as he guarded it. Being so far from the city this was going to be a costly build. However, he was blessed to meet a his neighbor and before long they had sparked a friendship and a common hope drew them together. This wonderful man and his wife asked them to move on to their property and share in there water, electricity, road and view. I had brought some gifts from the States and made them Breakfast for dinner. Argentine their 20 month daughter was keen on me reading her French...its the language here mother Mareille speaks to her. We talked struggles, hopes and family then called it a night. I returned to an apartment of men with beers in their hand ready to watch the England/France game at midnight. I was our last horar and we got through it with tired eyes but many laughs.